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Questions Of Dog Behavior

By Lon L. Flewelling For The Dog Files

The following are questions and answers posed to me via email. The first is from Toni questioning whether her dog can be taught to relieve himself in specified areas and deterred from eating droppings. The second is from Ditte asking about the reasoning behind her young Lab ‘sharing’ her bone.

1: Toni asked.

Hi Lon, I have kind of a silly question… Can I, or how do I teach my male dog to go to the potty in the same area?

Lon answered:

There are a couple of ways… dogs actually prefer to use the same area to relieve themselves so you can put a small post in that spot, if possible. You can purchase them with embedded smell to attract or you can pour some ammonia on a wooden one. When he goes on the spot reward him with a hearty “Good Pee”. You can also buy Pee Pads for puppies that have the same affect with embedded smells. Consistent and repetitive commands to ‘go pee’ and ‘good pee’ often work successfully.

Toni asked:

Will it work for his poo also?

Lon’s reply:

It will. It’s a bit gross but you can actually pick up a dropping from elsewhere with a glove or bag and place it there to entice. Always offer a big verbal reward when he does it right.

To deter cophragia, eating of droppings, for medium or large dogs mix approximately a tablespoon of equal parts of cut up cucumber and pineapple into his food. The acids in them react with the proteins in the food to make it less desirable.

2: Ditte, another client wrote to ask.　

I was just hanging out at home and my Lab, Molly came and gave me her bone. She just put it in front of me and looked at me. Then i pretend to eat a little of it and then give it back to her. She takes it and walks away but comes back after a round in the living room and gives it to me again. And then i have done the same or put it on the ground for her and she would just put it back up there…. What is she trying to tell me????? Or does she just want to share her delicious bone with me??

Its interesting cause she also seems so primal when she does it! I don’t know if i am totally of on this one but it seems like she is honorable to the bone…?? I hope you have seen it before.

Lon answered:

I have indeed seen this fairly often. It is primal and embedded in her DNA, I feel she is honoring you as her pack leader and offering food to you first. In wolf packs the alpha male and female ALWAYS get to eat first, the subordinates know and are just fine with this as they also know that the alphas will fairly provide and divide. She is absolutely proud of herself for having done the correct thing and respectful of you for rewarding her by ‘eating’ first and giving her the rest. In her young mind she is doing it over and over to wallow in the pleasure.
My Sheltie is doing a very similar thing now by coming to me from outside and wagging happily when I reward her with a “Good Come!”, she will wag and go back out, circle my deck and come back in almost smiling, getting squirmy when I offer her another “Good Come!” like she is SO proud of herself and respectful of me as a fair and just leader.

Ditte asked:

Should I be rewarding her in any way?

Lon replied:

You can feel free to simply take it and keep it for a while…she will understand if you do. You can even use it to do what is called ‘spotting the behavior’ in other words if you reward her with a “Good Bring it” you can then incorporate “Bring it” to have her bring you whatever she may grab in the future. I have taught Tasha, my Sheltie to do that if she picks up something I don’t want her to have i.e. cell phone, etc. She proudly brings it to me and gets the reward and is SOOO proud and happy.
　
Thanks to both Toni and Ditte for their great questions and I look forward to helping them and others with dog behavior issues!　

Lon L. Flewelling was born the middle and most charming of three boys in rural Minnesota where he spent many formative hours on family farms directly interacting with animals nearly from day one. Since his youth he enjoyed the gift and magic of close communication abilities particularly with dogs. Lon followed his gift into the world of wolf studies to further develop my passion and abilities to understand canines and their communications with each other and humans. He is a perpetual student of canines and sees no end to the absorption of canine knowledge.

“Lon L. Flewelling is the human owner’s manual on how to operate your dog in Denver!”
-Shasta Michaels-