Your Puppy's Parents- and Their Experiences- Matter

I recently read an article on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Basically, scientists are discovering that life experiences can alter eggs and sperm, and that the resulting changes can be passed down through the generations.

Functionally, this means that the things that happen to you can change the genes of your great-great-grandchildren because an alteration in a parent’s genes can result in organ abnormalities, diseases like diabetes, and structural changes for thirteen generations, and maybe more.

So what does this have to do with our dogs?

Well, I recently watched Pedigree Dogs Exposed, and read SOS Dog, both of which are critical of modern breeding practices. While I don’t agree with everything presented in either source, it gave me a lot to think about, especially when it comes to line-breeding and exaggerated physical traits (and my favored breed- the Cardigan Welsh Corgi- does seem to be especially affected by the latter). Still, I figured that I’d be safe so long as I chose a breeder who has done the requisite health testing, and who bred for a more moderate dog.

The information on epigenetics, though, made me pause. If anything from food (or the lack of it) to chemical exposure can have serious consequences on many generations of puppies… well, how do you ever find a healthy, sane dog? Long-time readers will sympathize with my quest- after all, Maisy sort of lost the genetic lottery. Not only is she emotionally unstable, but she also has twenty different allergies and chronic back problems.

Thankfully, scientists have discovered that good experiences can be passed on, too. This fascinating study found that temporary environmental enrichment in pre-adolescent mice could not only overcome their genetically defective memories, but that the result was also passed on to their babies.

Which brings us back to what Ian Dunbar said at the seminar I attended: we can't waste puppyhood, something that starts with choosing a breeder who is diligent about socializing their puppies. More than that, we need to choose breeders whose dogs come from a long line of well-socialized dogs.

Although it's probably impossible to find the perfect breeder, it's no doubt worth the effort to be picky. At the very least, for those who buy instead of adopt, there's a lot to think about.

What the Steward Saw: Thoughts on Trial Stress

You can tell Maisy is stressed in this picture because

she's licking her lips and doing a "look-away."

Last Sunday, I got to steward for a local obedience trial, something I enjoy doing. Not only do I love watching highly-trained dogs working in harmony with their handlers, but I also appreciate the behind-the-scenes insight you can only get from working closely with judges. Unfortunately, a lot of what I saw made me sad. There were many stressed dogs with equally stressed handlers, which led to a vicious cycle of each stressing the other out even more. Worse, it seemed like many people were oblivious to their dog’s stress levels. How, I wondered, could they not notice?

I’ve been pondering this all week. Initially, I wanted to dismiss the question with a judgment about their priorities or training methods, but that seemed hypocritical (after all, Maisy and I are no strangers to trial stress). It’s also unfair, because let’s be honest, we handlers have a lot on our minds at trials, which makes it difficult to see the often subtle signs of stress in our dogs. Even so, it was hard for me to watch, and I wish I could have said something to those competitors with stressed dogs. I didn’t, mostly because I’m no expert on the matter, but being a steward offers a unique perspective. Today, I’m going to share what I saw.

First and foremost, I don’t think that any of the dogs I saw were purposely misbehaving. Yes, some of the dogs were blowing off their handlers, but I really believe that it was due to stress, not naughtiness. As a result, it seems to me that each competitor needs to learn how their particular dog acts when stressed. Each person should know if their dog tends to stress up or stress down, as well as the specific body language displayed.

I know that Maisy stresses up, and about the only good thing about it is that dogs that stress up are pretty obvious. Maisy barks and lunges, but other dogs might run around like crazy or bark excessively. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the dogs I saw this weekend were the kind that stressed down. Instead of getting excited and out of control, they responded slower, wandered away from their handlers, and just generally checked out. Their accompanying signals of yawning, panting, and lip licking were pretty subtle, which may be why their handlers didn’t notice. Other signals- like avoiding eye contact, sniffing excessively, and scratching themselves- could have been overlooked as distraction.

That’s the tricky part with stress- context matters. For example, Maisy gets the zoomies when she’s having fun, and sometimes stuff smells good, and yes, there are times when dogs just aren’t interested in working with us. However, a lot of the dogs that I saw this weekend demonstrated multiple stress signals in quick succession, which is why I believed that the issue was stress instead of misbehavior.

A dog that is too excited is clearly not going to be able to focus in the ring, but neither can a dog who’s taking a mental vacation, so once we’ve learned to identify stress signals, it becomes our job to help the dog work through them. I saw someone at the trial who did a great job of managing her dog’s arousal level. Before she went in the ring, they played a low-key tug game which really seemed to get her dog in the zone. Then, between exercises, she used simple things like encouraging her dog to jump up on her as a reward, as a method of stress relief, and as a way of connecting with her dog. Her dog looked happy the entire time, and they turned in some darn nice scores, too.

I also think that it’s important that we avoid contributing to our dog’s stress. Part of this is getting a grip on our own ring nerves- another topic in itself- and another is working hard to act the same way at trials as we do in training. Excessive cheerleading or increased focus on our dogs might seem helpful, but if this isn’t how you normally act, your dog is likely to perceive your actions as weird and worrisome. If you can’t control the way you act at trials, then my advice is make it normal by acting weird in training, too.

Similarly, we need to learn how to manage our reactions when our dogs screw up. I know that it’s frustrating when our dogs make a mistake, and especially when we can’t figure out why. We work hard to get ready and then spend a lot of money to enter a trial. I won’t lie- I’ve been deeply disappointed at trials before, and it’s hard to keep your dog from picking up on that. Unfortunately, I think that Sunday was one of those disappointing days for a lot of people; every dog entered in utility NQ’d.

But what I noticed is that each dog’s stress level- and success later in the day- was greatly affected by the way their handler reacted when things went wrong. Some people got louder, used a firm or scolding tone of voice, had angry looks on their faces, or got stiffer in their movements. I’m not sure if they were just struggling to control their emotions or if they were trying to get their dogs to shape up and act right. Either way, usually the dog just got worse.

Others spoke encouragingly to their dogs, kept an upbeat attitude, or even smiled and laughed at their dog’s error! Is it possible that by doing so, they reinforced their dog’s mistake? Sure, but those dogs also learned that being in the ring is fun, happy, safe place, and this enabled them to return for a later class and ace it. To be honest, I’m not sure why some people reacted differently than others, but I suspect that this, too, is something we need to practice.

And finally, I think we all need to remember that this is just another game we play with our dogs. Every team has a bad day, and if there’s anything I’ve learned from stewarding, it’s that the judges know this. They can see past the mistakes and appreciate the beautiful moments, and they don’t like to give out NQ’s or bad scores any more than we like to get them. So relax. Take a deep breath. Have fun and enjoy the moment with your dog.

Anyway, that’s just how I saw things, sitting ringside as a steward. I know that stress at trials is a big issue, and there's no way I can cover everything in one post. I’d love to hear what other people have learned, especially the seasoned competitors.

Training Tuesday: Trick 1- Prairie Dog!

One of my goals for the year is to teach Maisy twelve tricks. Today, I bring you the first one: Prairie Dog!

My husband chose the cue word, which is good, because I would probably have chosen something boring like “beg.” Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I do appreciate fun cues for fun behaviors, and I’m horrible at coming up with them. The hand signal is my right hand held palm up and moved towards Maisy/away from my body.

I have to confess, I taught this trick with luring. I tend to prefer shaping behaviors, but luring just made so much sense for this one. I was careful to do it right, and only used the lure half a dozen times or so before moving to air cookies. I did air cookies for a session or two (so maybe 10-15 reps- I didn’t write it down, and should have), then switched to the hand signal.

Once she was reliably sitting up for the hand signal, I started adding the verbal cue. Since I was curious how long it would take her to figure it out, I kept good records on this. In her book The Thinking Dog, Gail Fisher says that it takes 25 to 50 reps to attach a verbal cue to a behavior. Initially, I thought Maisy was going to do well, because performed the behavior following the verbal cue only on the 23rd time. Unfortunately, that must have been a fluke, because she didn’t do it again until the 57th time!

Here’s the video of trials 56 to 65:


Out of those ten times, she only got it on the verbal three times. (I didn’t reward the offered behavior between trials 7 and 8 because Gail says that once you name a behavior, you should only reinforce the dog when you’ve asked for the behavior. This is supposed to help get behaviors under stimulus control.) During the next ten times, Maisy got it on the verbal cue 9 out of 10 times- and that was in a room I hadn’t trained in at all! Therefore, I’m going to call this behavior done!

Maisy Jane: Agility Super Star

Maisy has a long history of being afraid of objects. She especially hates stepping on objects that move, even if it's only a very slight movement.

Which is why, despite the fact that these two videos are probably pretty lame to those of you who are real agility super stars, I'm super excited about them.

Video by Robin Sallie.

The second one is my favorite, if only because it combines scary objects with children (also scary, although not this one). Oh, and also because when we showed this to my trainer, her jaw literally dropped.

Happy Gotcha Day 4, Maisy

Four years ago today, I brought Maisy home. I can't believe how much she's changed my life.

Medication Update: 6 weeks at 10mg

Maisy has now been on the increased dose of paroxetine for 6 weeks. After the awesome logs two weeks ago, the behavior logs this week didn’t look so good. I did three days of logs, and Maisy had a total of 10 incidents where she seemed to overreact to small or undetectable stimuli, for an average of 3.3 per day. Just two weeks ago, she’d had only one incident in three days.

When I wrote Dr. Duxbury, Maisy’s veterinary behaviorist, after the first two days to let her know, I theorized that the disappointing results might have been due to the fact that I’d slacked off on my behavior modification work. Dr. Duxbury agreed that was a possibility, but also added that sometimes dogs get a bit quieter after starting a new med or dosage, and perhaps that's why the logs looked so good last time. She also said that dogs often cycle through “good” times and “bad” ones, which certainly seems possible. When I went back through the previous posts I’ve made on Maisy’s progress, I saw that the numbers do fluctuate from week to week.

Personally, I prefer my explanation, not because I don’t value Dr. Duxbury’s expertise (I do!), but because mine seems the easiest to control! I don't like it when I can't fix things, and my theory lends itself best to action. So, I decided to test my theory. After I took those two days of logs, I spent the next 24 hours diligently tossing treats as part of our counter-conditioning plan. Then I took another day’s worth of data. The end result didn't exactly prove me right, but it suggested that my theory has merit.

The first two days of logs showed an average of four incidents per day. The last one showed an average of two. The duration of each behavior also dropped, from an average of 9.6 seconds to 3.0 seconds. And, while she both left the room and displayed signs of vigilance 25% of the time during the first two days, she didn’t do either during the last day. Obviously, I can’t draw any firm conclusions from such a limited amount of data, but it’s enough to convince me: medication is more effective when combined with behavior modification.

Despite the worsening numbers, the overall trend remains positive. Maisy is sleeping well. She relaxes around the house and no longer needs constant interaction. She recovers quickly, and overall, the intensity of her reactions is way down. And hey- she’s no longer waking me up in the middle of the night! I am really, really happy that we chose to give her medication. It wasn't an easy decision, but it was clearly the right one.

How, When and Why to Keep Behavior Logs for Your Dog

When I scheduled Maisy’s first appointment with the veterinary behaviorist, they asked me to do a number of things, but the hardest was keeping behavior logs. I had a vague idea of how to go about it, but wasn’t really sure what to include. As it turns out, I’m not alone. An internet search doesn’t turn up much useful information, and I’ve had several emails asking about my experiences with them lately. Today, I thought I’d answer the most common questions.

Who should keep a behavior log?
Behavior logs are amazing. I’ve learned a lot about my dog through them, and I think that more people should be using them. Anyone whose dog is reactive, anxious, fearful, shy, aggressive, resource guarding, or otherwise labeled in some way, should be keeping logs. If you are worried about what you’re seeing, but aren’t sure if it’s an issue, you should be keeping behavior logs. If you’ve decided to see a trainer or a veterinarian to discuss your concerns, you should definitely be keeping logs.

Why are they so important?
Behavior logs can help you see the scope and severity of a problem. I knew Maisy was wound tighter than normal dogs, but the behavior logs were incredibly eye-opening. I had no idea she slept as little as she did, and I certainly didn’t remember the fact that she was regularly waking me up in the middle of the night.

Behavior logs can also demonstrate your concerns to a professional in a clear, objective way. Before we consulted with the vet behaviorist, I tried to discuss Maisy’s issues with her vet. Unfortunately, because dogs are often nervous at the vet’s office, Maisy didn’t seem that bad. If I would have had data to show what she was like at home, it’s possible that her issues may have been taken more seriously.

Finally, behavior logs provide you with a baseline that will allow you to look back and measure progress over time. Done regularly, they can show both improvement and regression. It is much easier and quicker to troubleshoot a treatment plan if you catch the relapse early.

What should I write down?
In the broad sense, you should keep track of anything that you’re concerned about or that seems unusual, but be sure you’re tracking behaviors, not interpretations. For example, I started keeping logs because I thought Maisy was “anxious,” but to prove that I needed to document what Maisy was doing that led me to that assumption.

I also think tracking the flip-side can be helpful: keep track of how often or how long your dog engages in normal or desirable behaviors. Sometimes, the fact that there is so little normal tells you more than the fact that there is so much weird.

With that said, let’s talk about the specifics you should include. I’m firmly in the “the more, the better” camp. If you have too much data, you can discard the extra, but you can never go back and fill in what’s missing. Still, I know not everyone is as detailed as I am, so at the very least, your logs should include the date and time, what triggered the behavior, and how your dog responded.

For the triggering stimulus, you’re recording what caused your dog’s behavior. Of course, sometimes you just won’t know- and that’s okay. You can make your best guess (just be sure that you notate it as such), or you can write “unknown.” When you’re pretty sure of the cause, I’m in favor of lots of information- you never know which detail might be important. For example, Maisy doesn’t care for dogs with prick ears, which seems like a relatively small detail to me, but it’s huge to her. Simply writing “a dog walked by” won’t get at that as well as “a Doberman walked by.”

It can also be helpful to record what was going on before the trigger happened. Include information such as location, your dog’s activities, who was nearby, and what they were doing. For bonus points, go back even further and try to remember if anything stressful or out of the ordinary occurred earlier in the day, or maybe even the day before. Triggers “stack” for many dogs, and including earlier stressors in your logs can help you figure out which combinations- if any- provoke a response in your dog.

When describing a behavior, you want to do just that- describe it- and you want to avoid interpreting the behavior. Record your dog’s body language, vocalizations, movement, etc. Try to be very objective, so that someone who wasn’t there could understand exactly what your dog did. For example, instead of “Dog barked a lot,” describe the pitch or volume. Clarify what “a lot” is, too, either by counting the number of barks or estimating how long the barking continued. Was the behavior sustained, or did the dog interrupt himself before resuming the behavior? Be as clear as possible.

Once the behavior is over, include how long it takes your dog to either return to his previous activity or to calm down. Knowing your dog’s recovery period can be critical information to have, especially when you’re considering medication. In fact, I really wish I’d done a better job tracking this with Maisy. I think her ability to bounce back has improved tremendously, but unfortunately, I can’t prove it.

That’s a lot of work! How can I easily track all that?
At this point, if you’re thinking that this is a lot of work… well, you’re right, it can be. My best advice is to make it easy on yourself. I initially tried making charts and graphs to fill in, because I like that kind of thing, but I found them frustrating to use. Eventually, I settled on just jotting notes down on a piece of notebook paper, although sometimes I email it to myself instead.

However, even with a simple tracking system, it can be pretty time-consuming to keep track of what’s going on, especially if you discover that your dog’s behavior is happening more often than you realized. I learned early on that Maisy “dive bombs” the cats a lot, and quickly gave up tracking those because it was so overwhelming. Instead, what I should have done was just count how often it happened, even if I wasn’t including all the details.

Of course, the details can be important, too, so if you choose to keep tallies, I recommend doing time interval recordings to supplement your data. You can choose the intervals that work for you, but whether you observe and record data for 10 minutes every hour, an hour every day, or even one day out of the week, it will help provide you with a clearer picture. After all, while you’ll get the most out of a more complete log, some data is still better than no data.

Now that I’ve got all this information, what do I do with it?
That’s up to you. I had a lot of fun looking for patterns and creating statistics, and it made it much easier to track Maisy’s progress, too. The basic approach requires you to figure out the average number of incidents per day and the average duration of a behavior. However, you might also look at the time of day, types of triggers, or correlation between certain people and events and the behavior. Look to see what types of things are repeated- those are your training opportunities. When I did this with my own logs, I discovered that Maisy has a lot of trouble with door-related noises, so I’ve included that in my behavior modification plan for her.


Okay, I know that was a lot of information, but I wanted to make sure I gave this topic the attention it deserved. Of course, the chances are good that I missed something, so feel free to comment with any questions you might have! If you’ve kept logs in the past, I’d love to hear about the way you structured them, what you wish you would have included, what was the most helpful, and what you learned. If you decide to keep logs because of this post, I’d be very interested to hear what you learn, and whether or not you thought it was worth your time. Good luck guys, and happy behavior logging!