Frankie The Law Dog

With two young, rambunctious Lab mix dogs, it sometimes feels as if dog obedience training is an uphill climb.  Actually, some days Frankie and Lucy are model citizens.  They come when called, sit when told, back away from contraband when directed and otherwise behave like furry little angels.

Then there are days like today.

Rambunctious Dogs in Need of Dog Obedience Training

Cheap Canvas Dog Collars

Let me begin at the beginning.  Our dogs wear cheap canvas dog collars.  They are soft and easily adjustable.  They come in a variety of attractive colors.  (Frankie and Lucy are currently adorned in matching red collars.)  They’re inexpensive.  And, until Lucy came into our lives, we thought they were relatively durable.  Frankie wore the same green canvas collar for almost a year without incident.

And then we adopted Lucy.

These two dogs get along better than we could ever have expected.  They can play nonstop, with their two favorite games being play-fighting and tug-of-war.  And they’ve developed a favorite routine for combining their two favorite games.  Lucy will grab Frankie by the scruff of his neck.  He has very thick skin there, and she will grab a mouthful of it and shake it around.  Frankie will pretend to fall down.  (I say “pretend,” because Frankie is literally twice Lucy’s size and a great deal stronger.  He’s not going down unless he want to do so.)

So, Frankie pretends to be bested.  He collapses onto his back with Lucy tugging at the scruff of his neck with all her might.  They wrestle around, play-biting and play-growling for a while.  And then Lucy invariably grabs Frankie’s collar.  With a little acquiescence from Frankie, she slips the collar over Frankie’s head.

And then the game of tug-of-war commences.  Next thing you know, they’re all over either the living room or the back yard, tugging Frankie’s cheap canvas collar with all their might (and with all their teeth).

That is when the phrase “you get what you pay for” comes to mind.  Once they get going, it doesn’t take long for a cheap canvas dog collar to become a pile of worthless pieces of canvas and plastic.  Lucy has been with us for about six weeks, and Frankie is currently on his third cheap canvas dog collar.

Today’s Lesson in Dog Obedience Training

Today’s lesson in dog obedience training was that I need some help with dog obedience training.

There I was first thing this morning, still in my PJs giving Frankie and Lucy a quick break in the back yard before walks.  I turned away for just a couple of minutes, and when I looked back, they were tugging away with Frankie’s brand new collar.  I think they skipped the wrestling sequence and went straight for the tug-of-war part of the game.

Without saying anything, I quietly and calmly walked up to them, intending to just reach out and take the collar away.  They waited until I had my hand on the collar.  Then, as if on cue, Frankie released his grip on it and Lucy took off running with it.  I made the mistake of running after her.  I guess that’s just not something you should do when your dog is in possession of contraband.

Lucy ran the length of the yard with the collar in her mouth and me following behind, ugly neon orange Crocs slipping in the wet morning grass.  Just as I had her cornered near the far fence, Frankie raced up and grabbed the collar out of her mouth and took off running in the opposite direction.

Now, mind you, before I interjected myself into the situation, they were engaged in a fierce, take no prisoners, fight to the death tug-of-war.  But with me flailing along behind, the game suddenly became keep-away.  Them against me.  And I was losing.

This went on for several laps around the back yard before I came to my senses.

At this point, I knew the only way to get Frankie’s collar away from them was through bribery.  So I distracted them with a tasty treat long enough to retrieve the collar.

Dog Obedience Training Tips

Why Can't They Always be this Sweet?

Here are the dog obedience training tips Frankie and Lucy taught me through this little incident:

• Keep plenty of cheap dog toys on hand.  Clearly, Frankie and Lucy love to play tug-of-war.  They already have a number of tug toys, but they quickly get bored with the same old toys.  Keep a number of different tuggable toys.  Hide the ones they’re bored with until the dogs have forgotten about them, and then bring them back out.  If they always have a “new” and exciting toy, maybe they’ll be less likley to play with something they’re not supposed to play with, like shoes or rugs or collars.
• Don’t chase after your dog to try and take something away from her.  This is a game changer, in that it changes the game from whatever they were initially playing to a game of keep-away.  And you’re going to lose.
• When all else fails, cave in to extortion.  If the dog is in possession of contraband and won’t give it up, exchange it for a treat.  This might not be the most elegant solution, but if Fido is in possession of Daddy’s bottle of Viagra, it might just be the quickest and easiest way to avoid catastrophe for everyone involved.

Lucy Growled in her Sleep Last Night

Not just once.  Lucy, our one-year-old Labrador Retriever mix dog, growled about four different times in her sleep.  And it was loud enough to awaken other members of the household.  But Lucy just kept on dreaming.

Do Dogs Dream?

Most animal behaviorists believe that dogs do indeed dream, although no one is really sure what they dream about. After all, they can’t just wake up and tell you about the rabbit they chased or the hole they dug or that great belly flop into the lake they took in their dreams.  But judging by their movements and actions during sleep, it is pretty easy to guess that dogs dream about their favorite activities.

Animal Behaviorists Believe Dogs Dream

If you watch your dog while she’s sleeping, you might see her running in place, legs and feet moving furiously back and forth for several minutes before she relaxes again.  She may move her face around and inhale sharply several times as though sniffing something.  She might let out a yelp or two, or even a howl.

Although I’ve seen both my dogs run in place and sleep-sniff, and have heard them “woof” and even howl in their sleep, I had never heard such persistent and repeated sleep-growling before.  What did it mean?

Why Dogs Growl

If dogs dream about their favorite activities, then maybe that means that growling is high on Lucy’s list of things to do.  Most people understandably associate a growling dog with an aggressive dog.  According to the writers of Dogspeak:  How to Understand Your Dog and Help Him Understand You, growling can be an “unmistakable warning sign” that tells humans and other dogs to “back off.”  Dogs may also growl when they’re frightened or defensive.

So why would the pooch I’ve dubbed Miss Happy-Pants because of her playful and loving disposition be growling so much in her dreams?  It seems there are other, less ominous reasons why dogs growl.  In fact, dogs often engage in play-growling.

How to Tell if Your Dog is Play-Growling

You can tell if your dog is play-growling largely by observing her body language.  If she is growling while she is playing, that is a pretty good indication that her growling is not aggressive.  An alert expression, a wagging tail, a play-bow stance, and a relaxed mouth are all indications that a dog is not growling to threaten or intimidate, but as an indication that she just wants to play.

Lucy and Frankie spend a great deal of time in the yard and in the house either tumbling all over each other or playing tug o’ war with tug toys or palm fronds or anything else they can get their mouths on.  When they’re really engaged in a game, they are also usually play-growling.

So I guess it only makes sense that, after a long day of play-fighting and the play-growling that goes with it,  little Miss Happy-Pants would spend her sleeping hours reliving those good times and growling her little happy pants off, so to speak.

Resource:  Matthew Hoffman (ed.), Dogspeak:  How to Understand Your Dog and Help Him Understand You.  Rodale 1999.

Puppies love to chew. Just like children, puppies go through a teething process, and during that time, chewing just feels good.  Even older dogs occasionally chew.  Authors Jack and Wendy Volhard in Dog Training for Dummies suggest that dogs that keep chewing after they’ve passed the teething stage do so out of anxiety, boredom or loneliness.

Any Puppy Will Tell You: Chewing Just Feels Good

Dealing With a Teething Puppy’s Need to Chew

If your puppy is exhibiting chewing behavior, this is perfectly normal.  Dogs are born without teeth.  Their baby teeth come in between three and eight weeks of age.  Then at approximately four months, puppies shed the baby teeth and the adult teeth come in.

Chewing eases some of the discomfort your puppy feels during this process.  Here are some tips for dealing with your puppy’s chewing behaviors during teething:

• Give Puppy Lots of Toys. Provide your puppy with plenty of chew toys, both hard and soft.  A hard rubber toy such as a Kong with some peanut butter stuffed inside will keep your puppy amused for a long time.  Additionally, there are toys that can be frozen or refrigerated.  Chewing on something cold can relieve your puppy’s gum discomfort.  Just be sure to promptly throw away any toy that cannot handle your puppy’s chewing.  Otherwise, you puppy may ingest or choke on the pieces.
• Don’t Be a Chew Toy. If your puppy tries to use you as a chew toy, correct this behavior by holding your flat palm a few inches in front of his mouth and then ignore him.  He won’t be able to chew your flat palm.  He will learn this hand signal as a sign for “stop doing that.”  And he will associate chewing on you with not getting any attention.
• Don’t Yell At or Hit Your Puppy. Avoid yelling at your puppy, and never, ever hit your puppy.  Yelling is completely ineffective and will only give you a headache.  It is especially important not to yell at your puppy after the fact.  Your puppy won’t be able to associate your yelling at him with the shoe he destroyed two hours earlier.  At worst, he will associate your yelling with your homecoming and will begin to dread having you return home.  And hitting your puppy can injure him and can lead to aggressive tendencies down the road.
• Don’t Chase Your Puppy. Don’t chase your puppy to try and take away something he is chewing.  To your puppy, this is a game and it reinforces the behavior.  If your puppy has grabbed a dirty sock out of the laundry basket, get one of his toys and make an exchange.
• Remove Temptations. Keep loose items picked up and doors closed.  If your puppy doesn’t have access to tempting contraband, he cannot chew it.  You might consider making use of a crate or a baby gate until your puppy gets through the teething stage.

Your puppy is going through a phase that, in some dogs, might last for six months to a year.  His sharp teeth can be destructive if you’re not diligent.  The good news is that his need to chew will lessen as he gains maturity.  In the meantime, provide your puppy with plenty of chew toys in a variety of chewy textures.  This will keep him busy and alleviate his discomfort and anxiety.

With patience and planning, you can cope with puppy’s chewing behaviors and you, your puppy and your possessions will all be better off.

Meet Lucy, the new addition to our home.  We adopted Lucy through Animal Friends Society of Tampa in June 2009.  I call her Miss Happy-Pants because she never fails to wag her tail and appear genuinely thrilled when any of her new family members come into her orbit.  Lucy is a mixed-breed pooch who appears to have a hint of Chocolate Lab and a good bit of some sort of terrier in her.  She is about one-half Frankie’s size, weighing in at 40 pounds.  And at approximately a year old, she probably won’t get much bigger.

How We Came to Adopt Lucy

When Frankie passed the one-year mark, we started thinking he needed a canine companion.  Even though he was getting a three-mile walk every day and occasional outings such as trips to doggie day camp, it still didn’t seem to be enough.  There would be many evenings when his pent-up energy would just have to be expended, and he would race through the house at breakneck speed, narrowly missing household items we’d rather not have smashed by an 80-pound canine missile.  Having a furry friend around the house would help him burn off all that excess energy.  It was time to think about adopting a new dog.

Pet Adoption:  Rescue Dogs are the Best

We pondered our options, but there was really no question that our new dog would be a rescue dog like Frankie.  We believe that, for us at least, rescue dogs are the best.  There are a couple of reasons for this:

• Rescue a dog and you’re saving a life. We rescued Frankie from the “mean streets” of Dayton, Tennessee in April 2008.  We were visiting my family at the farm there at about the same time someone decided it would be a good idea to just abandon a three-month-old puppy out in the country to fend for himself.  Fortunately, my niece took him in and fed him.  Then my husband and I decided to give him a permanent home.  I knew he would grow up to be a fine dog, and I was right.  Moreover, by bringing him into our home, I know we saved his life.
• Getting a rescue dog means you’re not supporting puppy mills. A depressingly large number of pet stores sell dogs that come from puppy mills.  A puppy mill is a horrible, hopeless, miserable existence where dogs are crammed into cages and “fed and bred” until they die.  According to the Humane Society of the United States, “Adopting a dog instead of buying one is the surest way to strike a blow against puppy mills.”

Animal Friends Society

Animal Friends Society is an all-volunteer no-kill orgainzation dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and adoption of homeless, abused and abandoned animals.  They often hold adoption events at locations such as our local PetSmart.  Having considered the idea of adopting another dog, we decided to attend one of their adoption events, with Frankie in tow.  We looked at several dogs, including a couple of much younger puppies, before we spotted Lucy.

Although she is almost a solid dark brown, Lucy looks like a smaller version Frankie in practically every other way.  And from the moment she and Frankie met, it was clear that they would be instant best friends.  We spent several minutes observing the interaction between Frankie and Lucy and learning more about Lucy’s background.

Lucy’s Story

Lucy was abandoned and was found starving and terrified.  The kind man who found her could not get her to come to him at first.  But with patience, persistence and scraps of food, he was eventually able to lure her in.  He fed her and fattened her up and gave her the affection she had been missing.  Ultimately, though, he was unable to keep her so he turned her over to AFS.

The Pet Adoption Process

At AFS, Lucy was given a vet check-up and all her vaccinations.  She was also spayed.  The adoption process involves filling out an application form, which is fairly simple, but at the same time requests enough information to allow the AFS volunteers to assess the would-be adoptive family’s commitment to taking on the responsibilities of bringing a new pet into their lives.  Once the adoption application is approved, a tax-deductible fee of $150-200 for dogs is requested and your new pet can come home.

Life with Lucy and Frankie

Lucy arrived home on June 17, 2009, and there hasn’t been a dull moment since.  She and Frankie are well-matched for temperament and energy.  They chase and tackle each other and generally tumble around in the back yard for several hours every day, burning all that healthy, youthful energy.  When they’re hot and tired, they come inside and cool off in the air conditioning and drink plenty of water.

Then, after they’ve rested a bit, they start all over again.  And they couldn’t be happier.