Puppy Care Topics - Calm and Confident Puppies

Expert dog behaviourist Lisa Hird from the Dog Behaviour Clinic has provided this latest Puppy Care Topic concerning how to best ensure that your puppies are as calm and confident as they can be.

To learn more about Lisa's background, experience, qualifications and services visit her website - https://www.dogbehaviourclinic.co.uk/

Calm and Confident Puppies

Socialising

There is a lot of information about how important ‘socialising’ puppies can be. Many puppy books and social media sites encourage new puppy owners to socialise their puppies by exposing them to as many different things, places, people, and dogs as possible in the early weeks of their lives so that they become used to everything they encounter.

Socialising is a vital part of training your puppy to cope with every situation she may need to face as she gets older, but it is the way that you socialise your puppy that really matters. How you approach socialising makes the difference between a calm, confident puppy and an over excitable, or stressed and anxious puppy.

Socialising Rather than Experiencing

A puppy’s first experience of something new needs to Feel Good.

Then the next 10 experiences of that same new thing need to Feel Good.

Only then is it ok for an experience of that new thing to just Feel Ok.

You need AT LEAST 20 good experiences of something before one of those experiences can Feel Bad, otherwise your puppy may develop fear issues.

If your puppy sees something in the house, garden, or street that she is afraid of, you will see some of the following signals:

❖ Lip licking

❖ Yawning

❖ Panting

❖ Drooling

❖ Penis-crowning – the further out it comes, the more stressed he is

❖ Stiff tail

❖ Shaking off shows he has felt stressed and is trying to calm down

❖ Chewing ‘hard’ on a bone or toy

❖ Obsessive sniffing of the ground

THESE SIGNALS MEAN YOUR PUPPY IS UNCOMFORTABLE - YOU NEED TO GIVE THEM DISTANCE FROM WHATEVER IS BOTHERING THEM.

Signs of Stress and Anxiety

Try to be aware of any signals that show your puppy is stressed or anxious, either inside or outside the home. If you see any of the signs, then your pup needs distance from whatever is making him feel uneasy, so take him away, or make sure that he can get away if he feels crowded by somebody at home.

Do not say anything when he needs to move away – try to remember that reassurance will not make him feel any better. Unlike children, puppies are rarely soothed by owners trying to reassure them. The only thing that makes most puppies feel safe is distance from the thing that is bothering them, so create that distance without saying anything.

Once he has enough distance and you can see your puppy feels ok and is calm, praise and treat him. This is a way of making his calmness Feel Good.

It can seem a bit counter-intuitive because it might seem as if you are treating him for moving away. You are waiting until he is calm and can preferably look back at the thing that has upset him.

Calm methods always use Feel Good to reinforce calm reactions. So, we ignore any fear, whining, trembling etc. We just give the puppy what he needs in that situation, which is distance.

By reinforcing a calm reaction with the Feel Good of a treat, your puppy’s brain starts to become programmed to react more and more calmly to things that bother him, building his confidence.

THESE SIGNALS SHOW HIGH LEVELS OF STRESS OR ANXIETY IN THE HOME

❖ Shredding toys or bedding

❖ Chewing furniture

❖ Suckling for a long time on his bed. He’s doing it to self-soothe, which is good, but he needs to self-soothe because he feels stressed.

❖ Pacing

❖ Licking any part of the body obsessively

❖ Repeated scratching of any part of the body

❖ Whining

❖ Panting

❖ Inability to concentrate

If your puppy regularly does any of the above, please let me know so that I can help you work with him to reduce his anxiety levels.

The Fear Period

For many puppies, the world will become quite a frightening place during the first 3 months of their lives. All puppies go through a ‘fear period’ at anything between 5 ½ weeks to about 20 weeks. Even puppies who have previously seemed confident in every situation can suddenly become scared of new things, or even familiar things.

How you react during this fear period will help your puppy become a calm, confident teenage dog:

❖ Stay calm.

❖ Give distance if he wants to move away.

❖ Allow him to approach the scary thing at his own pace.

❖ Reinforce any moves towards it by praising him and giving tiny, tasty treats so that he gets strong Feel Good associations for approaching the scary thing.

❖ Let him move away at any time if he needs to.

❖ Sometimes touching the scary ‘thing’ yourself can help, but make sure he still has room to move away on a loose lead.

❖Try approaching the scary ‘thing’ from different directions once he is comfortable with it.

❖ Try to approach the scary ‘thing’ over a period of several days, repeating the experience until you know that he is completely calm and confident with it.

Meeting New People - Don't Touch Me Signals

❖ Turning her head away or leaning away

❖ Lip licking

❖ Panting with a tongue that is tense, rather than loose and lolling out of her mouth

❖ Yawning

❖Trying to hide behind you/furniture/anything or anyone that makes her feel safe

❖ Drooling (other than for food)

❖Penis-crowning – the further out it comes, the more stressed he is

❖ Stiff tail

❖ Shaking-off shows she’s felt stressed and is trying to calm down

❖ Chewing ‘hard’ on a bone or toy

❖ Obsessive sniffing of the ground or of hands that come towards her

These are the first signs that a puppy gives to say, ‘Please don’t touch me’. If you see these signals, give the puppy a break from people and put him in a confinement pen/den if he is at home. If you are out with him, take him away from whoever is trying to talk to/touch him.

These pens are ideal to allow you to get on with household jobs and not have to worry what your puppy is getting up to. It also helps teach puppies independence. Place puppy toys, water bowl and a bed inside the confinement area so your puppy can amuse himself.

Following the Socialising Code will teach your puppy how to be calm, content, and confident in all areas of his life. If you allow him to approach things at his own pace, use treats and praise to help him Feel Good, and ensure that this is used for every new thing that he encounters, he will trust that you will always keep him safe. There are bound to be things that he finds a bit difficult in his life, but, giving him this strong foundation in the early days and weeks in your care means that he will always feel secure as he grows into an adult dog.

Final Day Enter the Weekend's Virtual Easter Egg

There are over 90 eggs to find and
this image does not count in the hunt!

ENTRY FOR THE VIRTUAL EASTER EGG HUNT IS NOW CLOSED - BEST OF LUCK TO THOSE WHO ENTERED!

Time is swiftly running out to enter this weekend's Virtual Easter Egg Hunt supporting the GSD Welfare Fund. Unfortunately we experienced a technical fault with PayPal yesterday, so people were unable to enter. The issue is now fixed and we're extending the deadline slightly to compensate. The cut-off to enter is now 9am (BST) tomorrow  (Saturday 9th April).

Entry is only £3 and you can enter using the PayPal button below, but hurry - time's running out!.

Find all the hidden eggs and win these
Easter delights ideal for hooman and doggo

The hunt will take place on our blog, and start tomorrow at 10am (BST), and finish at midnight Sunday 11th April. A special page and form will be provided to record your finds and submit your entry. Whoever finds the most wins. In the event of a tie-break, then one of the winning entries will be drawn at random for the prize.

Bonus Egg and Prize

We've received another amazing gift and this can be won via a raffle between those who found the bonus egg. The winner of this draw will receive this amazing metal GSD wall piece.

Please like and share this post to help raise funds for the German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund to rescue vulnerable GSDs and help them enjoy the lives they deserve, and not what they've endured.

Dickie's Diary - Sprinkle Delight

Hello fellow pupstars! Dickie Hill here to tell about this super awesome new game I'm playing. Well, it's not really new because I first played it nearly a month ago, which makes it ages old. It's still good though - in fact it's best of games because you get treats!

It's an easy game too, but so much fun, and mum says it's good for me too. Apparently it helps me develop my brain and work with my senses. I'm not convinced it does make sense, but mum knows best I suppose. Anyway it doesn't matter as it's still great fun, even if it is good for me.

Mum walks about and scatters small, but delicious treats around the garden and I have to find them the fastest. Which I do of course, but it does help that they're extra tasty treats, otherwise, why bother?

That's it for now everyone - there are new scents to sniff, and treats to find. Until next time pupsters! 🦴🦴🦴

Welcome to Lisa & Tony and a push for dogs in long term care

The madness that the pandemic has brought to the world of rescue is showing no sign of easing. We welcomed three more dogs into our family yesterday with several more booked to come in this week! As you all know, we have been on a bit of a mission of late. 

We want to do more than just "rescue" dogs. We want to be proactive instead of just reactive. We are battling to get help and information out there that may just stop a dog having to come into Welfare. This may be advising how to select a responsible breeder, or how to choose a trainer/behaviourist, or the training methods to use and so forth. Many of the dogs coming into Welfare are the results of bad trainers/behaviourists.

Many of the dogs in our care have behaviour issues that inhibit their chance of successful homing. Several have been with us 7 years or more. Obviously, our main aim has to be to rehabilitate these dogs in the hope that they are lucky enough to find their own home one day. Not only is this the best outcome for them, but it also clears space for dogs needing help from us in the future. We are limited at how many dogs we can take into our care.

This has been an ongoing discussion amongst the Welfare committee members for some time as we try to make decisions that will take us down the right path and lead to some solutions. After much thought and discussion, we made the decision to try to centralise our "problem" dogs or dogs that have been here for too long for their own good. By doing this we can then utilise the expertise of our lovely Lisa Hird who has very generously offered to help us with our mission. 

Lisa is one of the best behaviourists in this country. She has written some of the most advanced courses in dog behaviour for colleges etc. and we grabbed her offer of help with all hands. We are hoping that after an assessment from Lisa and a training plan to follow, we can help some of these dogs on their way to finding a place to call home. She will also advise us how best to "show case" the dogs that are continuously over looked. We cannot thank Lisa enough.

 

The weekend saw us starting to put this plan into action, by moving some of the Welfare dogs into appropriately sited kennels.

 

We are also thrilled to welcome Tony into our Welfare family, after he agreed to be an "uncle" to the dogs. Tony has extensive experience with German Shepherds and with rescue dogs. He is a very knowledgeable trainer using positive reinforcement methods, which as you will all know, are the only training methods we use and endorse. It is not about taking the softly softly approach, but about following the science. Welcome Tony and thank you.

When selecting kennels to use, it is so important that they are happy to liaise with us so we can all be on the same page to help the dogs move forward with their progress. It is so much more than just boarding our dogs and we are vey lucky to have some wonderful aunties and uncles for the dogs, on board with us.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff at Connifer Lodge kennels where we have just moved some of our problem dogs from, especially the girls that spent time with our dogs and showed them love.

Ramsay

Amongst the dogs we have relocated is Ramsay who has a police order against him, meaning that he can only go out in public when wearing a muzzle. Ramsay is a lovely boy, the police incident really was just a mis-fortune. A dog came to attack him whilst on lead. The other dog owner came over and tried to get their dog off and got bitten in the process, Ramsay got the blame and his police order. At present he doesn't like wearing a muzzle so this limits his chance of a home. Lisa will start some muzzle habituation work with him. 

Lily

Kerrie

Kerrie and Lily are mother and daughter, victims of a cruelty case. Both of them are understandably very nervous and totally dependant on each other. Lisa's plan is to try to build their confidence, teaching them how to problem solve, thereby making it easier to cope with life for them. They will also learn how to be independent of each other to give them a chance of a finding a loving home.

Ghost

Ghost came in with bite history, so he will need a full assessment so we know if it is safe to home him. We believe part of his problem was a noise phobia (hoover). Lisa will again, start by building confidence and habituating him to noises. 

Poor Ted is a lovely boy but is one of the unfortunate ones who has been overlooked for several years. Lisa will guide us how best to "show case" him.

Ted

We will keep you updated on their progress.

As you can see, there has been so much going on with Welfare behind the scenes, as well as dealing with the daily calls for help. We are proud to say we feel like we are moving forward and addressing the problems we are facing.

 

We thank each and everyone one of ours supporters for your understanding and support. Without you all, we could not progress with our mission to help the many GSD's that need our help 💖

Preparing for this weekend's Virtual Easter Egg Hunt

ENTRY FOR THE VIRTUAL EASTER EGG HUNT IS NOW CLOSED - BEST OF LUCK TO THOSE WHO ENTERED!

We are busy preparing for this weekend's Virtual Easter Egg Hunt. As you can see from the image, the dog's will have their own, named eggs for you to find! The sharp eyed will have noticed that some dogs share the names, but don't worry - we'll provide you with the list of names you need to find.

If you haven't entered yet, then you're running out of time as all entries must be in Friday 9th April 2022, ready for the hunt to start the next day! Click on the link below to enter.

Behavioural Topics - Post Lockdown Blues and Beyond

A few days ago we posted an article featured in the Breed Council magazine about how the global pandemic has impacted us an organisation. We also know the toll it is taking not only on our lives, but the mental state of our dogs as well. Lisa Hird, our resident behavioural expert has written an informative article concerning that fact.

Lisa Hird is an experienced and qualified behavioural expert and you can find out more about her services on her website - https://www.dogbehaviourclinic.co.uk/

Post Lockdown Blues and Beyond

We know the Covid-19 had an enormous impact on our mental health. The restrictions placed on all of us by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected our dogs, too.

As a result, a number of things happened. Families have found themselves home all day, many unable to work and with small children or teenagers to try to manage.

Many routines fell apart and some dogs found themselves overwhelmed with the attention they now received. Walks and play times and the availability of the guardians all increased.

For some dogs, these changes may have been welcomed if normally left home alone while guardians worked. For others, some dogs found themselves the centre of attention when they would rather have been snoozing quietly somewhere. During the various lockdowns, behaviourists noticed an increase in reactive behaviour from dogs towards their caregivers as they were over stimulated, over tired, and irritable.

Thousands of families decided to welcome a puppy into their homes during lockdown. In some ways, this was an ideal opportunity as most would have sufficient time to train their puppies. Sadly, much of the training did not include teaching puppies the essential life skill of being able to cope alone.

Things have begun to settle down and many people have gone back to work. But what about those lockdown puppies who may never have been taught to be alone? Behaviourists are now seeing an increase in separation related behaviours.

Being alone does not come naturally to dogs or puppies. Time must be taken to put in some training to help puppies cope with not having attention or company. An essential life skill for puppies is to be able to handle relationships including not having access to social contact, even though guardians are at home with them. Puppies/dogs need to learn how to settle when company is available – not just when it isn’t. One simple way to do this is to use a puppy play pen and slowly build the duration of absences in a positive way. After all, through selective breeding, we have created dogs who rely on us. Dogs are highly social animals so how can we expect them to simply understand they must now be home alone?

When we returned to work, we often did not consider how this may feel to our dogs. There is a great deal of evidence for bonds between people and animals throughout the ages, and the benefits of the human-animal bond are well documented. Dogs are sentient beings and science has shown us that they experience emotions in the same areas of the brain and in similar ways to how a human experiences emotion. Change needs to be carefully managed, and lots of opportunities for environmental enrichment should be provided.

For those seeking further information there is another article here worth reading - What Not to do When Your Dog is Unwell

The Pandemic's Impact on our Resources

In the latest Breed Council magazine (which was available at Crufts - www.gsdbreedcouncil.co.uk/) we were invited to inform their readers about how the global COVID pandemic has affected our rescues. This article is now available online below and please note that since the article was written we now have 90 dogs in our care.

THE PANDEMIC’S IMPACT ON OUR RESCUES

From the German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund

Written by Debbie Hill (Chairman)

When the government first declared a pandemic back in 2020, we anticipated that it would influence the pet world as surely as already seen in the human one. People began working from home and a well-known celebrity tweeted that lockdown would be the ideal time to adopt a dog. On the face of it, this sounds like a great idea, but it wasn’t fully thought through. We arranged a committee meeting and evaluated the developing situation. We expected that we would see a rush of dogs needing to be rehomed as the situation returned to normality. This would be compounded by the usual level of neglect and abuse that being increased by the increased level of ownership.

However, as much as we prepared, we weren’t’ ready for the reality of it.

It started as we started receiving an ever increasing number of enquiries from people suddenly wanting to adopt our dogs. As a rescue charity, we decided not to rehome during the pandemic unless it was to someone known to us. I personally went from taking five calls a week (if I was lucky) from people wanting to adopt, to approximately twenty calls a day. In a sense this should have been a dream come true, but in reality these well-meaning people were not ideal homes for our dogs.

One caller wanted to adopt a young female in our care. During the conversation, I asked what his working hours would be. He stated that he worked from home, so I followed up with whether he would be going back to work when lockdown was over. He repeated that he worked from home. Eventually I quite forcefully asked “when lock down is over, and you go back to work, how long will you be out of the house?” Ten hours per day was his response, but it would be OK because he’d convert the outside toilet to lock her in while at work!

Another call came from a young girl, who sounded in her young teens. She enquired about adopting a dog, and I replied that I had to speak to her parents. Within a few minutes a disgruntled gentleman called us and made it quite clear that I’d disturbed his work and that he’d given his daughter permission to adopt a dog. He then explained that a dog would keep his children occupied while he worked. I apologised, and explained that I couldn’t let a minor adopt a dog.

Not to be put off, he then asked about a particular dog, one totally unsuitable for homing with children, so I informed him of that. After stating how ridiculous that was, and proceeded to ask that if a dog was going to bite, did it matter if it bit a child or adult? A bit taken aback by that, I replied that I was sure he’d see it differently if his child were bitten.

Not to be put off he wanted to know more about the adoption process. Like many rescues we take great care to try and place dogs in suitable environments and with the right people – this is not only for the adopting family’s safety, but for the dog’s well-being as well. So I explained our process and the reasoning behind it, but he was unimpressed and asked if I actually wanted to rehome any dogs! I tried to explain why; it’s not enough to find a willing home, but to also ensure that it is right for the individual dog’s needs. We'd toughened our criteria on adopting our dogs to help this. For example: all adopters must complete a short online course. Not only does this give the prospective adopter more knowledge on dog ownership but also demonstrates their commitment.

It continued like this for several months. Dogs became difficult to come by and so the cost of puppies skyrocketed. Some pet owners, and the already established rogue breeders saw a way to make a quick buck and mated their dogs with no health checks and no thought to where these dogs would go. All they wanted was the £2,000 (and often more) per pup.

One well known rescue I spoke to said they didn’t have any dogs in as the demand had become so high. In comparison we still had all our dogs. After a few months the calls lessened from people wanting to adopt, instead they were gradually replaced by people wanting to rehome their dogs. One example was some seven month-old puppies with issues because they hadn’t been socialised during lockdown. 

In another notable example an owner arrived at the kennels with her 9 month-old male German Shepherd. As she took him out of her car, he flew at the kennel girl and grabbed her arm quite forcibly. The lady explained that this was why she couldn’t keep him. After asking why he was like this, she blamed the lockdown, so she hadn’t socialised him. That reason did come as a surprise because walking our dogs was one of the few reasons we could leave our homes. Unfortunately this poor dog doesn’t really stand much chance of being rehomed because he isn’t safe, so he will stay in our care for the rest of his life. 

Once people returned to their place of work demand for our services continued to increase. When asked the reason why they were relinquishing their dogs, the answer was often a change of circumstances, most notably going back to work.

Surely they knew they would have to go back at some time.

The situation continues to deteriorate. We now have over 80 dogs in our care, which proves quite a strain on our limited resources. We’re a relatively small charity despite being one the first dedicated charities for this breed in the country. We receive no aid from official sources, and so are reliant on donations from generous members of the public. We also undertake to never euthanise a dog simply because it can’t be rehomed. We believe that every dog – despite any behavioural or health issue – deserves a chance at a decent life.

For us the saddest aspect is how many of these dogs can’t be rehomed because of their lack of socialisation. Most reputable breeders will take dogs they have bred back, or at least help but the back street breeders really are not interested. However, they are not all from back street breeders. Some reputable breeders bred more than they should because of the soaring demand, so are not able to take them back. This week alone, we have taken dogs in nearly every day and three today as I write this and I cannot see this easing any time soon.