good afternoon how many of you have
lived with the dog ah the vast majority
of you know the joy of that experience
and the remarkable interactions that we
have with dogs that we live with and how
we communicate in both verbal and
nonverbal ways and how they communicate
excuse me with us similarly so what I
will talk to you about today is some of
those ways in some ways that we can
overcome some of the difficulties that
dogs have so if you live with dogs you
know something about that communication
the fact that when you put on your
running shoes you're sort of asking your
dog want to go and what does your dog do
jump for joy follow you around the house
ready ready to go if you put on your go
to work show choose what what might your
dog do sulk go to its bed look sugar and
sad so you and your dog are having
communication in that way when you're
having us that day you may find your dog
appears and puts its head in your lap
seemingly so empathetic to your feelings
it's quite remarkable isn't it this
social intelligence of dogs that we have
lived as humans with dogs for thousands
of years and dogs have really become
perfected this type of intelligence
where they notice things visually and
sounds as well and we communicate in
many ways in my role as a veterinary
behaviorist at North Carolina State
University College of Veterinary
Medicine clients come to see us with
their dogs and their dogs they regale me
with stories about their dogs
intelligence the fact that they know so
much they do tricks and they may show me
the many even complex skills that their
dog
have but they come to see us because
there's something that dog can't learn
and it puzzles them like he learns all
these other things why can he learn this
particular behavior or more commonly not
to do a certain behavior and we'll talk
about some of those and so what we often
find is that that the impediment to
learning may have something to do with
anxiety and fear so what I'd like to do
is share some examples from our clinic
of some of the things that we see and
then in ways that we might help dogs as
we go forward and express our
compassionate care for them and our
desire to live harmoniously with them as
well so here our cute cue video so this
the clinic the dog is barking and
jumping up and this is the x-rated part
of the video he's hunting me as well
he's so confused ah there we go
here we go some of you may recognize
this kind of vocalization at your front
door
so this okay uncertainty about what to
do in in a sort of a rousing situation
another option is to use the keep away
signal the signal that says maybe to the
approach of a friendly stranger where
the dog says I don't know you get back
stay away from my owner here is the
threat that I'm giving you a growl and a
snarl and at that moment I really didn't
want that at least break right and this
may be familiar to some of you dogs that
are a dog that is never destructive when
the owner is at home and yet when left
alone destroys the blinds choose the
molding around the around the door in an
apparent attempt to escape
bondage and go with the owner so what we
often call separation anxiety and I want
to show you some examples of how dogs
express themselves and Express these
emotional states of anxiety and fear
we're going to show two videos here two
videos and this is my therapy dog Kenya
and I'm there on the right and she's on
the Left she's going to be approached by
a person she knows very well and on the
right she'll be approached by a friendly
stranger that she doesn't know as well
so if you would start the left video and
then stop on my signal and then stop
there and then the video on the right as
you can see a friendly stranger approach
and watch her behavior so the video on
the right please you got a friendly
greeting and stop there and compare
these two videos right it's pretty
subtle this dog is not at all aggressive
but she's expressing something in a
rather subtle way it's very different in
response to a direct approach by a
person many dogs are a bit threatened by
a rapid direct approach by a person and
she's doing a signal that we sometimes
call a look away where dog ducks his
head and and looks away we see that in
other dogs and I want to mention just my
little model here before we go forward
and this dog is actually posed in the
Lookaway posture I don't know if you
guys can see that but as I approach this
dog it's looking away right and that's a
really significant behavior it's a it's
a deference behavior and he's saying I
mean you're no harm but could we do this
differently could we sit down to
gather and get to know each other could
we have a different way of interacting
besides this one so let's look at some
other videos in our clinic where we see
a little more activity so we see dogs
trying to escape they pant excessively
they're looking for a way out they sit
on their owners feet trying to connect
to the owner and often look at the owner
too almost as if they're saying save me
from this situation in this video you'll
see another anxious dog you see this dog
again looking around you get the feeling
that he might try and escape he's
sitting on the owners foot and looking
at the owner it's very common and he's
also been a yawn and we see yawns as a
commonly associated with anxiety
behaviors and dogs like that it's not
ready for a nap and this dog again as I
approach is started wagging his tail but
as I got closer he gets that we
sometimes call it the worried face ease
that worried look that says oh brother
how can I get out of this it's beginning
to look away and he's exhibiting what we
sometimes call whale eye it's the
evidence of the sclera where is exposed
and then the dog's ears are back so he
has a posture that suggests his anxiety
in this particular pose I want you to
really take a look at the features of
this dog so this is a dog that and the
approach of a friendly stranger
skittered under a chair and look at the
features of its behavior so we have tail
tucked a wide base crouched stance the
raised pond the raised paw is often
associated with what we might call
conflict that is the dog maybe
interesting thinking about can I escape
this should I stay here with my owner
who's out of the field what am I to do
it's a real conflict behavior and look
at this dog's face so again wouldn't you
recognize that as a worried dog the
glare of the eyes are evident that way
Li the ears are back and what might this
dog do next
so he's communicating his fear and
anxiety and he's also telling us that it
he's moving into what we might call the
flight-or-fight zone he may decide that
he'd like to make a getaway if he has
that opportunity if he's trapped as you
see here he may actually resort to
aggression as a way to keep the fearful
stimulus which is a person in this case
away from him so by understanding what
are what dogs are communicating to us he
can then respond appropriately and help
attenuate or decrease those fear
responses so if we look again at this
dog this dog is very different than the
previous one and yet its behavior is
also in that domain of fear and anxiety
he has made a different decision though
his decision that is not flight his
decision is fight right so he's willing
to overtly maybe come forward use
aggression first as a threat and a growl
and a snarl and then perhaps even come
forward in threatening or dangerous
manner so dogs have many ways of
responding but the more we know the more
we can connect and recognize these signs
the better we can manage them so how do
we manage them this is our stock and
trade our behavioral medicine service
and I'll show you just a couple of
examples but one it is sorry one is to
create a safe bubble for the dog
adjacent to the own
and we usually use the behavior that dog
knows very well like a sit and stay and
here you'll see we can play this video
is you see a dog the owners talking to
the dog there's some little treats there
on the side and she's gonna invite the
dog to sit and stay and she's going to
be the dog's protector the dogs defender
keep strangers from approaching help
this dog adapt to a situation that makes
it a bit anxious and then this gives us
the opportunity to use behavioral
methods to help this dog learn new
responses here we see a young dog that
developed there that revealed fears of
strangers and so we're going to use what
we call systematic desensitization
protocol and I'll show if you you a few
steps in it here and that the owners are
sitting there with the dog the dog is
very comfortable with the owners we're
gonna see the the veterinary student
come forward and invite the dog to come
forward for a treat so we're going to
systematically desensitize this dog to
the approach of strangers so watch the
dogs pop sure so there's our veterinary
student and he's being directed by our
technician coming forward being
comfortable and stepping back
no petting easy task and then as we go
forward and this can be done rather
quickly it's this dog begins to learn
new responses and begins to feel safe in
a novel or new situation so the student
now invites the dog to come forward and
sit and rewards it for this relaxed
posture and lack of barking and
aggression which is what he expressed
before okay that's it on that one okay
now it's sort of a quiz I'm gonna run a
video for you and once you guys to
really watch the dog in this video so
there is a dog just
in a minute and so Jack Russell terrier
and a three-year-old child the the
father's is a home video the father's
behind the camera and the child says he
bites me it's a little hard to
understand and I do want to assure you
that no one was injured in the making of
this video okay run it right a little
snarl there I want you to watch the
dog's behavior he does a little freezing
he's looking at the child and you'll see
him look at the father he's trying to
eat in peace I think would be his
preference and what you're gonna see
this Paul lift in just a minute
there it is so that's a really common
conflict easier when dogs get stuck
they're anxious they don't quite know
what to do this is the part where I get
nervous and the father is giving the dog
a little admission admonitions there
that's shaking is something that some
dogs exhibit when they're fearful or
anxious and now watch what the dog does
looking up at the owner saying save me
can't you imagine it okay so what are we
gonna do in this situation how many of
you feel sympathy for the dog yeah so
and and the history was really that this
dog was becoming clearly more
manifesting some signs of aggression
some signs of distress as this child got
bigger and bigger and exceeded more
clearly the size of the dog and so what
did we do well the first thing we did
was to create for the dog just a simple
gate in in this little area his crate
and bed is back there is food and water
so he put up a gate and in the gate
there was an opening just the size of a
Jack Russell Terrier and so the dog
could elect to go and eat and sleep and
rest and escape from the three-year-old
when he needed to and what was the
effect of this was actually quite
remarkable we saw what we sometimes call
a behavioral release and what does that
mean it's that all of a sudden the dog
began to exhibit more and more normal
and joyful behaviors and the owners even
said he just seems happier now and
indeed the dog could then find a time to
eat and rest without worrying about the
child and and the dogs real welfare
improved the other thing we did was to
set up positive relationships between
the dog and the child this is the hop
hoppy
and watch the dog's behavior a
transformation and so by meeting the
dog's behavioral needs by managing his
fear and anxiety we've created one a
much safer situation for this child and
a much improved lifestyle for this dog
as well
I just want to mention before I close
number one is dogs do tell us what we
need to know so I urge you to watch your
dogs watch for those subtle signs of
fear and anxiety and second if you are
interested in this my colleagues and I
wrote a book about these methods called
decoding your dog thank you very much
[Applause]
you