Charleston Animal Society

Tips for Dog Lovers

| Barking | Biting | Chewing and Mouthing | Children and Dogs |

Digging | Housetraining | Jumping | Leaving Your Dog Home Alone

Barking

DO:
Exercise your dog frequently to burn off his excess energy. This will help to prevent your dog from barking out of boredom.

Leave your dog with toys to entertain himself when you leave. Use safe toys such as hollow bones or Kongs stuffed with his food or with peanut butter. This will give your dog something else to do besides barking. Nylabones are also safe toys to leave alone with your pet.

Remember that dogs thrive on being with their ‘family’. It is very difficult for them when we leave. Make your comings and goings as low key as possible.

Tone the level of play down if your dog starts to bark during play. Allow the dog to calm down and then focus him on a different toy. If he continues to bark, end the session for a minute or two and then resume the game.

Act calm and confident if your dog barks and acts startled and frightened by something in public. Don’t pet or caress your dog; this will only reinforce his fear. Instead, have him sit and praise him for that. Socialize your dog more if he is often spooked. Avoiding those situations won’t help him get over his fear!

DO NOT:
Leave your dog in the back yard alone and expect him NOT to bark! Your dog may bark out of boredom or anxiety, or may feel the need to alert you frequently to things passing by!

Yell at your dog. When you raise your voice, it sounds as though you are also barking and are worried about the ‘situation’ as well!

Reinforce barking by giving in to your dog’s behavior. If your dog barks at you for attention or for a particular object, ignore it completely. After the barking has stopped for at least 5 seconds, you can then give your dog what he wants. (However, if your dog barks to go out and do his ‘business’, pay attention and let him out quickly!)

Let him bark at visitors. Give him something to do by having him "sit". Giving him a favorite ball or toy will also decrease the barking.

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Biting, Chewing and Mouthing

DO:
Keep in mind that coming to a new home is stressful. Stress may come out as mouthing and chewing. Give the dog safe things to chew on so that he can release his stress.

Remember that teething puppies and adolescent dogs frequently have sore gums. If your dog is biting or mouthing you for this reason, give him a frozen washcloth or ice cubes to ease the pain.

Provide your puppy or dog with plenty of chewtoys so that he can exercise his mouth and jaws. This is natural and necessary for dogs.

Teach him the rules of contact. When the puppy or dog’s teeth make contact with your skin, immediately freeze. At the same time, say "ouch" in a very high-pitched and sharp voice. You are acting in the same way that one of the puppy’s littermates would act! Initially, you can use this exercise to prevent the really painful bites. As the dog gets better at inhibiting his bite, use the exercise until he puts absolutely no pressure at all on your skin.

Have a temper tantrum the next time the behavior returns. Tell your dog that "I’ve had it with you" and leave the room in a huff. You can even slam the door. Return after 15 to 20 seconds in a sunny mood. Make up with your dog so that he can see it is the biting that you don’t like, not him.

Teach your dog to take food gently.

Teach your children how to play with the dog safely. Dogs do not naturally know what is too rough during play.

DO NOT:
Do not roughhouse or wrestle with your dog. This kind of playfighting encourages uninhibited biting. It may be okay for the dog to wrestle with Dad and take his arm between his jaws, but what about grandma or the toddler? If the dog is used to roughhousing with people, he will be unable to know the difference between safe and unsafe.

Tease your dog with your fingers, hands, or with food.

Expect the dog to know what is okay to chew on and what is not. Take time to teach him the right things. Remember that some dogs take one to two years before they can be given freedom in the house.

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Children and Dogs

DO:
Supervise your child or children with your dog. If you cannot watch them, put your dog in a crate or your toddler in a playpen.

Anticipate what your dog will do. If your dog moves away, hops up on furniture, hides, or goes under a bed; he may be trying to avoid contact with the child. The only other ways a dog can protest are with barks, growls, and nips. Give your dog a safe haven when he needs to be quiet or alone.

Enforce what you say with your child and with your dog. If you ask your child to stop bothering the dog, enforce that. If you tell the dog to sit, enforce that too. Be consistent.

Educate your child and your dog. Teach the child that animals must be treated with care. Teach the dog that children are okay and what behavior around them is acceptable. Reward the dog when children are around to improve his opinion of them!

Allow your new dog as much time as he needs to get used to everyone in the family

DO NOT:
Allow your child to hit, chase, tease, pinch, jump on, or scream at your dog. Children that scream and run encourage the dog to chase and ‘play nip’ them.

Allow your child to ‘love’ the dog too much. Your dog may not be accustomed to being hugged tightly, grabbed, or kissed in the face.

Allow your child to wake up a sleeping dog abruptly. This may frighten the dog.

Force your dog to interact with children. Let him decide when it is okay.

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Digging

DO:
Supervise the dog when he is outside. Prevention is the best cure. If he begins to dig, reprimand him with your voice and redirect him to something that is acceptable, such as a toy.

Remember that certain breeds dig more than others. Terriers, terrier mixes, Nordic dogs (such as Huskies, Malamutes, and Norwegian Elkhounds) and Nordic mixes tend to dig more, although most dogs do enjoy digging.

Exercise your dog; try to wear him out twice a day. Play games with him so he is not bored. This will help to prevent digging.

Provide adequate shelter. Dogs will dig when they are too hot.

Try burying cayenne pepper or the dog’s feces in spots where they’ve been digging. However, these methods may only send your dog to a new digging spot!

Build him a sandbox or his own digging hole. Choose an area where he can dig. Bury a few toys ahead of time and then encourage him to dig in that spot!

Train your dog so that he can spend time with you inside the house. Dogs need to be with their family. Go into the backyard together to have fun.

DO NOT:
Punish your dog if you find he has destroyed something after the fact. Your dog will not understand what he has done.

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Housetraining

DO:
Supervise your dog. Look for signs that he needs to eliminate, such as sniffing and circling an area.

Choose an area that you’d like him to use for pottying. Take him there frequently throughout the day, especially after he has eaten.

Go outside with your dog. Praise when he eliminates so that he will know that THIS PLACE IS THE RIGHT ONE.

Keep your dog on a feeding schedule. This will help you to know when he needs to relieve himself.

Remember that your puppy cannot truly control himself until he is about five months old.

Clean any accidents with a product that will remove the entire odor. Do not use ammonia or products with ammonia in them. Ammonia imitates the smell of dog urine.

Use a crate when you cannot supervise your dog. If you do not want to crate your dog, use baby gates to keep him in a safe, enclosed area.

DO NOT:
Hit your dog with a newspaper. Hitting your dog won’t teach him the difference between ‘going inside’ and ‘going outside’.

Rub your dog’s face in his waste. Not only it is dirty, but will likely make your dog neurotic and afraid of you.

Yell at your dog. When you catch your dog in the act of eliminating, pick him up quickly and take him outside. Then you will have an opportunity to praise him for going in the right place.

Punish or yell at your dog if the accident has already happened. After five seconds of doing anything, your dog will not understand why he is being punished. Remember that supervision is the key to successful housetraining.

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Jumping

DO:
Ignore your dog when he jumps on you. Have other family members or visitors do the same thing. Turn your back on him and walk away.

Remember no attention or treats until all four paws are on the floor. Never, ever, pet your dog or give him any attention for jumping on you.

Be consistent! No jumping even when your dog is a cute and small puppy and no jumping when you are wearing dirty work or gardening clothes.

Teach your dog to sit. A dog can’t sit and jump at the same time. Just before your dog is ready to jump, ask him to sit instead. Wait five seconds then release and reward your dog for sitting.

Prevent your dog from jumping. Hold onto his collar or step on the leash so that he cannot jump on other people. Do not let him learn that this is a way to get attention.

Ignore your dog when you leave the house and when you come home. If we become excited each time we enter the house, the dog also becomes overly excited and will jump on us as a greeting. Keep exits and entrances low-key and mellow. Pet and speak to your dog after a minute or two has passed and the dog is calm and not jumping. This will also help prevent the dog from being too anxious when you are away. Be patient, your dog is only trying to say hello, and doing it in a natural doggie way!

DO NOT:

Knee the dog in the chest. You may seriously hurt your dog.

Grab the paws and squeeze them.

Squirt lemon juice into his mouth.

Hit him with a newspaper.

Step on his hind toes.

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Leaving Your Dog Home Alone

DO:
Puppy-proof the house. Shut doors or use baby gates to keep him from areas where you don’t want him. Put away shoes or other objects that the puppy or dog might chew.

Leave him with safe toys to entertain himself. Safe toys include Nylabones, sterilized hollow bones, and Kongs.

Try to exercise your dog so that he is physically and mentally tired before you leave. If you are crating your dog, vigorous exercise twice a day is an absolutely must!

Keep your good-byes and homecomings as unemotional and low-key as possible. If your dog has gotten into trouble while you’ve been away, greet him as you usually do, and remember to prevent that problem in the future.

Remember that dogs must be housetrained and chewtrained. A dog may be one or two years old before he can be given the full run of the house.

Use a crate. Crates can help to calm an anxious dog and keep them safe. They also help with housetraining. A puppy can be crated one hour for each month he is old. An adult dog can be crated for up to eight hours, preferably only six.

DO NOT:
Punish the dog if you come home and find that something has been destroyed or that he has had an accident. The dog will not understand what he has done after the fact. That would be abuse. Focus on teaching him the right things to chew.

Isolate your dog in a closed off laundry room or basement. A dog that is over-isolated may become neurotic and ‘hyper’. Use baby gates so that the dog can see out. Put his crate in a large room where he can see other parts of the house or has a window.

Abuse the crate. Crates are for when a dog cannot be supervised. A dog will not learn what you want while he is in a crate or left alone. Teach your dog what you expect and spend time with him.

Leave him outside. Dogs that are left outside become bored and destructive. They also suffer when the weather is too hot or too cold. Remember that dog houses absorb heat; they do not protect your dog from overheating.

Chain or tie your dog. Dogs that are chained cannot get away from other people or other dogs that mean them harm. Tying your dog up will have bad effects on his temperament because he will be constantly frustrated.

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