Dogs love to play tug, but people are always saying it’s not a good idea to indulge them in that love. The truth is, if you keep a few simple tips in mind, it’s safe to play tug with most dogs.
My daughter, trainer Mikkel Becker, has the explanation in the latest video in her ongoing myth-buster series with our friends at Bissell. She’s assisted by my Granddog, Indiana Bones.
Check it out below:
(This post is not sponsored by Bissell, but they are a valued sponsor of Fear Free.)
I normally don’t publish guest posts, but when I read this moving story on Facebook, I had to reach out to its author, Emily Strong, and ask if we could share it here. It’s about a parrot who for unknown reasons suffered severely from fear, anxiety, and stress, who not only learned a different way to live, but did something truly extraordinary. Thank you, Emily, for letting us share this story here.
My Eclectus parrot is the reason I’m a behavior consultant.
Cah’ya (pronounced “cha-HI-uh”), an Aru Eclectus hen, was given to me by an ethical breeder who was well known and respected in the avian community for his knowledge, skill, and commitment to his birds. He was also a friend and mentor of mine, so he reached out to me to see if I would be interested in taking her because she was an atypical baby.
“I don’t know what to do with her,” he told me, “There’s something wrong with her. If I sell her to a normal pet home she’ll end up getting bounced around homes, but it would be unethical for me to sell her to a breeder.”
Even though he socialized his babies extremely well, carefully bred for health and temperament, and fed his birds a varied, nutrient-rich diet, Cah’ya seemed terrified of everything and everyone. From a very young age she displayed functionless repetitive behaviors, called stereotypies; she was extremely sound and movement sensitive; and if you made eye contact she would throw herself on the ground and scream for hours on end.
Perplexingly, she also displayed the wing flipping and toe tapping behaviors that are usually a sign of an inappropriate diet in Eclectus parrots. After seeing both an avian veterinarian and a veterinary neurologist, neither of whom could find anything physically wrong with her, I decided to accept that she is different and take care of her as best as I could.
I had started volunteering in a shelter and at a vet clinic at a very young age and had spent my entire life working and volunteering with animals: as a veterinary technician, in an aviary, at a barn that did horse rescue, in wildlife rehab, and of course, also in shelters and with rescue groups. Through all that experience I realized that a deeper understanding of behavior was the crucial common thread that we were missing. I had for a while wanted to start learning more about behavior, but I didn’t have the confidence to take the plunge and do it.
But when I adopted Cah’ya and nothing I tried to do to help her worked, I realized that I had to learn more about behavior science if I wanted to help her. She is the reason I took my first course in Applied Behavior Analysis from Dr. Susan Friedman 11 years ago.
It took 18 months of hard work and tears and self-doubt and struggle, but Cah’ya finally started opening up to me: making eye contact, soliciting attention, soliciting affection, touching me; and then, eventually, climbing up onto me, letting me touch her, and so forth. After that we made rapid progress. Within a month or two, Cah’ya invented her first game:
She stands on my arm and slowly leans far over to one side. I am then supposed to lean to the opposite side. She waits for me to do so. Then she slowly leans over to the other side, and waits for me to reciprocate. I do, of course. She repeats this, but every once in a while she swoops in and boops me with the curve of her beak. If she boops me on the lips, she makes a kissy noise (and I do, too). If she boops me on the nose she says “boop!”–and of course I “boop!” back. I think she started doing this because when I was syringe training her and I would clean off her beak, I would say “boop!” when I cleaned her beak. Whatever the reason, the rules are clear and consistent.
She has since made up other games as well, but this is by far her favorite game, and the one she plays most frequently. I can usually tell when she wants to play the game because she will stand on my wrist and stare at me for several seconds. Then I’ll ask her, “Do you want to play your game?” She usually then commences with the leaning and we have a few minutes of leaning, kissing, and booping.
This has been our routine for almost a decade now, but a few days ago when I was in the bird room doing the birds’ morning routine, Cah’ya hopped on my shoulder and mumbled something in my ear, then she leaned over and looked me in the eye, expectantly.
I said, “What was that, Cah’ya? I didn’t understand you.”
She walked down to my wrist, looked me in the eye, and said loudly and clearly, “Boop game?”
You could have bowled me over with a feather. She named it the Boop Game. She asked for it, with words. With intention.
Of course the fact that many parrot species can name things, request things, create novel phrases, and communicate in all these ways using another species’ language is awe-inspiring and fascinating, but in that moment all I could think of was the little baby bird she used to be — afraid to make eye contact, afraid to touch or be touched, preoccupied with stereotypies, patently unhappy — and how far she has come.
When I first started learning the behavior sciences I was doing so to solve problems — and, certainly, a science-based training approach has definitely taught me how to do that. What I never anticipated or could have ever imagined is how profoundly the behavior sciences have impacted my relationship with the animals I work with. I never knew before how deep that connection could be, how clearly and thoroughly we could communicate, how wholly we could trust each other.
And I never dreamed Cah’ya would be a bird who could love affection, who could let me close to her even during her most hormonal nesty phases, who could want to play games with me, much less create games to play with me.
Now she’s the bird who asks to play her favorite game. By name. By the name that she gave it. The Boop Game.
Emily Strong is a certified behavior consultant who works with all species of companion animals. She has been working professionally with animals in a wide variety of capacities since 1990, but has been a behavior consultant since 2008. She owns and operates From Beaks To Barks, through which she works with clients around the world. She is also president and co-founder of First Train Home, a non-profit organization that helps shelters and rescue groups address behavior issues ethically, effectively, and efficiently.
My daughter, trainer Mikkel Becker, is back with another dog training video in her ongoing myth-buster series with our friends at Bissell.
Today’s myth: that rubbing your pet’s face in his or her “mess” will teach them not to do it again. It won’t help and will almost certainly make this and other behaviors worse.
In the video below, Mikkel explains why, and what to instead.
(This post is not sponsored by Bissell, but they are a valued sponsor of Fear Free.)
Friends, I want to thank all of you for your prayers, warm thoughts, and support as we have worked to heal Lazaruff, the Louisiana dog who came back from the dead. Now we want to ask one more thing of you.
While Lazaruff has gone through the extensive medical care he needed to survive and to travel to us, we’ve also been working closely with a boarded veterinary behaviorist and a Fear Free Certified trainer to make sure he was ready to transition from his life of hell before his rescue to a loving home.
After all, having been literally taken for dead when he was found in abandoned home, crawling with flies and so emaciated and dehydrated that he looked like a skeleton with skin (that photo of him was after he’d gained nearly 20 pounds since the rescue), what were the chances he’d easily adapt to life with people who loved and cared for him? To a home and a sofa and a tender touch?
What we learned is that Lazaruff is a hugely affectionate dog who likes nothing more than to rest his big head in someone’s lap and have his belly rubbed. He is loving, sweet, and bonds deeply. He wants to live inside with his family.
Without knowing his background, we had feared he might be dog aggressive and that we’d have trouble integrating him with our family in Northern Idaho. What we discovered is very different: Lazaruff is afraid of other dogs. He doesn’t want to be around them. He doesn’t want to be in chaotic or noisy environments. He doesn’t enjoy “the great outdoors.” He enjoys a quiet, peaceful life with people who want to love him endlessly.
After much prayer and soul-searching and consulting with the veterinarian team members who are caring for him, the behaviorist treating him, and the trainer working with him, we have accepted that Lazaruff needs a different kind of home than ours. We are hoping you will help us find tht home.
While we’d like him to stay in the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area so he can continue being cared for by the people who love him as much as we do, we are open to a home anywhere as long as it’s the right home. If you or someone you know would like to be considered for adoption of Lazaruff (and becoming part of the Becker extended family for life!), please email me at petconnectionfbt@gmail.com. You’ll get an auto-response to that email; just ignore it. I will read your email and I will reply to you!
This dear dog deserves love after all he’s been through. We are counting on you to help us make sure he gets it.
You can read more of his story here.
With love and hope,
Dr. Marty and Teresa Becker
Cats are pretty good at grooming themselves, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use a little help. Here’s what I told a reader who just got her first cat.
Q: I just got my first cat. What do I need to know about caring for her coat?
A: Cats are great at grooming themselves, but they need a little help from you as well. And caring for your cat’s coat is one of the best ways to keep tabs on her well-being. As you brush and comb her to remove dead hair (reducing the likelihood of hairballs) and distribute skin oils, you’ll find clues to your cat’s health.
A healthy cat has a lustrous coat that doesn’t feel coarse, greasy, dull, dry or brittle. Cats shed hair normally, but excessive hair loss or bare patches could be the result of external parasites or of stress related to the cat’s environment or interactions with other animals or humans.
For instance, cats who lick, scratch and bite at their skin or rub against the floor or furniture may have itchy bites from parasites, such as fleas or mites, or a food or contact allergy. Tiny black and white specks on the coat or skin are also signs of flea infestation. Cats being bullied by other animals or adapting to a new person in the household may pull out their fur in frustration.
Cats allowed to go outdoors may come back with bite wounds from fights, which are often discovered during grooming. Bite wounds can form abscesses — painful, pus-filled sores — that can cause your cat pain when you accidentally discover them during a brushing or combing session.
As you groom your cat, look for lumps or bumps that could be signs of problems. These can range from feline acne, often caused by plastic food and water bowls, to harmless cysts beneath the skin to rapidly enlarging lumps that may be cancerous. Bring any such skin problem to your veterinarian’s attention so it can be treated before it becomes serious.
Read more in Pet Connection, the weekly nationally syndicated pet feature I co-write with Kim Campbell Thornton and my daughter, trainer Mikkel Becker.