Find your dog a friend

My dog Bear, a Tibetan Terrier, is a pretty happy guy. We have a good relationship, based on mutual respect and love. We do everything together - walk, eat, sleep, swim, go to dinner parties and the pub, meet my girlfriends for coffee.... I’d take him to work if I could trust him to follow office etiquette (cocking of the leg on handbags, power boards, bins, the photocopier, human legs would be regarded as taboo in my behind-the-times workplace. What’s a bit of doggy wee in exchange for pats on demand?).

And I must say, for a long while, this me-having-to-go-to-work thing was a big fat problem for us both. Separation anxiety hello! And poor Bear, I can’t imagine what he was going through. Did he think I was a cruel mother, putting him in solitary confinement for no good reason? Was he plotting some kind of pay-back by destroying my garden, high heels, and anything left within doggy-reach? I faced a conundrum. I either get a second dog, or put bear into doggy daycare. I lacked the cash for option 1, and option 2, well, what if there were bullies at daycare?

Anyway, point is, Bear and I have put those painful days behind us, and my basil plants for the first time in their life are flourishing. This is all thanks to Sophie, a Maltese X, who lives around the corner. Her mum works too, and after chatting at the local park one day, we decided to force our dogs into friendship to spare us the guilt of leaving them alone all day long.

Now, Sophie and Bear are besties, regular buddies, boyfriend and girlfriend. Call it what you like, they play together twice a week. She comes to our house every Monday, and Bear goes to theirs every Wednesday.

It’s a kind of doggy dating system which gets them socialising, gets us socialising, and saved my shoe collection.

Anyway, to help out others in the same boat, I set up dogtree.com.au, a free, grassroots service to help dog owners connect for the wellbeing of their pet. Find a dog sitter, walking friend, or arrange play dates with a neighbour’s dog while you both go to work. Bear and Sophie love it. And the best part is, in the comfort of his own backyard, Bear can do all the leg-cocking he likes, with no bullies to tell him off.

In Australia 66% of households own a pet. And with so many lonely canines locked up alone all day in backyards, I reckon pairing them up for play dates is a no-brainer. They play, we work, they come home tired and sleep all night long. Bliss.

Good luck and happy searching.

Britt Smith
Founder
dogtree.com.au
helping your dog branch out

What is clicker training?

Research has shown that animals are more likely to repeat actions that have a positive consequence compared to actions that have a negative consequence. Clicker training is a method of training which takes advantage of this natural tendency by providing positive reinforcement, usually a treat, following a desired behaviour. Although clicker training initially employs classical conditioning, it soon becomes operant conditioning when the animal begins to intentionally repeat an action to earn a reward.

Clicker training has been used to train many species from household pets (dogs, cats and parrots) to those housed in zoos and marine mammal parks. The difference between clicker training and other reward-based training methods is that the animal is told exactly which behaviour resulted in a reward. This is communicated by way of the distinctive and unique ‘click’ sound of the clicker. The ‘click’ sound is used to “mark” a desired behaviour and is followed by a reinforcer (or reward).

Once a desired behaviour has been reinforced several times and is well understood by the animal, a command or “cue” can be introduced. The cue is the name of a behaviour, such as “sit”. To teach an animal the name or “cue” for a behaviour the trainer says the cue before the animal repeats the behaviour. After several repetitions, the animal is rewarded for doing the behaviour, but only after the cue is given.

Clicker training can also be used to reduce bad behaviour through lack of reinforcement. If a behaviour is not rewarded, an animal is less likely to repeat it. Some behaviours are self rewarding, such as barking, and may require the trainer to teach the dog a cue for “silence”.

Animals that are clicker trained tend to be more confident because they have control over the consequences of their actions and they are enthusiastic because they expect training sessions to be pleasurable. Many remember behaviours years later because they were actively involved in the learning process rather than learning passively.

For an introduction to clicker training see this video on Youtube.

Hero Hounds save owners’ lives during the Victorian Bushfires

Amongst all the sadness and tragedy of the Victorian bushfire disaster, stories of courage and remarkable survival have immerged. Amongst them is the story of Levi, a tenacious terrier and previously unwanted stray, who became a hero when he dragged his elderly owner away from their burning house to the safety of the farm dam.

According to the Herald Sun, 90 year old Gladys Cross had her dog Levi on lead, in preparation to evacuate as the fire approached her Steels Creek home, when all of a sudden her house was ablaze. That’s when Levi sprung into action and dragged Gladys 100 meters through smoke and burning grass to the dam where they sheltered for several hours while they watched their property burn. Gladys survived, receiving only minor burns thanks to her quick thinking K9.

Similarly, the miraculous story of Coco and Cody has become a local legend in the Taggerty region. Husband and wife Peter and Nina were away from their house when they heard about the fires and asked their neighbours to rescue their dogs. When Peter met with his neighbours in Alexandra he was distraught to learn that they had not had time to get Coco and Cody to safety. Nina was particularly affected by the news as she considered her dogs to be “her babies”. Struggling to come to terms with the news and refusing to believe her babies were gone Nina was distraught, so her husband took her to hospital.

Whilst in hospital rumours came in from Taggerty that there was a house still standing and that there were dogs inside barking. Residents went to the rescue of the dogs and as they did so they noticed a near-by shed on fire. They were able to extinguish the flames and save three more houses from destruction. Not only did the dogs’ barking save several properties but the news of their survival was the lifeline that saved Nina, their owner.