Reddit reviews Decoding Your Dog: Explaining Common Dog Behaviors and How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones

The hair length is easy! It’s two things: (1) long hair is recessive to short hair, and (2) if a dog is feral and has long hair, there’s a real possibility of matting and resulting health conditions leading to an early demise (therefore less reproductive success)

Size-wise, “medium” is the best evolutionary card to be dealt – being too small means you’re fragile, being too large means it can be hard to secure the resources you need to survive.

Dog color genetics get pretty complicated pretty quickly, but since the brown/red/tan color seems to take hold everywhere, my guess on that is that ultimately those genes shake out as dominant over the others.

Dogs are descended from wolves, but the thousands of years of divergent evolution between them has created a genetic gulf between that domestic dogs would be incredibly unlikely to leap back across. Dogs are scavengers, wolves are predators. A dog, even if it’s feral, is going to have a much stronger inclination to affiliate with humans than any wolf would. Interestingly, even the rare feral dogs colonies that don’t have any human interaction don’t return to any wolf-like state. They don’t pair bond for a mating season, males don’t help with care of offspring, they don’t live in family units, and their social structure is held together through the dogs showing affiliative behavior toward one another (not any of that dominance nonsense pop culture won’t let go of).

…and now I’ve rambled for way too long about dog behavior and genetics. If anyone is reading this who is actually interested in the topic, this book is a great read (or this, if you’re looking for a less weighty read.

One source for that is this book which is written by Veterinary Behaviorists.

Basically they say the dog can tell when you are mad. For example, they pee on the floor, and they learn that when you enter a room and pee is on the floor you get angry. They act submissive because when they relate to other dogs, they are showing that they are no threat to the other dog, they are just trying to get them to stop being angry or aggressive so peace can happen.

But this causes issues when communicating with people because the dog is trying to say "ok I won't hurt you I'm not a threat please don't me mad at me" and the person sees "I know I did something wrong and I'm guilty" and if the dog is still getting punished it is suddenly in a very confusing and precarious position. Then maybe eventually it thinks well submission isn't working, do I need to defend myself? Or some other unwanted behavior.

It should be noted that the dog is not quite able to make the connection that he peed on the floor so it's his fault at that point. Unfortunately they don't think that abstractly about cause and effect unless you catch them right in the act. Once you find pee on the floor it's too late really, and the dog is only making the connection about people being upset and pee is on the floor at the same time.

But they definitely pick up on the body language and tense voice, even if they aren't being punished in any way, they can detect enough about your mood and are doing the thing they think will make it better between you two.

Hey there!

First of all I'd recommend to schedule a session with a dog trainer who deals with reactive dogs on a regular basis. I went for an exercise walk with mine to analyze behavior, and she really was a huge help.

Also the /r/dogtraining wiki has a page about reactivity which I found quite helpful.

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I'll try to provide some input on your particular situation from my own personal experience with a reactive dog (taking care of a 4y old reactive Border Collie myself now since about a month):

>Then I tried distracting him with treats. But hes so focused on the other dogs that it doesn't matter.

When Opie is in his reactive state it's probably best to remove him from the situation (emergency u-turn, etc.). If he calms down after increasing distance, you can turn it into a learning opportunity by following the CARE protocol.

>So I guess I'm just asking for advice on how to handle him correctly in those situations where I cant avoid running into other dogs. And should I even be trying to avoid them? Or is exposure good with the right training from me? What training is the right training?

Try to avoid situations that trigger Opie, IMHO it's only stressful for the dog and he won't learn anything when he's spaced out barking. Exposure is good as long as he is not reactive and you're in control. For training sessions, you'll probably need an assistant and another dog that triggers Opie's behavior. Then follow the steps outlined in the CARE protocol, also explained in this video. You should (hopefully) slowly be able to gradually reduce the distance where Opie gets triggered by other dogs.

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Things that helped me get started:

• Use high value treats (freeze-dried liver, 100% lamb, etc.) to reward non-reactive behavior
  
• Use a clicker (to give a consistent reward marker which you'll need a lot of)
  
• Train LAT: Video guide
  
• Look into other relaxation methods like this, this
  
• Choose your routes for walks very carefully so you're one step ahead of Opie (aware of your surroundings) and always have an exit strategy
  
• Find a place where dogs are commonly walked where you can position yourself safely at a distance. You can use this spot as your training location
  
• Read into common dog behavior, sth. like Decoding your Dog
  
  Hope it helps! I'm just getting started with my own reactive dog journey so it would be great to hear what others have to say =)

Since you have trazadone I'm going to assume you have already talked to your veterinarian about your dog's anxiety. If that is not the case, please discuss it with your vet.

The behaviorists are pricy, but they're an excellent resource and worth the money. I'd definitely stick with either a Veterinary Behaviorist or an Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist over a regular trainer, anybody can call themselves a trainer while CAABs and VBs have tons of education and experience. They can tailor advice to your specific dog and your specific household in a way a book or video cannot.

I am by no means an expert (I'm a vet tech at a general-practice clinic) but my go-to recommendations for behavior books are Decoding Your Dog by the American College of Veterinary behaviorists, (it has a chapter on house training and a chapter on separation anxiety) and The Other End of the Leash (it's about understanding dogs and how they think rather than specific issues) by Patricia McConnell. Patricia McConnell also has books (booklets? they're short) about anxiety and separation anxiety. I've never read the booklets, but she's a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist with a Ph.D, so they're probably a better resource than random internet sites even if they're not as helpful as an in-person consultation with a behaviorist.

Sure! Decoding Your Dog:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00E78ICDS/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523300558&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=decoding+your+dog#nav-search-keywords

So, a couple of things I'm seeing here:

First of all, I think the "she's being stubborn" mentality is detrimental to your relationship. More likely, she's confused about the rules and/or doesn't feel comfortable going outside when you aren't home. IMO it's better to consider your dog's shortcomings as a gap in the way you're explaining something so that the onus is on you – otherwise you run the risk of anthropomorphizing the dog's actions and resenting them down the line, which isn't good for anybody.

Finding the pee / punishing after the fact is not effective. For
"punishments" to be effective, they must happen almost simultaneously with the action – in this case, you would need to interrupt the action of peeing to get them to associate "peeing inside" = "unpleasant thing" (which, in the case of potty accidents usually means a loud "Eh Eh Eh" and getting picked up/whisked outside mid-pee. Not traumatic, but not a very enjoyable pee, either.) There is a book called Decoding your Dog has an awesome explanation of this concept that is well worth a read!

If I were you I would probably try to orchestrate a way to watch her from another room (webcam?) Then I would pretend I was leaving and wait for her to pee inside, at which point I would interrupt the behavior, take her outside, and reward for finishing outside. This should help if she's confused about the rules, but if she is uncomfortable being outside when you guys aren't home, then that is a harder challenge. Maybe find ways that you can spoof being home, like leaving on a radio or tv in another room? Let us know how it goes!