Dogs Behaving Badly: An A-To-Z Guide to Understanding and Curing Behavioral Problems in Dogs - Hardcover

Dodman, Nicholas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0553108735 ISBN 13: 9780553108736

Publisher: Bantam, 1999

Synopsis

Dr.  Nicholas Dodman, bestselling author of The Dog Who Loved Too Much--praised as "the most important book on dog behavior of this century" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas--has written the book every dog owner has been waiting for: an authoritative and practical A-to-Z guide to understanding canine behavioral problems and what we can do about them... Dogs Behaving Badly.

With wit, wisdom, and compassion, Dr.  Dodman gets us inside the minds of our pets to learn what makes them do the crazy things they do.  From aggression to zoonosis and just about everything in between, he tackles such common problems as nipping, tail chasing, excessive barking, and garbage scavenging, as well as more difficult conditions that often defy explanation--not to mention treatment.

Drawing on the latest research in canine behaviorism and pharmacology, in addition to case histories from his own practice at the prestigious Tufts University Veterinary Center, Dr.  Dodman offers easy-to-follow, effective techniques for curing even the most destructive behavioral problems.  We meet Tucker, the bluetick coonhound who went berserk over sounds ranging from a ringing doorbell to a falling leaf, and Maggie, the German short-haired pointer who suffered from increasingly severe false pregnancies and fiercely guarded a stuffed toy.  We learn how an underexercised Border collie can become a compulsive overeater; how a dominant Doberman can be getting the wrong, and potentially disastrous, messages from its owner; why dogs jump on people (and why saying no isn't the answer); and why some dogs suffer from separation anxiety while others may be getting more attention than they want.

Here are simple, sensible, step-by-step instructions on diet, exercise, environment, and lifestyle changes any pet owner can safely implement to effect seemingly miraculous improvement in their dog's behavior.  In addition, Dr.  Dodman provides an extensive appendix of behavioral techniques as well as essential information on pharmaceutical treatment and how to recognize a problem that requires professional help.

As he did in his classic The Dog Who Loved Too Much, Dr. Dodman proves once again that when it comes to caring for man's best friend, he's the best friend we have.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Nicholas Dodman, who has been hailed as the "world's leading veterinary psychopharmacologist" by Dr.  John Ratey of Harvard Medical School, runs the renowned Tufts University Veterinary Center.  An international expert in domestic-animal research as well as in the veterinary practice of animal psychology, Dr.  Dodman is the author of The Dog Who Loved Too Much and The Cat Who Cried for Help.

From the Back Cover

Praise for the work of Dr. Nicholas Dodman:

The Dog Who Loved Too Much:

"I was immediately taken in by the tales and treatments in The Dog Who Loved Too Much. They make for fascinating and engrossing reading for all those interested in understanding the nature of dogs in their full biological and behavioral complexity."
--Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of An Anthropologist on Mars

"Dodman's descriptions of various 'problem dogs' make fascinating reading, and his recommended 'treatments' are often unusually insightful and always quite practical. His sections on the various forms of canine aggression ought to be required reading for every dog owner."
--Stanley Coren, author of The Intelligence of Dogs

"Dr. Nicholas Dodman offers an entertaining and engaging account of common behavioral problems along with cutting-edge treatment ideas that will enlighten dog lovers everywhere. The Dog Who Loved Too Much will allow owners to regain control over their own and their dogs' destinies and ensure that their pooch will remain man's best friend."
--John J. Ratey, M.D., Harvard Medical School, co-author of Driven to Distraction and Answers to Distraction

The Cat Who Cried For Help:

"An engaging, literate, storytelling Scottish vet, Dodman is a super scientist as well as a fine writer....Cat lovers can expect a treat from The Cat Who Cried for Help."
--Newsday

"A wonderful and splendid follow-up to The Dog Who Loved Too Much...Like his countryman James Herriot, Dr. Dodman uses fascinating case studies to illustrate his points, and his writing is very witty and shining with respect and affection....I love Dr. Dodman's work!"
--Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs
and The Tribe of Tiger

"Establishes a new frontier for the veterinary profession...essential reading for all who live with cats."
--Dr. Michael Fox, author of Understanding Your Cat

From the Inside Flap

60;Nicholas Dodman, bestselling author of The Dog Who Loved Too Much--praised as "the most important book on dog behavior of this century" by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas--has written the book every dog owner has been waiting for: an authoritative and practical A-to-Z guide to understanding canine behavioral problems and what we can do about them... Dogs Behaving Badly.

With wit, wisdom, and compassion, Dr. Dodman gets us inside the minds of our pets to learn what makes them do the crazy things they do. From aggression to zoonosis and just about everything in between, he tackles such common problems as nipping, tail chasing, excessive barking, and garbage scavenging, as well as more difficult conditions that often defy explanation--not to mention treatment.

Drawing on the latest research in canine behaviorism and pharmacology, in addition to case histories from his own practice at the prestigious Tufts University Veterina

Reviews

An international expert, Dodman (veterinary psychology, Tufts Univ. Veterinary Ctr.; The Dog Who Loved Too Much, LJ 2/1/96) sets out to increase awareness of canine behavior problems and what can be done to treat them. He offers a practical approach and is quick to remind us that many perceived "problems" are normal behaviors for dogs. Using examples from his own practice, he presents suggestions and case studies with refreshing humor. He focuses on understanding what a dog is trying to communicate through its behavior. Many of the concerns discussed here are similar to those experienced by humans: aging, separation anxiety, irrational fears. An appendix offers step-by-step programs that may be used to address specific behaviors. The book is organized in an easy-to-follow A-to-Z format and will be welcomed by dog lovers and trainers. Recommended for all libraries where interest warrants.?Deborah Emerson, Monroe Community Coll. Lib., Rochester, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

By now almost everyone has heard of the syndrome of medical hyperactivity that is supposed to affect so many schoolchildren. These children have difficulty concentrating, are not good at following directions, fidget constantly, find it hard to sit still, and are easily bored.  Another name for this nebulous constellation of signs is attention deficient hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD for short.  In girls, the hyperactivity component is often lacking, giving rise to a purer attention deficit disorder, just plain ADD, whereas in boys, the hyperactivity component is more common and the syndrome is often associated with aggression.  Although it used to be thought that ADHD was confined to childhood years, it has come to light recently that the disorder persists throughout life, though it often goes unrecognized and undiagnosed. Typical signs of ADHD in adults include difficulty in getting started on projects, forgetfulness, procrastination, and a constant need for stimulation that manifests as thrill-seeking behavior.  The question is, could dogs possibly be affected with a similar syndrome?  Some say yes, and some say no.

The term hyperactivity has vernacular implications as well as being a possible medical diagnosis. It is common for owners and trainers to refer to a particular dog as hyperactive, meaning that it runs around a lot and won't listen.  According to this rather loose definition, almost all puppies are hyperactive; observation tells us that puppyhood and hyperactivity are virtually synonymous. But do all puppies grow up to be forgetful procrastinators?  I don't think so.  On the other hand, if we always interpret restlessness, limited attention span, and a high activity level in dogs as normal behavior, or a variation on a theme of normalcy, we will never diagnose hyperactivity.

Behaviorists' views on the existence of hyperactivity in dogs are equivocal, with opinions ranging from one extreme to the other.  The head of the behavior clinic at the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Karen Overall, says that she has yet to diagnose a case of hyperactivity in dogs.  On the other hand, Dr.  Walter Burghart, a veterinary practitioner in Texas with a special interest in animal behavior, believes that hyperactivity is the driving force behind many of the behavior problems that we see in domestic dogs.  The case can be argued both ways, depending on your point of view.  In support of Dr.  Overall's position, I, too, have had precious few, if any, dogs that I have confirmed as hyperactive according to the strict medical definition of the word.  In support of Dr.  Burghart's view, though, I have seen many dogs that could reasonably be described as overactive or hyperactive that present with a variety of behavior problems apparently secondary to this underlying disturbance.  Some might say that the proof of this pudding lies in the response to stimulants, such as Ritalin and amphetamine.

The paradoxical response of hyperactive schoolchildren to treatment with the stimulant Ritalin is almost legend.  I have even heard parents and schoolteachers say, "Oh, that kid's hyperactive.  He should be put on Ritalin."  Now, Ritalin would make a normal child tear around like a turkey with its head cut off, but for some reason it has a calming effect on hyperactive children, enabling them to pay attention and focus on the job at hand.  In fact, in their book Driven to Destruction, psychiatrists David Hallowell and John Ratey liken the effect of Ritalin on a hyperactive child to that of putting a pair of spectacles on a child that is nearsighted.  It has the effect of permitting him to focus.  If supposedly medically hyperactive dogs were to respond to stimulants in a similar way, you would think that this would be powerful evidence in favor of a true medical-syndrome hyperactivity.  And wouldn't you know it; some hyperactive dogs do calm down when treated with stimulants.  One veterinary behaviorist colleague of mine, Dr.  Andrew Luescher, now head of the behavior program at Purdue Veterinary School in Indiana, employs a diagnostic test in which putatively hyperactive dogs are administered a small dose of amphetamine by mouth and their behavioral and physiologic responses are monitored for four hours thereafter. Dogs that become restless and whose heart rate and respiratory rate increases following medication are considered "normal," whereas hyperactivity is confirmed in dogs whose activity level is reduced by this treatment and whose heart rate and respiratory rate subsequently is slowed.

Dr.  Burghart uses a slightly more protracted but analogous approach to diagnosing hyperactivity in some of his patients.  He advises a course of the antidepressant Elavil to be given at home and for the owners to monitor and record the dog's response to this treatment.  Elavil (whose very name is a pun on the word elevate--as in elevate mood) has stimulant properties and it can be argued that it produces a stimulant effect analogous to that of amphetamines.  Again, the diagnosis is (supposedly) confirmed if owners report calming of the dog's behavior as a result of this test.  Unfortunately, Elavil also produces a calming and mood-stabilizing effect by a different mechanism, leaving these conclusions somewhat open to debate.

All this talk of hyperactivity in dogs and its similarity with hyperactivity in children was initiated by scientist Samuel Corssen and coworkers in the 1970s.  Corssen produced a behavioral change he called hyperkinesis in a cruel study on laboratory dogs by stressing them with inescapable random electric shocks.  It is of little surprise that some of these dogs developed an increased heart rate, heavy breathing, salivation, and metabolic changes associated with stress. What is more surprising is that some of the dogs in the experiment did not show the same signs, or at least adapted quickly.  He described the traumatized responders as antidiuretic dogs because their urine production fell.  Finding that these antidiuretic dogs became calmer when treated with Ritalin or amphetamine, he drew parallels with the human condition of hyperactivity.  More relevantly, Corssen also found that amphetamine had a beneficial calming effect on what he referred to as naturally occurring untrainable hyperkinetic dogs--untrainable dogs that had not yet been exposed to his Frankensteinian experiment.  These dogs were so labeled because they did not cooperate with his handlers and were not easily commanded.  Furthermore, they fought violently against the restraining harnesses and "tried to bite and chew everything within their reach."  I'm not sure whether these dogs were truly hyperactive or just smart, but either way, they were calmed following treatment with stimulants.  Actually, not all naturally hyperkinetic dogs responded to amphetamine in this way; only six of eight did.  Interestingly, the two that were resistant to the treatment were both wirehaired fox terriers.  (No surprise there--WHFTs seem refractory to all treatments.)

Although I don't condone Corssen's methods, I believe that his results, since they already exist, are worth reference.  I too have found that some apparently hyperactive dogs become calmer when treated with stimulants and have had my most memorable treatment failures with wirehaired fox terriers.  Although a delightful breed, wirehaired fox terriers, like my friends the bull terriers, can be extremely perseverant in a predatory sort of way.  Both breeds really need a job to do if they (and their owners) are to stay sane.

I still haven't committed as to whether hyperactivity (or hyperkinesis) really does occur in dogs.  The evidence we have for it occurring is that some excitable and overactive dogs show a positive response to stimulants.  It's a pharmacological diagnosis.  But is this positive response to stimulants really all that specific?  I don't think so.  Dr. Ratey uses the expression noise to describe the spontaneously heightened mental activity of his patients.  He says that mentally noisy patients (those whose neural pathways never seem to shut down) often show a paradoxical response to stimulant drugs without necessarily having ADHD.  The calming response is thus a general one that applies to all highly active individuals.  The converse is also true--that more-sluggish individuals respond with increased activity. Thus the effect of stimulants appears to be one of normalizing patients, rather than some unique effect distinguishing hyperactive patients.  Could it be that stimulants merely normalize dogs' behavior, too?

Another piece of evidence that detracts from the diagnostic value of the response is that all stimulants produce a calming effect in mentally noisy folk as well as those with ADHD. It doesn't seem to matter which drug is used--amphetamine, Ritalin, cocaine, even caffeine--the calming effect is the same for these individuals.  This accounts for the fact that adults with ADHD have a tendency to become addicted to stimulant drugs like cocaine--because when under the influence of such a compound, they are able to concentrate properly, perhaps for the first time in their lives.  This paradoxical response also explains why some people say they feel calm rather than jittery after drinking a gallon of black coffee.  Little do they know they might have ADHD.  The lack of specificity of response to stimulants seems to indicate that we're not dealing with a particular neurotransmitter imbalance in the brai...

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553108735
• ISBN 13: 9780553108736
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304