Body Handling Issues - Nail Trimming

With many behavioral issues, we go back to the basic desensitization and counter conditioning "rules."  The "rules" can be found at the link below.

http://ellaherdingcats.blogspot.com/2011/11/fear-based-behaviors-overview.html

When working with a dog that dislikes having his nails trimmed, we start very slowly and use a very high value treat. Some dogs have learned to snap when a hand comes close to their feet, so we start at a safer spot, such as the shoulder area. If your dog has back-end handling issues, you can do the same steps as below, but start at the shoulder area and work very slowly to the hip area and then down the back leg. If, at any time, you feel unsafe, consult with a professional dog trainer!

Make your dog and yourself comfortable for this, since this should be enjoyable for both of you. A grooming table can be very useful or have the dog lie quietly on the couch while you sit beside him. If you already use a clicker or a marker word, it can be used during desensitization and counter conditioning. Or, you can just give the treat. Each session should be about 5 minutes long and you can do multiple sessions per day, but do not take the next step until the dog is completely comfortable during the current step.

Some dogs have become afraid of the clippers, so having them where the dog can see them can be helpful, but we will not pick them up at first.

Assuming the dog does not mind being touched at the shoulder, start by gently touching and patting the shoulder area. At the same time, click, if using the clicker, then give a treat. Repeat this: touch the shoulder area, click, and then give a treat.

When the dog is happily anticipating your touch at the shoulder area, move your hand to the elbow area. Touch, click and treat.

Here are the next areas: upper leg, ankle, foot. Remember to practice at each area until the dog becomes completely comfortable.

Signs that the dog is not comfortable: panting, lip flicking, tucked tail, shaking, looking away, snapping, or growling. Some other signs include pulling the paw away or running away during the training session. If any of these happen, then you need to back up at least one, if not two steps.

Signs that your dog is comfortable: tail wagging, looking for the treat, offering the paw, begging.

Once your hand is on or near the dog’s foot, try holding the foot gently in your hand for the count of one. Remember that we are still clicking and treating! Slowly build up duration (time) that the dog’s foot is in your hand by working on one second hold, then two second hold, then one second hold, then three second hold and so on.

We are not quite to the clipping stage yet! We still need to part the toes, touch the foot with the clipper, clip the clipper, and then clip the nails. For the first two steps, still click and treat as you do them.

The “clip the clipper” step is an important one. During this step, we will use an old set of clippers and some toothpicks. Every time you clip a toothpick, your dog will get a treat. Do this over and over until he becomes comfortable with the noise. Once comfortable with the noise, clip the toothpick while holding or touching the dog’s foot with your hand (this takes a little practice).

Once the dog is comfortable with the noise, it is time to pair the holding of the paw with the clipping of the clipper. If your dog is easygoing, you could try to clip one nail at this point. When first starting to clip, I give a treat before and after the clip. Two treats for each nail. Once the dog is completely comfortable with being clipped, then I phase out the beginning treats and give one after each nail.

To review the steps: shoulder, elbow, upper leg, ankle, foot, holding foot, parting toes, touch the foot with the clipper, clip the clipper, clip the nails.

To review the rules: do not proceed to the next step until your dog is completely comfortable with the step that you are working on. Some dogs can fly through all of the steps in one session, but this in the exception. Taking a week or more per step is not uncommon.

Body Handling Issues - An Overview

Socialization during puppyhood includes introduction and desensitization to a lot of new things. Most people think of socialization as meeting new people and dogs. It does mean this, but socialization also needs to include getting used to being gently handled (grooming, petting, etc), experiencing many different types of flooring, riding in cars, seeing other animals, and a whole host of other experiences that can help make a puppy confident in his or her environment.

Body handling issues happen when a dog has not been handled enough as a puppy, dislikes being handled in certain areas or has had a bad experience that causes fear of being handled. It can be interesting to speculate why a dog might not like being handled in certain ways, but no matter what the reason, we can help them become more comfortable with being handled.

This series of articles about Body Handling issues will alternate with the Fear Based Behaviors articles during 2012.

Separation Anxiety

Separation anxiety (SA) is a behavioral disorder where a dog feels severe distress when separated from its group. This can often be in the form of a panicky reaction or depression.

The common signs of separation anxiety are being a velcro dog, showing anxiety when an owner gets ready to leave, destruction, vocalization, elimination, excessive greeting behavior (over excited), self destructive behavior, drooling, vomiting, and/or the inability to eat while owner is away. Usually, if a dog displays just one of these behaviors, it is not automatically assumed that the dog suffers from SA. Instead, the dog needs to show a
few of these signs. And, there are varying levels of SA (some dogs suffer more than others).

Crating often leads to self harm because dog tries to escape the crate. The same can happen in a home—some dogs jump through windows to get outside.

There are some behaviors that people perceive as separation anxiety, but are not. Barrier frustration is one. Lack of stimulation leading to destructive behavior is another. Incomplete housetraining is a third. It is important to obtain the correct diagnosis in order to treat your dog appropriately.

Separation anxiety stems from lack of confidence and, according to Dr. Nicholas Dodman, it is very prevalent in dogs with dysfunctional backgrounds (multiple homes, etc). There is a strong association with noise phobia, so if you have a dog with SA, then you will want to keep an eye on him or her firework and thunderstorm season approaches.

Things that can trigger SA: boarding, bereavement, a change in an owner’s schedule, multiple relocations. Some dogs will go years without experiencing SA and others will experience it the first time they are left alone.

Those random departure/densensitization of leaving cues instructions that you read about on the internet? They do not work (according to studies done by Dr. Dodman). The problem is that the dog is actually having panic attacks when left alone. Having longer and longer absences doesn’t work, either. These things don’t work for true SA. A lot of dogs have a pseudo SA and this treatment does work.

Here are the basics for treating SA:
• Break the anxiety cycle
• Make leaving fun
• Environmental enrichment
• Low key returns (everyone should do this, even it their dog doesn’t have SA)
• Build their confidence
• Medication

So, let’s take each one step by step. Each step needs to be done in conjunction with each other – doing one step will not solve the problem for most dogs.

Break the cycle!
Doggy daycare, pet sitter, friend or relative takes care of dog, dog walker.

Make leaving fun!
Or, “oh, good, you are leaving now!” Make sure that you do not sympathize with the dog - this can change our entire demeanor, so the dog reacts to that. Keep your goings upbeat and fun. Give instructions - sit, be a good dog, etc. Make sure that leaving = good things, so Kongs, Buster cubes, interactive toys, etc are key here.

Environmental Enrichment
All food comes out of toys (well, except training food). Morning meal comes when you leave. All uneaten food gets picked up when you get home (and not given at the next meal). Most dogs will not go hungry for more than a few days. The critical time for SA is the first 30 minutes. If you can have them eat and work to get their meal during this time, then that will help a lot. Also, feed the evening meal at least an hour after you get home so that your arriving home doesn’t mean food. This meal should be out of toys, too.

Low Key Returns
Only respond to the dog when she is calm. The goal here is to even out the emotional rollercoaster that coming and going elicits in a dog (this is a quote-ish from Dr. Dodman). Obviously, no punishment - this makes SA seriously worse.

Build Their Confidence
Work on stays. No close contact while resting. That means the bed is off limits, too. We need to make the dog less of a velcro dog, so we do that by encouraging independent behavior while we are with the dog. Do not respond to demanding behavior. Work on Dr. Overall’s Relaxation Protocol (e-mail Stephani for a copy of this). The later days of this have out of sight stays. That will help a lot with confidence. Take the RP as slow as needed - you might have to repeat days for a long long time before moving on to the next day’s steps.

Reward calm, independent behavior.

Think about doing obedience, rally or agility training. Some of the tasks in these venues means that the dog works away from you. Herding classes might be a good idea, too. Anything to increase your dog’s life experience will also help increase her confidence. And, if she shows fear, give lots of food so that the fear lessens over time.

Try to exercise your dog immediately before leaving.

Medications
There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a dog medication to help with this. It is very effective to medicate at the beginning of the SA program and then wean off the medication as the dog becomes more confident and learned behavior is changed to confident behavior.

The FDA approved meds are Clomicalm and Reconcile. Please do not use Acepromazine. It is on the MDR1 list (bad for those herding dogs that suffer from SA) and it has been know to make the dog’s body relaxed, but not their mind, so the dog is still feeling fear (shudder).

Some people have had good results with melatonin for anxiety. This drug is over the counter and easily given in food. Tryptophan is also used and some say that it works great.

Overall, treatment for SA has a fairly good prognosis, but, like anxiety that humans suffer from, it will mean dealing with it for life.