Yeah, I’m talking about my nose and the noses on all the rest of us dogs in the world. We are all pretty proud of the things that we can do with our noses. I have written articles before about my fantastic ability to sniff out good things, but this is kind of a different approach.

While I have praised canines for being able to sniff out drugs, termites and even cancer, I recently learned about another use for canine noses.  Some are trained to sniff out “zebra mussels” and “quagga mussels”.

Zebra mussels were detected in 1988 in Lake St. Claire one of the smaller lakes of the Great Lakes. It is believed that the zebra mussels came in as stowaways in ships from Russia and the Ukraine. While the zebra mussels are striped, earning their name of zebra mussels, the quagga mussels are slightly larger, with less-defined markings.

Either one of these is bad news.

First they reproduce very fast. Both species attach to anything hard such as, ships’ hulls, propellers, irrigation pipes and in Lake St. Claire, they attached to the shells of the native mussels and have nearly made them extinct!

In Russia and the Ukraine natural predators are able to control the mollusks.  However in North America it seems that there are no natural predators to control them. The bottom line is that they are causing a lot of problems in the Great Lakes and now in California. Why should we care? Because their infestations are costing power industries billions of dollars and they are causing problems with the ecosystem.

Once again, canines will save the day!

While it takes many man hours for humans to inspect and detect the little trouble makers, dogs can speed up this process considerably. It is estimated that dogs can save approximately 800 personnel hours a year!

Commonly used dogs are Labs, German Shepherds,  and Belgian Malinois as they are extremely friendly with people.

Many states already have canine detection units. They are paired with wildlife personnel and live with the families of their handlers just like police dogs do. The dogs are trained to respond to five commands and only from their handler.

Just like with any program, it costs money to get this under control. It costs $5316.00 to train a dog for this type of work in California. But if you do not already have an animal the cost can increase to $9,500.00!

You may be able to help. Contact Dr. Robert F. Sahara at rsahara@pacbell.net .

I first heard about this problem in a previous interview. When I did my search, I located a great article by James A. Swan, Ph.D. His article was entitled, California going to the dogs—it’s a good thing. Check out his article for more information and tips for what to look for on your boat.

www.jamesswan.com

Every day we hear of encounters between humans and dogs. Unfortunately, not all of these encounters are pleasant. In fact, some can be deadly. I think that it is time for me to reach out and help to make these encounters as pleasant as they can be.  By “me,” I mean “my humans,” and by “my humans,” I mean “mom.”

Mom’s rolling out a new program called C.O.P.E..  C.O.P.E. is Canine Outreach Project & Education.  The program is designed to educate humans to better read canine communications.  It is geared toward Boy and Girl Scouts, 4-H clubs and elementary schools or any interested organization.

If you would like to schedule a C.O.P.E. program for your group, call us at 404-323-1500 or shoot me an email at spike@askapikeonline.com. The program is free of charge.

Us dogs participate in very fascinating activities and bring many great things to this world.  As a result, I have decided to begin a new series on my web site.  I will call the series “Spike’s Up Close & Personal.”   When I hear of something that interests me, I shall dispatch one of my humans to investigate and report back their findings.

This is the first of Spike’s Up Close & Personal.

It has been a very cold and snowy winter here in the Atlanta area.  Following one of those cold, snowy days, my staff had scheduled an interview with Ashley Marratt, President of Interquest Detection Canines of Georgia, and her dog, Copper.  Ms. Marratt presented us with a wealth of information about detection canines.  Interquest serves schools, commercial and industrial facilities.  They do not search in any public spaces where they are not contracted to inspect.  Because they serve industrial and commercial facilities, a work day for an Interquest team can begin as early as 4 am!

Ms. Marratt explained that neither the dogs of Interquest nor the handlers are affiliated with law enforcement.  Police narcotics K-9’s are only trained on illegal substances.  Interquest canines like Copper are trained in narcotics as well as alcohol, medications and gunpowder, including fireworks!  This training enables the dogs to find the quantities and items that students are abusing most today.

Interquest has over 39 years of canine training experience   A lot of people believe that canines used for these types of services must be German Shepherds or Belgian Malinois, but not the folks at Interquest.  They only use Labradors and Golden Retrievers (a friendly, handsome bunch, I might add.)  Copper is a Red Lab.

Ms. Marratt chooses her canines very carefully.  Particular interest is placed on dogs with long noses, a high alpha personality and a good prey drive.  The dogs are trained in Houston, Texas. These friendly, well-socialized canines endure a full day of work, motivated only by a toy!  They average about 9 years of service, however, some may retire early.

Once they are trained, the dogs are placed with a handler.  It is very important that the dog respects the handler.  Therefore, the handlers like Ms. Marratt must have a higher alpha personality and a keen ability to keep a dog motivated.  Lazy, laid back people need not apply!  The dogs also live with their handlers.

Copper sniffs trash cans, lockers and other such places.  In a typical outing, he is placed on a harness and taken to an area where Ms. Marratt will instruct him to smell.  When he alerts on an area, he will sit.  During the demonstration with Copper, Ms. Marratt would tell Copper to “show me”, and Copper would take the handler immediately back to the area he alerted on earlier.  That is fantastic!

Ms. Marratt also explained how the handlers will listen for a change in the dogs sniffing pattern.  Our demonstration revealed that Copper’s sniffing pattern became deeper when he approached locker #785, the one which contained the contraband.

When asked about her favorite part of the job, Ms. Marratt said that she really enjoyed the assembly programs with the students.  The students would ask all sorts of “What if” questions.  Usually to see if there was a way to fool the dogs.  (The short answer is, “Nope, dope!”)

Interquest’s program provides an orientation session for students, parents and faculty. From there, they conduct monthly, unannounced searches of lockers, parking areas, classrooms, gyms and other common areas of the school and grounds.

Ms. Marratt discussed the goals of Interquest’s service.  “The program’s focus is preventing substance abuse, not catching students doing wrong.  Our goal is to help students make good decisions.  My focus is to keep you safe and keep your school contraband free.  Ultimately, substance prevention is up to the students; the decision is theirs to make.  If you make good decisions, then there is nothing to worry about.”

The results for Interquest have been significant.  In one Atlanta area school district they have found a 20% reduction in drug related hearings, 72% reduction in alcohol related hearings and a 59% reduction in drug and alcohol distribution related hearings.  These results were from the 2003-2004 school year to the 2006-2007 school year and the district reports a 25% increase in their enrollment.

Interquest has over 100 dogs working throughout the United States and they are the largest private provider of this type of canines.

Lately, I’m getting a lot of questions about crying pups, possible depression, and what their families can do to help their pups.  The symptoms described are usually the same.  I hear things like, “He cries when I put him in the crate,” “She is always following me around, seeking constant attention,”  ”He seems miserable when I leave,” and/or “She is so destructive when I leave her alone.”

Us dogs have several good reasons for doing this. The first and most common reason is we like attention.  When you comfort us after we signal our dismay, that tells us that not only will our behavior be tolerated, but you REWARD us for it.  This is an awful idea.  When you give us attention, it is oh-so-enjoyable….  We feel it’s our duty to keep you happy, and we know you’re happy when you’re returning the love.

Our attention-seeking behavior is not much different from how Mom describes human babies.  Apparently, they exhibit something similar.  They cry in their cribs, car seats, pak-n-plays, their rooms, the line at the grocery store, and anywhere else they feel like it, waiting for someone to come along, pick them up, and give them some attention.  When people do this for little humans, it reinforces their bad habit of crying.  We’re not much different.

Also, it’s important to know about your dog’s life before he or she came to live with you.  My human sister rescued Bitsy, a neglected Pomeranian, from a HORRIBLE living situation.  Before her rescue, she’d been left alone in a very small room for days at a time.  Alone.  For days.  After her adoption, the first six weeks were miserable, and they lost many hours of sleep to Bitsy’s constant crying.  Because of her past, she was a lonely dog, even though she had two new sisters, but she was also afraid her new human parents would not return, a product of her history of abandonment.  The only thing that built her confidence was when someone came back.  After some intense snuggle therapy during regular interactions (NOT as a reaction to the crying), and her parents always returning to see her, she’s a healthy and happy pup, living it up!

Lastly, you should consider their age and the likelihood of deteriorating joint health.  When we talked about what to expect from a westie, we discussed their inclination for pelvic joint problems.  Be on the lookout for limping, particularly in the colder months.  Your pet’s cries may actually be a signal to you about pain they experience.  If you’ve determined this is something affecting your pet, it may be a good idea to add a Glucosamine or Chondroitin supplement or to switch to a food which contains it, after consulting with your vet.  If you’re feeling those aches and pains, maybe you should talk to YOUR doctor about supplements too.

If your dog is ACTUALLY depressed, he or she will exhibit some physical symptoms of depression, which should accompany his crying.  Watch for signs of under or over-eating, general lethargy, excessive sleeping, unexplained weight gain or loss and sometimes irritability (yes, sometimes we get grumpy).  Noticing something listed here is an excellent indicator that it might be a good time to schedule an appointment with your vet to discuss your recent discoveries.  In the meantime, playful exercise and daytime walks, that aren’t about getting busyness done,  are good for curbing your pet’s depression.  Interactive toys, that give him or her a chance to spend quality time with the family, can also be helpful.

Unless your dog is showing signs of being sick or hurt, it’s best to ignore unfounded crying.  It will be hard to do at first, but every time you give into his crying, it reinforces the crying behavior, and later on, it could result in some possessive aggression.

It can be very scary when a dog acts differently toward one person or a group of people over others, especially when that dog acts aggressively.  Have you encountered something like this?

A three year old spayed German Shepherd acts aggressively toward a particular man. She acts perfectly fine with everyone else but she does not like or trust him.  His erratic actions hinder their relationship, as sometimes he is calm with her and others “he yells and swats.”  If he is laying on the bed, she will lay by him and ask for attention, but as soon as he gets up, she tenses.  She is a “one person dog,” though she tolerates petting from others.  She has never snapped at or bitten anyone, other than this man.  Her body language when she shows aggression include a wagging tail, low rear and upright ears.  The biggest problem is that the man described is also the owner’s husband.

First, let’s address the body language she displays.  Contrary to popular belief, a wagging tail is not always a friendly sign.  Her lowered rear end, probably a crouching position, is an indication of her fear.  The erect ears shows that she is “on alert.”  When you couple that with the barking, charging, and crouching, you have a dog that is trying to figure out a human, the husband.  What happens?  Is it a snarling, vicious bark?  I doubt that he needs to defend himself from an attacking dog, since they are both still in the house.  To me, this sounds like an attention bark, since it probably gets her attention.  Even though it may be corrective or negative, she gets attention.

The real problem here is the human factor.  If you want this man to be safe, then HE better be ready to make some changes.  The husband is not PART of the problem, he IS the problem.  When she is lying next to him and they both are calm, the dog feels safe.  However, when he gets up, the dog responds by tensing up, as if she expects him to strike her.  She certainly shows signs of fear around him.  What I worry about here is how fast that fear can turn into aggression.  Unfortunately, in a situation like this, when she does bite, she will be likely be put to sleep, when there are things HE can do to rectify the situation.

Dogs do not like to be yelled at anymore than humans do.  They certainly do not like to be “swatted” either.  The unpredictability of her relationship with the husband ruins it.  Some dogs may take this for their whole life, while some dogs may snap one day inflicting a bite that may cost them their life.

Remember, adult dogs have 42 teeth in our mouths.  These teeth serve a purpose, biting down hard, holding the meat and pulling it away from the bone.  Why would a human think they can take that on?  The average German Shepherd bite unleashes a force of 238 pounds of pressure.  They make great police dogs, because not many people can withstand or overcome that bite to get away.  Only an idiot would try to intimidate that!

For this situation to continue incident-free, the husband needs to learn some canine communication skills.  First, it is never acceptable to strike a dog.  If you do, you deserve to be bitten!  As for the yelling, most dogs have a very keen sense of hearing.  Sometimes, my Mom will whisper commands to me.  I think she is just testing my hearing.  This dog is confused.  She wants to understand what she does that causes the yelling and swatting.  Since most of of do not use reason or logic, it is the person that must make the change.

He needs to know that the dog does not understand his actions and barks and charges out of frustration, as if she is asking him, “Why do you yell and swat at me?  It frightens me and I really just want to be loved.”  He MUST change his ways if you want him to be safe around her.  Once she knows to expect a calm demeanor from him, you can work on building a stronger relationship between the two of them.

After a trip to the veterinarian, a Twitter paw-pal (who also goes by Spike) asked me about the behavioral reasons behind licking his paws.  The vet found no physical reason for it and suggested that it is psychological.  Since this is something that was worrisome enough to warrant a trip to the vet, I thought I would do my best here to help.

Photo by lastgunslinger on Flickr

There can be a number of reasons why your dog feels the need to lick his paws.  For some reason, paw licking seems to upset our humans.  As long as we do not lick them raw, do not worry about it!  Humans bite their fingernails, and you do not see us correcting them!  After all, animals across many species lick their paws for a variety of reasons.

Certain breeds, such as Dobermans, Labradors, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Weimaraners and Irish Setters seem to be more prone to licking their paws.

Seriously though, paw licking could be the result of a physical or medical condition.  Since we are dogs, the most obvious thing to look for is fleas.  If a flea bites our paw, we are going to scratch and lick at it until the sting from that bite goes away.  I think we covered the flea thing pretty well here.  It could also be a fungal infection.  For this, you need to go to the vet and let them do some tests.  They may do a skin scraping to rule out any medical conditions.  It may be something as simple as an allergy.  The vets know that if your condition responds to treatments with corticosteroids it is an allergy.  While you are at the vet, it may be a good idea for them to check your thyroid as well.  Also, do some research on the type of food that your dog eats, as it can just be an allergy to something in your food.

If the paw licking is something that started recently, it is a good idea to thoroughly check the paw area to rule out anything being stuck in the paw, on top, in the pad, and in the webbing between the toes.  As a dog ages, he tends to do this a lot because he has some pain in the bones and joints.

Obsessive compulsive disorders will not respond to any sort of treatment.  Since there are not dog therapists to discuss disorders such as this and only a handful of drugs reserved for the most severe cases, an “OCD dog” will probably not be treated merely for licking his paws obsessively, unless it manifests into a physical issue.  Often, boredom is cited as the cause for paw licking.  When dogs are left alone a lot, they learn to pass their alone time by licking at something on their body.  There are many activities you can create for your pup, if they are alone a lot.  Psychological stressors such as moving, a new addition to the household or other dogs invading the outside territory can trigger a paw licking event.  If the problem turns out to be behavioral, it may take some time to correct.  Tell your human to be patient and remind them that it is like trying to quit smoking!

Get your human to buy some Apple Cider Vinegar.  They need to mix one teaspoon of the vinegar into one cup of water to pour onto the skin of the paws.  This will help to regulate the pH in the skin, as well as serve as an antiseptic, preventing yeast or bacteria from growing into an infection.  Tell your human to be careful and not get the vinegar into sensitive areas like your eyes or butt, because it can really sting and is not good for either area.

Overall, I would not obsess over it, unless it becomes a physical problem beyond your control.

Recently, a reader asked, in the comments to this article, about some potty training issues she struggles with.

We got a dog. He is about a year and a half. He has been with us for about 2 months now and he has adapted well. When we got him, he was potty trained. He was doing fine at first, going outside and not in the house. Then, after a while, it started fading away. Now, he will go outside to pee, but he waits until he gets in the house to go poop. What do we do? We have tried a lot of stuff like letting him stay outside all day but he just waits until he comes in to go to the bathroom. We have also tried a spanking but, he just does it again. I’m pulling my hair out because I don’t know how to make him go outside, instead of inside. Can you please help me?

Photo courtesy of Pat Thomas of Photo Phetish

This story is a very common one.  Many people tell you that their dog is a potty trained angel, as they try to give him away.  In fact, a lot of people classify their dog as “potty trained,” but if he pees on the floor, or he poops on the floor…  Guess what?  He IS NOT potty trained!  Potty training is a very black and white issue.  Either a dog IS or IS NOT potty trained.  There is no middle ground or room for qualifiers.

If your expectation is that your dog will consistently wait twelve hours inside before “getting busy,” you should reconsider your situation with your schedule, your dog, or your expectations.  If he cannot hold it that long every day, it is not his fault when he goes in the house before you let him out.  If your schedule does not allow you to be home for your pup more often than that, consider getting a professional dog walker or pet sitter to visit your house during your work day.

Specifically for this commenter, I suggest that you revisit the basics of potty training, for both your sake and your dog’s.  Also, examine your potty routine with your dog by asking yourself these questions:

• Do you have an established potty spot?  If not, establish one and take your dog out to that same spot every time.  Dogs like consistency and routine.
• Are you immediately praising each successful outside #1 and #2?  If not, carry some treats in your pocket on your walks and totally overreact positively when your dog does something you want.
• Are you walking your dog on a leash?  Naturally, you will need a leash to control that he stays in his potty spot until he does his business.  Give him up to 15 minutes to do his business.  Since this is not a walk (for fun and exercise), do not walk around.  You have taken your dog to his potty spot for him to get down to business.
• Are you confining him to his crate, if he does not “get busy” outside?  If he is not successful outside, take him back in the house and put him in his crate or confine him to a small room.  Dogs do not generally like to soil the area they sleep in, and most potty training dogs spend their nights in a confined area or crate.  After five or ten minutes, take him back outside for another opportunity, going out the same door, to the same spot, and give him a command to potty.  Mom uses “get busy” to pee and “big busy” for poop.

If he continues having accidents in the house, he has lost his privilege to roam the house freely.  Remember Potty Training Rule #1: If you cannot physically keep your eye on the dog while he is in the house, he must be put in his confined area.  He must also wear a leash so that when you catch him soiling, you can say NO very sternly and take him immediately outside to his potty spot.  You must catch him in the act of soiling or you cannot correct it.  It is also important to note that you should never allow your dog to see you clean up his mess.  Speaking of cleaning, use Simple Solution, or something like it, to completely eliminate the odor from his past indiscretions in the house.

As with all training, you must be consistent with this until you have successfully eliminated accidents inside.

Recently, I got an e-mail from a concerned pet parent about some interestingly-named pups.  Bae-Bae and Blue are a new addition and almost an angel, respectively, so we are going to focus on Cartman and Butters.  Cartman is still very much an immature puppy. Though he seems to be potty-trained when out of the crate, but he will poop and pee in it, sometimes plopping down right in it.  Though he is going outside for potty breaks more frequently, he is not “getting busy” during  the extra trips outside.  Butters is a little older, and he has started marking in the house, sometimes pooping, so he is certainly not what I would call “house trained.”  His mom never catches him pooping, finding his little “prizes” long after he has left them, but she can sometimes catch him marking territory.  Butters can also be quite aggressive with outside people, and he has bitten a few people.

Photo Courtesy of Comedy Central

First things first, get those dogs neutered as soon as possible.  You are sitting on a powder keg of testosterone among the three pups, and I would not want to be around when it explodes!  You should also have Bae-Bae spayed soon after she is old enough.  I know that it can be expensive to get your dog fixed, but it is certainly worth not bringing any puppies into a world with so many puppies in need of homes.  You will also see a tremendous change in behavior in your boys.

Butters is the one that concerns me the most.  We need to establish the hierarchy in this pack.  Humans should be the ultimate alphas, and that certainly is not the case.  Being the ultimate alpha, you must never show any form of submission.  You should never allow any of the dogs see you cleaning up their waste, because that is a job reserved for the lowest members in the pack.  Following this rule, you will start down the right road with both Butters and Cartman on the .

The next thing to do is to follow Mom’s #1 training rule: YOU CANNOT TRAIN WHAT YOUR CANNOT CONTROL!  To do this, you will need to put a six foot non-retractable leash on each dog anytime they are outside of the crate.  If you find that you have a problem with leash-chewing, spray them with Bitter Apple, or something equally heinous in taste.  It is also imperative that they be put in a confined place, like their crates, if you cannot physically keep your eyes on each of them.  Roaming free in the house is a privilege that must be earned, and that privilege is lost when they soil the house, be it marking or otherwise.

Remember, you cannot correct a dog for misbehavior, unless you catch him in the act.  you cannot correct it.  What I mean is, if you find waste on the floor, you need to ask, “Where was I when the dog did this?”  If you have to ask yourself that question, YOU are at fault for not keeping an eye on your dog.  If you do catch your dog soiling, you must say a very stern “NO” and take the dog to his outside potty spot.  If your dog runs in the opposite direction, all you have to do is step on his leash.  BINGO! You are back in charge.  If you stick to the advice above,  there should not be any reason that you cannot stop this behavior.

Why does he run to the crate?  Butters’ mom stated that he knows he has done wrong, but he actually does not know that what he did was wrong.  What he DOES know is that marking territory, soiling in the house, or hiding his poop and waiting for you to find it is a fun game to play. You follow him to his crate, and you pay attention to him.  Dogs do not care what kind of attention we get.  Even negative attention, like screaming at him, is okay.  To us, negative attention is almost as good as positive attention.  What is it that Butters gets for all his hard work?  ATTENTION.

Your pack order should go like this: YOU, Butters (alpha dog), and Blue will be the omega.  Bae-Bae and Cartman will work out the “second in command” position.  In fact, they may make it so that one holds it one day and the other the next.  The only position you need to worry about is the alpha position.  As the alpha, Butters should be greeted first, fed first, and “treated” first.  By treating Butters special, you are sending a sending a message to the others that HE is the alpha dog, but you need to reinforce the fact that he is NOT above you.  You still need to go through the door in front of Butters, eat in front of him (without sharing), and ignore him when he demands attention.  Remember, YOU are the ultimate alpha, and everything is up to YOU!

As for Cartman, he thinks that it is his job to “get busy” in the crate.  Since he has done it before, you have probably cleaned his crate in front of him, and you probably talked to him while you cleaned.  What did that teach Cartman?  If he soils the crate, he gets attention from you.  Cartman’s view of these actions are that you enjoyed them so much, it is his job to keep doing it.

The first thing that you should do with Cartman is to reduce the size of his crate.  He needs only enough room to stand up and turn around.  There should be no blankets or bedding of any sort in there with him.  When he stops soiling his crate, he has earned having a blanket.  Until then, you should clean his crate with Simple Solution, a cleaning solution that truly removes the odor of a dog’s mess.  It goes without saying that you should clean the crate outside of his presence.

I also suggest that you feed your dogs a “premium” dog food.  I know it costs more, but there are numerous benefits that outweigh that slight difference in cost.  For one, the dogs will need less of it to satisfy them, so they will not expel as much waste.

The neutering of your male dogs should be your top priority, as it will result in some serious behavioral changes nearly immediately.  Since it is obvious that neither Butters nor Cartman is fully potty trained, your first training focus should be correcting that.  Make sure that you bookmark my Potty Training page for any issues that pop up there.

As for Butters’ aggression issues, we can talk about that once you have addressed the neutering, marking, and indoor soiling issues.  Keep me up to date on the situation.

A few days ago, a friend on Twitter suggested that I weigh in on some issues of an all around “bad dog.”  The problems described to me include growling and bearing his teeth at the family’s 10 month old son and his 6 y old cousin.  He also has some potty training issues, as well as some chewing and scratching of household objects like furniture and door jambs.

I would like to address the issue of most concern to me, and that is the relationship between the dog and the children.  I like to remind humans that dogs and children are not always a good match, especially young children.  Young children have a knack for viewing everything as a playmate or a toy.  Some children simply play too rough, even hurting the dog.  Six years old is about the right age to begin teaching a child how to play with a dog properly.  If you need some direction about teaching your children about dog safety, check out this video.

My suggestion is to never, ever leave any child alone with a dog.  Just as young children do not know how to play with a dog, dogs do not know that they cannot nip and “chew” on children the same way they can with adults.  We play rough naturally, unless we are taught the right way to play.  Since children can also play rough, neither are too good at reading each others body language to know if their pending action will hurt the other.  Typically, children use quick, jerky motions that indicate to a dog that he needs to protect himself, which is a disaster waiting to happen.

Like dogs, children like to play chase, and when they catch their prey, they get very excited.  Often, this can result in the child falling on the dog or holding him against his will.  This is a situation that the dog does not understand this, and he may react negatively to it.  If the roles reverse, it is not just a game of chase for the dog.  Because of the smaller size, he can think that he is  hunting prey.  Dogs generally catch slower “prey” and if the “prey drive switch” is flipped on, he does not care if it is a rabbit or a small child!  As we all know, children are not prey, and due to their newfound mode of transportation, toddlers are especially vulnerable.  They are still learning to walk, and they have many accidents.  We are not aware of accidents, and we do not realize that a child does not mean to do us harm.  However, we will react and not always in a good way.

Your dog needs to learn proper socialization skills with humans, especially the smaller ones.  I suggest that you place a leash on your dog to control his actions.  Remember, YOU CANNOT TRAIN WHAT YOU CANNOT CONTROL. With the leash attached, you will be able to confine him to a timeout area if he growls and shoes teeth toward any human, regardless of size or age.  Dogs are among the most social creatures on the face of the earth, and we do not like to be banished away from everything.  You should use a stern “NO” as you pick up the leash, but nothing more.  You do not want to give him any more attention for a negative action.  After a few instances, he will associate growling and showing teeth with the banishment, learning that behavior is not a “good” one.  This is not something that will be learned immediately, so you will have to repeat this until he learns.  When you are training your pup, you cannot do something once and decide it did not work.  The bulk of training is repetition.

If your dog still poops on the floor, that means he is not fully potty trained.  That is no fault of the dog, because an untrained dog is caused by a bad owner.  My suggestion in correcting this problem is to consult my potty training guide, and if you run into trouble, there are several articles to support you here.

To tackle the chewing problem, you can do two things to correct the behavior.  First, as a preventative action, you should spray Bitter Apple or something equally poor tasting on the areas where he chews.  If you opt not to spray, you cannot correct him for it, unless you catch them in the act.  Now, keep your eye on him and if you catch him chewing, give him a firm “NO” and put him in the confined area we discussed above.

Keep me posted on your progress!

Not long after publishing this article about how to combat a fear of thunderstorms and loud noises, Mom and I were contacted about trying a product specifically designed by Ceva Animal Health to combat this issue.  This Dog Appeasing Pheromone (D.A.P.) is synthetically produced in an effort to mimic a natural pheromone released by a mother dog to calm her pups to naturally control and manage erratic behavior associated with anxiety, fear and stress.

While I am not personally affected by anxiety that accompanies storms, I have a nephew, Harley, who is.  When a storm approaches his home, he hides, digs, climbs, runs, howls, and is generally a wreck until the storm passes completely.  To fully experience the effects of the D.A.P., we were sent:

1. An electric plug-in D.A.P.® Diffuser that comes with a 48 mL bottle of D.A.P.
2. A 75 mL D.A.P.® Spray bottle  that comes in a 75 ml spray bottle and can be applied directly on comfort surfaces for dogs (e.g. crate, bedding, etc.) in conjunction with the diffuser.
3. And a D.A.P.® Collar that stays with your dog, providing pheromone therapy during loud events that can cause fear and stress.

Having witnessed his behavior prior to and during storms, I had high hopes for the D.A.P. in keeping Harley calm as the spring storms rolled through.  Mom and I happened to be visiting his house the first time a thunderstorm tested Harley and his family’s new tools.  When it was apparent that the storm was imminent (and the point that he usually started to flip out), he remained completely calm, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.  The storm came, and at its peak, Harley left his normal spot and began to pace, but that was it.  There was no hiding, digging, climbing, running, or howling.

With the subsequent storms the next three weeks, Harley’s reaction was the same.  It was like he became a totally different dog when facing any stressful situation.  In addition to the tips included, as well as those discussed in the aforementioned article, this product really worked to keep him calm, but I would not recommend it without a veterinarian or behaviorist’s suggestion.  D.A.P. is available only through a veterinarian.

While I am happy to say that it works as described, the suggested retail prices of a complete package, like the one we received to try, would be pretty steep to maintain every month when you compare it to other ways to help control your dog’s behavior during the stress of thunderstorms and other loud noise events.