Here is the first post from my guest blogger Megan Allen who will be filling in for me while I am out on maternity leave the next few months. Megan is my Director of Strategic Development and is involved in many aspects of our business so I am looking forward to reading her posts! I hope everyone is having a dog gone wonderful summer and I will be posting again just as soon as I can, take care! Heidi
Last week our team had a monthly meeting with all of the corporate employees and this month’s topic was one of the most popular we have had ever had! Some months we meet to discuss new initiatives, receive legal training on our Franchise Documents, learn about new franchise requirements and more, but this month was special as it was all about Dog Behavior!
Everyone on our corporate team has worked at numerous camps and been in the play yards with 20-50 camper’s at a time. We all go through the same corporate training our franchisees attend before we can go out into the field with the franchise owner’s as well, but last Thursday each and every one of us learned something new and I know I feel more empowered to recognize signs when a pup is happy or anxious, causing trouble or in dire need of a “time out”.
Lisa Haight, our corporate Training Manager has recently revamped our Operations Manual to address how to properly screen new pups coming into a camp and she presented the new camper interview process to all of us. She also enlisted the help of an amazing Dog Behavior expert, Nick Fisher who has spent a large portion of his career working as an Animal Control officer and was most recently the director for the Table Mountain Animal Center in Golden, CO. His insight has really help to remind all of us that we need to treat our camper’s like dog’s and not furry humans (no matter how cute they are).
Here are a few things that I took away from the session myself and I think every dog owner should know about their furry companions:
- Dogs are truly pack animals; they are social creatures and crave companionship of other animals. There’s also always a leader in every dog pack, and in our camps; it’s our wonderfully trained and certified camp counselors. Our in-depth dog training insures that the human’s are always the alpha dog in that pack and this truly makes our play yards a fun and safe place to play all day for our campers. J
- A tail wag can mean so many things, being anxious, sad, happy, curious, and more, don’t assume it’s always a good thing!
- A dog’s guardian can often insist that a behavior done once is a trend, do not jump to conclusions that if your dog has had one bad instance that it will “always” do that same behavior, dog’s have bad days just like the rest of us. If your dog jumped on a child at the park once, don’t become nervous each time they are around children, the dog will feed off your energy and it may happen again because of your behavior, not a tendency the dog has.
- You as a human need to be your dog’s alpha role model, never let your dog think that they are the alpha in your household; this will cause behavior issues that you will not appreciate. Every dog is trainable!
- Humping is not “cute” or appropriate in anyway. It will often turn into an escalation between dogs and is a very dominant behavior. The best way to control this and keep it from continuing is to stop it immediately by dominating the dog so you can become the alpha; it’s as simple as taking the dog in between your knees and pinning it so they know you are in charge!
My most important take away is that no matter what the size of breed of the dog, they all have their own personality and behavior. Once they are separated from their guardian they are drastically different creatures since they feed off of you and your personality. Every time I take my dogs to the groomer or camp I apologize for one thing or another, what’s interesting is that when I pick them up and ask how they were; I find out they were just fine, my boys acted just like the rest of the dogs. J
Our motto at Camp Bow Wow is “Where a Dog Can Be a Dog” and that is so true. You should never assume your dog isn’t fit for day care, boarding or the dog park, they may just pleasantly surprise you!