Phoenix Dog Trainer and Behaviorist, by Sam The Dog Trainer; Sam Basso trains dogs and puppies in the Phoenix, Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, San Tan Valley, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Glendale, Gilbert, AZ and surrounding areas.
Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand? — “Maria” lyrics from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The Sound of Music.
Dogs are inspiring moonbeams, with special qualities and needs that require special answers. Dogs are not problems, we are the problem. Let's talk about Environmental Enrichment For Dogs...
It is well established that young children are at the greatest risk of serious injury from being bitten by a dog. It is also well established that young children, when deprived of their mother’s care, can experience significant disturbed emotional responses from protest, to despair, to detachment, and sometimes aggression.
Every dog training era has ended up this way: dog training is abnormally mechanical and formulaic as a result of new fads that are now considered “the way”. It’s kind of like how a family makes the same recipes their parents and grandparents made, and even when some aspect of the recipe is found to be unhealthy, it’s hard to get everyone to change.
We are a long way from completely understanding how the brain works and how to fully explain, interpret and modify behavior. Yet, we have developed some good tools and insights, and it is worthwhile to invest time into the study of the latest avenues of scientific inquiry and how we got here. In the meantime, I suggest finding out how to read how your dog will help you throw away the dog training method cookbooks.
I was recently asked what to say to dog owners who have adopted dogs which have experienced severe emotional shocks in an animal shelter. Here is my first response: emotional shocks, which may have been physical or psychological, cause lasting disturbances in behavior which can only now be fixed by your dedicated effort.
There is a wide chasm between what animal welfare people preach and what is happening. Go to any major animal welfare website, listen to their donors, and talk with their vocal supporters: they preach positive, fear free, 5-Freedoms care and training. Yet, the animal shelters they support deploy a wide range of accidental, purposeful and sometimes methodical aversive, shocks and insults directed at the dogs in their care. You don’t have to hit a dog to abuse it. Shame on the big donors who don’t see, or decide to look the other way, when their dollars are being used to damage thousands of dogs every year. I don’t care about your sponsored adoption events, spay/ neuter clinics, microchip and vaccination drives, self-congratulating postings on various social media, or sad TV public service announcements. Those in the trenches see it every day, but their requests for help from you are like shooting arrows at a brass sky. They don’t reach those who have the influence and resources to demand fundamental changes.
On the flip side, there is so much ignorance regarding what to do with traumatized dogs at home, in foster care, or in a boarding kennel. Let’s get this one out of the way up front: the troublesome behaviors you see and don’t like aren’t the dog getting back at you, being dominant, being stubborn. The dog has been traumatized. What that dog needs, right away, is 1.) a safe home… which also means to get them out of that kennel; 2.) a warm attachment to a person they live with; 4.) concerted wise efforts to deal with any fears and abnormal behaviors; 5.) sufficient medical care; and 6.) proper nutrition to get back to a normal weight.
A lot of people misread rescued dogs. The dog doesn’t eat, must not be food motivated. Wrong. The dog doesn’t obey, the dog must be dominant and stubborn. Wrong. The dog growls at this or that I do with the dog, must be punished somehow. Wrong. The dog lunges at strangers or strange dogs, I’m so mad I’m going to ignore the dog all night. Wrong. I saw this to do with dogs on TV, it’s going to work. Wrong.
Traumatized dogs will appear to refuse to perform anything correctly. They will resist a lot of things, or violently try to escape, such as being put into a crate or being left alone. They will emit a range of distress vocalizations, from whining to barking. Some will sleep too much; others will be hyperactive. Some also show physical signs, such as the house training isn’t working, the dog pants a lot, elevated heart rate, temperature runs hot, digestive upset, runny stools. Other signs can be outright refusals to accept a collar or leash; humping someone or the other dog; jumping up on people; hiding under the bed; guarding a food bowl, bone, toy, or location; air biting; excessive licking; difficulty accepting other pets or other people in the home; jumpy and barking at the smallest noises or movements; inability to get to know friends, guests or new animals; and difficulty with bathing and grooming. This is just a partial list, but you get the idea. This isn’t a dog that needs to be dominated, bullied, emotionally punished, and subjected to all manner of aversive methods. Instead, this is a dog that is in trouble and needs your help to get out that mess.
Dogs like this don’t fix themselves. Harshly stressed dogs have an uncertain future unless you figure out what is going on and get the diagnosis and treatment right early on. Stressed dogs die young, either from early “natural” death, a disease, or because the dog eventually hurts another animal or person, and the vet is instructed to put a needle in their forearms and end it all. Lazy, or neurotic, owners need not apply.
I realize none of this is fun to talk about, but this all must stop. We must do a better job of socializing, training, medically treating, feeding, containing, and managing all dogs so they either don’t end up in shelters or are better adapted to a short term stay in a shelter and have a better ability to integrate into a new family. Normal people take good care of dogs all the time, so that isn’t an impossible expectation. We also need to start holding animal shelters to higher standards, at least best practices standards, or refuse to support them and send our efforts, votes, and money elsewhere. Municipal shelters don’t fix themselves very often, and even the ones that do tend to fall back into bureaucratic systems of harsh animal adversity. You can’t count on the politicians, media, or big donors to help. New laws won’t help, be enacted, or enforced. The public, concerned employees, and volunteers need to walk away if the situations aren’t humane. Choose the red pill to opt out of the Matrix, start your own rescue and run it right. Hang with the good people, those who do it right, educate the public and be a good example, and let the rest die on the vine. Implement the above solutions and do real animal welfare work. Please save these dogs from the system.
Play is governed by an essential emotional circuit in the mammalian brain. Play circuits may also exist in other animal classes, such as birds and reptiles, but that is still yet to be proven. The impulse to play is inborn and has many theoretical purposes for survival. What does that have to do with your dog? Read on.
Animals of all species are spontaneously active because of intrinsic brain operating systems which generate adaptive innate and learned behaviors. When human brain systems are not operating properly, we call them psychiatric disorders, and in animals we call them behavioral disturbances. Fortunately, these operating systems are equipped with varying degrees of plasticity. Some behavioral outcomes are rigid and are difficult to modify, and others can be changed through stimulus activation, inactivation, or non-activation of various intrinsic functions. Animals that are trapped have innate reactions to escape. Entrapment is opposed to this natural tendency to spontaneity. Improper confinement and restraint can cause behavioral disturbances.
According to the Daily Mail, “But there are calls for the controversial American Bully XL to be banned in Britain as shocking data has revealed the breed has been involved in the majority of fatal dog attacks in the UK since 2021.”
There is nothing controversial about any breed of dog, this is a manufactured crisis, just like what was done to the Pitbull Terrier, Tosa Inu, Fila Brasiliero, and Dogo Argentino. Breed bans don’t work, people either switch breeds or make up new ones… like the XL Bully. I remember predicting this over 20 years ago when I first got into animal welfare work. At that time, pit bull bans were sweeping many cities in the US. The worst was the Denver, CO ban. I still can’t get that image out of my mind of a huge mound of dead pit bulls seized by animal control. Animal control officers went door to door to seize and kill thousands of innocent dogs from innocent owners. These deaths didn’t decrease the number of dog bite incidents. You don’t solve problems by doing evil things, and killing innocent dogs is evil.
There is something mentally wrong with someone who wants to ban a dog breed. Seriously. Politicians will ride this pony to gain political influence, same with others. They don’t really give a rip about public safety or dogs; they care about finding an issue they can use for their own benefit. Lots of parasites out there willing to ban dogs for the irresponsible and negligent actions, and sometimes innocent mistakes, of people.
Should the XL be banned? Nope. Is there an epidemic of dog bite deaths in the UK, or anywhere else in the world? No. The Daily Mail has always published sensation- stimulating articles. That’s their gig. It sells, and makes them money, too.
What is the NUMBER ONE thing that can be done to prevent aggressive dog attacks? Early puppy socialization, starting at 2 weeks of age, and then morphing into young puppy socialization classes at 8 weeks of age. Do that, you’ll make any breed safe to be around. Teach bite inhibition early, and this stuff goes away. I could create a new breed today. Unless you want to ban all dogs, which means you are goofy in the head, consider better options that will actually work.
What are the most common problems with municipal animal control shelters causing overcrowding and so many unnecessary deaths? Thirteen is an unlucky number... here are the 13 biggest obstacles in trying to reform your local municipal animal shelter.
Identified Problem: Everyone is harmed when an overcrowded, obsolete shelter systems resort to euthanizing adoptable pets. We are no longer in the 1970’s. Modern management systems should be implemented, and better infrastructure should be funded.
Identified Problem: Lack of transparency. Can you get a line item budget for all expenses for the past 5 years? How about all statistics regarding all medical treatments, outcomes, etc.? Employee salary information? Lawsuit settlement details? Procedural manuals? For municipal shelters run by non-profits, they are also not accountable to the public and can develop the same indifference to saving lives and be more focused on fundraising, employee perks, and fancy facilities and bypass the necessary disclosures to prove they are doing a good job.
Identified Problem: Government cannot and should not be doing business in the free market of pet adoptions. Animal care and controls should be contracted out and services distributed to non-profit rescues, with government oversight. Government employees are not motivated to properly implement animal care and control and have a different metric for what is considered success.
Identified Problem: Old ways of management. Typical management tends to weed out the innovators over time and keep the drones. As a result, good people and good ideas no longer bubble up to the top.
Identified Problem: Wrong Mission. Read the mission and vision statements, if any, of your local shelter. Is the focus on saving lives? And are those statements backed up by congruent actions and funding?
Identified Problem: Best practices have never been adopted, and there has never been a sustained employee, rescue, or volunteer training program in place. Few shelters adhere to generally accepted best practices. Does your team have a top notch behavior modification, enrichment, and pet evaluation team in place? Does your team know how to turn around aggressive, fearful, and unruly pets to make them adoptable? Does your shelter offer expert advice on house training, basic manners, pet introductions, basic pet care, and early puppy socialization classes?
Identified Problem: Animal care and control is not a significant priority, but more of a nuisance duty for whatever entity funds the operations.
Identified Problem: Physical and virtual systems are obsolete. Large municipal shelters are dinosaurs, should be bulldozed and replaced by distributed satellite shelters throughout the community. Software and web-based systems are obsolete.
Identified Problem: A lack of community outreach. Management spends too much time behind their desks and don’t go, personally, weekly, into the field the way good leaders should. They are out of touch with the communities that need the most help.
Identified Problem: No long-term economic planning. How many shelters build up a rainy-day fund to prepare for economic downturns? None
Identified Problem: Municipal shelters compete with local non-profit rescues and put them out of business. Ten percent of rescued pets should be processed by animal care and control, the remainder should be processed by local non-profit rescues. The local rescues should be empowered to keep pets out of the municipal shelters, and most dogs waiting for a new home should be in foster care, not these big animal prisons that tend to be built.
Identified Problem: Spending and population goes UP, but actual performance goes DOWN. Why is this acceptable?
Identified Problem: No independent performance audits, thus, no accountability. The last thing any entity wants is a performance audit, especially if they are not doing a good job. Only through accountability can problems be anticipated, identified, addressed, and funded. Try proposing performance audits for your local shelter system and see how that is received. All shelters should be required to submit to an ongoing independent performance auditing. Rescues should be spending their time saving pets lives, not feeling the need to engage in rescue politics because shelters cover up their negligence and incompetence. Good, dedicated rescue volunteers and employees get tired of the lying, excuses, and stonewalling: they burn out and quit.
In the end, I’ll send you the following: Good Luck. It is hard to fight the system and you will find parasitical forces that will undermine your reform efforts because those opposing you benefit from the status quo. They will claim they are in the business of animal welfare, but you’ll find out, when decisions are to be made, they care more about their jobs, perks, manufactured public recognition, and other benefits than saving lives.
The effects of spaying and neutering dogs are variable. But are the outcomes acceptable from a health, behavior and welfare standpoint? What does the current research say? Earlier studies were used to justify surgical interventions, but those studies had methodological shortcomings and inadequate sample sizes. Politics have also confounded the public’s understanding since there has been a long standing dispute with the animal rights community over private ownership of domesticated animals of any type, and thus we have been told fantastical stories to justify the potential elimination of pets and livestock. Many studies have been hampered by very small sample sizes, and are often the results of surveys which can lack objectivity. The latest studies have been better constructed to help guide owners and veterinarians. Let’s take a glance at the current thinking.
Years ago, I was working with a new student. A few days prior, we had completed a first lesson with her puppy. We were using treats and using luring to establish beginning word associations for Sit, Down, Come and Heel. Pretty standard stuff. She was at a quiet park, as I recommended, doing her homework. Along came some woman in a car who pulled over, went over to my student, and made a big scene, saying “You’re turning your dog into a robot!” My student contacted me afterwards quite upset and almost in tears. I had to reassure her she wasn’t doing anything wrong, and this busybody was out of line and goofy. Over time, we finished the training of her dog, and everything turned out well. So, what’s with this “robot” stuff people are referring to?
What is my main complaint about PP (Purely Positive dog) training theory? Of all the famous trainers I have followed, they don’t truly have trained dogs. They are just tolerating, managing, or blocking undesired behaviors. That means they can’t train your dogs to live in their Promised Land: your dog will not be under verbal control, off leash, at a distance, around strong distractions. Would you consider a finished dog out of their program (and everyone has a different label for it: basic, intermediate, advanced, titled, certified) to have the essential abilities?
