Praising Paws

10/08/2021

If you have a dog or dogs.... READ THIS NOW. Read it, learn from it.... stop the alpha dog stupidness.

DEBUNKING DOMINANCE - THE ALPHA DOG THEORY
The Alpha theory is one of the most widely believed untruths about dogs, yet some people still insist on religiously following this disproven, outdated and very harmful practice of showing their dog who's boss by being the dominant alpha. Celebrity dog trainers, one in particular, who unfortunately has a huge following, certainly doesn’t help in dispelling the notion that we need to dominate our dogs through fear, force and punishment to get them to respect us. Many TV shows and hundreds of books continually promote the disproven myth of alpha theory.
This theory originated in the 1930’s where captive wolves that had never met before were grouped together in an unnatural environment. Their behaviour was studied and observed and it was concluded that wolves fight for dominance in order to become the alpha of the pack. This study can be compared to taking a group of people who are all strangers, locking them in a room with a limited amount of food and other resources and then observing what happens. The results would certainly not be similar to what would be seen if people were allowed to interact in a natural environment.
Researchers that have studied wolf behaviour since then have all concluded that this study was incorrect and the original study was retracted as being false. Wolf packs are actually family groups, not dominant dictatorships that continually fight to maintain control and dominance.
Wolf behaviour theory aside, dogs are not wolves! Research shows that dogs and wolves genetically parted ways more than 100,000 years ago.
Dogs are not trying to dominate us and take over our family structure! Using outdated, disproven methods like punishment, fear, shock collars or similar as training tools will not create a dog that is mentally, emotionally or behaviourally stable. Focusing on modern, scientifically based, positive reinforcement, force free, reward-based methods is the way to gain respect, create bonds and form a healthy relationship with your dog.

09/12/2021

05/19/2021

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04/17/2021

WHY YOUR DOG IS NOT STUBBORN
“My dog knows very well how to do it but he just doesn’t want to!”, “My dog has a mind of his own.”, “My dog is just really stubborn,” are all commonly heard statements especially when a dog has successfully performed the behaviour many times before. So why not this time? Among the list of possible reasons, the most common is that the dog is simply not motivated enough. Dogs, just like any other animal need motivation to perform a behaviour.
While our dogs feel a range of different emotions, stubbornness is not part of their emotional repertoire, although we often use this human trait to describe them. A dog that we may think is being stubborn may also be too distracted by what’s going on around them or simply doesn’t clearly understand what we want them to do.
This is why ongoing positive reinforcement is so important to prevent both our dogs and ourselves from becoming frustrated. If your dog knows that the behaviour you’re looking for will result in a reward you will have a motivated dog instead of a stubborn one. Here are some of the reasons a dog may appear to be stubborn.

04/16/2021

WHY YOUR DOG DOESN’T COME WHEN CALLED
Dogs not listening and ignoring their owners when called is something I see so often and it’s not surprising that these dogs don’t want to come back to their owners.
Why would a dog want to come back to their owner if they are being screamed at, chased, or even punished for not listening when they do come back? Sometimes returning to their owner will spoil their fun, signal an end to a walk or interrupt a really exciting new smell. That’s why coming back when called must always be a rewarding experience for a dog. Good things need to happen when they listen and return to you. Even just checking in with you when out walking should be rewarded.
This is something I practice repeatedly with my dogs when we are out walking. Even in the middle of a walk, I will call them, put on the lead for a minute, praise and treat and then let them off again. This way, they never know when the walk is going to end, always want to come back to me because it’s a rewarding experience and now even come back to me and wait for the lead to be put back on when it’s time to leave the park.
It’s really simple to implement and is such an important skill to teach. Here are some of the reasons that dogs don’t come when called and some ideas of how to prevent this.

04/15/2021

TEACH YOUR DOG TO TRADE
Teaching dogs to trade one object for another is important to teach, prevents many problems and may even save you a trip to the vet or worse.
Think of it this way –
You are out walking with your dog when he picks up a dead rat. You shout and scream at him to drop it and try to grab it out of his mouth. The rat may have been poisoned. Many dogs will not give up their newly found treasure without a fight. A growl, a snarl, twisting away from you so you can’t get it, or an impromptu game of tug may follow. If you think about it from a dog’s perspective - I’ve just found this really exciting, deliciously smelly thing and now my owner wants to take it away from me. I’m not giving this up, I found it, it’s mine! Guarding what your dog sees as a resource (the dead rat), is a common and very natural behaviour for dogs and the reason they guard their resources are because they are afraid that someone or something will take it away and won’t give it back, like we humans usually do.
If a dog has been taught to trade, the scenario may go like this - You always carry really high value treats when out walking, like tiny pieces of biltong or something your dog finds irresistible. Your dog picks up the dead rat, instead of shouting, screaming and tugging, you quickly offer a bit of biltong to trade for the rat. This will usually result in your dog dropping the rat, taking the biltong and give you time to move away.
Trading can be applied to so many different situations. If your dog has your shoe or anything else that he shouldn’t have, a bone that is getting dangerously small that you need to take away, or even when he won’t bring the ball back, swop it for something more valuable to solve the problem in a calm, positive way.
That said, every dog is an individual and dog behaviour is unpredictable as I found out the hard way with Riley, my food obsessed Schnauzer. When out walking one day, he picked up a dead bird and I quickly produced some biltong in exchange. Not to be fooled by this, Riley quickly swallowed the bird in one gulp and then grabbed the biltong too!

04/15/2021

This is NOT cute—this Eastern Box Turtle was painted by elementary school children in the far western part of Virginia and was transferred to us today from another rehabber for long term care. We know that the kids did not intend to harm the turtle and were merely having fun, but this is why environmental education is so important from an early age to teach respect of living things. This action may have seemed innocent to the kids (and maybe even some adults) but it is very harmful for the turtle. The amount of paint will now prevent this turtle from being returned to the wild until the paint comes off through mostly natural means, as using solvents on the shell to remove the paint can cause lung problems. Turtles also use their shells to absorb sunlight which helps them metabolically function, which may also cause problems for this turtle’s recovery due to the amount of shell that is covered. Additionally, our subspecies of box turtle here in Virginia is declining rapidly—actions like this harm the survival of an already at-risk species that could be heading towards extinction. We’re glad that somebody stepped in and got the turtle help, but please talk to the young people in your life about how important it is to respect wildlife—imagine a huge alien grabbed you and painted you all over without your permission. Now, imagine you can’t get the paint off, the paint can make you feel very sick, you are now in a hospital probably for a year or more until the paint comes off without anything familiar around, and you can’t go home until then. We don’t want to project our own personal emotions onto wild animals, as we can’t truly know what they think and feel, but this was most likely a very stressful experience for this turtle to go through. We will make him as comfortable as we can and try to expedite the process of removal as safely as possible, but all of this could have been avoided had education and intervention been in place to prevent this from happening in the first place. Swvawildlifecenter.org

04/11/2021

Yes! Take the time.... some of the BEST pets are those you wouldn't normally look twice at....