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Canine Behavior/behavior/drooling issues

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Expert: Lee Charles Kelley - 10/9/2008


Question

clyde
In march i adopted a king shepherd/chow mix. he is now 10 months old. he is very very smart and normally very well behaved. he was always cautious around other dogs barking at them unless he was allowed to play with them then he was fine. a few days ago he was hit by a car just some scrapes nothing serious but now he is barking and growling and anything and everything including me. he stopped sleeping in my room and prefers sleeping in his crate and refuses to come out. he always liked to see where i am but now he wont let me get more than 2 feet away from him without flipping out not even in the bathroom. so its split 50/50 either he wants nothing to do with me or he needs to be right on top of me this has all come about over the last 5 days. and the last 3 days he has started severely drooling i can wipe his face and 2 seconds later there is a lake coming out of his mouth. any help on what i should do would be great.

Answer
Hi, Jessica,

Thanks for the question.

Clyde is a beautiful doggie. Unfortunately it sounds to me like he's got post-traumatic stress disorder. He had life-threatening experience and it's going to take him a while to get over it.

Here are some of the things that will help:

No scolding or punishing him for anything. Don't even speak to him in anything close to a stern voice. (Don't speak to anyone in a stern voice, even on the phone!) He already feels everything in the world is out to get him and doesn't need even the slightest feeling of negative emotion coming from you. In fact I would calmly praise him and talk to him in a soothing tone of voice as much as possible, even when he's doing something he shouldn't. The more you praise him in that calm, soothing voice, the easier it'll be for him to get back to normal.

If your impulse is to "comfort" him physically by petting him and cuddling him, you have to realize THAT WON'T HELP. It'll only stop him from getting past this trauma in his own doggie-like way. If you really want to calm him down physically do it at a time when you can see that he's stressed (like when he's drooling) by giving him several long, firm strokes from the back of his head all the way down to his tail. Try to imagine that your hand is like a magnet, and it's actually pushing negative electrical energy from Clyde'ss brain, down his spinal column, and out his tail. Do this 3-4 times in a row, and if he was really feeling stressed before you stroked him, and if you stroke him properly and very firmly (but so firmly that it makes him uncomfortable), he'll either yawn or shake himself immediately afterward. That's how you'll know that you're helping him get rid of the stress. If he doesn't yawn or shake himself, don't worry. It just means that he's not ready to let go of it yet and you have to give him time.

Get him out to play with other dogs as much as possible. Recognize that he might even be fearful about that initially for the time being, but be very patient with him, praise him in an encouraging tone of voice, and he'll soon be able to get past it. He's still young, and all young dogs want to play more than almost anything else in life.

Give him lots of chewable objects. Dogs relieve stress through chewing.

There's a homeopathic product called Rescue Remedy that comes in a dropper bottle. You can either put a few drops under his tongue each day, or put it in his water. You should also add an eighth of a teaspoon of cold-pressed sunflower oil to each meal. (It has to be cold pressed; get if from the Health Food Aisle.)

If he likes to play tug-of-war, play it with him as much as possible (without pushing him past the point where he starts to lose interest in playing). Always let him win and praise him for winning. Fetch is another good way to reduce stress. Also, you can take him on long walks in as natural a setting as possible, preferably with another dog or two if you can arrange it.

Clyde is a good dog. He's a bit sensitive (obviously), but he really loves you and he wants you to help him learn how to get past this.

LCK
http://www.LeeCharlesKelley.com
“Changing the World, One Dog at a Time”

Lee Charles Kelley

Expertise

I've been training dogs in New York City for nearly 20 years. My training approach and philosophy are based on the way police dogs, search-and-rescue dogs, and detection dogs are trained--through the prey drive, inherited from the wolf. It's true that there's been a shift away from using the "wolf model" in dog training recently, and to some extent, there's a good reason. That's because trainers have been using the wrong model, the one that says you have to be the "alpha" or the pack leader in order to control your dog's behavior. This simply isn't true. In wild wolves there is no dominance hierarchy, no "alpha" wolf, and no pack leader (not in the traditional sense). The pack instinct only exists to enable wolves to hunt large prey by working in harmony. (Wolves who live near garbage dumps, for example, and who don't hunt together, don't form packs.) So if wolves don't have an instinct to "follow the pack leader" or "obey the alpha wolf," how could dogs have inherited it from them?

Years ago, before I became a dog trainer, I noticed that the happiest, most obedient, and best-behaved dogs I met weren't the ones who'd been to a dog trainer or behaviorist; they were the dogs whose owners always had Frisbees and tennis balls on hand. And while it might seem that my approach would only be relevant to high-drive dogs who love fetch and tug-of-war, it isn't. Even something as seemingly unrelated as a housebreaking issue or greeting behavior are often the direct result of a dog's predatory energy not having an acceptable outlet.

All behavior is an expression of energy. So when a dog's energy isn't utilized in a way that feels satisfying to his or her instincts and emotions, that's when behavioral problems develop. Giving the dog an acceptable outlet for its energy will almost always bring the dog's behavior back into alignment with its instincts

Feel free to ask me questions about any training/behavioral issue.

LCK

Experience

20 years as a dog trainer. I'm also a bestselling author, writing a series of dog-related mystery novels for Avon.

Organizations
Dog Writers Association of America

Education/Credentials
Just a natural gift I have for understanding and training dogs

Past/Present Clients
Too numerous to mention.

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