Five Bad Behaviors I Reward My Dogs For

Good dog training involves not rewarding unwanted behaviors, right? This is what I thought for years, and when Brisbane and I were doing UKC obedience trials it was what I focused on. Each week we'd attend a practice with half a dozen other handlers. Between exercises, most of the other dogs would sit or lay quietly, casually keeping an eye on their handler. Mine had his nose glued to the ground and at times seemed completely oblivious to my presence. I would ask Brisbane to watch me, to sit or lay down, to stay, to STOP SNIFFING ALREADY! It was a nonstop parade of cues, treats, and then Briz resuming whatever it was he had been doing. I usually ran out of treats before the end of class, and he never got any better.

Photo by Erin Koski

Ten years later, Sisci and I are taking an agility class. With time and experience on my side, I'm taking the exact opposite approach and rewarding the behaviors I don't want. I've found this works incredibly well, both in group classes and in everyday life. By the end of any given class, Sisci is focused on me, tuning out the environment, and so relaxed she chooses to lay down and rest.

Here are five completely counterintuitive things I reward my dogs for:

1. Barking and growling at people. 

Sisci is unsure about most people, and her first response to someone breaching her comfort zone is to warn them away. Agility class is held inside a fenced field within a larger park, and there are lots of people in sight for her to worry about when she's not zooming through tunnels or sailing over 8" jumps (or sailing over tunnels when she's feeling particularly creative). Instead of asking her to look away from the scary people by asking for her attention, I mark and reward her staring and woofing. A few treats later, she is much more interested in playing this game than angsting about that rogue human on the sidewalk.

2. Freaking out at other dogs. 

As above, the only reason Sisci screams and snaps at other dogs is because she they make her nervous. Instead of asking her to look at me, I mark and reward her fixating on the other dog. Whether it's a passing dog in the park or a super-snappy border collie doing victory laps after a jump sequence, the anxiety-producing situation becomes a cue for cookies and a good reason to focus on me.

3. Pulling on leash. 

Photo by Erin Koski

Believe it or not, most dogs don't even seem aware that they are pulling on leash. They know they
want to go in a particular direction, and they know you sometimes get annoyed and stop, pull back, yank, or make them change directions. What they don't know is that leash tension is the specific trigger for these behaviors in their human. I like to use a clicker to mark leash tension, and then run backwards so the dog has to zoom back to me for their treat. It's a lot of fun to see a dog have a lightbulb moment when they suddenly realize that pulling is what causes this celebration. Most people think this should result in a dog that pulls like a freight train, but instead it creates a dog that is both acutely aware of leash tension and tuned in to the person on the other end. Once the dog knows how the game works, they understand how to investigate all the wonderful smells without hitting the end of the leash.

4. Pestering the cats. 

Actually, I try to mark and reward merely noticing the cats, before the dogs get really interested. Cats are weird, creepy little freaks. They make all sorts of funky noises, they move erratically and seemingly without direction or reason, yet they are clearly recognizable as sentient beings rather than furry jellyfish. We make our dogs live with the pet equivalent of schizophrenic hobos and expect them to mind their manners even when the other guy defies all social conventions. A whole lot of dogs learn to politely tolerate a range of bizarre cat behaviors without ever feeling truly at ease about the whole situation. To help my dogs relax when cats are being cats, I routinely reward them when someone is climbing the drapes, racing from room to room, or hissing in their face At first they get a cookie just for seeing a cat, or hearing cats thunder around the house.

5. Jumping up on people. 

This isn't the same for every dog, but I actually like to see Sisci jump up on people. She's quite leery of strangers, and right now it's only reasonable to expect her to exist in their vicinity. Ignoring them is fine, actual interaction is usually too much pressure. Very occasionally, while I'm casually conversing with someone, Sisci will cautiously stand up and put her front paws on them. This is the least-threatening way she has found to interact with a scary new person, and doesn't cause them to loom over her. So far she has only done this with some of my trainer friends, who totally understand what a big step it is. Brisbane can be an impolite greeter and sometimes wants to clobber people with his feet, but I'm happy to see Sisci attempt any greeting at all. We'll work on polite greeting when it happens more often.

Food Friday: FirstMate Limited Ingredient Canned Wild Salmon Dog Food

FirstMate is not a brand I see around here often, but I found their canned food in the same shop as I found Canine Caviar. They were not really on my radar until I went to check out their website for this blog post. It turns out they're based in British Columbia, so they're a west coast company that just isn't that common down here in southern California. It turns out they're one of the great pet food companies, privately owned with their own production facility and no recalls ever.

The Company

FirstMate was founded by an experienced fisherman concerned with dwindling fish stocks in the oceans of the world. This is a cause near and dear to my own heart, so I already like this company. The founder turned his efforts to the farmed salmon industry, and started up a fish food company named after his fishing boat, the Taplow. 

Here's where the story gets interesting! The fish farms had guard dogs that periodically helped themselves to the fish food. That stuff is apparently expensive, and Taplow feeds was asked to develop a food specifically for the guard dogs. The story given on the FirstMate website is that the fish farmers asked Taplow to make a dog food so good, the dogs would stay out of the fish food. I suspect it was something a little bit more cost-and-convenience based, along the lines of "Hey, since we're already paying you a gazillion dollars for fish chow, could you throw in a little something cheap for the dogs and save us an extra order/trip?"

At any rate, Taplow Feeds owns their own production facility, and has never had a recall. That's a pretty impressive. This is a privately-owned company, and the fisherman founder planned from the beginning to be a dog food manufacturer and not just a marketing company like those that use a co packer. They source their lamb from Australia, and everything else from Canada and the USA.

I'm not sure if this means the food is tasty, or that my cat is a bit of a weirdo.

The Food

FirstMate dog food was launched in 1989 if I'm reading things right. In 1995 they already had a grain-free food made from fish and potato. Color me impressed. Their grain-inclusive foods are based on barley, rice, and oatmeal. The grain-free dry foods are all potato-based and use chicken fat. They have a disclaimer on every ingredients list that says they use treated chicken fat that contains no protein and therefore cannot cause an allergic reaction, but I honestly just don't trust any of those. Maybe if my dog had fewer allergies. 

Their Limited Ingredient canned foods are awesome, though. This one just has salmon, potato, and vitamins and minerals. That's it. The dogs all loved it, as did one of my cats. James crashed my photo shoot and ate most of the bowl, and I let him because my cats are kind of spoiled. 

The Dog Food Advisor website does not have a rating for FirstMate's canned foods, but their grain-free and grain-inclusive foods both have an average rating of four out of five stars. The ingredients in the dry foods all look good to me, but they lost a star due to below-average fat content and above-average carbohydrates in most of their recipes. This would make me hesitate to use this food long-term for a dog with weight issues, like Brisbane. I would love to see the site analyze the FirstMate wet foods though, as these seem quite nice and are definitely something to add to the rotation when I get the chance.

Paw Spa: PetzLife Oral Care Gel

PetzLife Oral Care Gel is a product designed to break down tartar without the need for brushing. It is made from grapefruit seed extract, grape seed extract, peppermint oil, neem oil, and thyme oil. The product is peppermint-flavored and intended to be applied twice a day to break down nasty tooth crud.

Doggy Dental Care

My dogs have pretty clean teeth, mostly thanks to raw bones. Ru did need a veterinary dental earlier this year because of his super-crooked tiny incisors, but despite being rotten the teeth were still quite clean. Brisbane's look amazing for a ten year old dog, and Sisci's haven't had the chance to develop any tartar yet.

I brush Ru's teeth every night with a Sonicare electric toothbrush because chihuahuas have notoriously bad teeth. Also because he is tiny and easy to hold down. The cattledogs are pretty leery of the noisy toothbrush, but I still rub some enzymatic toothpaste on their teeth every day or so. They also happily chew raw bones of all sorts, which does wonders for their teeth.

So Why PetzLife? 

I bought this bottle of PetzLife ORal Care Gel on the recommendation of several of my internet friends. Several of them had tried it and reported that they could brush or scrape the discoloration off their dogs' teeth with their fingernails within a few weeks of using PetzLife. The product website has lots of before and after pictures of fairly yucky-looking dog mouths that do look improved, sometimes after only two weeks.

My thought is that I don't really have anything to lose here. If the product doesn't work at all, nothing will happen. It says it can be used by humans and I haven't found any online reviews about sick pets. If it does work, my dogs will have yet another thing to help keep their mouths healthy.

Does It Work?

Though I've had the bottle for a few months now, I haven't used it consistently because my dogs hate it. I think it's the taste, the stuff is super minty and has a bit of alcohol in the base so I'm sure it tastes vile. If the cattledogs see me pick up the bottle they hide, so I have to sneak up on them. I keep it by the door so I can use it on them right before when leave the house, after I've put on their leashes so they can no longer escape.

My dogs all have pretty darned clean teeth, but the cats are another story. James and Solstice, my seven-year-old littermate cats, have lovely white fangs. I thought this meant they had clean teeth until this evening when it occurred to me to pry their whiskery faces open and look at their molars. They both have pretty big hunks of tartar on their back teeth, and their gums are a bit red. I smeared some PetzLife gel on their teeth, which they both hated. 

Fortunately my cats are unbelievably stupid, so they are unlikely to catch on and should be easy to test the PetzLife gel on. I just started this evening, and I will report back if and when I notice any changes. 

Leave the Cat Alone!

Brisbane was raised with cats, and mostly ignored them until my brother brought home an adult cat that was listed as "dog aggressive" at the shelter. After several months of ambushing Brisbane from under the couch and dropping onto him from the tops of the bookshelves like a deranged koala, Misty got out at night and was eaten by coyotes. I like to think she started it.

Brisbane and Tucker, one of his personal cats.

My brother promptly returned to the shelter and picked out a slightly shy 4-month-old kitten. Upon returning home, Kat freaked out about Brisbane and he freaked out right back at her. My kitty-loving puppy had become Cat Reactive.

Brisbane's Personal Cats, the ones he had grown up with, were still perfectly fine. Cats that ignored him were also of little interest. Cats that hissed or growled, however, needed to be barked at ferociously.


Aside from separating them, I needed to find a way to convince Brisbane that Kat was one of his Personal Cats. I needed to do it in a way that minimized stress on either party, and I needed to do it with zero cooperation from my brother, who felt that his cat should be able to roam the house freely at all times. With a lot of work I ultimately achieved this goal, and happily I have never had to repeat the process because "don't eat my new pet" became one of Brisbane's learned behaviors.

With his ears back, looking deliberately away, with the whites of his eyes visible, Brisbane is stressed about being this close.

Step 1: I needed to keep the two of them separate as much as possible. In the beginning this was easy, Kat wouldn't come near Brisbane so as long as he was on a leash everyone was safe. Whenever Briz and I moved around the house, I watched for Kat and gave her time to escape before we entered the room.

When I couldn't be watching him, Brisbane stayed in his crate or behind a closed door. Sometimes I shut Kat in another part of the house so Brisbane could relax or play safely.

Totally getting a cookie for putting up with this.

Step 2: Whenever Brisbane saw Kat, he got plenty of treats. I tried to keep him far enough away that he didn't react, but this got harder as Kat realized she was not about to be messily devoured. For a while I used a Gentle Leader head halter so I could turn Brisbane's head away from the curious kitten and make him look at me.

It's worth noting that Brisbane was never told 'no!' for barking or growling at Kat. I didn't want him to associate her with negative consequences. Instead I just kept stuffing treats in his mouth every time she was in view.
Step 3: I continued reinforcing Brisbane for ignoring the kitten, and he got better and better at it. Even after he stopped barking or growling at her, he was visibly stressed when she was too close, as obvious in the picture above. Kat got bold enough to venture into biting range, and would rub herself against Briz while he tried his best not to have a meltdown. I knew we were going to be ok when I walked into the livingroom and found the kitten wrapped around Brisbane's leg, kicking furiously. He was standing perfectly still waiting for his reward.

This entire process took around three months, after which I felt safe leaving Brisbne and Kat alone in the house together. This same method also worked well for introducing Briz to my husband's possessed zombie cat. Youma growls and hisses at everything that moves, not unlike Church from Pet Sematary. Brisbane was a bit stressed when we all moved in together, but he would pointedly ignore Youma while hoping for a treat.

Years later I still routinely reward Brisbane for ignoring cat activity around the house, and for tolerating Youma's unholy noises. He very pointedly avoids looking at her, and I always give him a treat when I see that behavior. I also reward him for ignoring our other two cats, who were raised with Briz and occasionally enjoy being nibbled.

I have also been able to trust Brisbane to not eat my turtles that live in the yard, and my birds that are often loose indoors. I wouldn't trust him unsupervised with the birds, but I do know that he can tolerate a clumsy cockatiel crash-landing on his sleeping head. There is never a point at which I expect to stop rewarding him for being good around other animals.