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Aidan Interviewed by KosmarEnterprises.com

Posted May 9th, 2007 by pos4015

Jana at Kosmar Enterprises recently interviewed the Editor of Positive Petzine, Aidan Bindoff, to ask about some behaviors that are useful to prevent sickness or medical emergencies. Here is an extract of that interview:

Kosmar: What common mistakes do dog owners make when trying to train their dogs out of
these behaviors?

AB: By far the biggest problem is in not being proactive. If you wait until
your dog goes to eat something nasty and try to punish them, it's too
late. If you stay ahead of the game you can stay positive, and avoid
all sorts of problems that might crop up.

Kosmar: What would you tell someone with the free-spirited dog that may be a bit more
difficult to train? Perhaps a dog that eats the sofa cushions, for example.

... you can read the whole interview here. Kosmar Enterprises offer many products "designed to maintain your pet's health, and to help your furry companion overcome a wide range of illnesses, naturally."

Comments

...and a question

Carolyn's picture
On May 13th, 2007 Carolyn says:

Hi Aidan, Congrats on the new site. I hope this is the appropriate place to ask a question related to a point made in the interview... My dog understands Leave It/Take It very well in the house and outside while we are training. Her Zen abilities are really very good...

However...once we are on our 2x daily off-leash walks, the trouble begins. She has taken to gobbling up feces: deer, turkey, cattle, horse, you-name-it. I always carry an assortment of treats and used to be able to successfully call her to receive a treat. Trouble is, she's gobbled up feces before I've realized what's happened, so that's become her MO these days.

I do try to be pro-active about avoiding feces and keeping a close eye on her. At the same time, I want her to enjoy her walk which includes sniffing and exploration so of course, she is quicker at snatching up a poop goodie than I am at realizing it was buried in the grass. She stays in a 8 m "zone" right around me during the walk and of course I could leash her...but it seems a shame when I'd like her to be able to exercise and sniff as she pleases. She's already been treated for giardia so I am well aware of of the dangers of eating poop!

Any advice on how to handle this?

Thanks from
Carolyn in Belize
with Maggie the Havanese

Poo is highly reinforcing

On May 14th, 2007 pos4015 says:

Hi Carolyn, that's a great question and I'm sure a lot of people will be wondering the same thing. BTW, yes, this is a good place to ask the question. Although I won't be able to answer every question that hits the website, I'll do my best and maybe others could contribute too? It's a great way to organise content and make this sort of information enduring, whereas on an email list it's here today, gone tomorrow.

But back to answering your question...

Sometimes we have to deal with problems which we know are just going to be a whole lot of trouble to fix! It's unfortunate, but true.

In order to really proactively train the solution to this problem positively you will need to develop an extremely strong 'leave it' and watch like a hawk. It CAN be done, it HAS been done, but it takes a lot of effort and careful management in the early stages.

I would certainly collect some poo samples to use in training. It's the same 'Zen'/leave-it that you will find instructions for in the Training Levels program. You need to train this through varying levels of distraction using lots of controlled set-ups where you always set Maggie up for success.

The controlled set-ups are key to your success.

There would be a case for using an aversive in this situation, such as a taste deterrent. Most poo is fairly harmless to a healthy dog with a good diet, but if there is a particular type of poo in your area which carries a higher risk of Giardia or any other nasty bug, then it can become critical.

However, I suspect a dog would soon learn the difference between normal poo and poo laced with taste deterrent because no taste deterrent would be odourless.

In any case, I think you can do this purely positively if you make a commitment to setting it up and doing it properly from now on.

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