datachie

Red and Rover is my favorite comic strip ever. This week, the theme has been My Best Friend. Today's is a classic.

I'm not a math whiz, but let me tell you what I mean by 1 + 1 > 2. I've been working with Tango on his loose leash walking and dog-greeting skills at Baker Park in Frederick over the summer. He's made great strides and I was eager to show off our work to my husband.

A few weekends ago, we took Nemo and Tango to Baker Park and I was quite ready to show off Tango's new skills to my husband.

As soon as we got out of the car, I noticed a difference in Tango. He wasn't his usual laid-back self. He was "on his toes," glancing here and there, not paying me one bit of attention.

We saw our first dog and Tango began to pull ahead. Odd, I thought. What's going on? As we approached the dog, Nemo's tail is wagging furiously and Tango begins wuffing. Not a real bark, but nothing I was used to when he and I alone walked the park, either.

After spending the morning at the park with no measurable improvement in Tango's greeting behavior, it finally dawned on me what was different: We had Nemo with us!

Tango and I had done all our work in the park alone, by ourselves, with no other dogs. So the key to this equation was the presence of Nemo. .

Tango, by himself, is quite appropriate. Nemo, by himself, is also appropriate. However, Tango + Nemo together did not equal appropriate! The mere presence of another dog caused Tango's behavior to regress backwards.

A word to the wise: If you have more than one dog, work on getting one dog's behavior perfected before you add another dog into the mix. If Tango's behavior hadn't been really really good when he was by himself, his behavior would have been considerably worse when we added Nemo to the walk. When you add that second dog into the mix, be prepared for the other dog's behavior to regress a bit.

We'll get Tango's behavior to improve when he's with Nemo, it will just take a little more practice. And that means more time spent with the dogs at the park. Not a bad deal, after all!

Check out the new Smart Dog University website. It's been in the works for several months, and just went live in the middle of the night.

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We were at the local county fair last night and saw a stand selling the cutest little creatures. At closer inspection, the little animal was a sugar glider. The cutest things ever. The salesmen had the little gliders right there and were handing out literature that made the sugar glider look like the perfect pet. I had to know more. Oh also, did I mention the cute little gliders were going for a whopping $500 each!

Off to Google I went this morning to investigate. Turns out the glider isn't quite the perfect pet the salesman made them out to be. They are cute, yes, that part's not a lie. But here are some of the reasons sugar gliders might not be so good as pets (despite the salesman's pitch that they're the perfect pet):

1. They poop and pee everywhere. They cannot be trained to use a litter box.
2. They sleep all day. And are up all night. Which means you'll hear them "barking," hissing, and banging around in their cages all night.
3. They eat an exotic diet, which means mealworms, grubs, and fruit. The fruit part is easy, I don't mind keeping apples in my fridge. But I don't feel the same way about grubs, mealworms, and other creepy-crawlies!
4. The sugar gliders are messy — in addition to going to the bathroom all over the place, they also are messy eaters and can even throw their food! Yikes!
5. Their cages get messy quickly (see above!). And if they aren't cleaned every other day, can get pretty smelly. You have to pick up the left over bits of food immediately or they'll begin to rot and get smelly as well.
6. They are social animals and aren't meant to live without other gliders.
7. They need a large cage (not the tiny one they come in).
8. They bite. Hard. Deep.
9. They live up to 15 years! That's a long-term commitment!

Why go on and on about sugar gliders, you're probably wondering. This is, after all, a DOG blog. The sugar-glider situation reminds me of puppy mills. Lots of "awww, aren't they cute!" Lots of impulse buys. No research. And within a few months, they're given up for adoption. And lots of money exchanging hands with the sales people getting richer and richer, yet the fate of the animals gets worse and worse.

I'm not sure what makes our society so impulsive. Or so willing to spend good money on an animal (or anything!) without so much as a cursory check for more information. It's mind-boggling…

At least once a week, someone tells me their dog misbehaves because he's spiteful, mad, or getting revenge. Here's a great article from the folks at Animal Behavior Associates:

Dog Piece: Is Mason Mad?

A friend remarked to us recently that every time she goes out of town and leaves her dog, Mason, with Sarah, a close friend, Mason always defecates overnight in one particular spot in Sarah's house. Mason will occasionally do this at home, but not on a regular basis, and the dog is quite familiar with both Sarah and her home. Our friend could not figure out any possible reason why Mason would be doing this, and therefore concluded that it had to be because Mason was mad at her for leaving him. We've been discussing what's behind this common tendency to jump on anthropomorphic explanations as the very first or most likely reason for a pet's behavior. Perhaps it's because most pet owners believe they are the simplest explanation for their pets' behaviors. As behaviorists, we view them as just the opposite – as the most complex. Let's take a look at why. If Mason was defecating in the house because he was mad about being left behind, his thought processes must have gone something like this: "Left behind again huh? I am so mad at my mom for doing this to me! What can I do to let her know how upset I am? I know how much she thinks of Sarah, and I bet she would just DIE if I messed in her house. After all, my poop is pretty nasty smelling so I'm sure Sarah will NOT enjoy cleaning it up. Wait until Sarah tells my mom what I've done. That'll teach my mom that leaving me behind has consequences and she better not do it ever again!" Now, we hope that sounds as ridiculous to you as it did to us when we wrote it! It should illustrate why attributing spite and revengeful motivations to animals are in actuality complicated explanations rather than simple ones. What might be some simpler explanations for Mason's behavior? Mason's schedule might be different in Sarah's home, causing his patterns of elimination to shift. Sarah might not be in the habit of giving Mason a last potty break right before bed or perhaps Sarah is giving him more treats than he usually gets at home. Mason might be afraid to go outside at Sarah's place because of even one experience with a startling noise (anything from construction equipment to thunder). Mason might be a bit anxious away from mom, even though Sarah is familiar to him. Perhaps Mason doesn't like the texture of what is available for elimination in the yard. He may have only had access to a graveled dog run rather than the grass he may be accustomed to. These are all more straightforward explanations than invoking the higher thought processes required for spite to be the motivation for Mason's defecation. A well established principle in the study of animal behavior is that of parsimony. Also known as Occum's Razor, it mandates choosing the simplest explanation for a behavior that accounts for the facts, even if more complicated options are available.