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Pets

Is Fostering a Dog Right for You?

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Animal shelters in Indianapolis, and across the nation, are overcrowded. Dogs and cats get turned away, or given slim chances of even making it to the adoption floor, due to the high number of animals already waiting to find their Forever Home.

Luckily, there is something that you can do to help that doesn’t involve opening up your already tightly-strapped pocketbook.

Fostering gives a dog the chance it needs to make it through one of the most difficult times in his or her life. And, not only are you helping the animal who resides in your home, you’re also opening up a kennel at the shelter to be used for another dog looking for a home.

Before you jump into fostering, there are a few things to consider.

How long can you keep this animal? Most foster programs ask for a minimum commitment of 2 weeks. This gives the dog a chance to de-stress from the shelter environment and to relearn what it means to live side by side with humans. Or, if you’re fostering a dog who is recovering from a surgery or other medical issue, it will give enough time to ensure that he or she is up to returning to the shelter.

Of course, if you are able and willing, I can’t think of a single foster program out there who wouldn’t love for you to keep the dog until he or she finds a permanent, loving home!

What kind of dog can you reasonably handle? There are all kinds of dogs waiting for a foster home. They could be mothers who come with a litter of just-born puppies, or an abandoned puppy who needs good socialization experiences during crucial development stages. It could be a dog recovering from heartworm or a necessary amputation. Maybe, it is a senior dog, or a dog who has been in the shelter for a very long time and needs a chance to take a vacation from it. Or, it could be a young, high energy dog with no foundation of obedience training who needs to learn cues and manners.

Be honest with an assessment of your lifestyle. If you can’t commit to daily walks, consider a senior dog who requires less activity. If you work long hours, a puppy may not be the best fit for you, since they require a great deal of attention. If you have a house full of kids, a shy or fearful dog may not work well. Rest assured, there is a dog in need to fit every lifestyle!

Can you let go when the time comes? The best, and most heartbreaking, experience of fostering is watching your foster dog go home with his or her new family. Make sure you are emotionally prepared for this experience, because you could be amazed at how quickly your foster dog starts to feel like your own. I combat this with continually reminding myself that, “This is my dog, and I will love and treat him as my dog until I can find his real home.”

Will you be tempted to adopt your foster dog? Yes, it happens to us all. Afterall, this dog becomes part of your daily life and a true bond of attachment is formed. While it is certainly a wonderful thing to adopt a dog in need, take account of your true motives before fostering. If you are fostering to find the right dog for you and you do, by all means – adopt! If, however, you are fostering with the intent of helping as many dogs as possible, and to move them along to their real Forever Homes, keep in mind that the best way to do that is to place your foster dog in the best, most loving home that you can find, and then, help out another canine in need, with the knowledge that the one you just placed will be safe and happy for the rest of her life.

If you are interested in fostering, here is a list of local organizations who are desperately seeking foster homes. Each of them has a slightly different process to become a foster home, but they are all well worth the time:

Love a certain breed? Try searching for a local chapter of a rescue organization specializing in that breed. Most breeds have Indiana-based chapters and all of them utilize foster homes to care for their adoptable dogs.

If you have any questions you would like to ask a Certified Dog Trainer, you can submit them right here at Naptown Buzz. Every week, Elizabeth Wilhelm, Certified Dog Trainer will tackle one of the submitted questions. For more information about Elizabeth, you may visit her website at www.TrainingKarma.com.

“The Dog Whisperer” – Do His Methods Work for You?

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For years now, we have been fascinated by “The Dog Whisperer,” Cesar Millan, and his amazing touch with dogs. If you haven’t seen the show, I would suggest checking it out.

Be forewarned, however, that the disclaimer that comes up at the beginning of every show stating that people shouldn’t try his techniques themselves and should seek a professional has great merit. If his methods are applied incorrectly, it can cause your dog to become aggressive, fearful, or even more unstable.

So why do his techniques work for him and not always for the average dog owner? Is it the magic of television? Simple editing tricks that only show what the director wants us to see? Or is it Cesar himself?

Unless you have spent decades studying dog psychology and behavior, working diligently day in and day out with every kind of dog that exists, and unless you are very similar in personality to Cesar himself, please know that most of his techniques probably won’t work for you.

Dogs are essentially human lie detectors. Stay with me here, I’ll get back to Cesar Millan, but first it is important to understand how dogs see the world. In a wild pack of dogs, communication does not take place mostly through words and sound as it does with humans. Dogs read each other perfectly, taking every act of body language into account. They don’t lie. Everything from the nose, mouth, eyes, ears, body stance and tail come together to form a complete emotion, intention, and communication.

Over the hundreds of years that dogs have been integrated into human life, they have become incredibly adept at reading us, often times knowing our true intentions before we do, or despite our efforts to hide it. For instance, when you feel under the weather, how often has your dog cuddled up to you, even though you try to go about cleaning, yard work, and other daily tasks?

This is the secret to gaining your dog’s respect – Always be exactly who you are and act according to how you are feeling.  They can spot a fake a mile away.

Now, this doesn’t mean that if you’re angry with your dog you should yell or physically punish them. We still need to speak to our dogs on their level. The best way to handle being angry with your dog is to turn on the silent treatment for a few minutes. This conveys to your dog that you will not associate with canines who act in the manner that he or she just did.

But, back to the point, the reason that Cesar’s techniques work for him, is because he is being no one but himself. He is a true, charismatic, diplomatic, fair, structured, and well studied in canine behavior, pack leader. That’s why he has his own show and why we tune in every week.

For those without his decades of knowledge, here are some techniques, taken from parts of Cesar’s methods that you can use to become a stronger pack leader while gaining your dog’s respect and keeping your integrity:

  • Mean what you say – Don’t want your dog jumping on your furniture? Make sure you give the “Off” command and follow through!
  • Be consistent – Don’t want your dog pulling on the leash? Never move forward when he pulls. Ever. Not even once.
  • Reward behavior you want – Is your dog calmly laying in her bed while you watch tv? Go to your dog and reward with praise or treats to show her that is a desired behavior.
  • Don’t over-correct – Upset with something your dog did, or for not listening? Be careful about yelling. If your dog dives to the floor, tail between his legs, and won’t make any kind of eye contact, your dog is afraid. Nothing can be learned in a state of fear.
  • Use body language – Happy about your dog’s actions? Smile and relax. Want more personal space from a clingy, jumping dog? Step with authority towards him. Want to discourage a begging dog at dinner time? Ignore completely.

Luckily, there are many different ways to train and help your dog. You don’t have to be The Dog Whisperer in order to become your dog’s pack leader, or to gain respect, you just have to find a method that works with your personality, and be consistent, fair, and most importantly, yourself.

If you have any questions you would like to ask a Certified Dog Trainer, you can submit them right here at Naptown Buzz. Every week, Elizabeth Wilhelm, Certified Dog Trainer will tackle one of the submitted questions. For more information about Elizabeth, you may visit her website at www.TrainingKarma.com.

Ain’t Nothin’ But A Hound Dog, Barking All The Time…

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I’ve got a 5 year old hound who barks like crazy at other animals. He doesn’t bite or fight with them, but goes nuts with the barking and whining when he sees or hears them. If he is around another dog he calms down after about 30 minutes, but in the meantime he is crazy and not paying attention to anything I say. How can I help him get better so that we can at least walk around the neighborhood?

Great question! Since hounds were bred for hunting, they have an acute awareness of other animals in their general area and can often times smell them before they ever see them. This can lead to barking for several different reasons.

It is important to understand what is causing your dog’s behavior in order to choose an appropriate training method. While there are ways to stop the barking, if you do not tackle the underlying problem, your dog will continue to feel stressed/excited/fearful/anxious or whatever other cause it may be.

It sounds like we can rule out aggression for your dog since he does not bite or fight with the animals. Other possibilities include:

  • Excitement – characterized by a sharp, short bark, a wagging tail, and interspersed with whines of frustration
  • Fearful – characterized by a wavering bark, often times higher in pitch than a typical bark, and the tendency to back away from the animal if approached by it
  • Attention Seeking – characterized by constant, demanding barking if the object of their barking is not performing as they wish
  • Alert/Warning – characterized by barking to let the owner know about the “intruder” (other animal) being in the area

When treating the root cause of any kind of barking, it is important to make sure that your dog learns to look to you for behavior cues, and that he has a strong understanding of the meanings of commands. Practicing basic obedience cues (Sit, Down, etc.) in your house may not be enough. Dogs are not good at generalizing and will need to be re-taught commands in areas that they may run across other animals or distractions.

Start working with your dog on basic commands outside, around your neighborhood at “off-hours” when other animals and people are not likely to be outside. This will reinforce that these commands hold, regardless of location.

Be sure to take plenty of treats with you on walks, and if possible, walk your dog before he receives his morning or evening meal. A hungry dog is a lot more likely to listen!

And, finally, try to find your dog’s behavior threshold (the distance between the dog and the animal where he can still reliably listen to your commands) and do not push him closer to the animal than he can reasonably tolerate without getting out of control.

With some time and patience, you should start to see great improvements and will be able to have enjoyable walks with your dog at any time of day!

If you have any questions you would like to ask a Certified Dog Trainer, you can submit them right here at Naptown Buzz. Every week, Elizabeth Wilhelm, Certified Dog Trainer will tackle one of the submitted questions. For more information about Elizabeth, you may visit her website at www.TrainingKarma.com.

Was Your Dog Abused?

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Dog abuse is a pretty hot topic these days, especially with stories of dogs being locked in hot cars, of Animal Care and Control rescuing multitudes of dogs from hoarders, and of the Humane Society taking in puppies and dogs with tragic stories.

I hear it a lot when dealing with shy, introverted, or fearful-reactive dogs – “I think she was abused.” Dogs, oftentimes who are coming from the Humane Society or other rescue organizations, seem to have a stigma attached to them if they are anything other than carefree, tail-wagging, face-licking pups.

The reality of the situation is that, yes, maybe that particular dog was abused, but unless there are scars or other kinds of proof to show it, there are so many other possibilities.

Take my dog, Karma, for example. I adopted her from the Humane Society and if you were to come over to my house six months after I got her, this is what you’d find – an energetic, happy dog playing with her toys, running around, or maybe snoozing on the couch. If you were a friend of hers, she’d be on your lap, or bringing toys to you with her tail wagging. Unless you picked up a flyswatter.

The dreaded flyswatter. The change would be instant. She’d go from little miss full-of-playful-energy, into 30lbs of shaking, cowering fear hiding under the table.

If that happened to be all a person saw, “abuse” would be the first thought.

Here’s the real story. Karma came to me with no feelings at all towards the flyswatter. She just so happened to get paired up with a human (me) who hates spiders and who may or may not (definitely does) scream a little when killing one.

After six months of that, and you get a dog who starts to fear the flyswatter – not because she was ever hit with it – but because it makes her leader fearful and, in turn, she becomes fearful.

Luckily, I caught this very quickly and, today, when I pick up the flyswatter, she just continues on with her life as planned, whether that be napping, playing with her toys, or just watching my every move

Other dogs who shy away or flinch from quick movements, especially near their heads, haven’t necessarily suffered abuse. Some dogs are just genetically shy and don’t like to be touched – or they may be feeling stressed out because of being around new people, which puts them into a state of hyper-sensitivity to movement and sounds – some people are the same way.

The biggest reason, however, for canines showing this kind of “was this dog abused” behavior, is under-socialization as puppies. An under-socialized dog will be fearful, shy, stressed, and reactive – presenting many of the symptoms of an abused dog.

The good news is that, abused or not, these dogs can all be helped. They can all learn to manage their fear and anxiety, and they all deserve the chance to learn how to do so.

I mean, truth be told, these days, Karma can eat treats off the (well cleaned) flyswatter, and even follows its movements and commands when it mimics hand signals.  What once used to provoke a sense of fear in Karma, has now become a training tool representing fun and treats.

Dogs are resilient and flexible. Almost any previous life experience can be overcome; it just takes patience, training, and, of course, a lot of love and understanding.

If you have any questions you would like to ask a Certified Dog Trainer, you can submit them right here at Naptown Buzz. Every week, Elizabeth Wilhelm, Certified Dog Trainer will tackle one of the submitted questions. For more information about Elizabeth, you may visit her website at www.TrainingKarma.com.