Ohio dog  trainer Gloria White compares the clicker to a camera. Why?

"You click to ‘take a picture’ of the appropriate behavior," she says. In other words, both clicker and camera are used to capture a moment. With the camera, you get a picture and if you are lucky, you get a really good one. With the clicker, you  get a behavior and if you are lucky, here too you get a really good one! You try to snap at the exact second that your dog or puppy does just what you want, for both camera and clicker.

Then in clicker training you give the dog a treat, most often probably a morsel of food but it could be praise or something else.

Just as kids in this digital age often come over to you to see the image on the camera, so too the dogs develop the knowledge that the click of the clicker means something good is coming.

I’m not sure how far I can push this analogy, but I’ll go for a bit more. With that click of the camera, we’ve created an image in JPG or other format. We can put it on our computers and change it in lots of ways — make it smaller, cut parts out, make it brighter, share it with other people via email or websites online, prints or digital photo album at home. With the click of the clicker, we create a moment of connection with the dog. It’s done and can’t in itself be manipulated like that JPG image. But over time, as we do clicker training with our dogs and puppies, we can do the same things that we do with a photo! We and the dog can change the behavior to make it more precise, to make it be more complicated. We can show it off to others and often get some nice appreciation.

Click!

[tags]dog clickers, dog clicker training[/tags]

This is the third of three posts telling the story of Marley, a puppy who has had numerous behavior problems which turned out to be directly related to his diet. He was very sensitive to what dog food he ate, and he became hyperactive — with biting episodes involving children and adults — on a number of occasions. The mystery seems to be finally solved in an email which I just received lately. Here is Marley:

A beauty, isn’t he? But I’m sure he could be a handful when hyperactive. Here’s the latest from his owner Karen:

There has been a further development that I would like to tell you about.

During our annual holiday in July, Marley was sent to the kennel to stay for a couple of weeks. When we came back I went to fetch him and he didn’t seem himself. Within a couple of days however he seemed to bounce back and thereafter reverted back to his old hyper self. Over the next week he became worse than ever and started to bark and bite again. I rang the kennel and spoke to them about his behaviour and asked if he could have eaten anything that may have triggered this episode. To cut a long story short, it turned out that they had not been feeding him with the food I had provided but had been giving him the one that was included in the price. This was a super premium food that is one of the better ones sold in the UK. They had been giving him a large breed puppy food that was 32% protein. As you can imagine I was not pleased but the damage was done and I set about trying to put it right.

Throughout the summer holidays Marley was a totally uncontrollable terror. The food that worked before didn’t have as quick an effect as the first time. I was again at my wits end with him. I started to keep a record of what foods he had eaten and when and also what effects they appeared to have on his behaviour. During this period I was simply fishing around for information, comparing ingredients, protein and carbohydrate content, etc., I suddenly realised that all of the foods he had reacted to had just one common ingredient – BEET PULP. The food that he was okay on didn’t contain this ingredient. I could find only one other food that does not contain beet pulp and decided to try him on this to see what would happen. Marley had no reaction to the second food that did not contain beet. I took my findings to the vet who at the beginning of September confirmed that Marley has allergic reactions to Beet.

Breakthrough!!!! Marley has been on a completely Beet free diet now for 2 months and is again a wonderful and lovely dog. He is still a willful puppy but with firm handling he is controllable. I have read quite a few documents and it appears that the subject of the use of beet in dog food is quite controversial. There are a few who say that the sugar content in the beet pulp is so low not to have an effect. I for one will never feed anything to my dog, ever again, that contains beet. He has only his dried food three times a day, he receives no scraps or other treats of any kind. People accuse me of being cruel when I refuse to let them give my dog a biscuit or some such thing. But hey I can live with that and better still, so can Marley.

Here’s a website with the bad news about commercial dog food and the good news about what you can do.

Marley is a puppy who was attacking members of his family, both children and adults, for no evident reason. His owner Karen and I exchanged emails about the situation, and not long after that, I got an encouraging report from her. Marley had had a very thorough veterinary examination and nothing was obviously wrong. Karen had changed dog foods to a higher quality, higher protein one, and she been able to consult with a dog behaviorist who was also a dog nutritionist. This woman felt that the dominance-based training that Karen had been trying after advice from a trainer was not helpful. Karen continues:

S. (the consultant) was pleased that we had switched foods, as she feels that the one we were using is not one that she would recommend. Although she has not heard of the food we are now using, she took a look at the ingredients and was very impressed with it. From what I have read and from what S. has said I think it is a high percentage of cereals, wheat or gluten in the diet that can cause a lot of problems. As I am sure you know, dogs can develop allergies to all of the above to varying degrees.

Since we weaned Marley onto this food his behaviour has improved dramatically. He went from having several daily episodes to approximately 1 a day. I couldn’t believe what a difference it made. Obviously the behaviour is still there but improving daily. S. felt we were on the right track – which, as you can imagine, was a relief to hear, at least we are doing something right. She suggested that the rest of the episodes were due to Marley becoming over-tired. S. is a colleague of Turid Rugass who wrote “On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals”. S. uses Turid’s calming methods and showed us how to predict when Marley was becoming tired so that we could de-fuse the situation and thereby stop the behaviour. She felt that I was over exercising Marley and advised that we gradually reduce the length of his walks and make sure that Marley’s routine includes longer rest periods. If Marley doesn’t settle by himself we are to “enforce” this by shutting him in his crate at regular intervals throughout the day. We have also set up a daily routine, which we vary occasionally so that Marley feels secure but doesn’t get stressed if on the odd occasion we have to change something due to other commitments.

Rosana, we have put into practise everything S. told us and in SIX days Marley has only had ONE episode. It is FANTASTIC. The children can play around him – as long as we are around to keep a close eye on the activity and DE-FUSE any situations. I never believed it would be possible to see such a difference in such a short period of time.

I would like to thank you so much for your support. You helped me to be positive about Marley and encouraged me to actively search for a solution.

I was so happy with this news. And I was very struck with how changing the food had made such a difference in behavior. It was then that I began to think about writing here about dog food’s effect on behavior. Soon after, I went on a two-month road trip and then took another month to catch up on things. Then I wrote to Karen again and asked how things were going. She replied:

We are FANTASTIC!!

As you know I changed Marley’s food. Well, we had been told to put him on a low carb/high protein food. The food that was recommended to us was a very natural food and was extremely high in usable protein (45%). This had the exact opposite effect that we were hoping. Within a few short weeks Marley was climbing the walls. I was taking him out for 2-3 hours of solid walking every day but he was still completely hyper. We went back to the vet for tests and still came up with nothing — all the tests came back clear. The vet decided that as he was by then six months old we should have him neutered, which we did.

We had a rethink and decided to do the opposite of what we had been told to do. Yet again I researched the available foods, (we didn’t have as much choice as most, because when we brought Marley home we made the conscious decision that we would only feed him foods that had not been tested on animals. As I’m sure you know most of the big pet food companies do this and also have a monopoly on the market). Anyway we found a food by “The Natural Dog Food Company” that we were happy to try. We bought an adult formula as all the puppy formulas were higher in protein. The one we chose was a Lamb and Rice formula that had a protein content of 20%.

I was getting a bit desperate by this stage and decided I would just do a complete straight switch, (normally I would have weaned him from one food to the other over a period of approx 1 week). My husband, Kevin, works away for the first part of the week. He left on the Monday morning which was when I gave Marley his first bowl of the new food. Since then we haven’t looked back. By the time Kevin arrived home on the Wednesday night just THREE days later Marley was a different dog. Kevin accused me of switching him with a look alike. None of our friends could believe it. It really was as though somebody had pushed a button to calm him down.

The vet was amazed that changing his diet could have had such a dramatic effect and in such a short period of time.

Marley has now become the dog we dreamed of owning. He no longer jumps or bites or barks. The children can play without us having to shut him in his cage. He is sleeping in a regular dog bed and we haven’t used his crate for about two months. I can take him for a walk without having my arms pulled off. But most of all, Marley now “smiles” all the time. We are a different family and a great weight has been lifted from our shoulders.

I am very very careful about his diet. I feed him three times a day. I measure and control everything he eats. When he goes to the boarding kennels we take his own food (pre-measured in separate bags) even though the kennel fees include food. I will not take any chances or give him any opportunity to revert. It may sound harsh, but he rarely gets any treats. I go to the butcher and get fresh bones three times a week which I give him but apart from that he only gets his allocated amounts of dried food.

I wish you much joy with your new puppy and thank you very much for your continued support.

A very much happier

Karen

This second email, several months later, is a great example of how real life is not quite as tidy as theories tend to be. The first dog food switch, to a high quality but high protein food, made a stunning difference in Marley’s behavior, from his being a danger to his people (especially the children) to his being more more trustworthy, and I thought that the mystery was solved. But then the high protein food began to show that it was making him too hyper, and it wasn’t till Karen changed foods again that Marley made the dramatic changes she writes about at the end here.

Well, again at this point I thought the story was over. I emailed Karen with the text of this post and previous one, for her to check them for accuracy. She replied promptly, with a new twist in the tale, which is worth another post tomorrow.
[tags]dog food and behavior, puppy behavior[/tags]

Sometimes a puppy shows behavior problems that are dangerous to its family. Children are being nipped at, skin is being broken. What can you do? Some months ago, I received an email from someone dealing with exactly this problem.

(I normally discourage people writing to me for help, because in the past I’ve heard the most heartrending tales, have offered some ideas, and then never heard from the people again. Some of those tales still haunt me at times. But in this case, as you can see from the email, Karen showed how responsible she was. I trusted that I would hear back from her, and I did.)

Here is what Karen wrote in that email. It’s reprinted here with her permission.

I have a 4 month old male Yellow Labrador puppy called Marley. On the whole he is a lovely chap. But I have a problem that I do not seem to be able to resolve.

Every day, for no apparent reason and at no particular place or time, he suddenly starts to bark, jump up and bite. The biting has NOT been so severe that hospitalisation has been needed. But it has broken skin. The episodes don’t appear to have any connection to an outside influence, (I say “don’t appear” because it is possible that I am so close to the situation that I am missing something important).

I have two children aged 5 and 7 who have been victims to this behaviour and as a result are becoming frightened of the puppy. He has “attacked” both of them, again for no apparent reason.

For instance last week my daughter was sitting on the sofa watching her favorite programme on TV. Marley was in his crate, in another room, sleeping. Then he just suddenly got up, ran into the sitting room, grabbed my daughter by the leg and tried to drag her off the sofa. He bit down so hard that she had three small wounds on her leg that had broken through the skin.

On another occasion my son and I were walking Marley through the field, having a lovely walk when he started jumping up as if possessed and biting on my son’s arms. When I attempted to stop him he turned on me barking and biting at my back. Luckily my son had a thick coat on so he only suffered from grazes. Marley eventually calmed down and started to eat a lot of grass ( I mention this only because the following morning when I let him out of his crate he had been sick in he night which consisted of several handfuls of grass) and I was able to get him back onto the lead.

I have since kept him on the lead at all times while out walking. This, however doesn’t resolve the issue as he still behaves this way while on the lead. It just means that I have more control of the situation.

I have read book after book on dominance aggression (which I am told this is). I have put into practise all the suggested exercises EVERY day since I got him, all to no avail. I have taken him to training classes and put into practise ALL the advice I have been given but this just appears to make matters worse.

I waited two years to get Marley as I wanted his particular breed line. I planned everything out beforehand, where he would sleep, did a lot of research on foods. He was house trained and completely clean within a week and has never chewed anything except his chew toys and pigs ears (which is exceptional for a Lab).

I was looking forward so much to getting him but now I feel like I am constantly fighting a losing battle.

I am at my wits end, if you have ANY advise I would be very grateful.

Well, as you can imagine, my heart went out to Karen, but it was also quite a challenge to know what to say. Here are some parts of my reply:

[1] If it were my situation, I would immediately stop all free access from Marley to your children. This sounds drastic but dog bites are serious business, as you clearly know. By free access, I mean that when they are home, Marley would be closed in his crate, outside if you have an enclosed area, or on a leash attached to your waist or a chair near you or some such. You’re already doing this outside with his walks but I would also do it indoors. Another approach would be to let him be free in your home but wearing a muzzle.

BTW, I just read recently that it’s easy to get a dog to love a muzzle… Just introduce it by having some really delicious treats in your hand which he can only access through the muzzle. Doing this quite a lot over just a few days should get Marley to the point where he accepts wearing it when you feel it’s a good idea, certainly not all day, of course.

Doing this would buy you some time. I think all of you would breathe more easily.

[2] Another thing I would do immediately is have a thorough veterinary examination. Could he be reacting to the pain of teething, for example? Since you are obviously knowledgeable about the breed, are there any neurological issues that he could be manifesting? Talking to the breeder could be pertinent. You don’t mention exactly how long this has been going on, though clearly for a while.

I’ve got to say that I don’t personally find the “dominance aggression” theory to be at the center of things here. If you have spent much time on my site, you’d know that I simply don’t find it as helpful a mental construct as the more science-based positive reinforcement theories that clicker training draws upon.

When he jumps up like that for no apparent reason, there really IS a reason. Your task is to figure it out. My best guess (and it is only that) is that he experiences something in his body at those times that drives him crazy…

I mentioned an ebook I had consulted before answering her, on when dogs bite, and continued:

Here is a snippet from that ebook that reinforces my pain idea: “Depending on the degree of pain, a dog will bite a beloved owner, member of the family or neighbors when suffering from physical problems like chemical imbalances in the brain, external infections like otitis, tumor, hip dysphasia among others.” But keep in mind I am not attached to this idea, it’s just a guess, with teething as the main question… teething is mentioned at the start of the ebook.

Another thing I would do ASAP may not suit your way of thinking but it could be extremely helpful. My husband and I once produced a program on telepathic communication with animals and there are a whole lot of people now who do this professionally and by phone or email. See the list at www.animaltalk.net.

So I sent that off and waited to hear from her. I’ll leave you dangling here too, briefly, but I will tell you this story eventually had a happy ending and there is a reason that it is in the dog food category of this blog! Part Two will follow tomorrow.

Here’s a website with the bad news about commercial dog food and the good news about what you can do. 

[tags]dog food, dog behavior, dog food affecting behavior[/tags]