June 2016 - eileenanddogs

Spray With Caution!

Posted on June 30, 2016November 20, 2020 by Eileen Anderson

When Kate LaSala told me about her dog’s experience with spray cheese, I knew I needed to share it. I mention spray cheese a lot, as a high value and easy-to-use food reinforcer for my dogs. So it’s only right that I share this caution as well. I have had a few mishaps with cans of cheese with my two more sensitive dogs, but nothing like what Kate and BooBoo went through. No one can predict when something like that might happen, though, and the effects can be far-reaching. Kate and I both advise caution.–Eileen

Guest post by Kate LaSala, CTC

I see a lot of people using spray cheese in a can, or even whipped cream, as a quick, easy-to-dispense treat. It’s convenient, no mess and no smell until you spray it (so no tipping off your dog with stinky food that she’s about to get something good–so important when you’re training!)

I, like many of you, thought spray cheese was the perfect treat for training. When I was training BooBoo to stay on her kitchen mat (to keep from being under my feet when I’m cooking), I decided spray cheese was going to be my go-to reward. I could keep it in the cabinet by the mat and she loved cheese. So we set out on our training plan and for months we were moving along splendidly. She was happily going to her mat, then I’d open the cabinet where the spray cheese was and bend down to squirt some for her to lick. Everything was perfect, until about 1000 trials in when I went to reward her and “POP…POOF”–an air bubble in the can popped right in her face. She immediately recoiled and ran off to hide upstairs, as far away from the kitchen as possible. I was horrified and instinctively grabbed my treat bag filled with chicken and went to comfort and feed her. I needed to undo this. I managed to coax her out of hiding and we sat and cuddled for a while as I fed her. I thought to myself, “It’s OK. She’ll recover. She was just spooked because it surprised her. She’s got lots of padding after months of working on the mat and with the cheese. It will be OK.”

After a while of sitting, I happy-talked her downstairs and she stopped dead in her tracks at the edge of the kitchen, staring at the mat. So I tossed some yummy treats for her on it. She wanted nothing to do with it. She was clearly still afraid. My heart sank.

I tossed her some treats where she was and she gobbled them up. I decided to just let things be for the time being and hoped that overnight she’d sleep it off and by morning she’d be all recovered.

But the next morning, she still refused to come into the kitchen. She sat on the threshold but wouldn’t enter. I let her be, occasionally tossing her treats. At one point, not really thinking, I went to the cabinet–the same cabinet that housed the spray cheese–and as soon as I reached for it, Boo took off again to hide. It was very clear to me now that she had developed a very strong fear (negative conditioned emotional response or -CER) to the kitchen and the cabinet, all because of ONE spray cheese air bubble. My heart sank again. Suddenly the gravity of it hit me, and the concept that neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux had surmised was in my brain: fear is the easiest thing to condition in animals and the hardest thing to resolve. Months of positive reinforcement training had just been completely undone by one bad experience.

Now we weren’t even just back to square one–we were back farther than that, because now BooBoo had a fear response. I wasn’t training something she was neutral to and that was going to take a lot more work.

So, for the next several months I worked on a DS/CC plan to get BooBoo to be happy on her kitchen mat and not show any fear of the kitchen, the mat, or the cabinet where the spray cheese USED to live. (Needless to say, that was tossed immediately and I’m never buying it again!)

I’m happy to report that after a few months of working at her pace, building positive associations and keeping her under threshold at all times, that I was able to get her peacefully relaxing back on her kitchen mat.

Spray cheese presented on a finger — **The safer way to present spray cheese**

So I’ve got two important takeaways. Always remember how easy fear is to install and how hard it is to untrain. One bad experience can set you back months of work, even if the dog had nothing but positive experiences in that time. And, if you still want to use spray cheese (or anything in a pressurized can), I would recommend squirting it onto your finger or letting it dangle from the can before presenting it into your dog’s face/mouth. Food squeeze tubes like these are a great alternative without the pressurized, potentially scary part.

And, just so you can see, here’s a picture of BooBoo happily on her kitchen mat. I love happy endings.

Lovely black dog BooBoo is on her mat and no longer scared of the kitchen area — **BooBoo, happy on her mat in the kitchen again**

Addendum from Eileen: Spray cheese has gotten hard to obtain in local stores and mail order, so this is what I came up with as a passable substitute. I use a food tube, which doesn’t tend to pop and sputter in dogs’ faces!

Kate LaSala, CTC is an honors graduate of The Academy for Dog Trainers and owns Rescued By Training in Central NJ. She is also a certified AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Evaluator and trainer for the NJ Chapter of Pets for Vets. She shares her home with her husband, John and their two rescue dogs, Mr. Barbo and BooBoo. Kate and BooBoo are a certified therapy dog team, visiting nursing and rehabilitation homes locally. Follow her on Facebook for training tips and helpful information. Also, see Kate’s other post on this blog: “Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever? But We Live in NJ!”

Copyright Kate LaSala 2016

Does Ignoring Bad Behavior Really Work?

Posted on June 25, 2016March 25, 2019 by Eileen Anderson

Not usually and not by itself. And contrary to popular belief, “ignoring” behavior doesn’t play a huge part in positive reinforcement-based training. There is a lot of confusion about ignoring, so I’m going to have a go at clarifying a bit.

Have you seen this asserted in discourse? “Positive trainers just ignore bad behavior”? It’s a natural misunderstanding Continue reading “Does Ignoring Bad Behavior Really Work?”

My Dog Isn’t Food Motivated…Or Is She?

Posted on June 14, 2016February 4, 2023 by Eileen Anderson

Anyone who has taught a group training class, anyone who has given behavioral consults, and everyone who has spent any time on dog training discussion groups has probably heard this lament more than once:

“My dog is just not food motivated.”

The glib retort to that is, “Sure she is, or she’d be dead.” Continue reading “My Dog Isn’t Food Motivated…Or Is She?”

Getting Your Dog Grounded (Don’t)

Posted on June 8, 2016July 18, 2020 by Eileen Anderson

Being near an electrical path to ground in your house is the least safe place to be during a storm. That goes for both humans and dogs. Typical paths include household wiring, walls or floors with internal iron rebar, and the one that’s important to this post: plumbing.

People have speculated that one reason some dogs are afraid of thunderstorms is that they can sense the buildup of static electricity. That may or may not be true. But a quite unsafe conclusion has been drawn from that idea: that it’s good to let dogs hide near plumbing during a storm. Everything we know about lightning strikes to houses suggests otherwise.

Are Dogs Responding to Static Electricity When They Show Fear of Storms?

The theory that static electricity is part of what bothers storm-phobic dogs has been investigated in one study that I know of by Nicole Cottam and Nicholas Dodman ^[1]Cottam, Nicole, and Nicholas H. Dodman. “Comparison of the effectiveness of a purported anti-static cape (the Storm Defender®) vs. a placebo cape in the treatment of canine thunderstorm phobia … Continue reading. The response of dogs wearing an antistatic cape called the Storm Defender® was compared to that of dogs wearing a cape without the anti-static material.

The study had a null result. Here is the conclusion:

There was no statistically significant difference between the StormDefender and placebo cape groups in their treatment anxiety scores or owner global assessment. Both the StormDefender and the placebo cape were found to be moderately therapeutic for treatment of canine thunderstorm phobia. A placebo effect or ‘‘deep pressure touch’’ are possible explanations for the owner-reported therapeutic effect. (p. 83-84)

This is only one study and we can’t say that the lack of evidence “disproves” the static electricity theory—either that dogs are bothered by it during storms or that such a cape can ameliorate it. But there was a chance of showing evidence to support those things, and that evidence didn’t show up.

Going to Ground

Whether or not dogs respond in a special way to static electricity, the discussion about it often triggers a common assumption that might put dogs in danger.

It’s frequently pointed out that many dogs hide in the bathroom next to plumbing. Some people claim that this is because the plumbing can be made of metal and connected to ground. The idea is that being close to a path to ground has some kind of soothing effect. ^[2]I had a talk with my “science advisor” about the claims about being grounded and we agree that there are big problems with this idea from a basic physics standpoint. But I’m … Continue reading

I don’t know whether dogs who hide in bathrooms are “seeking ground” or just finding an enclosed, dark place to hide. But being next to metal plumbing or any path to ground is not a good place to be when lightning is nearby.

Here is an excerpt from the U.S. Government instructions for safety during lightning:

Avoid contact with corded phones and devices including those plugged into electric for recharging. Cordless and wireless phones not connected to wall outlets are OK to use.

Avoid contact with electrical equipment or cords. Unplug appliances and other electrical items such as computers and turn off air conditioners. Power surges from lightning can cause serious damage.

Avoid contact with plumbing. Do not wash your hands, do not take a shower, do not wash dishes, and do not do laundry. Plumbing and bathroom fixtures can conduct electricity.

Stay away from windows and doors, and stay off porches.

Do not lie on concrete floors and do not lean against concrete walls.

Bathtub_pipes_in_ceiling — **Copper pipes in the ceiling for a cast-iron second-floor bathtub –Wikimedia Commons**

What Can Happen When You Are Close to the Path to Ground?

We want to be the farthest possible away from where lightning may strike and from the most direct paths to ground. Most people know that you shouldn’t take cover under a tree during a lightning storm. Lightning often will strike at the highest place in an area, and being right next to or touching a tree that gets struck means you will probably take some of the punch. You can think of it that way in your house. Places where electricity is likely to travel—walls with lots of electrical wiring or iron rebar, devices that are connected to that wiring (like corded phones), and places with metal plumbing fixtures possibly attached to metal pipes—are like the tree. They are places to avoid, not seek out. If lightning strikes your house and passes through to ground, that electrical current can go through you (or your dog) if you touching the area or close by.

Making Choices About Safety in a Thunderstorm

The risk of being struck by lightning is so low that it is a metaphor for an extremely uncommon occurrence. But given a choice, I generally won’t hang out in the bathroom during thunderstorms, nor would I allow my dogs to do so. Take a look again at those copper pipes and the metal tub in the photo above.

But there’s one exception. I live in an area where there are tornados, and the one room in my house that has no exterior walls (said to be safest during high winds) is a bathroom. So during an active tornado warning for my area, the dogs and I troop to the bathroom. Since tornadic storms also usually have thunder and lightning, in that particular situation we are trading one risk for another. But I’m working on getting a better tornado shelter.

Some structures may have lightning protection systems in place. Some homes have most of their plumbing made from PVC, which certainly doesn’t conduct like copper. How about your house? Can you figure where the safest place is?

Regarding comments: Please note that this blog is not about whether or not dogs have special senses about static electricity or about why individual dogs might react certain ways during storms. Because of time constraints on my part, I am asking people to refrain from sending comments with anecdotes about dogs and storms. Let’s stick to storm safety and save the other topics for future posts.

Evidence that Being Close to Plumbing is Dangerous in a Storm

The following links are from sources I find reputable. The articles are not peer-reviewed research, but the advice to stay away from plumbing is standard and backed by science. You can find accounts of indoor lightning strikes in medical literature if you care to search.

New York Times: The Claim: Never Bathe or Shower in a Thunderstorm
U.S. Government Safety Document: Thunderstorms and Lightning
HowStuffWorks: Is It Dangerous To Bathe During A Thunderstorm?
Pennington County Emergency: Is My Home Safe During Lightning?
IEEE: How to Protect Your House and its Contents from Lightning

Thanks to Ingrid Bock for bringing this issue to my attention, and to my “science advisor” for letting me run this article by her.

Notes[+]

Notes
↑1	Cottam, Nicole, and Nicholas H. Dodman. “Comparison of the effectiveness of a purported anti-static cape (the Storm Defender®) vs. a placebo cape in the treatment of canine thunderstorm phobia as assessed by owners’ reports.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 119.1 (2009): 78-84.
↑2	I had a talk with my “science advisor” about the claims about being grounded and we agree that there are big problems with this idea from a basic physics standpoint. But I’m saving that topic for a subsequent post.