Helping your puppy to Feel Good about scary stimuli

As part of a series of articles on caring for your puppy, expert dog behaviourist Lisa Hird from the Dog Behaviour Clinic provides advice on how to help your puppy Feel Good about the many things that you have around the home.

To learn more about Lisa's background, experience, qualifications and services visit her website: dogbehaviourclinic

STAGE ONE

1. Make it all Feel Good. Put your puppy on her mat or in her puppy den and give her a stuffed frozen Kong or similar long-lasting treat. Bring the vacuum cleaner into the same room as your puppy but DON’T TURN IT ON.

2. When she looks up at it, praise her. If she goes back to her Kong and does not seem bothered by the vacuum cleaner, move it a little closer to her.

3. If she does not move away, or show any anxiety, praise her.

4. Gradually move the vacuum cleaner closer and closer, as long as she is still showing signs that she is ok with it, until it is right next to her. If she sniffs at it, praise her (you can give her a tiny, tasty treat as well to make the experience feel even better).

5. Take the vacuum cleaner away calmly and put it away.

6. Leave her to finish her Kong then let her out of her puppy pen once she is calm.

7. If she shows any uncertainty at all during this process, move the vacuum cleaner further away from her but do not make a fuss of her. This kind of reassuring around worrying things creates anxious puppies – what she needs is an upbeat, cheery approach from you. As soon as she is eating her Kong and relaxed around the vacuum cleaner you can go back to step 2 and follow each step, always checking that she is calm and relaxed.

REMEMBER to leave the vacuum cleaner turned off throughout Stage one. Your puppy needs to adjust to it being silent at first so that she is not afraid of it.

STAGE TWO

1. Put your puppy in her puppy den and give her a stuffed frozen Kong.

2. Put the vacuum cleaner in another room, (possibly upstairs if you already know that your puppy is easily startled by loud noises) and turn it on.

3. Go into the room with your puppy and praise her if she continues chewing the Kong and shows no uneasiness about the noise of the hoover. 

4. If she is comfortable with the noise and continues chewing her Kong, move the hoovercloser to her room, but don’t bring it inside.

5. Before she finishes her Kong, turn the vacuum cleaner off. Leave it just outside the roomso that she can investigate it when she comes near it.

6. Let her finish the Kong and then let her out of her puppy den once she is calm.

7. Praise and give her a tiny, tasty treat if she approaches or touches the vacuum cleaner.

8. If she does look uneasy at any time, just crouch near her, and smile at her. Do not say anything. The instant she goes back to chewing her Kong, praise her, and give her a tiny, tasty treat to boost the Feel Good of the experience.

9. If she trembles, looks anxious, whines or tries to move away from you or the sound of the vacuum cleaner, turn your head away from her, count to 5, then go and move the vacuum cleaner further away into another room.

10. Come back into her room and repeat steps 1 -4. If the noise is still overwhelming her, go and turn the vacuum cleaner off, and repeat steps 5 and 6 of STAGE ONE. When you next repeat socialising with a vacuum cleaner, go back to the beginning of STAGE ONE for a couple of days.

11. You can then build-up to STAGE TWO again, but make sure the vacuum cleaner is several rooms away so that it isn’t too loud. It is very rare that a puppy has such an extreme response as this, and if she does, contact me so that I can help you with her response to noises.

STAGE 3

1. Repeat steps 1 to 7. This time, you can move the vacuum cleaner up and down outside the door to the room she is in. Remember to stop the exercise before she finishes her Kong.

2. If she looks at all uneasy, either move the vacuum cleaner further away, or turn it off. Try to remember not to fuss her or give her attention for being nervous. Then praise her when she can look calmly at the vacuum cleaner. 

STAGE 4

1. Repeat steps 1 to 7 but bring the vacuum cleaner inside the room where your puppy is eating her Kong. If she is comfortable, you can move it up and down a little bit inside the door, but do not bring it too close to her.

2. If she continues to ignore it, you can gradually move it closer to her, but NEVER have a vacuum cleaner closer than about 2 metres to a dog unless you can guarantee they are completely unbothered by it. They are noisy machines and dogs’ hearing is over 100 times more sensitive than ours, so very few dogs like vacuum cleaners. 

KEEP THE VACUUM CLEANER AWAY from your puppy if she is stressed by it and arrange to do the vacuuming when she is out of the house or in the car (supervised by somebody, with a stuffed frozen Kong) until she’s comfortable around it.

Noise-sensitive dogs can be de-sensitised to anything, but it does take time and it is vital that you take things very slowly with your puppy if she shows any uncertainty around loud noises.

You can use the above method with many things that you have around the home, such as:

• Washing machine – obviously, with stationary objects you need to move your puppy closer to them, rather than move the object!
• Dishwasher
• Hair dryer
• Wheelie bin
• Noises on the TV (this method is particularly good when you hear barking dogs on the TV)
• Door bell
• People dropping and breaking things – you can try this method with somebody dropping a saucepan lid, starting with them doing it in another room!

https://www.facebook.com/germanshepherddogwelfarefund

How You Can Help - Adoption

Like many rescues and shelters across the country, we are experiencing the busiest time in our nearly 50-year history. The pandemic, financial squeeze and a host of other factors have combined in a perfect storm. We are always appreciative of the generous support we receive and are often asked in what ways people can help. We do have a page that lists most of the options available, although it is a large and not very user-friendly page so we're starting a new regular feature to call out the individual opportunities and so make people aware of what they can hopefully engage in.

We're starting with the biggest and most important of all the ways to help and that's adopting our dogs.  Not only does this support our primary focus, but in these tight times, it helps free up resources and make the difference if we can rescue another dog or not. Many of our rescues require specific conditions for the dogs and we know that not everyone's circumstances allow them to adopt - much as they'd love to. Here everyone can help by sharing our posts about these dogs as far and wide as you can - the further we can reach the more likely we'll find a new home for another dog.

Below we have a short piece in text and image form to make it nice and easy to share on any platform.

ADOPTING

The ultimate goal for any of the dogs we rescue is to set them up in a new, loving home and so enable them to live the life they deserve and not the one they’ve suffered. We have an established process to ensure the best possible match between the dog and their new family. 

If the dog has complex medical needs then we can help with advice and financial support. If the dog has certain behaviours then appropriate restrictions will be required for the safety and comfort of you and the dog.

Taking in a dog and aiding them in rehabilitating into a new life is incredibly rewarding. If you’re interested in sharing this journey then you can learn more about the adoption process here:

www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/adopting-a-german-shepherd/

Discover dogs looking for homes on our website:

www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/dogslist/

And on our Facebook group:

www.facebook.com/groups/gsdwfadoptions

100 Days with 100 Dogs: Day 66 - Meet Resident Bella

For Day 66 of our 100 Days with 100 Dogs series, we meet one of our resident dogs. Unfortunately, not all of the dogs we rescue are suitable for rehoming. This can be for various reasons such as complicated health issues, or trauma that is too deep-rooted to fully work out. In a few cases, they have police orders, so if anything such as a bite incident would be put down. 

We don't take a decision like this likely and only if it's best for the dog. And from our inception, we wouldn't put a dog down just because they couldn't be rehomed. They deserve a chance at a life they can enjoy like any other. Sadly we're finding that more of our recent rescues have issues beyond the usual rehabilitation and so require more work to prepare for adoption if they ever become suitable at all.

Meet Resident Bella

This little darling is Bella and she has been with us since she was 7 months old.. Bella's original owner wanted a guard dog so spent time winding Bella up. Bella didn't have the right temperament for this and became so traumatised that she started to react to the wife and the children. 

Bella was now terrified but the family decided she had to go. They called a 'behaviourist' (we use this term lightly in this case) and he collected her and he put her in a stable. He spent hours trying to encourage her out of the corner. The next day for reasons best known to himself, he let her out in the menage. At this point, he couldn't catch her, and she'd tried to bite him. He then contacted an acquaintance of Rose to see if they knew anyone who could help or he'd have to have her shot.

Rose received the call and agreed to take Bella in. He pointed out that she would not have any more luck catching her than he was having She told them to contact her old owners and have them catch her and bring her to her. He did and it worked she arrived wearing two muzzles and petrified. Her owner put her in the kennel and took the muzzles off, and Rose then didn't see Bella for the next week. 

She ate her food overnight, and never entered the run if Rose was near. She proved the most difficult case Rose has dealt with. After continuing to toss treats and ignore her, some weeks later Rose managed to get her out in the bigger run, still not touching just using treats to get her in and out of the run. It took months for Bella to gain confidence. As she did so it became apparent that she wouldn't tolerate strangers. With this in mind, she will stay in our care.

Of the 115+ dogs currently in our care, 30 of them or residents. Committing to their life long care requires long term resources. To help with this we have an annual sponsorship programme to help pay for what they need. You can sponsor a dog for only £20 per year here:

http://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/product/sponsor-a-dog/

2023 Calendars Now Available

We are very pleased to announce that the 2023 GSD Welfare Fund calendar is now available from our online store. They're A3 size and full of spectacular photos from supporters submitted in the Calendar Competition. Picking the final choices proved tricky as there were so many great pictures to choose from! We also made sure that some of our more famous residents made an appearance.

Order yours now here: https://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/product/2023-calendar/

Winners who had their dogs included have been contacted already and their copies sent out if we have your address. We've emailed the two that we didn't have addresses for so if you entered please check your email in case you're a winner.

100 Days with 100 Dogs: Day 65 - Luna C's Birthday

After yesterday's unexpected and unwelcome surprise today has delivered a more positive mood...

Luna C's Birthday

Luna is a gorgeous young dog who is 1 today and she's almost ready to start looking for her new home. She came to us about 2 months ago, severely underweight and with patches of fur missing. She has since put on several kgs and her fur has returned nicely.

She is a lovely dog who enjoys human interaction but needs to learn a few more social skills when it comes to other dogs. Lisa our Behaviourist is working with her three times a week to help her learn to be less reactive around other dogs. She is a beautiful dog, both in temperament and looks.

She can be a bit excitable and for this reason we would suggest a home with no children under 10 years of age and as an only dog.

If you'd like to give Luna C (the name still cracks me up 😇 )  the ultimate present with a home and a future then please contact us via the form on this page:

http://www.gsdwelfarefund.co.uk/adopting-a-german-shepherd/

Signed copy of Beneath the Boards by David Haynes

Here's another generous donation from one of my favourite British contemporary horror authors. This is also one of his finest books and a worthy addition to anyone's scary story collection.

One day I hope he'll receive the plaudits he deserves and when that happens it might even become a valuable part of the collection :-)

Beneath Jim Stokes’s shirt is a scar, one last horrific reminder of his old job in the police force.

Beneath the everyday normality of the village Stormark is a shameful secret, haunting people’s dreams.

Beneath the floorboards of the lake house is a hatch, sealed and forgotten for years until Stokes opens it up.

Beneath them all is blackness, and unheard screams, and scratching sounds in the night…

…and her whispers.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364030053495

100 Days with 100 Dogs: Day 64 - Tigger Crosses the Rainbow Bridge

Day 64 of our 100 Days with 100 Dogs has proved to be an unhappy one. It is with much sadness to reveal that Tigger crossed the rainbow bridge and gained his angel wings today. 

Tigger came to us at just 8 months old. He had grabbed the child next door so his owners were now worried. They stated that this was new behaviour. Even so, they hadn't explained to us the full extent of his reactivity. It was worrying to see one so young behaving this way. 

However, he had been treated with Nexgard flea treatment which is known to cause neurological damage.  With careful handling, Tigger did make improvements and we were hopeful for his future. 

We lost that hope today when he suffered a seizure that he didn't recover from and the vets advised us to give him peace in sleep. Tigger lived for just 11 months and died as another preventable victim of Nexgard. 

Fly high Tigger and may you find peace in eternal sleep.

If you are unaware of the dangers of Nexgard then you can learn more in this article:

https://gsdwelfare.blogspot.com/2022/04/health-topics-nexguard-and-bravecto.html