Four Ideas for a Happier Life With Your Dog

Ways to work smarter instead of working harder to understand and enjoy your dog more.

It seems every time I turn around these days, someone has the answer of how to “fix” my dog. Doing a quick Google search, I found over a dozen web sites with the words “dog secrets” in the URLs! Dogs have been with us for over 40,000 years. What could possibly be so mysterious at this point? There are millions of dogs in homes around the world and the vast majority of those dogs get along very well with their families. Could it be we are just looking for a better relationship, a better understanding of our canine companions?

Modern life can be pretty busy. Information floods over us from television and the internet — and the demands of everyday life are far more complex than our grandparents had to deal with.

Our dogs can be a wonderful source of comfort in our lives with their innocence and simplicity. But they can also be agents of chaos, complicating things just when we don’t need things more complicated.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could be more in sync with our dogs? If only there were simple ways to improve the ways we can understand them.

The latest research and information on dogs and behaviour means we can work smarter instead of working harder to understand and enjoy our dogs more. Without trying to sound too clinical, we can be more efficient.

So much of how we have worked with dogs in the past has been guesswork. It was lore passed down from one generation of dog “experts” to the next. And, like so much lore, the kernel of truth frequently gets obscured by the inaccurate explanations for behaviours and hit-and-miss strategies for managing them.

So in the interests of doing less to get more out of your relationships with your dog, let me offer a few things that we do with our dogs regularly that have helped us get to know them better and enjoy our time with them more. It’s about cooperation and and not conflict. Besides all that stuff, it’s a heck of a lot of fun to do!

Catch Your Dog Doing Something Right

“No!” is a word I hear way to much when I’m around most people and their dogs. It can seem that the only time some people speak to their dogs is when they want something or when they catch their dog doing something wrong. Life, for those people, seems to be a constant vigil to keep their dogs from screwing up or telling the dogs that they have.

We turn that around in our house. We try to catch our dogs doing something RIGHT!  It’s easy to take the little things for granted and most dogs do lots of little things right every day. It might be hopping off the sofa when asked or sitting at the door to have their leash put on. But all of these little things should be encouraged and rewarded.

Rewarding dogs with a treats or a bit of affection for the little things they do right every day not only encourages them to continue doing all these good things but also strengthens the bond between you and your dog. We all like to be around people who are nice to us; why should it be different for our dogs? If we catch our dogs doing something right twice as often as we catch them doing something wrong, imagine what we might find; a closer bond with our dogs, fewer problems, and more!

Play With Your Dog

“My dog doesn’t like to play.” I’ve heard that from more than a handful of dog owners in my time — and I’ve always managed to get those “serious” dogs to play with me. The desire to play seems to be instinctive. As puppies, dogs use play to learn and rehearse skills they might use later in life. It’s also a form of socialization for dogs.

But not all dogs like the same kind of play. Some are chasers, some are tuggers, some are wrestlers, some like toys, some don’t. Some dogs like to play with other dogs and some prefer to play with their human companions. The desire and the joy of play is in every dog.  And we can encourage that play drive.

My two dogs are very different from each other. Our older dog Tira prefers to chase. Put a ball in her mouth and she’ll happily chase other dogs for an hour or more, running non-stop at full blast. If no other dogs are around, she’ll happily chase the ball. Our Rizzo is a wrestler and a tugger.  It’s not unusual for Rizzo to pick up a toy and shove it into my leg, wrapping one paw around it as if to say, “Come on, Dad, let’s PLAY!”

A book I read once said it perfectly: In order to play with our dogs we have to have a willingness to be as silly as we need to be. That can mean running round the house in sock feet like the devil is chasing you (but it’s really your puppy) or rolling around in the grass like a five year old. And, oh lord, the silly noises and voices we use!

The main thing is to be willing to experiment and get downright playful with your dog. You may discover a side of them you never knew existed. Play is natural. Play is happy. Play is fun. Most of all, play is good for both you AND your dog. Dog toys are cheap and balls are cheaper — and just rolling around on the floor with your dog is free. There’s nothing better for the soul than that big doggy smile when you’re having a great play with your dog.

Get out and about

By and large, dogs don’t watch television, listen to the radio, or surf the internet (although I’ve heard some pretty amazing stories). They spend a lot of their time sleeping, waiting for us to come home, or just relaxing with us around the house. One of the best things we do with our dogs is just get out of the house.

It can be as simple as getting out in the back yard with them and letting them have a run and a sniff, or taking a walk down the street let them catch up on the latest “pee-mail” from the local dogs. But we have some other kinds of outings designed to specifically entertain them.

My Tira just loves riding in cars. She sits up tall in the front seat with me and looks intently out the front at all the stuff going by. Occasionally she will turn her head to have a longer look at a person or dog that she found interesting.

In warmer weather, I like to leave the window open a bit for her to soak up all the smells as we go from place to place.  She’s quite happy to sit in the car while I run a few errands. Maybe to Tira, that drive around town is like TV or a movie — I may never know. What I do know is that she smiles the whole time. She just loves the experience.

Rizzo, on the other hand, has an entire social calendar. Monday is a play date with Marshall, Tuesday is a play date with Shimano, Wednesday is a trip to hydrotherapy with Rhea, Thursday is a run with Flicka, etc.

Because he’s a puppy, we’re still working on his socialization so it’s important that he get out and interact with other dogs and people. My wife has taken her role as Rizzo’s “cruise director” very seriously and makes sure that there are plenty of activities to get him out and about.

Think Before You Act

So much of what we do around our dogs is reactive. Why is it that they always seem to get into things while we are on the phone or cooking dinner? Suddenly we drop what we’re doing and react to yell at them. This is the point where I usually tell a dog owner to roll up a newspaper and smack themselves in the head for not setting up their dog to be successful.

There are lots of ways for us to be proactive rather than reactive with our dogs. If we think about it, there are baby gates, crates, Ex-pens, all kinds of ways to keep our dogs where we can see them but out of reach of things we don’t want messed with. And most of these little problems happen while we can’t be watching our dogs. So why not put them safely in an area with toys or items that they are allowed play with. No matter how you look at it, less yelling is good for both you and your dog.

As we discussed above, catching your dog doing something right is a great exercise. It makes us think about what we would like from our dogs so that we recognize it when we see it. When little problems do occur, take a moment to think about what you could have done to prevent it or give the your dog an alternative that you might have preferred. Then, rather that getting angry and punishing, redirect your dog to that preferred activity and reward them. Don’t just say “No!” but also add “Do this instead” so that next time there is a choice that they know they can be rewarded for.

Happiness is…

Happiness is, for us dog lovers, a four-footed furry companion to share our lives — the good and the bad, the up and the down, the happy and the sad. Modern life is busy and it can be hard to fit in time for our canine companions.

Making the most of the time we do have is important, both for us and for our dogs. For most dogs, the mental stimulation of new activities or learning new tricks and behaviours can be as physically exhausting as physical exercise that would last two to five times as long.

The simple activities I’ve listed above help us keep in touch with our dogs. They give us opportunities to interact with them and observe the personalities inside those beautiful black bodies of theirs. And all of our dogs have been different.  Some are more serious, some need more affection, some are fiercely independent. But without these interactions with them on a regular basis, we might barely get to know them at all.

Regular interaction with your dog in these kinds of activities can benefit you in another important way too.  It can help you know when your dog is not feeling well. If you play with your dog or get out regularly, you will notice a difference in their interest level or you might see a bit of a limp in a back leg. In short, it puts you more in touch with your dog both physically and mentally. It has definitely made my wife and me better caretakers for our dogs.

It doesn’t take much time or effort to do. The benefits of these little interactive exercises can and do surprise us. Being mindful of our dogs and looking for ways to keep them engaged in our lives is one of our great joys. Perhaps, most importantly, we find that we spend less time and energy doing these fun and proactive things than we used to spend yelling at them and cleaning up the messes afterward. A little pro-activity has saved us a lot of reactive activity!

So maybe give these ideas a try, if you haven’t already. Explore what the benefits of “quality time” with your dog might be. I think you might be pleasantly surprised. But be warned, it can be pretty addictive because, well, dogs are just pretty great!

Photo credits

Happy dog – from Flickr.com – Alex Pearson 2006
Play – from Flickr.com – Robin Woltman 2008
Riding – from Flickr.com – Ludovic Bertron 2009
Relax – from Flickr.com- Tony Alter 2009

Recent Eric Brad CPDT-KA Articles:

• The Dog That Changed My Life
• Keeping Your Dog Informed
• Teaching Your Dog to Not-Behave
• The Simple Complexity of Dog Training
• What The Dog Wants