Best Friends or Slaves?

I swear, the next dog trainer I see recommend a choke chain or prong collar I’m recommending be euthanized. After all isn’t hostility and aggression why we euthanize so many dogs?

Training shouldn't be about what your dog did wrong, its about building a relationship that allows your dog to choose to follow you. I fail to see how any aversive technique will help create a harmonious relationship. As a matter of fact this may be what’s causing bad behaviors such as pulling on the leash (trying to get away from you) or why they wont come when called (why would they want to subject themselves to your brutality again). How can we call them our “best friends” yet treat them less than slaves?

The bottom line is this: science has proven that aversive techniques produce (not can produce, but will produce) aversive side effects including fear which leads to aggression. Because the dog was focused on another dog while you were “correcting” their behavior they begin to associate other dogs with frustration. Leash pulling then turns into leash aggression, and later that turns into full blown aggression.

Think of it as shock therapy. Your dog saw another dog and received a leash jerk. The dog didn’t realize the jerk came from you as a correction for pulling on the leash, they assume it’s been jerked because of the other dog. Now you may feel like your making progress as your dog stops pulling towards other dogs, but would you feel successful knowing that they stopped pulling because they now find others dogs less appealing?

All of this because you chose to correct instead of train.

THERE IS A BETTER WAY! It’s called positive reinforcement. All you need to do is switch YOUR focus. Instead of waiting for your dog to misbehave, praising your dogs accomplishments while showing them how to accomplish more (training).

Open the Fridge to Fido

How many of us have heard the old adage “human-food is bad for your dog”? But why? If human-food is bad for another animal then why do we eat it? I’ve seen dogs pick up the nastiest things, garbage, decayed squirrel, feces, and be just fine. So what’s wrong with human food?

After doing some research on this, two things stuck out more than anything else. First was that I found a lot of people who believed feeding their dog human-food will teach their dog to beg, second were the numerous lists documenting what foods are bad for dogs.

1) Begging

I had a discussion with a friend about feeding her dog human food. When I said human-food her brain when straight it “table scraps”. She commented that although she had only given her dog a few bites of table scraps as a puppy she would still beg by sitting patiently by her side every time she ate. This is why most people don’t give human-food to their dogs, because they are afraid it will cause their dog to beg during future meals. I can see why it would. Mom sits down with food (anticipator) I sit by her side (behavior) and i get rewarded (consequence). Only in this case the reward for sitting wasn't just a plain old piece of kibble or a ruff on the head, it was the forbidden fruit. Of course they are going to show up the next time you get food and sit down.

It just so happens that our human-food often smells and tastes much better than dog food (thank goodness). Taste is 2/3 smell, heat and moisture cary odor and our human-food is often warm and moist. Thats why your dog prefers our human-food over the traditional kibble 100% of the time. THEY LIKE IT MORE BECAUSE IT TASTES BETTER. Behaviors with the highest reward possibility will always be repeated. I wonder what would happen if when we ask our dog to “sit for guests” they got a piece of last nights left over chicken, or if when you asked them to “go lay down” they got some of yesterdays tuna salad. Would these behaviors be as strong as the beg... most definitely.

2) Lists

On these lists I was horrified to see fat trimmings, liver, milk and dairy products, tomatoes, potatoes and even salt (among many other things). What concerns me most is that many dog food labels I read have some, if not all of these ingredients. And liver? How many times have you heard a dog trainer say “liver treat”? If fat trimmings are so bad for our dog’s then why is “chicken fat” listed within the top 7 ingredients in a lot of dog foods? Then I started paying close attention to the side effects of these foods. The side effects for many of these foods didn’t include toxicity or death, but rather included loose stools and the possibility for vomiting. Sounds like me after eating an entire rack of raspberry pies. There was nothing toxic about the pie, it was that I broke from my regular diet and ate a ton of berries. Other foods were listed because they have giant seeds (pits) that could cause choking or obstructions. The peach itself isn’t toxic, but if you toss your dog a whole peach they may just swallow the pit.

We should be careful of what we feed our dog’s, paying particular attention to processed human-food, and for good reason. Most processed foods are unhealthy if not toxic to dog’s. These packaged meals are not made from wholesome ingredients, but rather by-products and synthetic ingredients. Ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, glucose, starches, maltodextrin, and spices dominate the ingredient list. If you’ve watched Supersize Me, The Future of Food, or Food Inc. then you probably already know that these things aren’t even that good for us. And although I really don’t think I should have to say anything about proportion, I will. No matter what kind of food you feed your dog if you feed your dog excessive amounts of food or treats and give them minimal exercise, YOUR DOG WILL QUICKLY GET FAT (not to mention other problems).

I don’t think of the food I eat as “human-food”. The food I eat comes from wholesome natural sources, so I think of the food I eat as “good-food”. Ingredients like chicken, beef and fish meats, fruits and veggies, milk and cheese are just some of the good-foods for excellent nutrition. With that said, as a human I often have things around that a dog would have no access to or interest in. Dog’s probably wouldn’t care for a cocoa bean, but a chocolate cake is another story. An onion or garlic clove never seems to yield much interest from my dog’s, unless I cooked them in a meatloaf. Some of these things are toxic to dog’s, some more so than others.

Here are a few links to lists of “Bad Human Foods”

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/people-foods.html

http://www.holisticdog.org/badfoods.shtml#avoid

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/foods-bad-for-dog’s.html

http://www.vetinfo.com/dtoxin.html

http://dogtime.com/bad-foods-for-dog’s-list.html

So you heard me right,open your fridge to Fido! It’s ok to feed your dog human-food, as long as it’s “good-food”.

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or a veterinarian. Every dog is different and any dog may suffer from food sensitivities or allergies. Your dog's diet should always be discussed with a veterinarian, coupled with your own research into a healthy canine diet.