BehavioRx Case of the Month
for June 2000

A 9 month-old, neutered male Labrador Retriever had always been wild on the leash, in spite of wearing a choke-chain collar. His owners, a young married couple with 7 and 9 year-old daughters, were (as they said) "at the end of our tethers, too!" They heard that a 'pinch collar' (one of those prongs on the inside) would solve the problem. They tried it. The dog, "Laddy," proved to have a neck that was apparently impervious to pain. This is not unusual in dogs like Laddy, who had been successfully straining on a choke collar for two-thirds of his life! In desperation, they were considering sending Laddy off to a training kennel to let a professional "break" him of the habit. They visited several of the internet dog training web sites and found no agreement on the wisdom of having someone else train an owner's dog. Their veterinarian, a client and dispenser of the "BehavioRx Series" of client education brochures, advised them to give our HelpLine a call. They did.

Laddy spent most of his weekdays in the back yard and his nights in a crate. He was showing all the signs of "social isolation stress." During the weekends and evenings he was, the owners confessed, "spoiled rotten." We asked why he was outdoors. The answer was, "We don't trust him in the house anymore since he chewed on a sofa when he was a puppy... and he pooped when we left him in the crate... and he's really not housetrained. He's also gets over-excited in the house a lot, so he spends lots of 'time-out' in the crate, too."

After the parents listened to, and appreciated, the need that all socialized dogs have for social contact, they were quick to admit that Laddy was spending up to two-thirds of his total life socially isolated, either in a box or shut out of his family group's house. They also mentioned that the children were becoming very negative about Laddy, since he was so demanding for attention and unruly, jumping on them, stealing their shoes, etc., etc. In short, their dream of an ideal family companion dog was fast becoming a nightmare.

We sent them back to their veterinary clinic for the BehavioRx Instruction brochures which would give them the information needed for all the family to establish leadership with Laddy, gain obedience to the three most-needed commands to Come, Sit and Stay, housetrain him, avoid chewing and other destruction in the house. They were delighted to learn that the brochures were available at no charge from the veterinary practice! The only money they had to spend was $15.95 for a Sof-Touch Training leash, which they ordered.

We also discovered that Laddy was eating a diet high (60+ percent)  in carbohydrate calories. They conferred with their veterinarian and were referred to a low-carbohydrate food.

Three weeks later they reported that Laddy had responded almost immediately. His excitability went down after a couple of days on the new diet; he quit "bugging everybody" around the house after a week on the Leadership program; was successfully left out of the crate at night, and he was alone in the house when they were away at work with no house soiling or chewing. Their only problem now was that the girls were starting to treat him like a "Teddy Bear" and had to be reminded of their leadership responsibilities. Further, they also followed the Sof-Touch Leash instructions (allowed Laddy to "Learn the Leash,") and he was a pleasure to take for walks, even when other dogs came around!

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