"The Peeing Post"

Newsletter for dog lovers who respect the dog's nature

Chief Editor: Mogens Eliasen

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Dear Dog Friend,

For reasons we still do not know, our web site has been out of order for over a week - our entire database with all our information on customers, affiliates, products, and sales was wiped blank! Our host (Bizland) still has no sure indication of why this happened, but, at least, we were able to get a back-up from February 12 re-installed, so things are running again now.

If you know of anybody who has had problems with K9joy's site, please let them know that the problems are solved, and the pages all work again now as they should.

Thank you!


Training treats

There is a lot of controversy around giving the dog treats for training or not. Some people swear by treats because they give excellent results - others detest them as "harmful" for both the dog's health and for the training results.

They are all right...

Treats can be powerful - and they can be very harmful, if you use the wrong kind - or use them in a wrong way.

Treats are, by no means, the only kind of reward you should consider, but they also have a bunch of great advantages you should not ignore either.


Good treats and bad treats

First off: treats that are made of any kind of bakery are very harmful to your dog's teeth - unless you brush the dog's teeth within an hour or so after each time you give it a treat. The reason is that the crumbs from the flour that is used will stick to the dog's gums at the root of the teeth. Since all bakery-type treats are made of grains or flour (which is made of grain...), and grains contain very large concentrations of carbohydrates, those treats leave the dog with an unnatural problem it cannot solve on its own.

Humans are better off about grain products. Our saliva contains some powerful enzymes that will digest carbohydrates. These enzymes break the carbohydrates down into smaller sugars, like glucose, lactose, etc, and these simple sugars are soluble in water. These deposits of grain crumbs on our teeth will get more or less dissolved in a matter of a few hours. Our teeth can "clean themselves" from deposited grain product crumbs!

But dogs do not have those enzymes in their saliva....

This means that those crumbs do not get dissolved in a couple of hours. Instead, they will provide an excellent food source and breeding ground for many types of bacteria that will build up a layer of plaque on the dog's teeth - a layer that will grow as you feed your dog cookie-like treats, made of grain products! Your dog gets bad breath - and eventually, those bacteria will enable other harmful bacteria to also grow in this plaq - resulting in a complete decay of what could have been perfectly healthy teeth...

This is big business for veterinarians. It is safe for them to recommend that you brush the dog's teeth - but who can be bothered doing that 4-6 times a day? The end result is that you will need to have those teeth cleaned by a professional....

That makes those cheap treats pretty darn expensive!

What else can you do? Well, first off, you should get some treats that are made of meat - not bread. Dogs are carnivores, not monkeys. But you also want something that is "handy' - and juicey, raw meat isn't really on your top-ten list of treats that are nice and convenient to use, I guess...

First thought might be to look for beef jerky and other kinds of dried meat. Warning: most of that stuff is heavily preserved with chemicals that are very harmful, both for you and your dog. People, however, rarely get as much beef jerky per kilogram body weight as the average dogs in training gets treats... Besides, that stuff is way too expensive.

Some dogs like dried fish. In many Chinese stores, you can get small dried anchovies and other fish - and they are great. If your dog likes them. Some dogs don't.

Dried meats are not common. But that does not matter - it is very easy to make your own! You can use any kind of meat the dog likes. In my experience, beef liver comes in a big favorite for about 90% of all dogs. And those that don't like them generally don't like anything - so I am pretty certain they weren't hungry...

Making your own liver treats is simple. You can get a detailed recipe here. The principle is that you slice the liver thin and bake it at the lowest possible temperature you can have in your oven, making all the mistakes you are not allowed to do when you bake a cake! In fact, the more often you open the oven to check on your "bakery art", the better the result... You get the best result at about 60 degrees Celcius (about 140 degrees Fahrenheit) - which is about the temperature for pasteurizing milk. At this temperature, you get only a moderate chemical change of the composition of the food, compared to the sometimes very harmful changes from cooking. (60 degree Celcius is generally just a tad hotter than the hot water from your kitchen tap.)

Yes - other kinds of meat can be "semi-baked" the same way. You can even make a "meat pizza" with no topping, from ground meat mixed with an egg or too, rolled out in flat pan cakes.

Have some fun with this! As long as you keep away from any kinds of flour, but stick with meat and eggs, your treats will be healthy! Grain products of any kind are simply not healthy for dogs. The high grain contents of kibble is a major reason for kibble not being biologically adequate dog food, no matter what your vet will tell you... (You can read more about this in this article on grain).

If you have a great recipe, why don't you share it? I will be happy to publish it with due credit!

(If you want "the whole story" about food and feeding, you are still entitled to your discount a Peeing Post subscriber if you order here)


Use and misuse of treats

Treats are supposed to be used as reward for work well done. They are most definitely not supposed to be used when the dog begs for them... This is not only a matter of me not liking that you "spoil your dog" with too much love (I don't think there is such a thing as "too much love"), but because it destroys your relationship with the dog!

Let us look at the classic example: You sit in your chair and watch a good movie. The dog is bored. It wants some attention. You don't have time for that right now. When the dog pushes your hand with its nose, you get a little annoyed, but your soft heart also bleeds a bit - you feel sorry about the dog not enjoying the show too - so you give it a treat and say, "go, lie down". The dog takes the treat and eats it, leaving you alone for a little while.

What is wrong with this picture? Isn't everybody happy?

Well, how about this picture then: You go to your chair, preparing for the movie you want to watch. Your dog follows you. When you sit down, it pushes your hand to get a treat. You ignore it. It pushes again. You say, "go, lie down" - but the dog does not go away. It pushes your hand. You get a little angry. Now the dog puts a paw on your lap, demonstratively, and pushes your hand with its nose. You are a little ticked off now, so you tell the dog to lie down again. It doesn't. It scratches your thigh with its paw, pushes your hand with the nose, and when you still ignore it, it sits right in front of you and barks at you, as it jumps up at you and pushes your hand with its nose....

The only difference between these two stories is the time that has elabsed from the first to the second. Because, what you inevitably will get out of repeating the first is the second!

Here are your "Four Boxes" that explain it:

Command

Sight of you in your chair in front of the TV

-->

Incitement

The dog is bored
- it wants some attention and you are the only pack member around

-->

Reaction

The dog uses a natural begging gesture (nose-nudge against your hand)

-->
Reward
The dog gets a treat...

And what will come out of this sequences when repeated just 4-6 times?

Yes, you got it! This:

Command

Sight of you in your chair in front of the TV

-->

-->

Reaction

The dog uses a natural begging gesture (nose-nudge against your hand)

-->

Reward

The dog gets a treat...

Further: when you have "worked on" the above result just a few times, you can leave out the reward in the end 5-10 as many times as the "training" took you - and you will still have some remains of your training survive... However, if you try to resist giving the reward, and the dog now insists on getting its treat, and you then try to "buy some peace" with a treat ("Okay, okay, okay - you get a treat, but then you have to leave me alone!"), you are really in deep trouble - because now you are rewarding the dog's persistency and continued nagging for its treat, ignoring your first refusal! And, just for the record: dogs don't barter like that - they just learn from their experience - and the experience in this case was that persistency pays off...

(Actually, this is the very same principle as I use in many of the exercises in "BrainWork for Smart Dogs" - but in a systematic way that keeps you in the leadership position instead of being controlled by your dog... Remember, for a limited time, as a Peeing Post subscriber, you are entitled to a 20% discount of that e-book - you can get it here.)

Now - if the only consequence of a less-than-perfect training method like this would be that you could not watch TV, I probably wouldn't care.... (I do not watch TV myself...). But the consequences are far worse....

This is what you get:

Command

You want to watch TV

-->

Incitement

The dog wants a treat

-->

Reaction

You give the dog a treat

-->

Reward

You get to watch TV

Take a good look at this.... and tell me what it is!

OK - if you are in doubt, then click here for the result


A very common mistake when using treats for training

Treats are good when used as reward. No doubt. They can also be very good when used as incitement! There are many exercises where you can have great use of a treat as both the reward and the incitement.

Example: Getting the dog to put the bum on the ground. The treat can be a great reward. And, if you move it right up to the dog's nose and then slightly upwards-backwards, 95% of all dogs will sit down when trying to follow the treat with the nose. (This is the famous "treat zipper" - referring to the zipper-like movement with the hand when you want the dog to sit at your side when practising "Heeling".)

The problem with using the treat as incitement, however, is that few people think about what the command now becomes... And that's where they get trapped!

Here is how it goes: you prepare yourself for the exercise. You pull your treat out. You give your command. You then use the treat zipper. The dog performs - and you reward the dog with the treat.

Great, eh?

Not so! Look at the sequence of events one more time....

In the first place, yes - you will get the result you want: the dog will learn to perform on your command.... But it won't last long. The reason is here:

Command

The dog notices your treat

-->

Incitement

You give the command

-->

Reaction

The dog performs

-->

Reward

The dog gets a treat


Oops - right? This is the inevitable result of this training when the incitement makes itself redundant:

Command

The dog notices your treat

-->

-->

Reaction

The dog performs

-->

Reward

The dog gets a treat


From here to extortion, like in the TV scene, is a very short time....

Avoiding this is simple, though - when you understand the Four Boxes. You just do not pull out that treat until after your command! Then the unwanted training sequence will never take place. Your dog will instead learn to respond reliably to the command - and you will get a result that is not depending on "bribing" the dog with the treat first. ("Bribing" is really nothing but having taught the dog to use the smell of the treat as command - not your word or sign...)

"Bribing" is, of course, a despisable result that has very limited use. No blame on those trainers that don't want that kind of result of their training!

But I hope you also see that this is not a matter of using treats or not using treats. It is a matter using treats right - or misusing them.

Have fun! Enjoy your treat-baking and your training!

 

Cheers and woof,

Mogens Eliasen

 

If you have any suggestions to contributions or contents of The Peeing Post, I will be happy to know about them. (Please no anonymous contacts, though...)

If you have any comments or questions pertaining to this issue or in general pertaining to dogs, please respond - if I can find an answer for you, I will!

 

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P.S. Have you considered becoming a K9joy Affiliate? If you know of just a few people who might be interested in our products, it could develop into a nice little income source you literally do not have to do much work for.

It is the two-tier feature that does this. If you know, for instance, someone who has a web site or a newsletter, or a lot of person-to-person contacts, then it can become your benefit to introduce such a person to sign up as an affiliate for K9joy. Now, this person will, of course, get a substantial commission on all sales he/she can facilitate (generally 40% of our gross profit), but you will get the tier-2 commission (generally 10%) on all those sales too! And you did no other work than to introduce this person to K9joy....

The best part is that those tier-2 commissions will be on all products in all future, sold through the efforts of the person you introduced! Truly passive income...

And it isn't difficult to do. You do not need to do any "pushy" marketing. In fact, all it takes is that you include a little "signature file" in your e-mail program, so you automatically include a link to K9joy in all your e-mails that go out to dog people. As soon as anyone uses your link and enter any pages on K9joy's web site, you will be credited for what this person does on our site, both now and later. If this person buys something, you get tier-1 commission of that sale - and on all future sales too to that person! If this person signs up as a K9joy Affiliate, you get tier-2 commisison on everything this person can sell, regardless how he/she does it! Once you get someone to "buy" even a free subscription to The Peeing Post, your commissions are locked in forever....

Here is an example of such a signature file you could add to your e-mail program:

Do you know of anybody who loves dogs and respects their nature?
If so, you should let them know that there is a ton of excellent information (a lot of it free...) at
http://k9joy.com/index.php?camp=5_pp - go see for yourself!

The only extra thing is that you should replace my affiliate number (5) with yours....
You can get your affiliate number here!

Mogens






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