Why All The Fuss About "Puppy Mills?"

Here in South Jersey, protesters regularly gather outside pet shops to protest the sale of puppies. They claim that the puppies come from "puppy mills" but the owners of the stores claim that they come from "breeders." So what's the difference, and why do we so often hear that people should not buy their dogs from pet shops or puppy mills?

According to the ASPCA, "Puppy mills are large-scale commercial dog-breeding operations where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs. Unlike responsible breeders, who place the utmost importance on producing the healthiest puppies possible, puppy mill owners disregard genetic quality. This often results in generations of dogs with hereditary defects, including dental abnormalities, eye problems and limb deformities. Legitimate breeders also put a lot of effort into giving puppies a good start in life by providing proper nutrition, veterinary attention and thorough socialization. Unfortunately, puppy mill dogs aren’t so lucky. Puppy mills usually house dogs in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, without adequate veterinary care, food, water or socialization. The dogs don’t get to experience treats, toys, exercise or basic grooming. To minimize waste cleanup, they’re often kept in cages with wire flooring that injures their paws and legs—and it’s not unusual for cages to be stacked in tall columns. Dogs used for breeding often spend their entire lives outdoors, exposed to the elements, or indoors, crammed inside filthy structures where they never get the chance to feel the sun or a gust of fresh air on their faces."

Responsible breeders do not sell their puppies to pet shops, period. EVERY puppy you see in a  pet shop came from a  puppy mill, regardless of what the pet shop owners will tell you. In addition to health problems, many of these puppies have behavior problems resulting from inbreeding, poor early crate training, removal from their litters at too young an age, and lack of appropriate early socialization. 

Some FAQs:

Q) But if the puppy has already arrived at my local pet shop, why not buy one and give the puppy a chance at life in a family?

A) It all comes down to supply and demand. The reason that puppy mills exist at all is that people buy them. If no one bought them, the puppy mills could not stay in operation. Buying a dog from a pet shop supports the puppy mill industry.

Q) My friend bought a puppy from a pet shop, and it lived a long healthy life and had none of the behavior problems  you mentioned.

A) If you buy a puppy from a pet shop, it is theoretically possible that you might get a healthy one, but the odds of having one of the above problems is much greater than buying from a responsible breeder.

Q) Ok, you've convinced me to stay away from pet shops, but how can I tell if a "breeder" I find on the Internet is a "responsible breeder?"

A) Check with local rescues - they know who's who in that area. Also, prices are very low for puppy mill dogs compared to dogs purchased from legitimate breeders. Here is some good advice from the AKC:

• To find a responsible breeder, go to a dog show or access the AKC Matketplace. The breeder referral officer for the parent club is the best contact. Local all-breed kennel clubs in your neighborhood are also a good option to find reputable breeders. Find an AKC club in your area by using this directory: http://www.akc.org/clubs/search/index.cfm
  
• Don't be put off if a breeder isn't immediately responsive. Hobby breeders often have full-time jobs and they don't always have available puppies. Be selective. Find a breeder who is knowledgeable and make sure you're comfortable with them.
  
• Visit the breeder's home or kennel and ask to see at least one of the puppy's parents. Get an idea of what the future holds for your dog in terms of temperament and appearance.
  
• Observe the premises. Is the house/kennel clean? Odor-free? Dogs and puppies should be clean, well fed, lively and friendly. Look for signs of malnutrition such as protruding rib cages or illness such as runny nose/eyes, coughing, lethargy and skin sores.
  
• Pay attention to how the dogs and puppies interact with their breeder. Does the breeder appear to genuinely care for the puppies and their adult dogs? Both dogs and puppies should not shy away from the breeder and should be outgoing with strangers.
  
• Find out about the health of your puppy and its parents. Breeders should be honest about the breed's strengths and weaknesses and knowledgeable about the genetic diseases that can affect their breed - including what's being done to avoid them. Breeders should be willing to share proof of health screenings such as OFA and CERF certificates with potential buyers.
  
• Establish a good rapport with the breeder. He/she will be an excellent resource and breed mentor for you throughout the life of your puppy. You should be encouraged to call the breeder if your dog has a crisis at any stage of its life.
  
• A responsible breeder may ask you to sign a contract indicating that if specified conditions of care are not met or you become unable to keep the puppy, he/she will reclaim it.
  
• Don't expect to bring home the puppy until its eight to 12 weeks of age. Puppies need ample time to mature and socialize with its mother and littermates.
  
• Breeders should be willing to answer any questions you have and should ask many of you as well. Breeders will want to make sure their puppies are going to good homes, with people who know what to expect and have made all the necessary preparations.
  
• Don't leave the premises without the appropriate documentation of the dog's pedigree, a.k.a. "papers." The words "American Kennel Club" as well as the AKC logo should be clearly visible. You'll need to send in this application form to register your dog with the AKC. Be wary of a breeder who refuses/hesitates to give you papers, wants to charge you more for AKC papers, offers papers from a registry other than the AKC, or tells you he/she will mail them to you at a later date.
  
• While the AKC does not have penal or regulatory authority, AKC conducts thousands of its own inspections each year. Breeders who have major kennel deficiencies may lose AKC privileges (ability to register dogs or compete in events). In some cases, fines will be imposed, AKC privileges may be suspended indefinitely and appropriate law enforcement authorities are contacted. If you would like to ensure that the breeder you are dealing with is in good standing with the AKC, contact AKC Customer Service at 919-233-9767 or Info@akc.org .
  

How to Raise a Perfect Puppy...In One Word

The best piece of advice for raising a puppy can be summed up in one 5 letter word: L-E-A-S-H. 
A plethora of behavior problems that owners struggle with can be completely avoided if they follow one simple rule:   never leave him alone to make his own decisions. 

Raising a puppy means teaching him what is acceptable and what is not, every minute of every day. Whenever you leave a puppy alone to make his own choices, he will always make wrong ones. 

When I am raising a puppy, he is never out of my sight for a minute unless he’s in his crate. This is accomplished with a very sophisticated piece of training equipment spelled: L-E-A-S-H. 

When he’s not in the crate, he is on a leash attached to me. Not only does this build confidence and trust, but it also forms a strong bond and prevents a host of behavior problems.  Inside he’s on a 6 foot leash and outside he’s on a  20 foot leash. We do this until he is 6 months old. Then he gets to drag the leash around behind him for a few weeks, and if everything is going smoothly, he gets to spend some time off the leash.  

The result? When we have a puppy in our home we have NO: housebreaking accidents, hard play biting, destructive chewing, digging, food stealing, object stealing, not coming when called, playing keep away, jumping all over the furniture, crate aversion, crate soiling, crate barking, separation problems, insecurity, eating found objects, bullying our other dogs, begging for food at the table, running out the door, or anything else that we would rather not have him do.

Makes sense, doesn't it?  Yes, but there is one problem - dog owners absolutely HATE hearing this advice. They reject it immediately, saying things like:  “I don’t have time for that.” “We had dogs all our lives and we never did that.” “He keeps chewing on the leash when we try that.”  “I don’t want him to get too clingy.” “How is he supposed to have any fun?”  and more.

Yes, your puppy is going to chew on his leash unless he has something better to chew on. So make sure he always has something better in his mouth to chew on. And buy a few cheap throwaway leashes from the bargain bin at the pet store.

Puppy owners who reject my leash advice instead ask for quick tricks, “How do I stop him from....”  When they ask this, they're asking how they can punish the bad behavior. The problem with punishing young puppies is that there are too many moving parts. Too many things can go wrong.  Fearful behavior is partly genetic but partly environmental. We cannot control the former, but we must control the latter.  Rather than relying on punishing bad behavior in a puppy, why not simply prevent it in the first place? 

If you own a puppy, it's your job to teach her the rules! Responsible pet parents understand that puppies are learning new things every day. They help them learn the right things, by keeping them nearby.  To accomplish this, there is no better tool than the leash.

How to Raise a Confident, Happy Dog!

Lots of people confuse dog ownership with parenting. Their unnatural relationships with their dogs create weird, clingy, reactive and insecure dogs.

There is no such thing as an untrained dog. Every dog is been “trained” from the moment it enters its new home. Training takes place every moment of every day – based on what their owners do.  Our dogs are a reflection of us; they watch us and they learn from us.   

Although there may indeed be some similarities between parenting and dog ownership, there are also  significant  differences between being a good parent and being a good dog owner: 

-   Good parents talk to their kids all the time; verbal communication is the key.
Good dog owners say very little in words and prefer to communicate in actions; what they DO, not what they say, is the key to the relationship.

- When a child gets anxious about something, good parents reason with them logically, helping them put life’s trials into proper perspectives.
When a dog gets anxious about something, great dog owners identify environmental stimuli that are creating anxious behaviors and they work to systematically desensitize and counter-condition their dogs in order to create new conditioned emotional responses. 

-  When a child does something wrong, great parents give advice and counsel. They wait for the right moment, which might be hours or days later.
When a dog does something wrong, great owners correct their dogs within 2 seconds of the mistake.

-  A good parent makes sure that they help a child begin to develop social skills at around the age of 3 or 4 years old.
A good dog owner makes sure that they help a puppy begin to develop social skills at around the age of 7 weeks old. The window of socialization closes at 5 to 6 months of age.  

So if you want to raise a happy, confident dog:

1)      Make sure that they meet 100 friendly people and 20 friendly dogs by the time they are 6 months old.

2)      Use your brain, not brute force. You will gain respect by controlling resources and teaching your dog what is expected of him. You will not gain respect by following old-school advice such as, “pin him on his back and show him who’s boss.” (This type of handling creates behavior problems, not respect.)

3)      Spend lots of time with obedience training (sit, down, come, stay and drop-it). Don’t teach tricks (like “give paw”) until your dog has mastered the 5 basic obedience commands and can do them under distraction, without food treats. 

4) Provide exercise, interactive play, mental stimulation and lots of rituals and routines in his everyday life.

5)  Ignore advice from well-meaning friends, neighbors and relatives. Their advice will be based on anecdotal experience, and not all dogs are the same. 

6)  The Internet is a great resource, but there is a lot of conflicting advice out there. It’s best to take everything you read on the Internet with a grain of salt - except this blog of course. :)

How to Play Tug of War with Your Dog

Do Dogs Have Emotions?

Experts agree that dogs do experience various states of emotional arousal including things like fear, frustration, anxiety and disappointment.  But problems occur when dog owners assume that their dogs are reacting to these emotions the same way that people do.

This anthropomorphic thinking by owners results in false assumptions about their dogs behavior, attributing purely human responses such as jealousy and spite to their dogs. Although dogs  experience emotional responses they are not burdened by the same type of emotional "baggage" as humans.  

The emotions that dogs experience come from their limbic system, a complex loop of neural structures which play a role in things like fear and aggression. But their thinking and reasoning occurs in the cerebral cortex, not in the limbic system. (Trainers sometimes refer to the difference in these thought processes as "hind brain / front brain.")

When owners assume that dogs think like humans think, all kinds of wrong conclusions are reached.
Some examples:

• Owner brings home a new baby and the dog starts having housebreaking accidents. Owner concludes that the dog is being "spiteful" because she is not getting enough attention, when in fact "spite" has nothing to do with it. The dog's routine of meals and potty breaks has been turned upside down and she simply needs a house training refresher course. 
• Toddler learns to walk and the dog begins growling at him. Owners assume the dog is "jealous" when in fact the dog had never been exposed to young children during her early developmental stages, has been tripped over a couple of times, and is now afraid of this clumsy little odd-moving creature.
• One of two family dogs dies. Six months later, the owner is convinced that the other dog is still depressed.  The owner can certainly relate to that, because the owners misses the other dog too. But the fact is that dogs tend to live in the present moment. The loss of a companion may cause them to feel a bit unsettled for a few days, since one of the pack members is gone, but if the dog is still acting "depressed" months later, it's not because they miss their friend, it's because they have adapted to new patterns of behavior due to their ability to read the body language of the owner, and because their daily routines have been changed.
• An owner surrenders her two German Shepherds to the local shelter. The dogs grew up together and are closely bonded. Because of this, the shelter insists that any new adopter must take both dogs,  because they believe that the dogs will not do well on their own.  Since they grew up together they must stay together or they won't be happy. As a result the dogs spend much longer in the shelter because it's much harder to find an adopter willing to adopt two large dogs. The perception of the humans is that these dogs cannot thrive on their own. But the reality is that even lifelong litter-mates who have been together for many years can be successfully re-homed individually. After only a few days they will learn to settle into their new homes. They won't worry and obsess over whether their pack mate is doing well. Instead they will focus on their new family. They are genetically programmed to find their own place in their new "pack" - not to wish they were reunited with their old one.

Dogs do not think like people; dogs think like dogs. They live in the present and focus on their daily routines and rituals.  They don't carry the same emotional burdens that we do and they don't dwell on the past. They don't hold grudges and they don't get spiteful or jealous. Yes, they feel emotions like anger and happiness, but they don't react to these emotions the same way that we do. In many ways, they are actually much better at handling life's problems than we are. I'm a little jealous of that.

Dog Parks are Dangerous

  

Dog parks are a relatively recent phenomenon, and they are now the fastest growing type of municipal parks. There were 571 dog parks in the largest 100 cities in the United States in 2011, which is a 33% increase over a 5 year period.

But are dog parks safe? The ASPCA has endorsed the idea of dog parks, saying that it gives owners an opportunity to provide much needed exercise for dogs, which has a positive impact on decreasing dog behavior problems. True, but at what cost?  Lots of people love taking their dogs to dog parks. But are they safe?  

Fights are common at dog parks, and because of the large number of dogs in a relatively small area, so are diseases.

In my opinion, dog parks are a bad idea. More harm than good is done in dog parks - too many fights, and too many illnesses.

Socialization should be done carefully, with dogs you know – not with strangers’ dogs. Just one fight can change a dog’s attitude about other dogs for the rest of her life - it’s just not worth it.

 

If you absolutely must take your dog to a dog park,  at least follow these common sense guidelines:

1)      Be alert. Watch your dog and the others around him. You’re not there to have coffee and chat with your neighbors – you’re there to supervise your dog.

2)      Keep weight ranges similar. Small dogs should not be matched with big dogs.

3)      Be extra aware of bully breeds at the park. Their play styles are more “in your face” than other breeds, and this can be frightening to more laid back dogs.

4)      Watch for avoidance behavior in your dog. For example, if your dog comes running back to you and stands behind you, put a leash on him and take him home! He’ll recognize that you did your job and protected him from whatever was frightening him.

5)      Bring an air horn – the loud noise can break up a fight (not always - but sometimes).

6)      If you have to break up a fight, do not reach in between the fighting dogs – this is a sure recipe for a dog bite. Instead, grab the back legs and pull the dogs apart.

Bottom line: It's easier and safer to AVOID dog parks completely. For young dogs who need socialization, it makes more sense to have them play with friendly dogs owned by friends and neighbors. 

The Key to Effective Dog Training? Keep it Simple!

Dogs are very simple creatures. They are not burdened by the same emotional baggage as humans. They live in the present, and they learn from their environment, from experience and most of all, from their owners. Most of pet dog behavior has been trained by the owner – intentionally or unintentionally.

Owners struggle needlessly with their dogs’ behavior problems when they overcomplicate things. For example, we know that the keys to housebreaking are supervision and confinement. Yet owners will come up with an endless number of theories as to why their dogs are going to the bathroom in the house: he’s upset that Joe is away on business, he’s jealous of the new dog, he’s being spiteful and so on.

We know that fearful dogs are uncomfortable with strangers. Yet owners come up with all sorts of interesting theories as to why their shy dogs have bitten people – he was carrying a box, he had on red shirt, he smelled like another dog, etc.

As professionals we can be of tremendous help to our clients when we help them cut through complicated theories and focus on simple solutions.  Stick to the basics and keep things simple.

How do you housebreak a puppy when you live on the 3^rd floor?  Use the elevator.  How do you walk a dog on a prong collar when you have trouble attaching the prongs? You practice until you can do it.    

Purely positive trainers create complicated click-and-treat training protocols designed to encourage differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior, while ignoring the undesirable behavior. This results in frustrated clients who give up on their dogs.  In contrast, balanced trainers teach their clients how to simply and effectively correct undesirable dog behavior.

We must never lose sight of the huge benefits that our programs have for our clients – simple, effective solutions that give fast results will help enhance the bond between dog and owner. With a  balanced approach to dog training, dogs learn what to do and what not to do.

Purely positive trainers teach owners how to respect their dogs’ feelings. Balanced trainers teach owners how to correct their dogs’ behavior.  Rewards are a good way to teach a dog what to do, but they are a bad way to teach a dog what not to do. Simple.