Christie Catan 8/31/21 Christie Catan 8/31/21

Ideas For Getting Started With Recall in Dog Training

When it comes to recall, in dog training it’s a topic that can strike fear, joy, and pride in people’s hearts! Truth: It can take years to really solidify recall (e.g. your dog comes to you when called) and it requires a lot of (systematic) training. In this guide, we share simple things you can do right now in everyday life to improve your dog’s recall and troubleshoot your training (note: there is much more that goes into recall, but these tips are easy and will help).

Some Simple Tips To Get Started With Recall in Dog Training

Capture attention: While this phrase may sound mysterious, it is quite simple in practice! When your dog chooses to look at you (aka you aren’t asking them to), mark that exact moment (e.g. say “yes”) and then reinforce them (e.g. give them a treat). In the video above, you will notice that it actually looks a whole lot like recall -- just without the actual recall cue (“come”). This lets you start to build a reinforcement history for orienting and moving to you (hey, that is what you need for recall!).
Warm up with easy recalls! If your first recall of the outing is when you dog is 20 yards away rolling in poop, you are asking a lot of them. Try doing a few quick recalls out of the gate when they are close to you and not really distracted! Set them up for success early and help them remember that reinforcement history.
Mark the moment your dog flips around to you (rather than waiting until they come all the way to you). The first piece of the recall behavior is turning to orient to you!
Be intentional with WHEN you say “come.” If your dog is an intense sniffer, try waiting for them to disengage from that scent just a little bit before you recall. If your dog is rolling in poop, maybe you just have to accept the bath that’s coming and recall in one of the moments when they stand up. If you constantly use the recall cue when they aren’t able to respond, the cue can actually become irrelevant to them (it is an actual science thing that happens!).
Use higher value treats! Often, we just aren’t using something that is actually reinforcing! Your dog decides what is reinforcing - not you. The only way to know if you are actually reinforcing the behavior is if you see more of it. If recall isn’t increasing, the reinforcer isn’t strong enough.

Watch What Happens When I Recall My Dogs off of a Deer

This video above is from a recent encounter with deer on our trail walk.

Here’s what we observe in the video:

Is this video perfect? No. But there’s a whole lot to celebrate. So I’ll celebrate, and take notes about the things we can keep working on. Sully’s (little dog) recall is not as good as my other dog, Otis’s. Sully only gets to be off leash sometimes. I am intentional about finding empty trails and make sure she seems like she is able to respond to me on that day before I unclip her lead. I ALWAYS have something high value if I let Sully off leash, & I immediately do an easy recall after unclipping her to make sure she knows I have the good stuff. I’d done all of those things on the day of this video.
When we ran into a family of deer and I saw my dogs start to chase, I actually only recalled Otis. Why? I didn’t think Sully could recall at that moment, so why teach her that my cue is irrelevant. Otis recalls quickly, which I expected but that still makes me happy. He has a strong chase instinct, so we’ve worked HARD on being able to recall out of chase (we’ve worked for years on this in a variety of ways).
What I like even more is that I didn’t have to ask him to hang near me after the recall - he just did! There is plenty that went into that behavior, but it's a story for another time.
When I saw Sully paused instead of disappearing into the woods (🤯), I tried recalling her. I had to help her out by repeating her name, but given the conditions, I will take it!
Sully used to never even eat outside, much less look at us. Simple, imperfect, but still awesome moments like this have years of work behind them and lots of pre-unclipping-the-leash prep that make them possible.

Troubleshooting: What To Do if Your Dog Doesn’t Come When Called

Let’s chat about what happens in real life when your dog doesn’t respond to your recall cue. If your dog is like Sully, they may return to you two minutes after you call them covered in poop! What do you do?!

Here are some ideas to get started with troubleshooting:

Remember, your dog isn’t giving you the metaphorical middle finger (even if it feels like it). They’re behaving based on their genetics and learning history.
When you unclip their leash, you’re making an agreement to hold yourself accountable for whatever happens (not your dog). Unclipping the leash means you’re comfortable that your dog can realistically offer the behaviors you need in those conditions, or you’re in a safe environment where you’re okay with the consequences if they can’t.
Pause and think about whether you want to use (or repeat) your recall cue. If you don’t think it is realistic for your dog to respond, don’t use it (or repeat it) because you’ll just teach them that it’s irrelevant.
Just wait. (Depending on your dog and the situation, you may actually want to run away from them.)
As they move towards you, talk to them in a happy voice! Even if you’re saying “you naughty little thing, I can smell you from here,” say it in the voice/tone you praise them with! A “come OR ELSE” tone isn’t inviting.
When they do show up, keep praising them (or at least talking in a happy tone) and give them a treat!

If you are wondering iwhy I would reinforce Sully for “ignoring me and rolling in poop,” (in the video above) it’s important to recognize that isn’t the behavior we’re really looking at. She already made the choice to ignore my cue and go find the poop (a choice which has ALREADY been reinforced by getting to roll in it) -- that ship has sailed. If I were to scold her when she showed up, the behavior that I’d most likely punish is walking towards me. That’s definitely not what I want. So I remember the agreement I made when I unclipped. Then I talk happily, give a treat, and plan a training session to work on the recall gap I just found.

When You Recall Your Dog, Are They Coming Just Because You Asked

When you call “come” out to your dog and they run to you, did they come just because you taught them to listen to you? We thought it might be fun to peek under the hood of what goes on when we “ask our dogs to do things” (believe us, this is the smallest peek under the hood possible -- behavior is a complex topic LOL).

Let's look at these things we call “cues.” Some people call them commands -- we don’t for a number of a reasons, but we aren’t gonna get distracted by that shiny object right now 🤣. Have you ever heard someone say, “I said sit, so my dog should sit.” Why should saying “sit” lead to your dog sitting? What should your dog do if you say “pancake”? Or “starfish”? Perhaps you’re thinking that your dog doesn’t know what those words mean but does know what “sit” means. If we’re in the behavioral level of analysis, the meaning of words is a funny thing. What does it look like when your dog “knows what a word means”? And even if we say your dog “knows what a word means,” why would that lead to a specific behavior? If this feels like a jumbled mess, you’ll be glad to know we’re about to untangle it!

According to Dr. Susan Friedman, a cue is an “antecedent stimulus that signals the availability of reinforcement, contingent on the appropriate behavior.” A cue does not tell your dog to do something (per se). A cue tells your dog that a reinforcer is now available IF they do a specific behavior. in other words, a cue tells them that a behavior-consequence contingency is now in play.

So if the cue is not what’s “getting them” to do the behavior, what is?! Past consequences for performing that behavior in those conditions! This is why people say “reinforcement drives behavior.” If you want to understand current behavior, look at past consequences (in those conditions).

Why Breaking Down Recall Into Components Can Help You Strengthen It

The recall end goal for many people is likely that their dog runs to them and stations (hangs out). But did you know recall is actually multiple behaviors linked together that occur after a single cue (e.g. “come”)? Thinking about those components is quite helpful because we can train the parts separately and then chain them all together! And for a bit of nuance, even as your dog’s recall strengthens, you may choose to lower criteria by only looking for the first part of the recall behavior if the environment is really tough!

Recall takes consistent work. There are so many recall games you can play, and even within those games, you can adjust which component of behavior you focus on. I can play the same cookie tossing pattern game and mark and toss the moment my dog turns to me or mark and toss when they get all the way to me -- two very different things. I find getting a super strong whip around when my dog hears the cue to be incredibly helpful to the larger recall behavior, so I spend a fair bit of time there! When you intro tougher distractions in training, marking for just turning away from the distraction can set your dog up for future success!

The conditions you recall your dog in change. Asking your dog to come from ten feet away in your living room vs. asking them to come (when you’re 40 yards away) as they’re chasing their dog friends are two wildly different asks. For harder recalls (they could be harder for any number of reasons), I tend to mark earlier in the recall chain and use my reinforcers to bring them the rest of the way in.

There is SO much more we could get into, but we’re going to leave it here. We will keep adding to this little recall guide from time to time and we hope that it’s helpful!

Christie Catan 8/31/21 Christie Catan 8/31/21

Getting Started With Cooperative Care in Dog Training

When you watch a video of cooperative care in action (aka a dog calmly opting in to getting their ears cleaned by sitting on a mat first), it can be easy to think, “That is amazing but my dog would never do that.” Maybe you aren’t practicing cooperative care as much as other members of our #TOCFam, but you can 100% incorporate some cooperative care and start buttons into your life and reduce a lot of stress for you and your dog!

Cooperative care is not just kind but also extremely effective. If you give your dog a choice to opt out of something (and reward them for it), they actually opt in more! Why? ✨Control is a primary reinforcer for behavior✨ just like food, water, shelter, etc. When we give our dogs choice, it actually helps us get the behavior we want faster (in addition to being humane). Keep scrolling for more ideas for starting to simplify your life with your dog through cooperative care.

Getting Started With Cooperative Care For Grooming

For a lot of dogs, grooming is a part of life. But it doesn’t have to be stressful -- for you or your dog! One of the best ways to make grooming easier is to use a start button behavior (or consent behavior), which is essentially a way for your dog to give consent.

Recently we shared the video above featuring Moose, a four month old puppy -- not some experienced adult dog! Cooperative care can look fancy, but don’t let that intimidate you. You can work to build this type of cooperation with any dog!

Moose’s start button/consent behavior is a chin rest on the chair. Nobody cues him to do this behavior; instead, this is something he offers. He understands that if he puts his chin on the chair, it will lead to grooming and then treats because that is the association that was made for him. Perhaps most importantly, he doesn’t feel forced into doing a chin rest. He gets a treat for saying no too! How does he say no? By not giving a clear, enthusiastic yes! If you watch closely at the end of the video, you will spot how rewarding his pause (his “no”), leads to a very fast yes right after.

Note: Moose may be young here, but he understands how start buttons work since they have been incorporated into his training since the moment he came home at nine weeks. He also already had a trained chin rest behavior (PS: You can train your dog to do a chin rest in the Tails of Connection Challenge), so this setup made chin rest a likely behavior for him to offer. Our hope is that this video gives you some ideas or gets you curious about incorporating start buttons!

The Magic of Giving Your Dog Control Through Start Buttons

Recently we shared a start button story on Instagram that got a lot of interest, so we put together the video in the post above as a fun way to show the magic of giving your dog control. This isn’t a demo or tutorial, but it shows some cool behavior naturally evolving!

Here’s a play by play of what we featured in the various clips:

Clip One: A few weeks ago, we shared this same clip in our stories of a desensitization session Christie was doing with one of her dogs, Otis, and a suitcase. Otis is fine with suitcases in general, but she wanted to get him comfortable walking beside a rolling one (for future travel). She used a nose target as a start button to roll the suitcase (aka she only rolls the suitcase after he targets her hand). What happened was kind of fun to see: he naturally started offering a different behavior as a way to say “don’t roll the suitcase.” He would look away when he didn’t want the suitcase rolled (and then look back at Christie because he knows that “no’s” get rewarded too!) and boop her hand when he was ready for her to roll it. This session told Christie really quickly that he didn’t feel great about her moving the suitcase, so she stopped (and took a few steps back in our training).
Clip Two: Some of you asked how a start button might evolve naturally (as opposed to the “don’t start button” that Otis showed with the suitcase). This clip shows a start button naturally evolving while bringing clippers out with one of Christie’s dogs, Sully. Here the start button behavior is a paw raise.
Clip Three: This clip shows a start button for bringing nail clippers out naturally evolving with Otis. His behavior is super subtle -- sticking his tongue out!

These clips show how quickly dogs learn the consequences of their behavior. With that understanding, they have the ability to opt in or out of things by simply offering or not offering a behavior. This rocks because it allows us to get a real glimpse into HOW THEY FEEL about something. Whether you are using a trained start button behavior or letting one naturally evolve, empowering your dog is a cool thing to do! We’re using pieces of a process from Emelie Johnson Vegh and Eva Bertilsson of Carpe Momentum on developing start buttons in clips two and three.

Getting Started With Tooth Brushing Through Cooperative Care

Have you ever thought about the behaviors that your dog need stop be able to do in order for you to brush their teeth? Standing still is the main one (though you could certainly break this down more). What about the behaviors that you will need to do in order to brush their teeth? This depends on how you go about it, but here are a few: Bend over, reach towards their face, touch their face, lift their mouth, pick up toothbrush, put toothpaste on toothbrush, bring toothbrush towards their face, touch toothbrush to their teeth, move your arm back and forth to brush their teeth, etc.

We have to thank the incredible Laura Monaco Torelli for really helping us think more about all of human behavior (Christie was lucky enough to get mentored by her)! By thinking about human behavior, we know how to split criteria better (aka break “brushing my dog’s teeth” down into smaller component parts).

Here’s a breakdown of the play-by-play in the video featured above:

Otis and Christie have a solid dialogue going that they built up over time. He has full control over whether or not he stations in front of her (and Christie will only begin my behavior if he stations), so his behavior in this framework gives her LOADS of info.
She’s only doing small components of the teeth brushing behavior.
Her reinforcement involves increasing distance from her (to relieve any pressure he may have felt and give him a choice to opt back in).
She threw in some fun, easy behaviors.
The entire session was five click points. Super short.

Some Takeaways (apply them to more than just teeth!):

We can usually break our training down MUCH more than we think. Try listing out every single tiny thing you (or whomever else) will do to train. That gives you ideas about how to split criteria in your training.
It’s okay for your training not to look perfectly linear. Is touching the toothbrush to Otis’s back an actual step Christie will take when she brushes his teeth for real? No. But it gives Otis information in a less intrusive way. (By the way, there are lots of other things Christie does, but she budgeted only five click points for this session.)
Laura Monaco Torelli is next level good at this stuff (she makes this look so smooth when she does it with wild animals). She is a great person to learn from

Karishma Warr 8/31/21 Karishma Warr 8/31/21

Pandemic Puppies: Training Tips and Tricks

We are so honored to introduce our first ever Expert in Residence for our Show & Tell series. Meet Karishma Warr (they/them) who is here to share all sorts of training tips and tricks for your PANDEMIC PUPPIES! As the head of training and behavior at Calm Canine Academy, Karishma is a certified professional dog trainer specializing in treating complex behavior concerns in an urban environment. Keep scrolling for all of Karishma’s amazing content from their Show & Tell residency with TOC!

How To Think About Your Pandemic Puppy’s Routine

So you just got a pandemic puppy?! YAY! What comes next?! Did you know that with a young puppy, it can be helpful to stick to a predictable schedule that meets their biological needs and encourages healthy behavioral habits? There's no single playbook when it comes to scheduling every dog - what your dog's day looks like depends on breed, age, location, resources etc. We encourage you to think about “The Puppy Triangle” when organizing your day with them. As your puppy gets older, they tend to spend less time resting, and have longer periods of activity and enrichment. Potty training and feeding take place within this schedule as needed!

The Puppy Triangle

1: ACTIVITY
When your puppy wakes up from sleep or from a nap they will need to go straight to potty before engaging in an activity that meets their needs, and builds the skills they need.
2: ENRICHMENT
After a period of activity and the chance to use the bathroom, we often give puppies a little 'project' to work on. It frequently involves food of some kind, but the idea is to give your puppy some time to do their own thing, use their brains, and settle themselves down after a period of activity. You can use their allocated daily calories in enrichment toys, or you can simply let your pup sniff around, self play or chew on a bone. Many people will choose to have their puppies in their puppy pens, gated into a room, or tethered to a heavy piece of furniture to keep them in their sight and help condition containment systems.
3: REST
Did you know that puppies under five months need 18 to 20 hours of sleep PER DAY? With all of us home 24/7 it can be hard to not interact with your puppy all the time, but lack of proper rest can lead to increased mouthing, whining, barking, and hyperactivity - which is NOT cute when you're on an important Zoom call! After their needs are met through activity and enrichment - and they've had a chance to use the bathroom - puppies must be given time in their puppy pen or crate with a white noise machine to rest and recuperate before it all starts again!

Five Training Ideas to Help Socialize Your Pandemic Puppy Indoors

Many of us are struggling to get our pandemic puppies out and about due to COVID restrictions. However we can do a lot at home to get them comfortable and ready for life post pandemic.

1. CONFINEMENT
Conditioning your dog to confinement systems like crates or puppy pens can help set them up for success when you start to practice leaving them alone in preparation for returning to work or other life obligations!

2. OBJECTS AND SURFACES
To build confidence and prepare them for the unpredictable human world, you can work on new surface and object acclamation. You can use items like exercise equipment, kitchen tools, furniture, couch cushions, vacuums and more! Pairing these items with food, play and attention can help puppies learn that objects that move strangely and look a little bit odd are nothing to be feared.

3. SOUNDS
Acclimate and habituate your dog to new sounds that they will be expected to deal with when the world returns to normal. Plays sounds like sirens, motorcycles, children, dogs barking, construction noise, thunder, fireworks, etc. at a low volume on your phone or speaker and pay them with primary reinforcers like food, play, and praise.

4. HANDLING
Your pups will be expected to tolerate being touched, inspected, injected, brushed, washed, and wiped, which can be very challenging for young puppies and can lead to a lot of nipping. By pairing these things with high-value food like cream cheese and hot dogs, we can start to teach them that it’s nothing to fear!

5. TRAINING
If you want your pups to be able to walk on a loose leash, give you attention, and settle in busy urban environments, at parties, and around people and dogs, training starts indoors. This video shows me playing a fun walking game with my dog around my house! Definitely enroll in an online puppy class or work with a certified trainer to get your pup the skills they need in a low distraction environment before returning to a busy post-pandemic world. BTW Calm Canine Academy offers The Puppy Program, which is a LIVE four-week digital puppy raising course!

Training Tips and Tricks for Prepping Pandemic Puppies for Alone Time

When it comes to preparing our puppies for post pandemic alone time, the biggest advice we can give is to START NOW! Start helping your pup adjust to solo time weeks or even months before a significant absence - aka returning to the office. You’ll do this through a systematic desensitization process - aka slowly exposing your pups to the experience of being home alone in small increments that they can handle without panicking.

For many dogs this starts with simply stepping out of the door for one second, building up to two seconds, then five seconds, then one minute over a series of days. Those minutes will become hours with systematic daily practice, but we are often talking a matter of months not weeks for some pups to get truly comfortable with regular long periods of alone time.

To ensure our pups are always comfortable with our incremental absences it’s vital that we set up a camera or viewing system of some sort to observe and document their behavior. That way, if you have built up to two minutes of alone time, you can watch your pup through your camera and be sure to come back BEFORE you see signs of panic. This teaches your pup that absences are SAFE and that you'll never leave them for longer than they can handle.

Important management tip: While our puppies are still learning to be comfortable when left alone we need to avoid letting them cry it out! Imagine someone who’s afraid of water being pushed in the deep end of a pool - that might actually make them MORE nervous to be around a pool in the future! Well that's what it can feel like to many pups who are 'thrown in the deep end' with regards to isolation. It’s vital we take it at their pace, knowing that's the only way to truly get them safe and avoid sensitization.

For many the thought of breaking down a four hour absence into seconds and putting in place a systematic desensitization protocol seems overwhelming and that's where the professionals come in. We HIGHLY recommend reaching out to a CSAT (certified separation anxiety trainer) to get the coaching and support you need to successfully see improvement with this challenging behavior.

For many more training tips and tricks for pandemic puppies, check out this live interview we did with Karishma on Instagram.

Jessica Yergin 8/19/21 Jessica Yergin 8/19/21

How Training Your Dog Is Like Practicing for Carnegie Hall

Looking back, it’s hard to believe I spent so much of my life devoted to furiously tapping my fingers on a sterling silver cylinder. All I seemed to think about for the better part of twenty years were things like vibrato, staccato, and legato. Yes it's true, I'm a recovering semi-professional flute player.

During college, my stomach knotted with shame and guilt when I didn't practice the flute for at least five hours a day. Up until about a month ago, I couldn’t remember the last time I picked up a flute, let alone felt remorse for not memorizing Mozart’s Flute Concerto in D Major. This summer my sister-in-law asked me to play at her wedding, and after a ten year hiatus, I dusted off my flute to serenade her guests. Preparing for that “comeback performance” was the context I needed to finally have the breakthrough I’d been seeking in a different activity: training my anxious and extremely high-energy dog, Stanley.

Why I Wish I Could Have a Training Do-Over With My Pandemic Puppy

Stanley is the first dog I’ve raised as an adult. He opens drawers in our house for fun, so he definitely keeps me on my toes! Photo Credit: Juliana DeWillems

I should start by saying that Stanley, who has a face like a black and white cookie, is a 35-pound mini-sheepadoodle (a cross between an Old English Sheepdog and a Miniature Poodle). From the beginning, he struggled with health issues and was incredibly nippy. He would corner my husband Alex and jump and bite him playfully, sometimes breaking the skin. He was also very reactive to noises and cars, dangerously lunging and barking at them when we were walking down the street. And then around the house, we felt like we couldn't trust him. He would routinely open drawers, paw at doors, or steal human things like socks to run around with. When we finally had to crate him because we weren’t able to watch him constantly, he would demand to leave by barking endlessly.

Alex and I spent months working with Stanley and some very wonderful and patient virtual and in-person dog trainers. Still, we were at a breaking point. We trained him for three meals a day, hiked with him on an extremely long leash (called a long line*, which is designed to give him freedom to explore and sniff) and gave him puzzle toys (to make eating his food a brain teaser). Yet, he still felt like such a hard dog.

How a Daily Training Method Helped Us Find a Breakthrough

Even though Stanley is extremely high-energy, he is incredibly affectionate. He wakes Alex and I up with kisses every morning and he cuddles next to us in bed all night. Photo Credit: Juliana DeWillems.

As the co-founder of an online dog-training community, I was embarrassed that I was failing miserably at training my own dog. At that point, my co-founder, Christie Catan, suggested that I reach out to Pet Harmony to work with one of their owners, Emily Strong. Emily is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) and a Shelter Behavior Affiliate (SBA) and she co-authored the book Canine Enrichment for the Real World. So we threw a Hail Mary and signed up for 20 back-to-back, hour-long dog-training sessions (through something called the “Intensive Behavior Package”). Over a period of several weeks, we hoped Emily could help make our life with Stanley more manageable.

When we met Emily over Zoom, much to our surprise she explained that Stanley would not be part of our lessons. Instead she listened patiently to all of the daily problems we had with him, and gave us bite-sized exercises in a very organized spreadsheet to help us start to find solutions.

So we started training each day in very short sessions (a few minutes here and there) where we covered many different things. Each night Emily would review our progress, holding us accountable. Slowly and much to our surprise and delight, Stanley started to transform.

How Classical Music Helped Me Train My Dog

One day, halfway into our sessions, Emily told us about her former career as a music journalist and that she had studied piano in college. The coincidence of our similar backgrounds (I also studied classical music and worked in journalism) got me thinking about how a person’s experience as a musician could translate to the practice of training dogs.

It was around the same time that I was suddenly preparing to play in the wedding. During my practice sessions, I reflected a lot on practicing the flute growing up. I remembered starting every morning playing what seemed like endless scales (little pattern exercises to get your fingers moving in coordination with your mouth and tongue). Then I would move onto what’s called long tone exercises where I literally played a single note for what felt like forever. Next I would play these technical exercises called etudes that almost felt like mini pieces to perform, usually with something tricky for your fingers to figure out. And at the end, I would work on the repertoire I was actually planning to perform in the orchestra or for a solo recital or an audition. But that didn't typically mean I would play the entire solo or piece all the way through. Oftentimes I would focus on small sections or measures, working on a particularly difficult spot that was tripping me up.

When my sister-in-law asked me to play the flute at her wedding (pictured here), I was initially reluctant because I hadn’t really practiced, let alone performed, in ten years. I reached out to my college flute professor, Linda Chesis, for advice. She encouraged me to do it, writing, “It may not be perfect, but it will be heartfelt and that’s what counts!” Photo Credit: Zofia Crosby.

And after all that, when I finally strung all of the measures together in a performance, when I was so nervous my fingers were shaking and my knees were knocking, my muscle memory would kick in and it would all just work.

With only a week to prepare for the performance this summer, I didn’t have the same time to be as methodical. However, in the the famous flute solo that I selected - Concertino by Cecile Chaminade, I did break down the phrases that were tripping me up into small chunks. Rehearsing those small sections of a few notes at a time really helped me pull off the performance.

Before we met Emily, Alex and I were convinced that we should see results with Stanley because we trained him every day, but we didn’t realize that we weren’t breaking things down into small enough pieces for him to be successful. So, when we started training Stanley to do a variety of things, and with Emily’s guidance, our daily training routine began to take shape.

We told Emily that a major goal of ours was to have Stanley relax on his own in the house when we were working during the day. As a result, she had us work on the tiny steps it would take to achieve what was actually a quite complex goal. For example, we began spending a few minutes each day training him to rest on his bed, using something called the Relaxation Protocol. When he got up and decided he was done with training, we'd move onto one minute of muzzle training, with the eventual goal that he could wear a muzzle in our yard and sniff and explore on his own to relax, but not eat everything in sight (he has a sensitive stomach and is a little goat!). After that we would practice crate training for a few minutes, so he’d eventually have another place to relax - especially when we’re not home.

Methodical Training in Music and With Dogs Requires Intense Dedication and Focus

The part of flute playing that really challenged me was when I had to dig into my right brain and think of the entire piece I was playing. When something was very hard to play, I was fixated on what my fingers and mouth technically had to do just to get by (left brain). But in the end, the most important thing was the story I told with each phrase and if that made sense in the context of the overall piece. Telling a cohesive story with a performance is what makes it memorable and special. In an orchestra that got even trickier, since I had to work with other musicians and the conductor and fit my artistic vision into theirs.

The thing is dog training is a lot like that. How can Stanley be expected to perform a recital (walk on a crowded city street or "behave" aka relax for hours when we have people over) without rehearsing in a methodical way? I got Stanley and thought that training him to settle or rest quietly at home would help him perform when visiting my in-laws’ house. Somehow in the process I forgot that practicing the flute in a basement dormitory practice room that smells like mold did not mean I would be able to perform just as well in Carnegie Hall. Not only did I need to practice settling with him in all sorts of environments, I also needed to break settling way down into tiny steps in those different locations to help him be successful. Dogs have emotions and need to learn and practice to perform in different settings just like we do.

At the same time, training a dog and practicing the flute at a very high level requires enormous patience and persistence. Alex admittedly has never done something this methodical and I find him still wanting results much faster. As a result, I still take on most of the daily training. Although at Emily’s urging I’ve started prompting Alex to remember what Emily’s taught us and to keep treats on him at all times (Emily had us buy some nifty treat aprons for the house on Amazon).*

Today I have a lot more empathy for Stanley and for myself as his primary handler. While we haven't quite worked our way up to performing Rachmaninoff, every day our baby steps add up into small signs of progress. I've learned to celebrate the imperfections too (like when he ignores me and plops down at a stranger's feet to demand belly rubs), because those are the little details that make his performance special.

*[Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.]

Christie Catan 8/12/21 Christie Catan 8/12/21

Ideas for Getting Started With Loose Leash Walking Training

Loose leash walking (LLW) can be a really tough behavior to teach your dog. It can honestly even take years of daily work to get your dog to choose to engage with you on a leash because the world around them is SO fascinating. That’s why we put together this little guide of all of our favorite ideas for ways to train our dogs to walk on a loose leash.

Why Is Loose Leash Walking Such a Hard Behavior To Train?

Once dogs get past a certain puppy age, they tend to walk faster than humans. Beyond that, the world out there is filled with lots of amazing things (smells, social interactions, things to chase, etc.). Heck, for most dogs, forward movement itself is reinforcing! Dogs are skillful learners, so if they pull right before they get to air scent or pull as they take a step forward, guess what gets reinforced? Pulling! It has a way of building a big reinforcement history really quickly as the behavior that works to access all the awesome things they enjoy outside.

Recently we worked with Lance (featured in the video above), a 10-month old and 125-pound Great Pyreneese. Lance pulls to say hi to people (because he adores them) and to sniff things on his walks. When a dog that size pulls, simply trying to “not move” isn’t going to work (though it doesn’t work super well for a lot of dogs -- even those under 125 pounds - because the human body is bendy, so often the pulling still gets dogs a few inches as their human’s shoulder moves in its socket).

We worked with Lance on choosing to walk with his human around his yard. His reinforcement was a treat in the grass, which means he got to sniff too! And what got him access to the reinforcer? Choosing to walk by his human. Since people are FUN to him, we taught him that people are a cue to automatically look at his human. This was all done out of the context of a leashed walk because we needed to get the behavior in order to reinforce it!

Our List for Getting Started With Loose Leash Walking Training

We put together a little checklist of things you can work on with your dog to train loose leash walking and we’ve broken down many of these things below in our guide if you keep scrolling! BTW, we’ll keep adding to this page as time goes on.

Teach your dog the walking behavior out of context and slowly progress (aka start indoors)
Focus on reinforcing your dog for correct behavior before they make mistakes (this means proactive and high rate of reinforcement at first)
Train a “redirection cue” you can use before your dog pulls
Have a plan for switching from food to naturally occurring reinforcers
Prevent your dog from practicing the pulling behavior
Train your dog to pay attention to you around distractions that are separate from walking
Teach functional reinforcers like “go sniff” or “go say hi”
Meet your dog’s needs first! (Not on a six foot leash, ideally)

What It Means To Meet Your Dog’s Needs First Before Loose Leash Walking Training

Imagine being cooped up inside all day and then immediately expected to stay on a sidewalk in a slow walk when you finally go out. SO HARD! Did you know that if you meet your dog’s needs first, so many problems will vanish?

Recently we worked with a 10-month old golden retriever named Daisy (featured in the video above in this section). She is a sweet girl, who has started to pull way more as she’s entered adolescence (yay teens). Daisy is lucky and has an awesome family with incredibly realistic expectations for a teenage pup. Here is what they do to meet her needs before they train loose leash walking.

For the most part, they skip non-essential city walks on a six foot leash (it ends in frustration for all parties).
They are lucky to live one and a half blocks from great hiking trails. For now, they are providing some cues for Daisy to tell her she is free to pull and do whatever she wants on the way TO the trails (realistic expectations).
They let her explore, climb, sniff, go in the creek etc. in the woods (where they also capture attention).
Then on the one and a half blocks home, they give their “walk with me” cue and practice the type of walking they want to become a habit. (Fun fact: They don’t have to do anything to get the good walking now! She just offers it now that her needs have been met!)
Slowly (and as errorlessly as possible), they are also building good leash walking behavior on the way TO the trail. They’re teaching Daisy that the behavior that leads to walking into the woods (which is what is naturally motivating her) is walking with a loose leash (rather than pulling).

How Teaching Your Dog to ‘Go Sniff’ Can Help With Loose Leash Walking

If you have a really sniffy dog, being able to cue “go sniff” as a reinforcer can actually make it MORE likely that you can get their attention and walk on a loose leash! Now when they give you attention while you’re walking, part of your reinforcement can be to simply release them back to sniffing (this is called a functional reward).

Recently we taught the adorable little spaniel, Poppy (featured in the video above in this section), the “go sniff” cue. Like a good spaniel, Poppy has a strong nose and loves to use it (and that is GREAT!). Rather than fighting that nose, Poppy’s human can use what she already wants to do outside (sniff) to reinforce behaviors they want to be able to get (some attention). To teach Poppy, we went to an area she loves to sniff and moved away from it slightly (monkey grass is sniffy heaven). She captured a little attention and then would cue “go sniff” and walk towards that monkey grass (where Poppy was likely to sniff anyway). It only took a few repetitions for her to figure out exactly what “go sniff” meant! Note: Sniffing is super important. Teaching “go sniff” shouldn’t be in lieu of giving a dog ample time to freely move and sniff (crucial for their wellbeing).

What the Heck Does It Mean To Prevent the ‘Pulling Behavior During Loose Leash Walking’

If you have been around dog trainers, you’ve likely heard someone say that you need to prevent your dog from practicing the pulling behavior while you teach them loose leash walking. We were chatting with someone about this recently, and they said, “Well, how am I supposed to prevent the pulling? The whole reason I am training the loose leash walking is because I want the pulling to stop! It feels like a chicken-egg problem.”

When training a loose leash walking behavior, we are really trying to build up a big reinforcement history with our dogs for walking near us. In the beginning, that usually means using treats to help us work up to letting the natural reinforcers take over. The world is filled with potential reinforcers - smells (as we just highlighted), grass to roll in, people to say hi to, etc. When we work on loose leash walking, we want to make sure that the behavior that happens before our dogs access those valuable things is a loose leash behavior = not pulling. Because whatever behavior happens right before our dogs get to sniff that plant is the behavior that gets reinforced.

Here are some ideas to prevent the pulling behavior while training loose leash walking:

Be super thoughtful about where you walk. Skip walking routes that are “pull traps.”
Walk your dog with a ten or 15 foot leash* to give them more space to move around without hitting the end of the leash (potentially even longer depending on where you walk).
Train a “redirection procedure” that you can use before they pull. This gives you a way to tell your dog to loop back to you if they are nearing the end of the leash but haven’t pulled yet.
Meet their broader needs outside of the context of a six foot leash walk.
Rent a SniffSpot where you can walk through nature without a leash or find some hiking trails where your dog can safely be off leash or on a long line.
Meet their initial immediate needs (as we highlighted previously) before your walk (e.g. game of tug inside, flirt pole shenanigans, food puzzles, scent games, etc.). This can reduce the frenetic energy that can show up at the beginning of walks.
If you encounter a tough distraction, pull off to the side and give them treats as the distraction passes. (In other words, opt out of some of the leash walking tests life throws at you until your dog is ready!)
Know what your dog tends to pull towards and observe their body language on the walk. You can release them to access it BEFORE they pull you (may mean you have to pick your pace up, so be thoughtful about where you use this) so that the loose leash behavior is what gets them access.
Proactively reinforce the leash behavior you want (aka feed often for loose leash)! Yes, this is training the desired behavior, but if you do this, it also can prevent some of the unwanted behavior.

Most of our ideas above for prevention are centered around putting your dog in situations where pulling isn’t even possible. Beyond that, it’s about prepping ahead to have a trained behavior you can rely on to prevent that pulling and become a super skilled observer on your walks. Then you can skip hard distractions and release your dog early to others (e.g. “go sniff” or “go say hi”). Soon(ish🥴) that loose leash walking habit will form!

Some Tips For Structuring a Loose Leash Walking Training Session

When you’re structuring a loose leash walking training session like the one above with Hana (who was a five month old puppy at the time), there are some key things to consider so you set your dog up for success. Here’s what we recommend thinking about before you start training:

LOCATION: It matters. Train in a spot like a parking lot that’s away from some of the usual tough city distractions but still around some distractions. The right location can be the sweet spot between offering opportunities to grow and keeping your dog successful.
CHOICE: Give it to the dog. We don’t recommend nagging or yanking your dog. If your dogs stops to do something else, just wait. Then when they choose to re-engage, reinforce that!
GO SNIFF: Just as we highlighted above, it can be a powerful reinforcer. Dogs need to sniff, and we are not a proponent of denying them access to do that. But if you are giving your dog enough other opportunities to freely sniff, you can create a setup where you can use a release to go sniff as a way to reinforce your dog for walking with you (rather than pulling to sniff). Please be thoughtful about how you do this.
ENGAGEMENT: If you want it, you should give it to your dog. If you walk your dog and stare at your phone or are making a million lists in your head, it makes it less likely that a dog learning to walk on a leash is going to engage with you. You don’t need to turn into a total ball of energy (but you totally can 😅), but being present matters. Chit chat with your dogs a lot as you walk and frequently change directions.

How Attention Games Can Help With Loose Leash Walking

Attention games make it fun for your dog to choose you. These games are all about choice, and have a lot of freedom and fun built in. They foundational for loose leash walking so that your dog chooses to engage with you vs. the rest of the world while they’re walking on a leash.

Our friend Jaya (who is only 13 years old!!) has been training her pup, Daisy (featured in the video above in this section), who is an adolescent golden retriever, since the day she came home. When Daisy was just a little baby, Jaya played a lot of engagement and attention games to make it fun for Daisy to choose to pay attention to her. From that foundation, Jaya started working with Daisy to teach her how to walk on a leash. Now that Daisy is hitting her “teenage years,” that adolescent brain has created some new challenges on walks -- namely that Daisy wants to use her newfound size to pull towards things she wants to smell!

Rather than immediately practicing the type of leash walking they may use on the busy city street where they live (with narrow sidewalks), Jaya went back to basics. She played the types of games she practiced with Daisy when she first came home. Sometimes teenage dogs need a little fun refresher before working through particularly hard distractions.

How You Can Try What Jaya Did With Your Dog:

Play a simple little engagement game where your dog gets reinforced for choosing to orient towards you.
Move right into a simple walking game! In this game, treats are tossed out so that your dog gets a chance to sniff a little bit and has the opportunity to CHOOSE to move back to walk with you.

Note: In the video above, Jaya wasn't actually saying or doing anything to try to get Daisy’s attention (though she was changing directions a lot to keep the game interesting!), and Daisy was free to move anywhere. But where did Daisy continue to CHOOSE to go? Back to Jaya! With very little effort, Jaya reminded Daisy that it is fun (and pays) to walk with her. Now she can start working through some tougher distractions!

PS: If you’re looking for more attention games so that your dog will voluntarily pay attention to you indoors and outdoors, around all sorts of distractions, check out our course Attention Unlocked, our self-guided video e-course that stars Juliana DeWillems (CPDT-KA, KPA CTP, CBCC-KA, CDBC).

*[Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.]

Kassidi Jones 6/17/21 Kassidi Jones 6/17/21

The Importance of Juneteenth

According to a quick Google Trends search, interest in Juneteenth increased by 400% between 2019 and 2020. This fact is unsurprising, considering the rise in awareness of race and racism that came with the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many, many others. In efforts to counter the weight of all the anti-blackness we faced in the midst of a viral pandemic, some people, both Black and white, looked for more reasons to smile, to celebrate. And while I love that attention to this holiday is increasing, I’m nervous about what might get lost along the way. My perspective on the significance of Juneteenth and how to observe it today is influenced by my research as a scholar of 19th-century African American literature and history, my love of dogs (I’ll get to that later), and my general skepticism about the commercialization of cultures. But first— a history:

Juneteenth is a portmanteau of the words “June” and “nineteenth,” the precise date on which the Union made its way down to Galveston, Texas to inform the enslaved Black people that President Abraham Lincoln had proclaimed them free. You see, one of the many underhanded tactics used by white enslavers to delay the dissolution of slavery was withholding the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation from the people they enslaved. Some waited until the end of the harvest season; some waited until the Union came and told everyone for themselves. In any case, the day that Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863 was not the day that every Black person in the U.S. gained their freedom (and technically, neither was June 19th, 1865). Texas was considered the last state to part with the institution of slavery, and so, in 1866, Black Texans commemorated the day that the United States promised to be and remain the land of the free.

Unfortunately, that promise is yet unfulfilled. When I look out of my window, I don’t see a land that equally affords freedom to everyone who inhabits it. And I mean that literally— my window looks out onto a police station. At night, the displays of red and blue lights come crashing through the glass, painting me in a stark reminder of how easily the freedoms I enjoy right now could vanish. Black freedom in the country is a tenuous thing. I say this from a position of privilege as a Ph.D. candidate living in a luxury apartment building in the middle of Chinatown in Philadelphia. Still, as we’ve seen time and time again, class signifiers and education are never enough to guarantee our safety.

This Juneteenth, I’ll be spending my time thinking about how I can use the privileges I have access to to get us more free by next Juneteenth. I’m working on a syllabus for a class I call “Reform, Defund, Abolish.” I’ll be regularly putting money toward mutual aid. I’ll be using my platform to encourage ongoing conversations about difficult subjects that affect me and the people I care about— queer folks, trans folks, disabled folks, folks in Palestine and Tigray, incarcerated folks, and as always, Black folks everywhere.

“Why have I never heard of Juneteenth?”

The battle against critical race theory (or rather, what people who have never read any critical race theory are calling “critical race theory”) is all over the news right now as several states work to keep children ignorant by pretending racism never existed. Florida is the latest in a slew of states sanitizing American history by removing any trace of U.S. racism from school curricula. Before this recent wave of uproar about “critical race theory,” which is actually a legal studies term explaining how racism shows up in U.S. policy, there have always been widespread efforts to keep the subject of racism out of schools. White parents rushed to shelter their children from learning about the tragedy of racism but dragged their feet when it came to protecting Black children from experiencing it. That’s one reason you may not have been taught about Juneteenth in school.

Another reason is that Juneteenth is a particularly regional holiday. Because of its origins, it used to be a day for Black Texans to remember the history of their ancestors and their state. As time went by, African Americans at large began to celebrate the day that the Union notified the last of the enslaved people in Texas of their freedom, essentially rendering all Black people in the United States free— although today we know that not to be true.

Considering how seriously this country takes freedom (I’m looking at you, Fourth of July), Juneteenth should be a significant milestone in U.S. history. It’s strange how loudly nationalists boast the “Land of the Free” while remaining silent on the day that allegedly made that statement true. I say “allegedly” because with mass incarceration, wealth inequality, and the persistent remnants of slavery that show up in policing, housing, voting, and elsewhere, I’m hardly convinced that Black Americans enjoy the same freedom as everyone else. However, as someone who enjoys a good barbecue, I’m all for holidays that recognize the most important moments in our history as long as we recognize that the project of Black freedom is ongoing. Juneteenth is an excellent time to stop and reflect on the progress we’ve made and plan for the progress we still wish to see.

Just 156 years ago, this country experienced a rather significant shift, one that deserves to be remembered even though its impact was not as big as other major shifts like the Civil Rights acts. June 19th, 1865 changed lives, and freedom on any scale merits celebration.

“But wait, what do dogs have to do with slavery?”

Ok, I’ve kept you waiting long enough. What does my dog have to do with my Juneteenth plans? Well in my article about police dogs, I mentioned the existence of “Negro dogs,” or dogs specifically trained to track and control Black people. I know of at least one dog breed that no longer exists because its only function in the Americas and England was “catching fugitives,” aka punishing Black and Indigenous people who dared to pursue the freedom that was denied to them. In the United States specifically, abolitionists used stories of Black people being hunted and mauled by “slave hounds,” as they were oh-so-affectionately known, as evidence of the cruel and gruesome nature of white supremacy and the role that dogs played in it. “Slave catchers” who were hired to chase down enslavers’ property were often accompanied by scent-tracking dogs. U.S. military forces used dogs to terrorize and commit genocide against Indigenous and Black people, incentivizing the hounds to hunger for human flesh and going so far as to memorialize these attacks in artwork. These dogs were vicious, because white supremacy instructed them to be.

While some enslaved people had to learn tactics to avoid or escape the jaws of enslavers’ best friends, others (who were allowed by the law) kept their own dogs as companions and hunting buddies that made life a little bit easier to live. They helped bring in food, and sometimes income. They gave some enslaved people a small taste of the power and autonomy wielded against them every day. In some cases, these dogs aided in their escapes to freedom by catching food and scaring away those who chased them. Given that some states imposed legislation that forbade the enslaved from keeping a dog of their own, the Emancipation Proclamation and subsequently Juneteenth marked a shift in human-dog relationships for African Americans. All of this means that my dog, Ginger, is a little milestone for me, a rite of passage that allows me to step a little further into autonomy. Our bond is a revolutionary act I will celebrate on Juneteenth and every day that comes after it.

How to Celebrate Juneteenth: A Guide for Allies

Now that the Senate has passed a bill making Juneteenth a national holiday, I worry about the imminent array of reinvented brand logos in various shades of brown and empty gestures written on discount store t-shirts across America (a la Pride). This sudden widespread awareness of Juneteenth can be dangerous if we view it as only a memorialization instead of a reminder: there is still so much more work to do. To me, Juneteenth is not about looking backward, but rather about taking a close, hard look at our present reality and making it better.

To Black folks, how you celebrate Juneteenth (if you celebrate) is entirely up to you. Please don’t feel pressured to perform for this newfound audience, a pressure I often feel myself. But if you do want to mark the occasion, I wish you a very happy holiday! Any opportunity to come together and reflect on how far we’ve come is worth taking.

To non-Black folks, you don’t have to wait for an invitation to the cookout to show up and show out for us. Now that Juneteenth is a federal holiday, I anticipate that a lot more non-Black people will be joining in on the festivities. And while I don’t think “celebrating” Juneteenth is the most appropriate term for non-Black engagement, there are ways to mark the holiday that actually benefit Black folks. Instead of giving your money to the big name brands that I’m sure will be plastering Black power fists all over their merch, consider patronizing a Black-owned business (like the ones in this spreadsheet I’ve been compiling) that uplifts Black people year-round (Lenox Ave Company, Scipaws, The Doggish Life, and Migo & Company come to mind). Do some reading on current legislation that disproportionately affects Black folks, and keep those conversations alive among your peers. Participate in mutual aid by donating money directly to Black folks asking for help, online and in the real world. In my opinion, the single most important thing we can do to honor the Black people that created this holiday is commit ourselves to continuing the fight for racial equality here and abroad. The work continues. Happy Juneteenth.

How Stigma, Therapy, and Dogs Impact My Mental Health Journey

This May marked my first Mental Health Awareness Month as a dog mom, and it feels like the right time to reflect on the ways my dog has truly changed my life. But first, some background—

I started going to therapy in sixth grade. It was my first year in private school, and my grandparents, whom I lived with for a while, had just moved to a different state. There were a lot of changes taking place that I didn’t feel prepared for, but I didn’t know how to talk about that feeling. I just felt bad. All the time. I couldn’t figure out how all the other students seemed to make friends and relax so easily, or why everyone seemed so smiley except for me. When I started randomly and silently crying in class, teachers recommended that I go see the school counselor, and my relationship with talk therapy began.

In this photo, I’m trying to smile my way through a breakdown during the summer after my freshman year of high school, 2011.

The talking made me feel less strange. And although the sadness didn’t go away altogether, I still found comfort in the fact that this professional was telling me that what I felt wasn’t weird, and I wasn’t alone. After that counselor was laid off, I asked my mom to find me an out-of-school therapist, and then came a litany of therapists that weren’t the right fit but were all we could afford with our insurance.

My relationships with therapists in high school were unfulfilling. I still didn’t have enough vocabulary to accurately explain what I needed. I recommend therapy to everyone (literally everyone— I’ve never met a person that I don’t think would benefit from therapy) but I also acknowledge that access to quality care is hard to come by for a lot of people. Racism and classism have the power to damage a person’s mental health and then on top of that, keep them from getting the help that they need. The National Alliance on Mental Illness shared that only one third of Black folks over 18 who need mental health services actually receive that care.

When It Comes to Mental Health, Race Should Not Be a Barrier To Achieving Personal Peace

Part of what keeps Black folks out of therapy is the persistent stigma in the Black community that associates mental illness with weakness. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that “therapy is for white people,” and that I just need to pray my depression away or that it’s a phase that I’ll grow out of. I can’t entirely blame us. Black people have been attacked from so many angles that it’s not surprising that parents would teach their children to be exceptionally tough— no room for weakness.

I found a lot of comfort in extracurriculars (this photo is from right before I performed in a poetry show), but I still felt really isolated.

I spent summers down South with my grandparents and when I’d sleep until the evening, they’d lightheartedly call me lazy. At that point, I still didn’t know that excessive sleep was a symptom of depression so I just believed them.

In college, I connected with Benjamin*, a therapist in my school’s counseling and psychological services office. I worked with Benjamin for over two 2 years because he was great at affirmation, which is what I needed at the time. I was still having the same issues of struggling to connect with my peers, and the added stress of college exacerbated the symptoms of my depression and anxiety.

On weekends, I would stay in bed for 16 hours at a time. I worked myself to exhaustion by taking on leadership roles in way too many extracurricular activities. With consistent therapy and exercise, I felt like I was managing at least, and few other people noticed that anything was wrong because I appeared social because of all of the groups I was in and I was performing really well in school. I had my routines and I was on track to graduate, so even though I still didn’t feel happy, I thought I was doing well enough.

The Ups and Downs of My Mental Health Journey Through Higher Education

Poetry helped me express myself, but it didn't necessarily help me connect with people.

But when I started grad school in 2018, those same routines suddenly weren’t enough. I had just crossed the finish line of grad school, and yet I felt like I had gotten nowhere. I moved back to my home state for school, and was facing yet another “first day of school.” I didn’t have friends yet, I didn’t have a school ID yet so I couldn’t use the gym, and the waitlist for mental health services was long. I fell back into old habits: sleeping until the sun went down, eating once a day, and getting absolutely nothing done.

When I did finally get an appointment in the mental health office, I told the office that I had no preferences for the race and gender of my therapist but they still paired me with an older Black woman. She and I didn’t get along at all, and I later found out that this woman had a history of making her Black patients quit therapy. I was lucky to even get an appointment within 2 weeks, as I knew many other grad students who waited for months to be matched with someone.

Here’s my puffy-faced smile after a long night and a lot of tears.

I put in a request for a new therapist and we got along a bit better. She was the first person to write me a prescription for an antidepressant. At first I was hesitant about becoming dependent on medicine to function, but my old methods were not working so eventually I decided to try something new.

Things turned around immediately. Again, I got lucky because a lot of people have to try many different combinations of meds before they find the mix that works best for them, but my one little pill continues to work wonders for me. The very first weekend that I used my medicine, I started getting out of bed in the morning. I found the energy to cook myself a meal. It was a serious game-changer for me; I was feeling like my best self again. Even better, actually. For the first time in a long time, I was feeling consistently happy.

How the Quarantine and My Pandemic Puppy Impacted My Mental Health

But then— 2020. That year really laid me out. Again, my routines were interrupted. I came to Philly to visit my partner for spring break, and was suddenly barred from returning to campus. I was living out of a suitcase for 3 months. Gyms were closed. And I went from being in a long-distance relationship to sharing a one-bedroom apartment in Philly overnight.

I was privileged enough not to be directly impacted by the pandemic (no one in my immediate family got sick). I still felt sadder, like I was out of control of my life and scrambling for new solutions. I started sleeping late again, skipping meals, and lacking motivation to exercise and complete assignments. I felt like I was losing all that progress I had made years ago.

All of the staples of my depression conflicted with being a great dog mom, and I was determined to be the best dog mom Ginger could ever ask for.  (Photo credit: Chelby Elam) — All of the staples of my depression conflicted with being a great dog mom, and I was determined to be the best dog mom Ginger could ever ask for. (Photo credit: Chelby Elam)

Like many others, I spent a lot of 2020 just trying to stay afloat. Then, in the fall, my partner and I decided that we could use a bit more energy in the house, and we were stable enough to bring a dog into the family, so we adopted Ginger. I’m so glad we did.

Adopting a puppy required me to make new routines and foster healthy habits. I couldn’t sleep past noon because I had to take her out to pee. I couldn’t leave the apartment a mess because she needed space to play safely. I got more exercise because she needed at least two 45-minute walks per day. Feeding and cleaning her reminded me to feed and clean myself. I made friends with the other dog parents I ran into every day. All of the staples of my depression conflicted with being a great dog mom, and I was determined to be the best dog mom Ginger could ever ask for.

I’m still determined. Ginger brings the best out of me. As long as I’m taking care of her, I feel like I’m accomplishing something. I don’t feel out of control or lost. She makes me feel responsible, loving, and loved. Our relationship, as well as sharing our journey online for other first-time dog parents, gives me a sense of purpose. That could be a lot of pressure to put on a dog, but Ginger doesn’t seem to mind whining until I get out of bed or dragging me all the way to her favorite park. I think we both love snuggling on the couch after a long day of working on the couch. Plus, she’s very well-compensated for her work (shoutout to jerky)! I’m not entirely dependent on her, but she makes a great addition to all of the other strategies I use to make me feel stable and content.

I’m no longer chronically depressed. Anxiety and stress are still persistent problems, but I feel more equipped than ever to combat the bouts of anxiety that do pop up. Mental health journeys are so individual, and everyone’s timeline is different. All I can say is that if you’re struggling with your mental health, I hope you find the thing(s) that bring you peace. You deserve joy and love, and I’m rooting for you from across the internet.

Editors Note: If you would like to donate to the Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund to help Black women and girls, click here.

*Note: The name of Kassidi’s therapist was changed for the purposes of this article.

Kassidi Jones 5/24/21 Kassidi Jones 5/24/21

Before You Name Your Dog, You’ll Want to Read This Story

Henrietta. Georgia. Poppy. These are all names my partner and I considered while we waited for the shelter staff to bring our new puppy to us. But when the sun hit her hazel eyes and orange coat, we both knew “Ginger” was the perfect fit. Ginger has a fairly simple to-do list: lounge around all day, start whining at around 5 p.m., and head over to our unofficial dog park at 6. We’re regulars. We meet up with the same six people and their eight dogs almost every day. We threw our dogs a joint birthday party and I had matching t-shirts made. It’s safe to say we’re pretty comfortable with each other.

I’ve come to look forward to the hours we spend in our giant fenced-in space, sharing tennis balls and swapping stories about our pets’ latest shenanigans. During quarantine, the dog park regulars were pretty much the only other people my partner and I interacted with on a regular basis. And though our little group has clearly already built a rapport, we try to be as friendly as possible to folks who bring their dogs to the park for the first time. But we all have our limits.

Naming a pet is such a fun opportunity to express yourself and represent your dog, but have you ever thought about the larger impact of a pet’s name? Think about it: this is a name you’ll have to say aloud, probably in public, for years and years. And other people who hear it could make assumptions about you based on it. (Above: Kassidi and Ginger embrace at the dog park.) — Naming a pet is such a fun opportunity to express yourself and represent your dog, but have you ever thought about the larger impact of a pet’s name? Think about it: this is a name you’ll have to say aloud, probably in public, for years and years. And other people who hear it could make assumptions about you based on it. **(Above: Kassidi and Ginger embrace at the dog park.)**

One spring day, we all dragged our feet to the park yet again because our dogs are just that spoiled. As more unfamiliar faces— canine and human— entered the park, we gushed over how cute the newbies were, and smiled politely at their people. One of those dogs, a beautiful all-black pit bull, came barreling across the field with that signature smile pits tend to have. He made a bee-line for Delilah, one of the dogs in our unofficial pack. He closely followed her all around the park in a way that clearly made Delilah and her human uncomfortable. Months earlier Delilah had been attacked at another dog park by a bigger dog who just wouldn’t leave her alone, so they were understandably nervous. I tried my best to keep the pittie away from Delilah, but he was focused in the way that many unneutered dogs can be. Eventually, I had to grab and physically restrain the dog, which is when his parents finally took notice. And then it happened—

“Django!”

A white man in a camo trucker hat slowly made his way across the field in my direction, while shouting the name “Django.” And though it was certainly possible that the name referred to the Belgian Romani jazz guitarist, the computer program, or the 1966 western movie, my friends and I immediately recalled the 2012 Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained. Most importantly, we remembered that Tarantino’s Django is an enslaved Black man on a mission to rescue his wife from the plantation. That’s the Django most of us know.

You don’t have to look very far to find the research on the connections between the treatment of Black men and the treatment of pit bulls in this country. I’ve even done a little writing myself on how racism, classism, and laws that discriminate against pit bulls all work hand-in-hand to uphold white supremacist ideals. But none of that research and writing helped me put a single coherent thought together in the moment. White audacity still found a new way to surprise me.

And then I felt it: that uniquely isolating feeling that only marginalized folks so often feel in public spaces. It was like a horde of clouds had crept over our little park, our “safe space.” Even worse— it was like a single, dense cloud came and cast its darkness over me and me alone.

Despite all of the research I do as a grad student in African American studies, I usually try not to think about slavery at the dog park. There I was, enjoying a regular Monday evening with friends and BOOM— antiblackness struck again! Just like that, the privilege of comfort was revoked from me. I could only think about how my boyfriend and I were two out of four Black people in the park that day. I worried about white people turning to look at me like they did in school whenever the topic of slavery was mentioned. I pitied the pit bull whose parents used him to make a mockery of something truly horrific. To add insult to injury, he just wasn’t ready to play at the dog park. And frankly, I felt embarrassed. I still can’t exactly pinpoint the reason why; my best guess is that I felt like I was making a mountain out of a molehill that was too small for most other people to see.

How can we make pet spaces feel safer for people of color?

Comfort is so basic that people forget it’s a privilege. In fact, feeling at ease in most spaces, including those designed for pets (think dog parks, the pet store, etc.), isn’t common . It’s a privilege to move through the world without concern that you’ll be targeted for some aspect of your identity. Have you ever felt uncomfortable somewhere because of who you are? I certainly have. As a woman, I’m not totally comfortable walking around outside at night. As a Black woman, there are plenty of towns where I’m not comfortable walking around outside during the day, for fear of someone thinking I’m in the wrong neighborhood and deciding to be a vigilante or call the police. And then again, I see white men enter almost anywhere without fear that who they are and what they look like could bring them any harm. I wonder what it must feel like to be so confidently free.

I have since learned that Django’s pet parents, (a white man and a Black woman), actually did take their inspiration from Tarantino. They chose the name together because they got him right after watching the movie. I don’t know if they even considered how his name might make others feel. That’s the thing about microaggressions; they’re just small enough to make us think that they’re unintentional and that we may be overreacting.

Pet spaces aren’t free of microaggressions. In fact, because our attention is so focused on the animals, it’s easy to ignore the feelings of the people in the room (or the people never invited into the room in the first place).

If your safety isn’t in jeopardy, call out the microaggressions you catch, and believe us about the ones you don’t.

To clarify, I didn’t expect anyone to raise hell in the middle of the dog park. We were too busy telling him off about Django’s humping problem anyway. My friends and I exchanged sideways looks and they all agreed that the whole encounter was awkward from start to finish, but none of us were ready to actually name the awkward feeling for what it was: racism. I still go to the same park with the same friends. Sometimes Django and his folks come by, and when they do, I stick with the people who make me feel safe. You can be one of those people for someone too. It all starts with being willing to listen, to acknowledge, and to act.

Reading List

Katja M. Guenther (2020) “Taking the ghetto out of the dog:” reproducing inequality in pit bull rescue, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43:10, 1795-1812.

Christie Catan 5/17/21 Christie Catan 5/17/21

The Dangerous Game of Fixing Me

Editor’s Note: For Mental Health Awareness Month, our co-founder, Christie Catan, decided to share this deeply personal essay about her mental health journey.

“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals.” ~Pema Chodron

I stare down at the old hiking boots that I’ve had since 2009 and memories flood every nook and cranny of my body. Suddenly, I am 20 years old standing at the edge of a cliff watching the condors float through the sky. Then I’m taking my boots off to dip my tired feet into a bone-chilling and life-giving glacial lake somewhere in the Tetons. With another blink, I’m lying on the rocky esplanade of the Grand Canyon watching the rising sun turn everything around me into brilliant shades of pink and orange. Then I hear the sound of tags clanging together and feel a sense of joy building inside of me as I watch my dogs race through a creek. A second later, I am sitting in a tree above a stream near my college where I know the water would drown out my tears. I feel a wet nose on my face and it brings me back to the present moment. I reach down and pick my right boot up and flip it over to get a better look at the bottom. I touch a finger to the side of the sole and, with almost no effort, detach it from the shoe. I put the right shoe down and pick up the left one. Same thing. I carry both of my boots over to my fiancé, Ben, and ask, “Do you think I can fix these boots?”

Christie’s favorite hiking boots (pictured here) have logged many miles, and she says she will pick them over any other shoe she owns.

But what happens when it’s no longer just the boots that need fixing? What if it’s your dog? What if it’s another person? What if it’s you? That seemingly harmless word starts to pose real danger.

Why Fixing Me in College Led to Years of Feeling Broken

Most of my college years are a complete blur -- just not for the reasons you might expect. I spent a lot of those years in dissociated states to try to protect myself. There are bits and pieces that stick out, but a lot of it feels like I was numb and motionless while the world whizzed by me without ever seeing me there. I remember lying on a public dorm bathroom floor after just one week at college, knowing something was wrong. A few hours later as I lay in a hospital bed, a temporary sense of relief washed over me as I watched people start to busy themselves with the work of fixing me. Surgeries, procedures, and so many appointments all with the hopes of fixing me.

I lived in my grandmother’s basement as I tried to recover. People were constantly on the phone - either telling some friend about me or trying to find a doctor with the magical fix. A new person appeared in my room bearing some new thing for me to eat or drink at a pretty steady interval, but I had lost my grip on time. The fixing occupied so much of everyone’s time that nobody seemed to have time to just sit down with me and feel the weight of what happened. Based on the praise I got for “being brave” and the constant encouragement to “keep a positive attitude,” it didn’t take long for me to conclude that the massive amount of fear and confusion and sadness I was feeling were not okay. I couldn’t find space for my truth anywhere. So I worked hard to lie to everyone else -- and ultimately, to myself.

Christie (pictured here when when she was admitted to the hospital during a recent bout of pancreatitis) doesn’t believe in glorifying pain or trauma. She says she has found invitations in what she’s gone through to slowly come home to herself.

I look back and see so much love around me as I remember people doing their best to care for me. But a funny thing happens. When everyone around you is trying to fix you, it is easy to start to believe that you need to be fixed - that you are broken.

With All of That Fixing There Was No Room For Seeing and Hearing

I returned to school, and in my very first class back, I had the first (but not the last) panic attack of my life. It was bad enough that they drove an ambulance onto campus and took me out on a stretcher. I had always been able to handle pressure, but suddenly, I felt weak. Despite the hidden emotional roots of this event, I assumed it meant that same thing as all of my physical health struggles: I was broken and needed to be fixed.

While she spent a long time believing she was broken and actively trying to suppress feelings, Christie is now a big crier (and often laughs and cries at the same time). She trusts her body to process feelings, and she is adamant that feeling anxiety and sadness are not mutually exclusive with feeling joy.

I walked around the world with a now crippling level of shame. I seemed to sense that I was falling behind everyone else I knew, and a part of me hoped I was in fact as invisible as I felt. Nobody told me outright, but it felt like there was a time limit for how long I had before I needed to get “over it” and back to my “normal life.” I didn’t have the words to tell people that I had no idea what that was anymore. Today I look back on this time with a lot of sadness and a huge amount of compassion for myself. I was so desperately in need of connection and belonging, and I absorbed all of the information held in the fixing and the encouragement as messages about how I would be accepted in this world. No matter which way I looked, I believed I had to be a different version of myself. I needed to be fixed - that is what I thought people wanted. I did my best to pretend to be okay, and if that didn’t work, I think a part of me believed that I could find some semblance of connection if I continued to be broken. And I was lonely enough to unknowingly make that trade.

My physical health issues lingered and later turned into chronic issues without any clear single diagnosis. But what became most pervasive were the mental health challenges that followed. The fixers told me not to spend so much time thinking about it, and I worried that talking about what was going on would be too much of a downer. People did things to cheer me up, bought me books on being positive, and encouraged me to get back into the world. Many of these things were helpful. Still, nobody just sat down and held me while I cried without trying to fix me. I still couldn’t find any space for my truth - for my humanity.

How Fixing Me Actually Led to My Disconnection

I transferred schools hoping to find some sense of belonging. I now know that it doesn’t matter where you go -- if you feel you are broken at your core, it is hard to feel like you belong. But even so, this particular move actually exacerbated so much of my pain. I looked around and saw all the groups that had already formed, routines that had been created, and inside jokes that had bonded them all together. It felt like another universe, and it only made me feel more broken for not being a part of it. At the time, I didn’t have the language I needed to express what was happening, and so I found myself actually apologizing to other people for bailing on them or pretending like I didn’t care. I became more invisible by the day.

My PTSD and depression from college turned into Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) after college. I took over as the main fixer in my own life. But when you think that YOU are the thing that is broken, it is hard to know what you are fixing anymore. I spent a lot of time and energy and money trying, but it felt like a game of whack-a-mole. All the while, very few people had any idea what was going on. By conventional standards, I was successful. But I was drowning inside.

Christie assumed she wouldn’t graduate on time after having to take a semester off and was pretty surprised when she realized she would graduate with the rest of her UVA class. She looks back on college and sees so many things to be grateful for. She also sees a younger version of herself who was so sad about the loss of so many things, but just didn’t know how to say it.

I didn’t know it at the time, but all of that fixing sewed disconnection. It made me separate from the fixer and separate from my truth. It created a false binary as I believed myself less than all of the fixers. And when I became the fixer, it gave me a false sense of control over my world. I was so busy fixing that I didn't have to pause to feel. As this version of me sitting here writing this, I don’t fault myself for all the fixing I tried to do. I was overwhelmed and doing the best I could to survive. And I survived. Slowly over time, I learned how to look at all of me with compassion. I started to heal by simply making myself feel seen without the pressure of fixing.

How Fixing Became a Warning Bell In My Life

It’s been a long journey since that day I found myself in pain on a college bathroom floor. “Fixing” is now one of my warning bells that something is off. If I notice myself doing it or notice it being done to me, I use it as a cue to pause and create some space for what is. Tactically speaking (hello die hard fixers), it is hard to take action in a meaningful way without stopping to really understand what is. Accepting what is does not mean you have to like it -- it means you see reality as it is instead of painting it in some other image. As Albert Einstein famously said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” But I don’t think that the tactical reasons are the most compelling ones in potentially shifting how we look at fixing. I think the human reasons are.

Fixing often bypasses a person’s humanity and agency (same for dogs). It creates a power over dynamic rather than a power to dynamic. I now know that it can take a lot of courage to create space for what is without needing to change it. But there is magic in that space.

I heard my “fixing warning bell” go off when I first began doing my own anti-racism work. Fixing makes the fixer feel good -- it is comfortable. So it is not hard to see why my reflex would be to fix as I sat with the discomfort of all the harm caused by white supremacy delusions and my own ignorance. But that “fixing alarm” tells me to pause. And in that pause, I remember the truth. I remember to create space to actually see people. I remember that jumping straight to fixing makes people feel unseen and creates more disconnection. I remember that people don’t need to be fixed -- systems and policies do. I remember that people are powerful even if they aren’t in positions of power. I think of Lilla Watson and remember that my own liberation is bound up with everyone else's. I remember that to partner with and serve is very different than to fix.

What Fixing Means For Our Relationship With Dogs

I used to think in terms of “fixing” a lot with my dogs. Years ago when Otis started showing more reactive behaviors like barking and lunging, I skipped straight past any sort of recognition that his behavior had a function and moved straight into fixing. In doing this, I created even more of a power gap between us and robbed Otis of so much of his agency. I also went down a path of creating a bigger problem because I never stopped to understand what was going on. I had decided that certain behaviors were bad, and I set out to control him. At the time, I had actually convinced myself that it was a kind thing to do. Now if I hear a faint “fixing alarm bell” in my head, I respond quite differently. I almost instinctively say (out loud), “I see you.” This helps me remember that he is a sentient being with agency, and I don’t get to rob him of that. And then I start to unpack what function his behavior has and decide if I want to figure out how to partner with him to access that reinforcer in a different way or if I just need to change the world around him to better support him. With dogs and training, it can be so tempting to ascribe more value to some future vision we have for our dogs. Goals are great - so long as they don’t rob us of all that is in this present moment.

For Christie, nature and dogs have been two of the most powerful healers and teachers in her life. When she started meeting Otis’s fear-based reactivity with so much kindness, she realized that it might actually feel good to speak to herself like that. It was a huge ah-ha moment for her.

People and dogs are not boots. That should be reflected in how we care for them and for ourselves. I am not broken. You are not broken. Our dogs are not broken. We have value exactly as we are. Sometimes we aren’t thriving in this world, but that doesn’t mean WE are broken. Do we all need help and support? Of course! I have just found that the love and support we offer and receive feels so much more loving when it isn’t rooted in fixing a person or another being.

I am human and am still on my own healing journey. If I hear that warning bell go off as I try to “fix myself,” I put my hands on my heart, exhale, and say, “I see you. You are allowed to feel that. All of it belongs.” I remember that I was never broken. I remember that I am whole and worthy and belong to everyone and everything else here. I remember that pausing to show compassion for who I am in any given moment allows me to take action that has space for all of me.

One of the most beautiful gifts we can give other people, our dogs, and ourselves is to see each other. Being seen is so healing.

Kassidi Jones 5/15/21 Kassidi Jones 5/15/21

On National Police Dog Day, Let’s Call For Their Retirement

Editor’s Note: In this special Op-Ed for Tails of Connection, TOC contributor Kassidi Jones, reflects on National Police Dog Day and the white supremacist roots of U.S. K-9 units.

When you picture a police dog, what image comes to mind? Is it sniffing its way through the airport keeping a nose out for illegal substances? Is it chasing a perp down an alley? Does it have its teeth sunken into a bad guy’s leg? And more importantly, do any or all of these actions make you think of police dogs as heroes? As an abolitionist, when I think about police dogs, my heart feels heavy. White supremacist policing is so deeply ingrained in our society that even dogs are implicated in police violence. If you’re wondering what dogs have to do with racism, you might have some racial and class privileges to acknowledge. Today is National Police Dog Day, and I’d like us to take the opportunity to reflect on the long, winding, and unsurprisingly white supremacist roots of U.S. K-9 units.

From Ancient Civilization to the European Theater: How the War Dog Became the Police Dog

When American police departments began integrating dogs into the job in the ‘50s and ‘60s, they turned to the Europeans to figure out exactly how to weaponize them. And frankly, what is more human than the unending quest to figure out how to use something to hurt someone? As racial tensions and civil unrest grew in the states, police were searching for new and improved methods of controlling the people they were supposed to serve and protect. Early adopters of K-9 units imported dogs from all over Europe, and especially London, in an effort to mimic strict authoritarian policing they saw across the pond. Proponents of widespread police dog use evoked the “war dogs” used by great ancient civilizations overseas. They boasted the dogs’ potential to maintain law and order at home and abroad. And their propaganda worked! Departments started investing more money into K-9 units after seeing how effective they were at terrorizing regulating large (Black) crowds.

Think about the dog breeds you often see used in police work. Early police dog advocates selected German Shepherds specifically for the roles they played in World War I and II, sending messages and protecting soldiers. They picked a breed they knew to be aggressive but controllable, violent but loyal. Records show that in 1961, the Jackson, Miss. Police Department borrowed two dogs trained by a man who trained guard dogs for Hitler. Based on statements given by some of these early K-9 unit members, the dogs weren’t (and aren’t) treated exactly like partners, but rather like living, breathing, less-lethal guns. They were trained to follow their handlers’ commands without question. To create this kind of relationship, handlers were instructed to withhold affection and praise, anything that might make a dog comfortable enough to disobey. This is how K-9 units keep the boundary between pet and property.

Then and now, K-9s work as extensions of the police force, which means the faults of police departments implicate the dogs as well. If a racist cop disproportionately commands his dog to attack Black men, that dog is now a participant in a racist agenda, a racist system. The only thing the dog knows is to obey the person who has fed, raised, and trained it. As members of a white supremacist institution, police dogs are unknowingly wrapped up in a centuries-long struggle between cops and marginalized communities. And as that police-dog relationship is reinforced, the anti-cop and anti-dog sentiments that some members of those communities hold grows stronger as well.

For Police Dogs, Their “Bite Out of Crime” is Rooted in White Supremacy

The other precursor to the modern American police dog is the “Negro dog,” aka dogs that enslavers used to track down Black people who escaped enslavement. These dogs, commonly Cuban bloodhounds, were trained to maim and disfigure the bodies of Black people who dared not to be owned. They were rewarded for their cruelty. There are records in the archives indicating that the dogs were literally fed Black and indigenous human flesh to induce their bloodthirst. Nineteenth-century newspapers printed articles about the best breeds for catching (read: hunting) “fugitives.”

Fast-forward to the twentieth century and the scene is still grim. K-9 units protected white property from the threat of Black criminality in the 1950s. Civil unrest in the 1960s prompted the use of police dogs to control and intimidate crowds of protestors. As Civil Rights protestors took to the streets to stir up good trouble, police departments met them with fire houses and hounds, tools to intimidate the crowds into retreating. Leaders like Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X frequently warned Black and allied demonstrators about the threatening dogs they might encounter, and urged them to carry on despite their fear. And so the trend continued. Police departments never stopped using their K-9s to keep people, especially Black people, in line. Allegedly, in the 1980s, some LAPD officers referred to young Black folks as “dog biscuits.”

Fast forward to the 2000s, and the pattern of racial harm through the use of police dogs shows up in the data. A Police Assessment Resource Center report found that 89% of people bitten by LAPD canines from 2004 to 2012 were Black or Latinx. As recently as 2015, the Department of Justice found that 100% of bites from the Ferguson Police Department K-9 Unit were inflicted on African American suspects. Some of those victims were children. A 2006 study reported that compared to bites from non-working dogs, police dog bite victims were more likely to have multiple wounds, require hospitalization, and undergo surgery. In 2018, a 51-year-old man died in Alabama after being attacked by a police dog. These facts and figures only reveal the harm that canine units do during the arrest.

Did You Know Detection Dogs Are Notoriously Inaccurate?

But what about the dogs that don’t have to bite to do damage? Prior to the arrest, a drug-sniffing dog can give the police probable cause to search a person’s car or home with impunity. And the data suggests that person is most likely to be a Black or Latinx man. This means that a police officer who might already hold a racial bias could pull someone over for some imagined traffic violation, bring his dog over to the car, and if the dog has any sort of reaction (genuine or cued by the officer), that cop suddenly has the right to violate that driver’s privacy. Now the trauma of the traffic stop, which is already a trigger for many POC, is intensified by the breach of personal space and rights. This bitter pill might be easier to swallow if the science were solid, but detection dogs are notoriously inaccurate. From 2007-2009, the detection dog accuracy rate was as low as 27% for Latinx drivers, according to a Chicago Tribune report. That means these searches are more often prompted by human bias than by a genuine dog detection.

And what if a police dog is in the process of attacking you? Most likely, your survival instinct will kick in, and you will try to defend yourself to survive. But depending on the outcome, that defense could land you in prison for up to 10 years. The 2000 Federal Law Enforcement Animal Protection Act dictates that a person can serve up to a decade in prison if they permanently disable, disfigure, or kill a police dog. Meanwhile, Black people across the country have to cross their fingers and pray that a police officer who kills a Black human being on camera gets convicted of a crime. It is important to remember here that the police are not supposed to be the judge, jury, and executioner, so even if somebody were committing a crime, they still have certain rights - including to not be mauled by a dog.

I’d like to pause here to note that dogs are not racist. A police dog is only as good as its training, and if a dog is being brought up in a system we already know to disproportionately disenfranchises Black and Brown folks, you can probably expect to see some of that racial bias in the performance of the dog. Police canines are a part of a system with deeply racist roots, so it is not a giant leap to them becoming weapons of racial harm.

Let’s Join Together to Let the Police Dogs Out

Not only are police dogs costly to the physical and emotional wellbeing of many communities; they also potentially cost those communities financial resources that could have gone elsewhere. According to the National Police Dog Foundation, the average cost to acquire a police dog is $8,000, including their airfare from Europe. Training for patrol work and detection can cost $12,000 to $15,000 per dog. Not to mention that the training methods used to turn these animals into weapons are harsh, almost barbaric, and many retired police dogs suffer from anxiety and depression, preventing them from enjoying life after the job too. Though most of the money for police dogs comes from donations rather than taxpayer dollars, imagine how different the world would be if that kind of money was invested back into the communities that police claim require so much of their presence. What if we could invest $15,000 into playgrounds and community centers rather than another tool for police violence? I’d even accept investing that money into local animal shelters and rescues where those dogs might actually become companions for the community.

If you’ve never thought about the dark side of police dogs, this reading may have made you uncomfortable. Good. If your instinct is immediately to throw out examples of where police dogs save the day instead of digesting what you’ve just read, my hope is that you’ll sit with this discomfort for a little bit longer and try to recognize the lived experiences of many other people in this country. I get that it’s “not all dogs,” but the problem is so much larger than K-9 units. So today, on National Police Dog Day, I’m celebrating by advocating for a world without them. I’m spreading the word about their lives and their history in hopes that one day the dogs can just be dogs, or at least have jobs that improve people’s quality of life instead of threatening them. I’m telling you about the specialized rescues looking for homes for retired K-9s (instead of the euthenasia most military working dogs faced until 2000). The time has come to free the police dogs, so that we can free the people most vulnerable to them.

Showing Up and Getting Curious After That Guilty Verdict

Editor’s Note: In this special editorial for Tails of Connection, our co-founder, Christie Catan, responds to the Derek Chauvin verdict and what she feels it means for our community.

These days, you don’t have to look far to see how hard people work to keep their dogs feeling safe. I’m talking about the bandanas and leash ornaments that read “my dog needs space,” along with the passionate pleas on social media to follow leash laws. On the hiking trail, I’ve watched countless people get enraged when they’re approached by off leash dogs. Then I’ve seen how it turns into a community battle cry as people start echoing how they should be able to walk their dog without fear of being approached by an off leash dog. The underlying sentiment is always the same: Dogs deserve to feel safe. And here is the kicker: we trust our dogs to tell us when they feel safe or unsafe. We believe our dogs.

Why We Need to Show Up For the Black Members of Our Community

On April 20, Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd. On the exact same day as that conviction, a white cop murdered a 16 year old Black girl (a CHILD) named Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio.

I feel a massive mess of emotions right now, but as a white woman, this simply isn’t a moment where I need to share them. But it absolutely is a moment when I, and other white people, need to show up.

What I do know is that Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict on all three counts is a lot of things and it absolutely matters, but it is not justice. To be honest, I am not even sure it is full accountability given the number of other cops who were also there when Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. Justice would be George Floyd coming home tonight. Justice would be not using guns at traffic stops. Justice would be placing counselors and social workers instead of cops in schools. Justice would be funding communities rather than the police. Justice would be healthcare for everyone. Justice would be dismantling a system that met Ma’Khia’s call for help with four bullets.

Why It’s Important to Get Curious About the Police and Safety

The most basic thing we all need in life is to feel safe. So when we hear people talking about police keeping us safe, please get curious. Keeping who safe? From what? From whom? What actually makes you feel safe? For me, it's about getting my basic needs met without feeling stress, along with having a sense of belonging. Those things don't come from the police. For George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland and so many others, it was the police that they needed protection from.

A guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin doesn’t keep other Black people safe. It didn’t keep Ma’Khia safe.

It shouldn't take this much work for us to convict someone of murder when it happens right in front of our eyes. It shouldn't happen in the first place. A 16 year old child should be helped and loved, not shot. We (white people) need to keep learning, unlearning, and working -- myself included. I will keep doing my own work because that is one of the best ways I can love people. We keep working for justice by pushing for changes that value Black life; not just for accountability after death.

To the Black Members of Our Community: You Matter

Imagine a world where we (white people) fight as hard for Black people to feel safe stopping at traffic lights, running in neighborhoods, or sleeping in bed, as we fight for our dogs to feel safe on walks. That needs to be our world.

TOC is a community. I don’t see a way to honor the meaning of community without truly seeing people. So while I don’t have big answers or solutions (and frankly, I choose to look to and support leaders from the Black community who are doing this work like Rachel Cargle, Dr. Yaba Blay, Sonya Renee Taylor, Ijeoma Oluo, and Ibram X. Kendi and Black-led organizations like Movement for Black Lives, The Great Unlearn, and The Audre Lorde Project), I do have the ability to control how I show up in my life and for this community. To our Black friends, I see you. Your safety matters. Your joy matters. Your life matters. You matter. I am holding space for you in this moment.

Kassidi Jones 4/19/21 Kassidi Jones 4/19/21

What My Dog’s Instagram Account Taught Me About Race

I started my dog’s Instagram account, @gingers_naps, because like every other dog parent in the world, I think my dog is the most beautiful dog to ever live. Since it was a “pet page,” I usually only appeared in the captions of the pictures, instead of the images themselves. The few times I did post myself on her page, I found that my engagement shot up and my followers and I had great conversations in the comments. I enjoyed getting to know the people who signed up to watch me fumble around as a dog mom, complain about those puppy vet bills, and use an excessive amount of exclamation points in captions about my dog’s stool.

Kassidi Jones, above with her rescue dog Ginger, is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in African American Studies and English, and a first-time dog mom.

For the first few weeks, the social media community I found was friendly, generous, and overwhelmingly white. The successful pet influencers that I wanted to emulate were dogs in white families. The brand accounts I followed reposted mostly white faces. I remember seeing a post from an account I liked stating that politics have no place on pet pages.

Suddenly, I could no longer scroll through my feed without thinking of how privileged the human beings behind the dog and cat faces I double-tapped must be if they could afford to ignore the real world issues faced by people from marginalized communities every day. And just as suddenly, I felt alone.

How I Learned That a Follow or a Like May be the Only Thing We Have In Common

Somehow, in all of the initial excitement about a new puppy and a growing Instagram following, I failed to fully understand the audience sliding into my DMs. While there were certainly great conversations about training and treats, that didn’t mean we shared opinions on social issues. I’m talking about antiblack and anti-Asian violence, sexism, and poverty - the issues that affect me and the people I love.

Still, how could I expect these Instagram followers to demonstrate their care for people when I shared so little about the person behind Ginger’s Naps? Would they be as engaged if my Blackness were more apparent? Or if I pivoted to talking about racism in the animal welfare industry and beyond? Eventually, I decided that the answer to those questions did not matter. The pet industry, especially on social media, had a void that I felt qualified to fill, or at least to try to address.

Did You Know That Racial Inequality Exists Throughout the Pet Industry?

What does your vet look like? What about the people who run your favorite pet influencer accounts? Who are the staff members and volunteers at your favorite shelter? When you see an advertisement for a pet product, does the human model in it look like you? These questions might seem immaterial, and in a perfect world, they would be. Unfortunately, ignoring race does not remedy racial inequality. Ignoring gender allows gender disparities to persist.

Let’s look at the numbers. In 2020, Zippia reported that only 3.2% of dog trainers were Black. In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics oddly reported that 0% of employed veterinarians were Black. And what about the demographics of pet owners? Just six months ago, Time published a piece addressing this lack of diversity in the veterinary field, despite over a third of Black families having at least one pet. A google search of the most popular pet influencer accounts (the ones that are able to make a living through their pets alone), produces almost exclusively white owners, some non-Black people of color, and no Black people. From dog shows and competitions to paid partnerships with big brand names, Black faces rarely appear — not because of a lack of interest, nor a lack of talent, but because systemic barriers have been put in place to keep Black people out of these spaces. The history of African Americans and their dogs is so fraught due to enslavement, and we have been facing those repercussions to this day.

Let’s Work Together To Learn and Show Up for People of Color

Recent demonstrations of police brutality, anti-Black and anti-Asian violence inspired many to use their platforms and their dollars to support people of color in various fields, but that support only seems to last as long as the major media coverage does. But people of color are people of color all day, everyday. We cannot opt out, and we cannot simply wait for another person to be harmed before we take action. What I’m proposing is a commitment to year-round allyship. Seek out and join in difficult conversations about privilege. Find POC-owned businesses to purchase pet products you were going to buy anyway. Follow, share, and engage with our social media accounts. (I put together this spreadsheet of Black pet Instagram accounts, including small businesses, trainers, vets, groomers, rescues, and pet parents.) Frequently ask yourself what you’re doing to show up for the people of color who love animals as much as you do.

I’ve teamed up with Tails of Connection to reach more people who have not yet noticed the lack of diversity in the animal welfare community, people who don’t know what human diversity has to do with pet care, and people who are interested in diversifying pet spaces but are not quite sure where to begin. I was one of those people less than a year ago, and I’m still learning as I go. I hope that you’ll learn along with me.

Jessica Yergin 3/15/21 Jessica Yergin 3/15/21

Our Favorite Dog Rain Gear for Surviving This Spring

Rain, rain, go away, so we can train some more today! Let’s be real, our sad rain dance song will probably have ZERO impact lol. Since Spring is upon us (how have we been living in a pandemic for a full year?! NUTS.) we reached out to our #TOCFam for their favorite rain gear for dogs. [Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you. Oh, and if something’s out of stock, our bad! It was there when we originally published this article.]

Five Awesome Dog Rain Gear Products That We Love

1. For the Dog: A Windbreaker That Works for Long, Big Chested Dogs

Miles the German Short Haired Pointer models his green windbreaker while standing in a grassy field.PNG

Why we love it: Doesn’t Miles the German Short Haired Pointer (@milesthegsp) look dapper in his doggy windbreaker?! His humom tells us, “Love this one! Great price, cool colors, great for long, weirdly shaped and big chested dogs like pointers! It also has amazing quality as well and can be used as a cute windbreaker during the spring.”

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2. For the Dog: An Adorable and Functional Yellow Raincoat

Athena the sheepadoodle models the yellow raincoat in a driveway in front of a black car.

Why We Love It: If you’ve been a member of our #TOCFam for a while, you’ve probably come across our dear friend, Athena, the Standard Sheepadoodle in Boston (@athena_a_dogess). Athena’s humom, Marisa, tipped us off to this adorable AND practical yellow raincoat that they just bought. We love the reflective trim for nighttime walks, the real working pockets, and of course the nautical striped lining. Doesn’t Athena look AMAZING?!

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3. For the human: A rechargeable hand warmer that fits in your pocket

Why We Love It: Our dear friend and Bernedoodle, Koro (@koro.the.bernedoodle), happened to just pass his Novice and Intermediate trick titles! When it comes to braving the rain, Shruti, Koro’s humom, tells TOC, “I’m a weak California girl that needs two of those hand warmers for cold walks with Koro!” Since Spring can still be pretty chilly, these are looking great to us right now!

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4. For the dog: A snazzy rain suit!

Why We Love It: Across the pond, Harley and Raffles (@harleyandraffles) are experts when it comes to surviving a grey day. Their humom tells TOC, “We love these rain suits. They keep everything dry.” While they’re a definite splurge, doesn’t Harley look SO ready to go dancing in the rain?!

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5. For the dog: The ultimate rubber ducky raincoat

Plato the sheepadoodle models his rubber ducky poncho on the street in front of a UPS truck, a brick building, trees and a car.

Why We Love It: I mean how could we not fall head over heals for this affordable dog poncho? Can you even believe this rubber ducky raincoat is real?! How good does Plato (@platothesheepadoodle) look?! We’re just waiting to find this in a matching human size LOL.

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Jessica Yergin 2/19/21 Jessica Yergin 2/19/21

Five Products for Surviving Winter With Your Dog

Walking down the street in freezing and icy weather can be a major solo-challenge for us humans. When you add dogs to the mix, let alone training your dog en route, all bets are off. We put together this guide below from trainers and members of our #TOCFam to help you and your dogs hack this Winter. [Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you. Oh, and if something’s out of stock, our bad! It was there when we originally published this article.]

The Five Products We Love For Surviving Winter With Your Dog

For the Human: Cleats!

Why We Love Them: Our friend and certified professional dog trainer, knowledge assessed, Gwen Podulka, tells TOC, “This is a dog owner’s best tool on a snowy day like today. Snow, sleet, and ice everywhere and we walked without a care, crunching along the way, destination coffee! And park.”

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2. For the Human and Dog: Squeeze Tubes!

Why We Love Them: Kira Burkhart, a beloved member of our #TOCFam along with her mini American Shepherd, Bailey (@wigglebutt_bailey on Instagram) told TOC, “We love to go for nature walks and practicing recall, but it's a lot less fun handling stinky high value rewards with cold fingers. We started making squeeze tube smoothies for snowy, windy, cold weather walks.” For Kira’s recipe DIY smoothie recipe that you can make once you have your very own squeeze tubes, click here.

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3. For the dog: Musher’s Secret paw balm

Why We Love It: Our TOC Co-Founder, Christie Catan, recently discovered that her dog, Otis (@otis_unleashed on Instagram), isn’t so hot on snow boots. Since it’s been snowing regularly in her neighborhood and there’s quite a bit of salt on the ground, she had to figure out another way to keep his paws safe (while she continues to work with Otis to desensitize him to his boots). She put Musher’s Secret on his paws before hiking in the woods. When she got home his paws looked great and she didn’t see any of those pesky ice balls that are such a pain to pick off.

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4. For the Dog: Snow BodySuit

Hazel the English Setter poses in her snow body suit.

Why We Love It: There’s pretty much no one in our #TOCFam who makes snowy hikes look as fun as Huckleburry & Hazel (@cowboyhuck on Instagram) in Wyoming. Their humom, Jessi Rick, tells TOC, Hazel’s super suit is from ThreadzNTails and she highly recommends one for anyone with a dog that has a snowball or burr problem.

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For the Dog: Boots!

Merrit the mini Golden Doodle poses in her Ruffwear boots.

Why We Love Them: If your dog is desensitized to wearing snow boots (you can use the same concept we outlined here to do this), they make life SO much easier. Imagine not having to worry about their paws getting salt and snowballs everywhere! We love this shot that Naila Campbell took of her mini Golden Doodle, Merit (@meritthemini on Instagram), wearing Ruffwear boots in the snow in Maryland. She calls these boots her “snow day essentials.”

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Two dogs with snow on their faces and a dog in a snowsuit surround the title of the article.

Jessica Yergin 2/18/21 Jessica Yergin 2/18/21

DIY: How to Make Your Dog Frozen Meal Toppers

Editor’s Note: This week we are so excited to bring you another edition of our TOC DIY series, brought to you by another wonderful member of our #TOCFam, Allison Jones. Allison lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan with her dog, Indy (@indy_inspired on Instagram). She told TOC, “We both adore food and the outdoors! I love using food toppers to keep Indy fueled for our next big hike…I started adding pumpkin to Indy’s meals for more fiber when she started to have mushy poops. It solved that problem but only came in large cans that would take too long to use up. That’s when I decided to start freezing it in cubes so I could store it longer and easily add it to her meals.” Lucky us, Allison’s agreed to share the secret to her frozen toppers so we can make them for our dogs to help spice up their meals and/or introduce some added nutrients. Keep scrolling for all of the steps and ingredient ideas to make your dog frozen meal toppers. [Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.]

Allison's dog, Indy, is a four year old rescue mix whom she adopted when she was around six months old.

📎 The Supplies You’ll Need to Make Your Dog Frozen Meal Toppers

Your choice of topper
An ice tray. Here’s one TOC found on Amazon.*
A spoon
A freezer bag
Access to a freezer

⏰ Time Commitment

Five minutes of prep
Two hours minimum in the freezer

✅ Step by Step: How to Make Your Own Frozen Meal Toppers

Get your choice of topper and do any cooking or blending needed (not always required) to get it into the desired consistency. You can buy pre-made mixes at a pet store or use something dog safe from a grocery store (like canned pumpkin!). A quick search online will give you other ideas, but here are some ingredients you could use: goat’s milk, yogurt, banana, sweet potatoes, carrots, blueberries, apples, bone broth, etc. For me, it’s about adding healthy whole foods (instead of treats like cheese or peanut butter) but it’s also thrifty! I make sure to dump the bottom dust/crumbles from a treat or kibble bag into a topper. (Note: before you make these, if your dog has allergies, be sure to consult with your veterinarian for advice).
Using a spoon, portion a bit of your topper into each section of the ice tray. Depending on consistency, you may want to add water.
Place the tray(s) in the freezer for at least two hours.
Once fully frozen, you can pop the cubes out of the tray and into a freezer bag for easy access at meal times. (A note on why I freeze these: I once bought a frozen bottle of goat’s milk to try adding it to Indy’s meals. After taking it home, I saw on the bottle that it needed to be used within a few days of thawing. I wanted Indy to get the benefit of probiotics but not have to go through a bottle every few days! Freezing that in ice tray sized portions allowed me to use a bottle a month.)

If you have something that you’d like to DIY for our #TOCFam, please fill out our form here.

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.

PS: Pin this post for later!

Frozen meal toppers in a blue ice tray sit atop a headline about how to DIY these for your dog, which is above Indy eating the toppers and a bowl of frozen toppers in different colors

Jessica Yergin 1/28/21 Jessica Yergin 1/28/21

DIY: Make Your Dog a Squeeze Tube Fruit Smoothie

Editor’s Note: This week we are elated to bring you another installment for our #TOCDIY series, featuring our latest diy-er, Kira Burkhart, and her mini American Shepherd, Bailey (@wigglebutt_bailey on Instagram). Kira told TOC, “We love to go for nature walks and practicing recall, but it's a lot less fun handling stinky high value rewards with cold fingers. We started making these [squeeze tube smoothies] for snowy, windy, cold weather walks.” Keep scrolling for all of the steps to make your dog their very own squeeze tube fruit smoothie. [Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.]

📎 The Supplies You’ll Need to Make Homemade Squeeze Tube Fruit Smoothies

Kira told TOC that Bailey’s absolute favorite walks are in the snow. “He would stay in the snow forever if he could, so squeeze tube smoothies are perfect when mittens or gloves are a must!”

Dog friendly fruit (e.g. bananas, raspberries)
Greek yogurt
Peanut butter
Water (as needed for getting the right texture)
A blender
A squeeze tube for the treat (e.g. travel sized toiletry bottles). You can find these in the travel toiletry section at the grocery store, CVS, or get them on Amazon.*

⏰ Time Commitment

Prep time: five minutes

✅ Step by Step: How to Make Your Dog Squeeze Tube Fruit Smoothie

Step One: Throw some dog-friendly fruit into the blender (e.g. one banana, a handful of raspberries or strawberries).
Step Two: Add two heaping spoonfuls of greek yogurt (or skip the dairy if your dog has a sensitive stomach).
Step Three: Add two spoonfuls of peanut butter.
Step Four: Blend until smooth! You can add some water if you want a thinner texture/consistency.
Step Five: Pour the smoothie into the squeeze tube.
Step Six: Treat your dog!

If you have something that you’d like to DIY for our #TOCFam, please fill out our form here.

*[Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.]

PS: Pin this post for later!

A blender with a banana in it sits on top of a headline DIY: How to Make a Squeeze Tube Fruit Smoothie" with peanut butter being blended and Bailey the American Shepherd drinking out of a squeeze tube below it.

Christie Catan 1/21/21 Christie Catan 1/21/21

How to Use the Dog Park to Train Your Dog

We love dog parks - just not for the reason you might think. Let us explain. Other dogs can be a huge distraction (or even a trigger) for your dog. Maybe you have a super social dog who pulls you on the leash toward other dogs. Or maybe your dog lunges and barks out of fear when they see other dogs. Or perhaps your dog simply has a hard time giving you any attention around dogs. In order to help your dog feel more neutral or be able to offer behaviors you want around them, it is really important to find opportunities to work around dogs where you can control the distance between your dog and the other dogs. And that is where dog parks can be helpful: the fence around the park becomes your teammate. Instead of going into the dog park, you and your dog can work outside of it -- adjusting your distance to meet your dog’s individual needs (or perhaps even staying in the car). It gives you the ability to work around distractions/triggers while keeping your dog under threshold. It is easy to focus on your dog engaging with other dogs, but what might happen if you shift that focus a bit to your dog engaging with you around other dogs? While this list is certainly not exhaustive, we wanted to share six ideas of simple activities you can try outside of your local dog park.

Play the Engage/Disengage Game Outside of the Dog Park

Engage/Disengage is a simple game that you can use in training sessions and in everyday life that will help change your dog’s emotional response to seeing other dogs. It will also teach your dog how to automatically look to you when they see a dog.

What: The game has two levels. In Level One, you mark the moment your dog notices/engages with the other dog. In Level Two, you wait for your dog to look away from the other dog and then mark and reward. Check out the infographic below for details.
Why: This “game” is simple and crazy powerful! This game will help your dog learn how to self-interrupt when they notice other dogs (or whatever stimuli you do this with) and will reduce the stressful feelings that come up. Engage/disengage will help make your dog’s new default response around other dogs be to disengage and look at you.

In this infographic, Alice Tong breaks down the steps for the engage/disengage game with an illustration of a dog and a human.

How to Practice U-Turns Away from Dogs Outside of the Dog Park

Sometimes you just need to be able to walk the other direction when you see a dog -- here is your chance to practice that!

What: Walk toward the dogs (aka toward the dog park). Say whatever cue you use to ask your dog to flip around and follow you (e.g. “let’s go”) and then turn around 180 degrees (avoid yanking your dog -- you want your dog to be responding to your cue and body language). Mark and reward your dog as soon as they flip around to face you. (Note: Practice this in a low distraction setting before you try it outside a dog park.)

Why: This builds a history of reinforcement for your dog for turning away from dogs and makes it more likely that they will be able to do this in everyday life settings.

Try the Cookie Toss Game Outside of the Dog Park

TOC co-founder, Christie Catan, plays the cookie toss game with Hana, the American Staffordshire Terrier Puppy, during a session for how to use the dog park to train your dog.

This may look simple, but the cookie toss game is powerful and can helps your dog choose to engage with you instead of with other dogs (or more broadly, the environment).

What: This engagement pattern game may look easy, but it can have a lot of impact! To play, say “get it” and then toss a treat to the side for your dog to chase. After they eat it, they are likely going to look back to you wondering if there are more treats. The moment the orient to you (aka as soon as they turn back toward you), say “get it” (which is your marker in this game) and toss a treat to the other side for your dog to chase. Keep repeating this pattern. Remember: This is not a recall game, so try not to say your dog’s name or use their recall cue. You want them to choose to turn back to you. If they need some help, try making a kissy noise. (Note: Teach your dog this game in a low distraction setting first.)
Why: This game helps your dog choose you! After they eat the cookie that you toss, they have to make the choice to turn away from whatever is “out there” (in this case, that’s the dogs in the dog park) and turn back to you. You reward that choice by tossing a treat for them to chase, and most dogs find chasing quite fun! This game gives your dog a lot of practice in looking away from dogs and toward you! The simple pattern also helps your dog make the choice to engage with you because it is familiar.

Play With Your Dog Outside of the Dog Park

If you want your dog to engage with you around other dogs, it certainly doesn’t hurt for them to think you are fun!

What: Have some fun with your dog! We are big fans of personal play for its ability to give you information about your dog’s threshold, but feel free to bring food and toys into the mix.
Why: Good play is super engaged! Fun play can help your dog see that you can actually be more fun than those dogs inside of the park (or at least a decent substitute - LOL!). Play can also help you gauge where your dog’s threshold is. If your dog is too concerned about the other dogs to play with you, create more distance. You can even combine play with some engage/disengage by waiting for your dog to look away from the dogs and orient to you and rewarding that choice with play!

Recall Away from Dogs Outside of the Dog Park

Just because your dog knows the word “come” doesn’t mean they can always respond to it; here is a chance to work through a distraction (other dogs) in a controlled setting!

What: Say “get it” and toss a cookie away from you toward the dog park. After they eat the cookie and right before they turn around, say “come” (or whatever recall cue you use). Mark and reward them the moment they turn back to you and give them a treat. Repeat.
Why: This builds a history of reinforcement for turning away from dogs in response to their recall cue. Practice makes progress!

Engaged Walking Just Outside of the Dog Park

City sidewalks can be tough if you have a dog with big feelings about other dogs. Walking outside of a dog park allows you to build up that walking behavior around dogs, without feeling afraid that your dog is getting too close.

What: Take your leash walking show on the road! Try some of the leash walking exercises you have been working on at home outside of the dog park. The goal is for your dog to choose to walk near you rather than you having to bribe or nag your dog. You can use your body language and voice to keep them engaged and then reinforce the behavior you like with treats or play. If they get distracted, just wait them out and come to life when they choose to re-engage with you (unless you think they are going to react -- in which chase, create distance ASAP).
Why: The dog park gives you an opportunity to reinforce your dog for walking near you around other dogs while controlling your distance between them to keep your dog successful. Practicing here should help set your dog up for success for walks in everyday life.

Please be cognizant of your dog’s individual needs before you pull up to a crowded dog park. That may be too much for your dog. When in doubt, find dog parks where you know you can start really far away (aka not one where there is almost no surrounding area for you to work in).

Have you tried training your dog outside of the dog park? If you try this (even if it’s around other dogs in a different setting), let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag @tailsofconnection on Facebook or Instagram and use the hashtag #tailsofconnection.

PS: Pin this post for later!

The headline "Six Things To Do at a Dog Park to Build Calm and Attention" wraps around an image of Hana, the American Staffordshire Terrier puppy wearing a red sweater outside of the gate to the dog park.

Christie Catan 1/21/21 Christie Catan 1/21/21

How Do I Stop My Dog From Eating Dirt or Mud

Does your dog really enjoy snacking on a nice mud pit? Or maybe rolling in it? It can be so easy to focus on what you don’t want your dog to do in this situation (roll in or eat the mud), but what would happen if you focused on what you DO want your dog to do around the mud instead? Our co-founder, Christie Catan, thought it would be fun to show you some real-time problem solving using her dog, Otis, who happens to have a real taste for mud from the big old wet pits 😋. (Note: If your dog is obsessively eating mud or dirt, you may want to ask your vet about it.)

What to Think About Before You Can Start Training

Whether your dog enjoys eating or rolling in dirt (or even going toward something else tempting in their environment), the same training principals will apply here. For the purposes of this training session, I worked with Otis around mud because he finds particularly stinky patches of it extra tasty after a good rain. You can try the same steps below for any environmental distraction your dog wants to go toward when you would prefer for them not to!

But before you even start training, it’s important to do some observing. What’s happening when your dog is around their distraction (mud, dirt, sticks, etc.)? When Otis notices a nice mud pit (the antecedent), he eats the mud (his behavior) and seems to find it yummy since it leads to him eating more of it (the consequence).

Once you’ve got this worked out, decide what you want your dog to do instead of succumbing to their current behavior around the distraction. I asked, “What do I want Otis to do when he spots a stinky mud pit?” My answer: I want him to come to me, and I will give him something yummy.

Step By Step: How Do I Stop My Dog From Eating Dirt or Mud

TOC Co-Founder, Christie Catan’s dog, Otis, stand in front of a mud pit in the woods in Washington, DC during their training session for how do I stop my dog from eating dirt or mud.

That all sounds great but you’re probably wondering how is this ever going to be possible? The answer is simple: CAPTURE BEHAVIOR!! Believe it or not, even when Otis goes to eat mud, he is offering behavior I can use (it happens the exact moment he notices the mud but before he eats it), so I need to pay attention and be ready to mark the moment he notices mud but before he actually eats it (say ‘yes,’ use a click etc.). Keep reading for the basic gist.

STEP ONE: Mark the moment your dog notices mud (before they eat it!) and then give them a treat. Repeat (the number of reps will vary by dog and situation). You are creating an association that mud pits (or whatever distraction you are working with) predict a treat from you!

STEP TWO: When your dog notices mud (or whatever distraction you are working with), wait to see what they do (they have been getting treats from you every time they notice mud, so you are high on the list of places they will look when they don’t hear a marker). Mark and reward the moment they look toward you. Now you are reinforcing the desired behavior around mud: orienting away from the mud and toward you.

The Subtle Shift That Happens When You Train Your Dog to Stop Eating Mud

In the video, can you spot the shift between step one and step two? Did you notice it isn’t a linear progression? That means that even though your dog was able to look away from the mud (or whatever distraction) last time, it doesn’t necessarily mean they can this time. You have to make a judgment call based on a lot of factors (e.g. the value of the distraction, the distance from you, the value of your reinforcer, the environment, your dog’s state of mind, their training history, etc.).

Some behaviors almost beg us to focus on what we don’t want our dogs to do, but see if you can ask yourself what behavior you want instead. In the video, you can see just how quickly Otis starts CHOOSING to look to me instead of eating the mud. The shift in behavior was accomplished with a well-timed marker cue and some treats. That’s it!

(Note: Otis has discerning taste when it comes to mud. In other words, he doesn’t eat all mud and dirt. He is drawn to very specific mud pits, and having observed his choices and behavior, it is much easier for me to sort out when he is likely to want to eat it versus just the usual sniffing dogs do.)

Have you tried training your dog to stop eating mud or dirt? If you try this (even if it’s around a totally different distraction), let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag @tailsofconnection on Facebook or Instagram and use the hashtag #tailsofconnection.

PS: Pin this post for later!

The headline "Help: How Do I Stop My Dog From Eating Mud or Dirt" sits above an image of Otis the Sheepadoodle staring at a mud pit

Jessica Yergin 1/15/21 Jessica Yergin 1/15/21

DIY: How to Make Salmon Dog Treats

Editor’s Note: This week we are SO happy to bring you the latest installment in our #TOCDIY series, featuring homemade salmon dog treats! This week’s diy-er is Meg Lucas, a member of our #TOCFam, along with her dog, Teddy (or Ted for short), a 16-month-old Border Terrier (@token.ted on Instagram). Meg told us Ted is, “The most happy-go-lucky dog we've ever met, and we *love* his personality.” Keep scrolling for the easy AND inexpensive salmon treat recipe that Ted loves! [Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.]

📎 The Supplies You’ll Need to Make Homemade Salmon Dog Treats

“We live in London, UK so Ted's a rural breed with an urban lifestyle. When we're not in lockdown 😅 my partner Sam and I love traveling around the UK with Ted. But right now we keep him busy with 'truffle hunting' (we hide a cotton pad with a drop … — “We live in London, UK so Ted's a rural breed with an urban lifestyle. When we're not in lockdown 😅 my partner Sam and I love traveling around the UK with Ted. But right now we keep him busy with 'truffle hunting' (we hide a cotton pad with a drop of truffle oil around the house for him to find), training, and various enrichment activities involving the contents of our recycling bin” Meg told TOC.

One tin of canned salmon* (or any dog-safe canned fish/meat)
One tablespoon of chickpea flour (or any flour of your choice)
A silicone mat (we use a semi-sphere silicone baking mat with indents). Here’s one TOC found on Amazon.*
An oven or dehydrator
*Never feed raw Pacific salmon.

⏰ Time Commitment

Prep time: five minutes
Dehydrating time: three to four hours (don’t worry - you can work on other things at the same time)

✅ Step by Step: How to Cook Your Own Salmon Dog Treats

Mix together salmon and chickpea flour until you have a smooth paste (the texture of a mashed potato).
Smear the paste into your chosen molds.
Dehydrate in an oven or dehydrator for three to four hours at 70°C or 158°F.
Store in an airtight container for one week or freeze in portions.

If you have something that you’d like to DIY for our #TOCFam, please fill out our form here.

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning TOC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you.

PS: Pin this post for later!

A can of salmon sits next to bag of flour and above the headline of this article and a salmon mold with the mush in it beside an image of a hand pushing the mold into the oven.

Christie Catan 12/29/20 Christie Catan 12/29/20

Cooperative Care: How to Desensitize a Dog to Wearing a Hat

‘Tis the season for putting a Santa hat on your dog! Before you force that hat on their head, have you considered getting your dog to opt into wearing a hat? Did you know it’s possible to desensitize them to wearing a hat through cooperative care? Actually in the Camp TOC scavenger hunt, we have a bingo square as a little mock cooperative care activity: desensitize your dog to a hat or sunglasses! While it’s just a silly hat, the basic idea of this exercise sets you up for things that matter a lot more (cooperative care for grooming, eye drops, ear cleaning etc. 🙌)! Our co-founder, Christie Catan, filmed this tutorial for someone in our #TOCFam who wanted help, and she figured, “why not just share it with everyone!?” While this is NOT a fancy video (in fact, in her words “it’s poorly lit and framed” 😂), we hope that it will give you some ideas that will be useful! Keep reading to see the written steps she followed to get her dog, Otis, to consent to wearing a hat.

Step by Step: How to Desensitize a Dog to Wearing a Hat

Christie Catan puts a hat on her dog, Otis's, head as part of the training session for how to desensitize your dog to wearing a hat.

Step One: Shape a behavior that will become your start button. I am going to use eye contact as Otis’s start button behavior, so I simply sit in front of him and mark and reward him (by saying yes and giving him a treat) when he looks at me. I do this a few times to make eye contact a behavior he wants to offer.

Step Two: Introduce the hat. You’ll notice that first I flash the hat in front of Otis and mark and reward each time that happens. This is so he starts to understand that the hat predicts a treat, and he feels good about the hat showing up. Now technically, what is happening here is that Otis looks at me and then I flash the hat and give him a treat (eye contact is already becoming a start button). It is not the end of the world if you just do some basic desensitization of the hat without thinking about start buttons for a few reps as long as you don’t reach the hat too close to your dog.

Step Three: Be intentional about eye contact as a start button for moving the hat toward your dog. Since we already shaped eye contact, that is a behavior Otis is likely to offer. I will only move the hat when he is looking at me. If Otis looks away from me and stops making eye contact, I stop moving the hat towards him and don’t move it any closer (you can still give a treat for this; just don’t mark). Make sure to go slowly! You will notice that I mark a lot even though I have only moved the hat a few inches. The trick here is not to push your dog too hard and to get them to consent to having the hat near them by continuing to look at you (or by doing another consent behavior that you select).

Step Four: Put the Hat on Your Dog. Since Otis continues to look at me the whole time, I can finally put the hat on him. If your dog continues to give consent through eye contact (or whatever start button behavior you chose), go ahead and try it! Remember if your dog looks away, pull that hat back (and give them a treat). They are allowed to say no. By letting them say no, they will say yes far more often (yay science!).

The Power of Choice Based Dog Training

One of the coolest parts about this is what happens when you give your dog the power of choice and control in dog training. By giving Otis the ability to opt in or out, I actually increase the frequency with which he opts in (COOL, right!?). Anyway, take this video or leave it (but know the actual camp videos are much much better than this 😂).

By the way, please don’t fret if you didn’t put a hat on your dog in this cooperative way in the past. Feel free to loop back if you’re interested. Also, your session may look different than mine. I chose a very simple behavior as my consent behavior (eye contact), but do what works for you (some other ideas include chin rest or when your dog looks at food in a bowl). The idea is to give your dog control over their environment, so they aren’t freaked out by a strange object coming toward them. The fun part of trying cooperative care with a hat is that it is low pressure. You don’t have to stress if your dog opts out or it takes many sessions to get the hat on since getting the hat on is not critical. Often times we think about cooperative care in moments when we don’t actually have the ability to give our dogs choice, and that isn’t the moment to try to work through this since “no” may not be something you can actually honor if it is medically necessary.

Have you tried putting a hat on your dog through cooperative care? If you try this, let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag @tailsofconnection on Facebook or Instagram and use the hashtag #tailsofconnection.

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Otis the dog wears a Gracie's Ice Cream trucker hat under the caption "How to Desensitize Your Dog to Wearing a Hat"

Christie Catan 12/29/20 Christie Catan 12/29/20

Cooperative Care: How Choice Based Dog Training Can Help With Grooming

Editor’s Note: If your dog had two ways to get treats and only one of them involved enduring something that they don’t like (aka getting their hair brushed), why would they ever choose the option that involved something they didn’t particularly enjoy? Because giving your dog the gift of choice AND control is magical (it is actually a primary reinforcer)! We are big fans of start buttons when it comes to working with our dogs. Recently, we were having a conversation with one of our friends, Logan Buie, and she talked about adding a second behavior option (in addition to the standard start button) that doesn’t result in us doing anything to the dog to help ensure that your dog actually has full choice and control (R+ can be coercive if the only way for the dog to access reinforcement is by doing something they really don’t feel comfortable with). Our co-founder, Christie Catan, was very intrigued and thought she would try this out with her dog, Otis. Watch the video above to see their real life cooperative care/start button training session, and keep reading for all the steps she followed to see how choice based dog training can help with grooming your dog.

A Little Background On Cooperative Care and A “No” Behavior

Cooperative care is rooted in empowering animals to be willing participants in their own care. In practice, this means we give them a way to "say” yes or no. We give them a way to say yes by turning a behavior into a start button. Practically speaking, this means we only take our action after the dog offers the specific start button behavior. The dog learns that if they don’t give that behavior, the the thing we are doing to do to them doesn’t happen. Therefore, they are in control! As you may have guessed, cooperative care hinges on the ability for your dog to “say” no. As with human relationships, anything other than a clear yes is a no (and no’s get rewarded too!). Let’s say your start button behavior for brushing your dog is your dog lying down on a mat. When they lie down, you brush them. If they don’t go lie down on the mat, it is a no, and it is important that we honor and reward that no. Sometimes our hopes for a training session can lead us to push for yes even though our dog is saying no, so the experiment I tried was to give a definitive “no” behavior to compliment the “yes” (start button) behavior. You can find information about how I set this up below.

My Experiment to See How Choice Based Dog Training Can Help With Grooming

Step One (Pick Your Activity): I picked an activity that Otis isn’t super fond of: Combing. Prior to this session, Otis did not have a start button for combing.

Christie Catan combs her dog, Otis's, hair during a training session for how choice based dog training can help with grooming.

Step Two (Present Your Dog With Two Options for Reinforcement): We presented Otis with two options for accessing reinforcement (treats): A) Touching a target; and B) Lying down on a mat. (Note: This is a mat Otis has never seen before, so he doesn’t have a big history with it.)

Step Three (Shape and Reward Your Dog for Interaction With Both Objects): We shaped and rewarded him to interact with both the mat and the target right before we started filming to create a little history of reinforcement.

Step Four (Add the Start Button Element): Then we added the start button element: If he laid down on the mat, we combed him and then gave him a treat. If he touched the target, he just got a treat tossed away (did not get combed). We never once cued him to lie on the mat. We did cue him a couple of times to touch the target to ensure that he knew that he could access reinforcement without having to be combed. (You may also have spotted some reset tosses done to get him off the mat or if he hesitated.) We know the science, but watching it play out is still so thrilling. He picked the mat time and time again. This is also the best body language I have seen from him around a comb.

More Reflections on the Importance of Choice in Cooperative Care

Pretty cool, huh!? Control is a primary reinforcer, and sometimes we forget that. Give your dog a choice and reward them for saying no...and watch how much more they will say yes!

By the way, I tried very hard not to bias Otis toward one behavior with my own body language, but I very well could have shown more excitement over the mat knowing where I was going with this. It wouldn’t have been intentional but that doesn’t rule it out 😂. Otis definitely gets MORE treats on the mat since it’s a duration behavior (though I toss treats off a lot to make it clear that I’ll reward him even if he leaves), and that is intentional. This is a dog who really doesn’t like being combed, so to see this much more excitement for the mat given all the other ways I am reinforcing him off the mat is a big, big win!

I had fun adding this second behavior option and can see how it would be helpful. I think if you have good communication with your dog and established trust, you likely won’t need it, but if I am honest, I think I made more progress by adding the target as an option. You can play around and see what you think!

Have you tried adding a second behavior option to cooperative care? If you try this, let us know how it goes! Don’t forget to tag @tailsofconnection on Facebook or Instagram and use the hashtag #tailsofconnection.

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Christie bends over to brush her dog Otis in front of a white brick wall and greenery above it while he lies on a yoga mat.

Christie Catan 12/17/20 Christie Catan 12/17/20

Make It Fun for Your Dog To Look Back at You Outside

The outdoors come with all sorts of sights, smells, and sounds, so it is helpful to teach your dog how to enjoy the world without totally forgetting that you exist. In this video above (and the written steps outlined below), we’ll show you some simple ways to build an automatic check in behavior (and even how to turn that into some recall practice). Your dog will learn that coming into you actually gets them access to fun things “out there,” and if you are able to move a bit, you can make yourself a really fun part of this game too (chasing YOU is fun!). Keep scrolling for those steps to work on this with your dog at home.

Step by Step: How to Make It Fun for Your Dog to Look Back at You Outside

Christie Catan looks at Hana, the American Staffordshire Terrier puppy, during a TOC training session for making it fun for your dog to look back at you outside.

Step One: To start to make it fun for your dog to look back at you outside. Begin by tossing some treats in the grass away from your dog and then back away from your dog. Simply wait while your dog sniffs to find the treats (try not to say "come" or use their name). You want them to make a choice to come to you
Step Two: When your dog comes to you (likely wondering if you have more treats), mark and reward (toss treats away from you).
Step Three: You can start to actually run away from your dog when they head toward you to build more speed and enthusiasm (chasing you is fun!).
Step Four: Once your dog has this down, you can add in a recall cue right before your dog turns if you want some recall practice.

How This Game Can Also Help Your Dog Make Good Choices

Turn distractions into cues for your dog to check in with you: This game relies on a simple out and back pattern where your dog is always returning to you. If your dog notices something before they turn to you (a person, another dog, etc.), it can become an environmental cue to check in with you as you repeatedly reinforce them for noticing that distraction and coming back to you. Want to know how this works?! Just look at what trainers call the ABC’s (antecedent, behavior, and consequence). The behavior is what the dog actually does (in this case, turn around and run to you). The consequence is what gets added or removed after the behavior (in this case, you are tossing a treat). The antecedent is everything that happens right before the behavior that leads to the behavior. If your dog finishes eating a treat and looks up and sees a person before they decide to turn around and run to you, seeing that person is part of the antecedent and can become a cue that actually will tell your dog to check in with you in the future without you having to ask for this behavior. So if your dog is off leash somewhere and spots someone and you have practiced this game a fair bit with people as distractions, your dog may very well see that person and choose to check in with you rather than darting over to the person. Cool, right? If this is a behavior you really want, know that there are ways you can be super intentional about teaching this within the context of this game and many other ways (maybe that’s an article for another time!).

Plus, it would be hard for us to oversell how valuable it is to reinforce your dog for turning back to you. If you make looking back at you and choosing to come to you behaviors that pay, you will see more and more of them without having to nag your dog. So if you are out on a walk and find yourself thinking, “Why does my dog look back at me on walks,” you can remind yourself it is from all the little times you reinforced them for flipping around to you!

How Focus Games for Dogs Can Help With Attention Outside

It is pretty hard to get your dog to do anything if you don’t actually have their attention. In the Tails of Connection Challenge we have a whole day devoted to attention games, where you teach your dog that it is awesome to focus on you and remind them that they should look at you when you call their name (plus it’s always good to show them that their name is a positive thing). We play these games inside to start and also include a bonus video on how to start to capture your dog’s attention on walks outside. To sign up for the Tails of Connection Challenge, click here.

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Hana the America Stafford Terrier puppy stands in front of a blurry rainbow mosaic

Christie Catan 12/17/20 Christie Catan 12/17/20

How to Teach Your Dog Recall With Distractions

Have you ever recalled your dog to come to you outside and never felt so ignored? Good news: That "failure" or slow recall simply tells you where your gaps are, and lucky for you, recall training is a lot of fun! We thought it would be fun to show you a session TOC Co-Founder, Christie Catan, did with her dog, Otis, to work through a gap she recently found in their recall training. Keep reading for some behind the scenes context from Christie and Otis’s training session and all of the steps written out for how to teach your dog recall with distractions.

Are there any gaps in your dog’s recall that you are currently working through? If you did the TOC Challenge or Camp TOC, you probably know by now that Otis is one of those dogs who could convince a stranger that I never feed him. He LOVES to eat. Recently, I saw him going for something on the ground and tried recalling him when he was almost to the food. Instead of flipping around to me, he moved even faster to get to the thing he wanted to eat 😜. While I wasn't thrilled, I also wasn't mad. It is my responsibility to teach Otis how to recall, and by not giving me the behavior when I cued it there, Otis simply showed me an area where he wasn't able to do what I was asking. Then comes the fun part: How do I create some training sessions that mimic my real life "failed" recall, so I can start showing Otis how to recall in that situation?

Step by Step: How to Teach Your Dog Recall With Distractions

Above, Christie and Otis train in front of an x-pen that has a bowl of chicken inside of it as part of a training session for how to teach your dog to recall distractions.

Step One (Figure Out Your Gap): I knew my gap was in recalling Otis away from something he wanted to eat when he was close to it (let’s say less than eight feet away from it for now) and off leash.
Step Two (Select Your Distraction): For our training session, I decided to use chicken as the distraction (it is high value but not the highest value possible) and chose to work in a relatively small and clear space (I wanted to be close enough to him to make this recall feasible to start). I also used chicken I had on me as my reinforcer.
Step Three (Make the Distraction Easier For Your Dog to Recall From): I put some chicken into a bowl and then put that bowl inside of an x-pen (Otis knew the chicken was there but had no way to get it). This allowed me to build up a bit of a reinforcement history with Otis for recalling away from that chicken while off leash without having to worry about him failing a recall (management for the win!).
Step Four (Start to Take Off the Training Wheels): This started to look too easy in a hurry, so I removed the x-pen. Now, I could have put a leash on Otis at this point, but I chose not to (mostly because I knew it would force me to really think through my training and how to progress without lumping criteria - aka asking for too much from Otis before he is ready). I knew this would be hard, so I focused on recalling him early in his approach to the chicken (aka not waiting for him to be two inches away from it), marking behavior quickly (I was marking him the moment he turned instead of waiting for him to get all the way to me), and using some of my own body movement after the recall cue to help him out. At some point, I want him to recall off chicken when he is about to eat it, but I know that day is not today. So I am starting where we are and will work up to that.
Step Five (Release to that Reward): At the very end of the clip, you will notice that I release him to go eat the distraction chicken as his reward. I ran out of chicken, but if I were a betting gal, I would bet that that release as a reward will be an even greater reinforcer of recall here, so I may try that more in the next session we do (remember, the dog's behavior tells us what is reinforcing). You can play around with your rewards to see what is most reinforcing! For example, a treat tossed away that your dog gets to chase may be much more motivating than simply handing your dog a treat.

How to Improve Your Dog’s Recall (It Takes More Than This!)

Recall has to be fun! Think about it for a second. There are emotions tied to everything your dog does. What type of emotion will work in your favor with a recall behavior? In our experience, it tends to be enthusiastic, happy, and optimistic. So if you are viewing recall training as a chore, ask yourself what kind of emotions you might be bringing.

Recall involves relationship. It just does. There is more to it than that, but it is so important not to forget or downplay this piece. Simply doing fun things with your dog will improve your recall — especially playing with them! I can do a lot to strengthen a recall using food, but I have found that I actually need toys and play to really really build that crazy speed with recall (it makes sense when you think about prey drive).

There is a lot that goes into recall and building it up looks different for different dogs. The video and steps in this article are certainly not a recall protocol. This is just an example of how I started working through a gap I found. Hopefully this can give you some ideas on how to work through areas where your dog is not able to recall.

That is all for now! We would love to know if you’re working on how to improve your dog’s recall and what distractions you are working through or want to work through. Tag us on Instagram or Facebook (@Tailsofconnection) and use the hashtag #tailsofconnection.

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Christie Catan recalls her dog Otis from a bowl of chicken on a concrete floor in front of white bricks and greenery.

Christie Catan 12/10/20 Christie Catan 12/10/20

How to Train Your Dog to Enjoy a Collar Grab

It is so important that your dog enjoys or tolerates a collar grab as a safety measure. At some point in your puppy or dog's life, they might need to be caught while they are loose, and we want them to feel comfortable with this. Grabbing a collar can arouse some dogs who may start nipping at your hand and intimidate other dogs who may back away to try to prevent you from being able to grab their collar. You can teach them to enjoy having their collar grabbed by making the collar grab predict something they like (food). In this video above, Gwen Podulka, CPDT-ka and founder of Dog Trained, is working on collar grabs with elkhound puppy, Nova. Keep scrolling for the written steps to help train your dog to enjoy a collar grab.

Step by Step: Collar Grab Dog Training

Gwen kneels with Nova, the Elkhound puppy, during a training session for collar grabs.

Step One: If you can't grab the collar without your dog getting mouthy or frightened, you can show them what you are going to do first (the physical gesture of reaching toward them) but then give them a treat WHILE you reach for that collar (you will see Gwen do this in the first rep in the video above).
Step Two: Once your dog is comfortable, you can move to reaching and grabbing your dog’s collar FIRST and THEN giving them a treat (this is what Gwen does in the later reps in the video). That is ultimately the order we want: one reach and grab collar THEN two deliver a treat (we need that collar grab to be the predictor of good things in order for your dog to build up good feelings about it).
Step Three: You can then practice these grabs from various positions: to the side of your dog, in front of your dog, behind your dog, sitting down, standing up, etc. (As a note, you could add a step and present your hand without fully grabbing the collar followed by a treat to start making the act of reaching more pleasant for your dog before you ever work up to grabbing the collar.).

Behind the Scenes: A Special Filming Note from Gwen

I had someone ask a really great question about the mask. They said “Why wear one since the likelihood that dogs transmit Covid is extremely low?” It gave me the great excuse to mention that we train in masks in my studio in Washington, DC a) because there is still another person in studio and we can’t always maintain distance but more importantly we REALLY want puppies to learn that masks = fun and they don’t need to worry about someone wearing one around them.

To learn more about Gwen and her training business, click here. For more TOC training tutorials, keep learning and training here.

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Gwen kneels with Nova, the elk hound puppy, during a collar grab training session.

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