I did not write this but I think it is important and puts into words well what I wanted to talk about today. From Canine Evolutions on Facebook: There is a question I get asked constantly: "Bart, should I play fetch with my dog every day? He LOVES it!" And my answer is always the same: No. Especially not with working breeds like the Malinois, German Shepherd, Dutch Shepherd, or any other high-prey-drive dog, like hunting dogs, Agility dogs, etc. This answer is often met with surprise, sometimes with resistance. I get it-your dog brings you the ball, eyes bright, body full of energy, practically begging you to throw it. It feels like bonding. It feels like exercise. It feels like the right thing to do. But from a scientific, behavioral, and neurobiological perspective- it's not. In fact, it may be one of the most harmful daily habits for your dog's mental health and nervous system regulation that no one is warning you about. Let me break it down for you in detail. This will be long, but if you have a working dog, you need to understand this. Working dogs like the Malinois and German Shepherd were selected over generations for their intensity, persistence, and drive to engage in behaviors tied to the prey sequence: Working dogs like the Malinois and German Shepherd were selected over generations for their intensity, persistence, and drive to engage in behaviors tied to the prey sequence: orient, stalk, chase, grab, bite, kill. In their role as police, protection, herding, or military dogs, these genetically encoded motor patterns are partially utilized- but directed toward human-defined tasks. Fetch is an artificial mimicry of this prey sequence. - Ball = prey - Throwing = movement stimulus - Chase = reinforcement - Grab and return = closure and Reward - Reinforecment again. Every time you throw that ball, you're not just giving your dog "exercise." You are triggering an evolutionary motor pattern that was designed to result in the death of prey. But here's the twist:

This week I wanted to talk about nutrition in our dogs and how they might affect how they behave. Granted there is no diet out there that can train your dog for you but the quality of nutrition that your dog takes in can make training easier or harder. A few months ago, I was looking for treats for my youngest dog since the dehydrated chicken hearts were way to high value for him and what I wanted to achieve with him (he lost interest in his toy which I have since repaired. I can do a post on that as well if you would like.) When I was at the pet store I was reading the ingredients and was so surprised at how many had sugar in it! Whether it was brown sugar or molasses the options that did not have some form of sugar in their recipe was so small. I ended up going with a big bag of food toppers with quality ingredients which are tasty (I assume) but also boring enough I think that they would not be too arousing. Sugar in diets doesn’t just stop with treats I have also seen it in commercial dog food as well and high quality brands at that. Many brands have multiple lines to address different needs which usually includes: a basic line, limited ingredient line, diet line and a high protein line. Each recipe, of course, is different from each other so don’t assume that just because one doesn’t have an ingredient that you should avoid that they all do. Be very diligent and check often, even on bags you have been buying for a while, since companies do change recipes without informing their consumers sometimes. Another thing to watch out for is when the protein isn’t specific as to what animal it comes from plus if it is whole protein or protein meal. Whole protein is weighed before it is cooked and protein meal is when there isn’t any moisture therefore protein meals are usually more nutrient dense. This way there is more protein concentration per pound with meals versus the whole protein. Additionally quality omega-3 fatty acids are very important for good brain health and for combating inflammation. This may have to be supplemented in and from what I understand dogs process omegas differently than humans so a canine formulated formula would be best. Typically, you need a much higher dose of the human version to give the dog what they need. Also, if your dog has allergies there are many different sources for omegas such as salmon, pollock and even a DHA vegetarian/algae base omega 3 source.

When it comes to training your dog whether it is for detection, social skills or predation substitution there may come a time where training just seems to stagnate. Depending on what you are working on and what your goal is this may not be a bad thing per se but generally speaking we want our dogs to be their best and that means challenging them. Challenging our dogs, so they have the chance to improve and learn new skills, must be done strategically. It is important to have a strong foundation for what you need as well, that way, if the challenge is too difficult, your dog has a practiced and approved skill to fall back on. If this occurs just reevaluate and adjust in a way to ensure your dog is successful. Often times this includes setting up the problem different entirely or breaking it down into smaller steps. The other benefit of a strong foundation is that if your dog were to “fail” at the challenge then they are less likely to “fall apart” when the intended end goal is not met. Some suggestions for getting out of the plateau and on to progress would be to try a new area, different time of day, different reward, change the distance or even take some time off and, within reason, allow your dog and yourself to just go somewhere and exist. While dogs are constantly learning, this is true, they also need time to enjoy being outside, going out and just going on a sniffari. Obviously if your dog has a trigger that really gets them I would suggest avoiding areas that contain that trigger as best you can that way you and your dog can enjoy being outside together with very little pressure to perform. If this needs to be done in multiple short sessions throughout the day/week that is ok. What are some things that you have done when you notice training starting to plateau? Feel free to share so we may learn from each other!

Wondering what brand earmuffs you use for your dogs. A woman in my dog club is trying to find something to promote for Dog Assistance over July 4. Thank you in advance.

When people imagine what having a dog is like most times it is the glorified and romantic version that enters people’s heads. This can be due to meeting mostly well behaved dogs through friends and family and perhaps the only dog a person has had was their family dog growing up. Due to this they did not experience the full grasp of what being responsible for another living creature is like. Another big inspiration for wanting a dog is the movies: 101 Dalmatians, Homeward Bound, Turner and Hooch, Lassie, Benji or Rescued by Ruby just to name a few. Many times movies like these will get people interested in a certain breed without ever doing their research on whether or not this breed is right for them. If this happens to be the case the dog may end up displaying some behavioral issues that the family cannot handle anymore and off to the shelter they go. It is a sad and unfortunate reality for some very good dogs who are just misunderstood and not in the right environment. Do not fret this is not a doom and gloom post. As much as it is a sad reality it does also show the other side of people which are those who step up for these misunderstood and cast aside dogs (and other animals) which is a beautiful thing to see. There are also some working groups who rescue these “high energy” and “out of control” dogs and give them a purpose which is what they were bred for in the first place! I say all of this to mention that it is so vitally important to understand what type of dog you have that way you can approach them as understanding as possible. That way you can understand them for the individual that they are. Not every high energy dog likes to play fetch with a tennis ball and even some high energy dog will not do a gosh darn thing for you for a treat. This is where doing a reward selection, even once every month or as needed, especially for puppies, can really maximize the joy of playing the game of detection for your dog. A quick example would be that when Chiron K9 first acquired Csili her reward with the other party was either a KONG or ChuckIt ball and through reward selection I have found out that she actually really enjoys playing tug and in particular with a fuzzy tug (NOT a rope tug). Her long standing favorite at the minute are the tugs from OneFitK9 who I found on Etsy (great place for unique dog toys) but they do also have their own website.