This is my Nightmare, I keep having it.    And this is a true happening, which is worse.
My neighbor back in New Jersey, that I didn't know so well, had a Shih Tzu that was matted and always outside.  I come outside one day and catch him kicking the dog and it yelped. I screamed at him WTF!!!!! Do you want me to do that to you?  He said, "...mind your business," and then ... kicked it again. 

I ran over, knocked him out. I took the dog and called the cops. Then I got a bat, cause I had the dog in my hand to keep him at bay. Cops come...they start asking, "...like what's going on?"  He's like (the neighbor) yelling and all that, saying, "I want him arrested for assault!"  Bah!!! I knew all the cops. I went to HS (high school) with them. They (the cops) were like, "Rob, what's up?"  I'm like, "I saw him kick the dog. He kicked it again... it flew 3 feet in the air". Then the neighbor said, "Guys, like he's lying! He stole my dog."

My friend (the cop), says, "Let's see something".  So he has me and guy (the neighbor) stand at opposite ends of the yard.
He (the cop) has us call dog, he (the dog) runs to me. I'd always play with him when he was outside.
Cops, to the neighbor, "Like yeah, this dog ain't going with you". They called animal services instead. They took the dog and found him a good home. Cops to the neighbor, "Like we have other witnesses that saw you kick the dog."
The neighbor, he's like cursing, screaming. My friends, the cops, told me before they left "Like Rob, call us next time first!  lol"  The End

 Do you have a short story of when you intervened to help a local dog when the owner was abusive or out of control?

 Would you like us to share one on the network? Contact us at info@bostonterriernetwork.com

So what about dogs? 

Do dogs get nightmares?

Have you noticed when your Boston is sleeping she sometimes appears to dream and starts twitching and moves her paw a lot?

Many people believe that our dogs dream just like people. It's also assumed by many that our dogs, unsurprisingly, have some nightmares. Sometimes dogs exhibit so much movement during a dream that people have, in the past, mistaken them for seizures or they may even growl or snap at some sleep-created vision; giving the impression that they are dreaming about something. However, you can easily wake a dreaming dog, but you could not halt a seizure in the same way 1.

Photo provided by Kim Goulding

Did you know the structural level, the brains of dogs, are similar to those of humans?  Also, during sleep the brain wave patterns of dogs are similar to that of people and go through the same stages of electrical activity observed in humans; all of which is consistent with the idea that dogs are dreaming.
Since a dog's brain is more complex and shows the same electrical sequences, it is reasonable to assume that dogs are dreaming, as well. There is also evidence that they dream about common dog activities.

This kind of research takes advantage of the fact that there is a special structure in the brain stem (the pons) that keeps all of us from acting out our dreams. When scientists removed or inactivated the part of the brain that suppresses acting out of dreams in dogs, they observed that they began to move around, despite the fact that electrical recordings of their brains indicated that the dogs were still fast asleep. The dogs only started to move when the brain entered that stage of sleep associated with dreaming. During the course of a dream episode these dogs actually began to execute the actions that they were performing in their dreams.

Photo provided by Lindi Judd

Watch him from the time he starts to doze off.

As the dog's sleep becomes deeper, his breathing will become more regular. After a period of about 20 minutes, for an average-sized dog, his first dream should start. You will recognize the change because his breathing will become shallow and irregular. There may be odd muscle twitches and you can even see the dog's eyes moving behind its closed lids if you look closely enough. The eyes are moving because the dog is actually looking at the dream images as if they were real images of the world. These eye movements are most characteristic of dreaming sleep. When human beings are awakened during this rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep phase, they virtually always report that they were dreaming. 

 Photo provided by Nole Jenny

 Source:
1Petpeoplesplace.com

Photos Provided by: Lindi Judd, Kim Goulding, Nole Jenny

Edited by:  Jan Mitchell

Used in combination, counter-conditioning and desensitization methods can help change a dog's emotional response toward a stimulus in a powerful way, changing unwanted behavior to the positive.

This method is designed to first find the threshold at which the pet first responds, so that the pet can be gradually exposed to progressively more intense levels of the stimulus without the undesirable behavior being elicited.

If the incremental increases are too large, or occur too quickly, the techniques will either not be effective, or may even make the problem worse. Counter-conditioning generally refers to changing the pet’s mood (through positive pairings and associations), and response substitution refers to training the desired behaviors.

In order for these techniques to be most successful, your pet should not be put in any situation that triggers the problem behavior.
Response substitution is a technique in which an undesirable behavioral response to a stimulus or situation is changed to one that is desirable.

Behavior modification programs of this sort should be designed and carried out in such small steps that the problem behavior never occurs.

A counter-conditioning and desensitization program needs to begin by using combinations of stimuli that are least likely to cause a fearful reaction.
Always begin with the characteristics or dimensions that are least likely to elicit the problem behavior.
At these sub-threshold intensities, the stimulus must be paired with something positive for your dog. The aim is to let the dog come to associate good things happening rather than bad things. The reinforcement must be powerful. Good choices are food, especially favored treats, toys, petting, attention, or praise. If food is used it should be in very small pieces and be highly desired by your pet (cheese, hot dogs, or canned tuna often work well).

An often asked question is for how long they need to repeat each intensity level. The answer will depend on your dog, who should be demonstrating that he is indeed expecting good things to happen. This should be in contrast to his previous reactions such as trembling, tensing up, or other fearful or aggressive responses.

An example might be accomplished by pairing the sight, sounds and approach of a new person or dog with one of the dog’s favored rewards to change the emotional state to one that is calm and positive.

The starting point would be a distance significantly greater than 6 feet, and have the distraction (favorite treat or toy, at the ready) available before the person or dog enters the scene. Wait for the dog or person to walk by, and with dog on lead, slowly follow behind 6 to 10 feet with no contact, nor getting closer. Do this several times in a couple of days and reward the dog for being calm. Slowly after a couple days, follow a little closer, then turn the dog and let the strange dog follow your dog at the 6 to 10 feet distance, until that causes no reaction. For some dogs this may take a few times, for others months, be patient and do not rush.

Another example:  Dogs that are anxious or fearful when exposed to a visitor or cat in the home, we would want to pair the dogs favored rewards with the presence of the visitor or cat.

Reasons for method failure:  If you progress too fast, the incremental steps were too big or highly motivating rewards were not used. Another reason for failure, if your responses are not consistent, causing the dog to become confused.

.

Counter conditioning and desensitization take time and must be done very gradually.

 Who is training who?

Sources: vachospitals.com
                 animalhumanesociety.org
Photos: Lynanne Troy Graham_Jazzy
               Debbie Foltz-Jerauld_ Poppie
               Kay Horton Parmenter_Lola
               Beth Scott Boston

Related articles:
Miss Katie: The Life and Times of a Backyard Breeder Dog

BONUS:
Do you know what a Ethologists is?
Ethologists, are persons who study animal behavior

Edited by:  Jan Mitchell

How do you know when one dog is dominate over another? My understanding of how this all works is basically this:

If you have several dogs in the home, you can control the dog’s behaviors by being more dominant to the other dogs, but if you leave the dogs together unsupervised the dogs will return back to the one dominant dog. You did not change the true pack order, only by your presence and dominance, to have control. You must separate the dogs by crating them or with doggie doors or closed door, etc.

Their genetics (and to some extent, upbringing-- depending upon their age) determines this.

In other words, the "Alpha dog." is the alpha dog, until you get home. Then you're the alpha dog, and he becomes the beta dog.


Dogs need a dominant, alpha leader; a being who is calm and very strong-minded. Dogs instinctively crave this leadership and guidance. Size means nothing. It is all about energy, all about how the being is feeling inside. Unstable humans make unstable dogs. A human who lacks confidence will not have a dog who listens to their commands.

If you find yourself correcting your dog with anger, you are not being a good pack leader. Your dog should never fear you. You are looking for respect from your dog, not fear. When a dog respects you he will happily want to follow you. One cannot accomplish this respect using fear and aggression. Source: dogbreedinfo.com

Since dominant dogs look so proud, and we all have to admit cute, if you don't know what the dog is really saying, and submissive dogs kind of look sad since they hold their heads low and slink themselves down, it's no wonder so many people have dominant dogs. When their dog acts submissive they mistake that for a sad dog. When their dog acts dominant they mistake it for a happy, proud dog. Dominance tends to get rewarded. Source: dogbreedinfo.com

That is nice, but what can I do with a dog that doesn't get along with other dogs?

Don’t give him the opportunity to “fail”, so-to-speak, socialization is the key in having a dog that gets along with other dogs.

You must learn which dog is starting the fights. It's not always as it appears. Sometimes there are silent challenges you do not see. The humans have to get their timing correct to tell the offender you do not agree. You must earn the respect of the pack as their leader. Without that respect, telling them you don't agree with fights won't mean anything to them.

The dog with the bone, who happened to be the new rescue Pit Bull, let out a small growl. One would think that dog was starting a fight, but if you looked closer you would see the other dog was laying down near the dog with the bone staring her down. Staring down a dog can be a silent challenge.

The dog without the bone was silently challenging the dog with the bone. Who do you correct? You correct the dog who is being disrespectful. One dog cannot be allowed to stare down another in a challenging way. It means something in the dog world.

When dealing with dogs there should never be a favored dog. Each situation needs to be dealt with individually on a case by case basis. The rules should apply to all equally regardless of the dog's size or breed. A toy dog should not be allowed to harass a big dog and vice versa.

On the other hand, you must always remember the dog with the bone does not own that bone. He just happens to have dibs on it at the moment. When he stops chewing the bone, it's fair game for others to chew. The dog with the bone cannot be allowed to sit and guard the bone. Source: dogbreedinfo.com

A dog's temperament is a direct result of the owner’s ability to understand him and give him what he instinctively needs as a canine animal. There are no bad dogs... just uneducated owners. Source: dogbreedinfo.com

Ideally, socialization should start as soon as possible when the dog is still a puppy.

Puppies have a "grace period" of up to 12 weeks of age where they intensely require as much contact as possible with other people and other dogs. If this "grace period" passes with improper socialization, then the whole socialization process will turn out to be much more difficult and challenging.

If your dog is unfriendly towards other dogs, very likely he has not been properly socialized as a puppy. In rescue we come across many dogs of all ages with this behavior.

Being unfriendly shows up as the dog's body stiffens in an aggressive posture and as he gives that typical extremely cold stare to another dog that crosses his path. The dog may growl and threaten to bite or he may simply bark with fear. This is not dominant, this is an attempt to protect itself from a possible threat.

A well socialized dog on the other hand instead will appear to be comfortable and even friendly when meeting other dogs.

While severe cases may need the intervention of a dog behaviorist, if your dog's case is only mild there are some things you can try to do to turn him around.

But, now back to what dominance is in the dog world.

According to the dictionary being the dominant dog means:

Being an animal that occupies the highest position in a social hierarchy and has the greatest access to resources such as food and a mate or mates. Social dominance is gained and maintained through factors such as size and aggressiveness.

If an animal is fearful, it doesn’t make sense to treat it by trying to “dominate” it. That won’t bring it out of its fear state.

Actually, if you change the underlying emotional state you’ll change the outward behavior.

One definition of leadership is the ability to influence an individual to perform behavior they would not otherwise perform. By that definition, pet owners do need to develop leadership skills. However we have a choice of leadership style. We can lead by force like a dictator such as Muammar Gaddafi or by providing goals or rewards that follows want, such as Mahatma Gandhi.

This is what some of our friends commented on how to tell which dog is dominant.

Matt Tucci: They stand next to them and press their muzzle to the side of the others head by the eye/ear area.

Nancy Fields: They let the others know by not letting others on lap, won't give in if they're next to owner in bed, some can be snappy, growl etc. but haven't found Bostie baby like that. Mine whines, talks, etc. to get what they want. Lol

Hiedi Pierson: Rya sits on top of the other dogs. She is very dominant with other dogs. Traeger sits on me, my chest, to be dominant, but he isn't dominant with other dogs. Abbott does his part by winning all the games. I think every dog is different on how they try to be dominant, it's a matter of whether or not it works because they know I am the alpha so they have to establish the lower ranks.

Angela Unterbrink: I call it head bopping. My female will steal toys from the other and then bop them on the head with it to almost say "this is not yours, it's mine and you're an idiot".

Kimberly M Lunsford: I have four Bostons and one pushes the others away from me so he can get attention first.

Linda Barbaro: They bully the other dog. Stand over food or water like they are daring the other to come near. They hump, won't let the other near their people. They hoard the toys and chew toys.

Carol Larsen: An excellent book - "The Dog Listener", all about understanding dogs..pack structure, etc.

Angie Bower: When the human dad doesn't know how to say NO, and the dog carries on with whatever dad trys to tell the dog to stop with. He does as I tell him, but his dad he looks at him as if to say I DON'T THINK SO. lol

Wendy Browne: When I've had large packs of four or five dogs, I've noticed that the NON dominant dogs are usually the troublemakers, the agitators and humpers and growlers; whereas the top dogs are more confident, eat first, bark first, greet first, are allowed to take toys without objection. The top dog sometimes changed between two out of the large group, but the troublemaker never changes, always making issues and when a fight happens it was always everyone piled on that dog.

Sources: dogbreedinfo.com

Edited by: Julie Bradford, Jan Mitchell