When it's your dog

​Puppies are so much fun, but they can also bring big challenges, especially in adolescence.  This is when that cute puppy who followed you everywhere changes before your eyes. Even when we do everything right, things can go awry. We’ve all heard the nurture/nature argument and “it’s all how you raise them” but there is a lot more to it than that.

There is a lot that goes into the dog in front of you that makes him a unique being.  More than just love, kibble and training.  This is why I am grateful for my certification in Family Dog Mediation that showcases LEGS in real life.  LEGS: Learning Environment Genetics and Self© is a science based program of how to assess a dog and focus on that unique dog's best welfare moving forward, developed by Kim Brophey.

I'm going to share how I applied this assessment method  to Jeepers when he presented with a significant behavior challenge at six months. Let me explain what happened, how we assessed it and  then how we worked thru the challenge that our sweet, happy puppy suddenly presented with.
 
Each day since we had brought him home at 8 weeks, he and I had walked to check the mail on the corner. Not a long walk, but lots of exposures and somedays it could be moderate traffic. He enjoyed the walks, we did some sniffing and then he liked to carry the mail home. Two months ago, when he hit six months, we had a sudden change in his behavior on the walk. 
 
When he heard a car coming he would freeze, wait for it to come into view, lock in on it and then as it passed he attempted to give chase.  Understand he was 90 pounds and if I hadn’t had a secure hold he would have been gone. Just as he started to settle back down another vehicle came by and the behavior sequence was repeated.  As I was trying to get him turned around and home this was repeated a few more times.  It was exhausting, he was super frustrated (so was I) and, to be honest, I was embarrassed. Everyone knows I’m the dog trainer, yet here I was not able to control this wild acting puppy!
 
As most of us do, I hoped for a onetime anomaly.  I know, I should know better. I repeated the walk the next day and, surprise (not really), the situation repeated itself. So we went home, I with a wounded ego and he with serious frustration. 
 
Now it was time to sit down, lay out exactly what happened and carefully observe him to see if anything else was going on.  We also had to manage the situation to prevent him from turning this behavior into a solid habit, so we discontinued his walks off property.  With this information, we could then set up a behavior plan. 
 
And before you ask, yes, he was intact, he is still intact, and he will remain intact until his growth is complete.  Early neutering can cause more behavior challenges as well as increased risk of osteosarcoma, muscular/skeletal injuries and other issues that have been well documented. No punishment was required or used, either.   In this case neutering would have not helped and punishments could have created future fallout behaviors that would cause more extreme behavior challenges later. This is why it’s important to take an educated and experienced approach rather than listening to quick fix approaches such as “neuter him” “prong collar” “e collar”….we need to look at the whole dog in front of us and put his welfare first. 
 
Stay tuned...
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In Part 2 I will share the additional observations, the assessment results and the plan to address this behavior using science backed, reward based techniques.  This plan, following modern protocols, will be done with management and teaching, without corrections or punishments.
 
In Part 3 I will lay out the behavior plan and how it was incorporated into our everyday life with just minor adjustments to his daily routine, while adding a few extra minutes of dedicated training. It didn’t require any major schedule changes or costly equipment and I'm sharing videos of the exercises.
 

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