RICK KAPLAN (TALK 'n' DOGS) CANINEANGELSUSA.ORG

http://canineangelsusa.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:31

I know it's so fast, right? We're already at the end of July.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

No, we're at the first of August.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

I thought wait a minute. We're at the beginning of August. Where am I? Um Yeah, it's been so hot, rainy. How do you how do you manage uh to keep the dogs cool? I know you have a pool.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Well, we have a pool. We swim every day, but uh getting dogs used to keep is important for service dogs. You can't have a service dog decide, I'm not working because it's too hot. So it's a matter of building up their endurance, building up their ability to deal with the heat, and uh uh uh dogs that can't do that don't make it. So it's an important aspect because if somebody needs a critical task and it's hot, you can't have a dog saying, I don't feel like it's a little too warm for me right now. So that's that's part of the training, and they're they're amazing, they can deal with it, they can learn to deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Anyway, yeah, I have a subject today that I'd like to address because it's really important. First, I give my applause to everybody who goes to a shelter to adopt a dog. Absolutely. One of the fake problems of adopting a dog is uh bringing a dog home to another dog or a cat in the house. And people lose their patience, they do it incorrectly, and what happens is they return the dog. Now the dog has a black mark, and a couple of black marks on that dog means uh youth and agia. So uh it's really important to know how to introduce a new dog to your existing dog. And I want to talk about that. There are three three critical steps that everybody needs to understand, and this really uh will make the experience uh, you know, an excellent one. It requires the first thing is patience on the human part. The golden rule is go slowly. You can always speed things up if things seem to be going well, but rushing into a bad interaction will set back the progress by weeks or forever in some cases. The first thing is you never just bring a a new dog home to your your existing dog and and put them in the mix of your house. That's the your dog's house, the existing dog's house. What you need to do is have the two dogs meet on neutral ground, which would mean outside your house, a quiet outdoor spot near your house, but a house a spot that neither dog is going to consider their territory, so to speak. Uh maybe a nearby park or a neighbor's yard, that sort of thing. You want to have an extra handler, you handling the new dog and somebody else handling your existing dog, and both dogs should be on non-retractable leash. The next step, number two, is what we call parallel walking. Now I do this with every new dog I bring into the pack, because the the the key for me is getting a dog safely into the pack, because the pack knows each other, but now this is an invader to them. So we have to go through this introductory process. The second step is we call parallel walking. You walk the dogs in the same direction, about 20 feet apart, without letting them stare each other down or approaching each other directly. You slowly sort of arrow into each other, you decrease the distance as both dogs start to show a relaxed body language, which would mean that the tails relax, the eyes relax, sniffing the air, that kind of thing, just showing a relaxed state of mind. And then you get to a point where you're close, and you allow them to sniff each other for a few seconds at a time, then gently call them away, give them a treat, and continue to walk. So what we're doing here is we're desensitizing the dog to the concept that there's no fear, there's no danger, there's a you don't want anything from me, he's just another dog. And finally, we have the transition to the home, which is the critical part. You walk them back to your house together, but before you go inside, you need to remove all the high-value items from the house, such as torch, bubbles, chewing bones, anything that could trigger resource guarding, protecting, you know, your property, sort of thing. Um, another key is to take a cloth and rub it on each dog, and when they sleep apart, you put the other cloth into the dog so that they have the scent of the other dog while they're in bed and sleeping, and that will desensitize them to the fact that there's a new dog there. Um and um then finally you'll see they work it out, they figure it out, there's no threat, no problem. Um you if if there seems to be a continued issue, what you need to do is have a a crate big enough for both dog for for one dog at a time, and in your house you put one dog in the crate and you let the other dog free. And you do that for an hour or two, and then you switch them. Uh without letting them.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

But sometimes they get angry at each other through the crate. I've seen that happen. So how do you address that?

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Well, anything can happen, but uh if if they get angry through each other through the crate, then we haven't done the first three steps right.

SPEAKER_04 6:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Okay, because we haven't given them a you know, dogs are like kids. They're all different, they're all unique, and you have to go according to the signals that the dog delivers to you. And you can tell, I mean, if you if you're out walking the dogs and you finally have the two dogs kind of close but relaxed, then you're making great progress. You're you're not gonna have that issue with the crate. But um, yeah, so it it's uh it it's it saves the life of the dog because once you return the dog, uh the the shelters really have very little patience for them. A lot of my dogs have been through this. I rescue them when they're just out of luck and fix them and they're fine. So um it it's a human issue more than a dog issue. Humans want things right away, immediately, no patience. Dogs take time. I always go by the uh the thought that a dog will build a beach one grain of sand at a time.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

It's just a matter of going slowly, looking for the signal, uh, being determined. It's a little bit of work for the first week or so, but then the the payoff is amazing. So um and a lot of people get a second dog because the first dog is older and they want to have a transition. A second dog very often make a an older dog live longer as a grandfather effect, so to speak. Um and then people could have a transition when the first dog days are over. But um, this is a this is really an important aspect of getting a second dog. Now, some people have cats, um, and you really have to do the same thing with the cats. You have to have the the difference with a cat is you have to have a safe space where a cat can always escape. Um, you know, a room or uh something to climb on or jump on or that sort of thing. But I have many dogs in homes that never saw a cat. I'm allergic to cats, so I can't deal with cats. But uh they work it out and they sleep together, they play together. It it's a pack. So it's uh animals are amazing creatures, and we really have so much to learn from all of them. It's phenomenal. How's your pack doing?

SPEAKER_04 8:44

Well, everything is going well, but I have to tell you, Rick, we're about to move. And when I went to go look at the home, we have a wrought iron fence like on the side of the property, and that person has two big strong dogs that are very loud and drump very high. And uh I'm worried and I have no idea how to address this as I bring my dogs into that uh world there. And so I'm thinking uh I've been planning on planting bushes along that uh fence line if I'm allowed. I don't even know. And also I saw there's a sprinkler inflorcer that is motion activated that shoots a spray of a spray of sprinkler water down the fence line. Um I'm I'm gonna do everything possible uh with the training you've put in place for me to keep Bailey away from the fence. Um but I am concerned that those dogs might get a little too excited and actually get over the fence. Uh very small.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Can you put in air fence on your side?

SPEAKER_04 9:52

I I can only have that one whatever they put is the one that I have to tie into. I can't double anything. Yeah. So um I've looked into that. It's one of those, you know, four foot high wrought iron fence. I mean, I have it now at my house and my own. I know. And I was standing there and the dogs look very friendly and happy and are very excited. Um, but you know, when you bring in a little dog like baby, she's only five pounds, um, and I was standing there and the dog jumped so high I could look at it face to face. I mean he came up right under my nose just just from happiness. And so I can't even imagine if something makes them angry. I don't know. So I'm so apprehensive now. I'm losing sleep over this. Um but I'm gonna have to keep my dogs away and I'm already thinking about what kind of uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

You couldn't replace it with you you can't have a six-foot privacy tent in that neighborhood. No. See, that's terrible, man. It is terrible. I can't have it in my neighborhood either, but Stephanie, we put one in her house.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

I think if you continue to have an issue, if you have a series that you follow me, and I'll come down there and we'll work things out.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

Oh, that would be great. Yeah, and it's like, you know, I'm I'm gonna put all the safeguards and training in place, but you can't control other dogs. Right, that's true. That's the problem. So and I'm very confident that those homeowners, because I met them and talked with them, that you know, they're gonna, you know, all be part of a solution. So I'm I'm just um nobody wants an accident that we don't need, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Well, that's true. And the fact that you say that they're friendly, they're just big, uh, would mean that the right thing to do would be to reach your dog one at a time and introduce them.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

So that everybody can get the fence, everybody can get the smell, everybody can understand, nobody's threatening anybody, and uh we're just neighbors, and we'll see they can figure it out really quickly.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

It's it's interesting that like when sometimes when there's a fence involved, because we had this with my neighbor um in Forestbrook, you know, we had the white fence and the dogs would go at it through the fence that actually the panels started to separate on the white fence. And but yet when we were together in their garage because we would hang out there sometimes, the dogs got around along great. And it's so unbelievable that the fence is like a trigger for them.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Well, because they want to they want to have that communication in the fence is black women. So it's not always aggression. It's it's uh the desire to to include other dogs in the past.

unknown 12:43

Huh.

SPEAKER_04 12:44

I didn't really think of that. I saw at the I just thought it just made him aggressive for some reason. I don't know what it was. Interesting. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Aggressive behavior, but it's not aggression. It's uh desire, that's all, you know. So anyway, keep me posted how that works, and I'm always here for you if you need me.

SPEAKER_04 13:05

All right, thank you. Do you have any questions on the budget blinds text lines from Rick?

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Well, you know what, uh, Rick, I have a question for you. I I go into a lot of people's homes and they have their dogs, and they're like, oh, he won't bite. He's you know, they're friendly. Well, the other day I was in uh with a Rottweiler.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

Oh my god, this dog does scare you.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

I mean it scares me. Maybe not you, Rick, but it's not a few. I'm very nervous. It stopped me and then he walked away. Well, when I went to bent over to get something out of my briefcase, he came at me and just biting me in the face.

SPEAKER_04 13:41

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

And the owners picked up the dog and they put him in another room. So my new rule is put your dogs away when I come in. Is that a bad thing for customer service? Or do you have any suggestions?

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Well, you know, you remind me of the story of the guy who walks into a bar and sits on a stool and there's a big dog next to it. And he looks at the fellow in the next stool and says, Excuse me, does your dog bite? He says, Never. He sits on the stool and the dog bites him in the leg. He says, I thought you said your dog doesn't bite. He says, That's not my dog.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

There you go. Okay, yeah. That was good. I like that. That was good.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

But um, look, once you have a fear, uh you can make some judgments uh on the dog.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

And you know, that kind of thing. If you if you're kind of kind of dead, you know. You know, but if it's a little dog, whatever. Because the problem for the customer service is that if you insult somebody's dog, yeah, the dog the dog that was untying my shoelaces that was like a little Yorkie, he was fine.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

But they rottweilers and all I think. My new rule needs to be if you have a big dog, put it away. Because I the next home we were in had a big German shepherd, too.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

So yeah, you can always say you're you're very allergic if you don't want to.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

That's a good I like that.

SPEAKER_04 15:03

That's a trick to use in restaurants too, when you don't want to eat anything bad, you tell people you're allergic, and then by law they have to. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Get out of it by saying, Yeah, I think my dog doesn't feel well and I have to leave and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

So thank you so much, Rick Kaplan. If you want uh more information about what he does and how he does it, go to canineangelsusa.org. Thank you so much. Uh we'll talk to you next month. And we need to plan a dinner. It's been a while.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

All right, let's Okay.