Angels of Light
Be my Angel of Light
My dog, my life.
Open the wondrous mystery of nature for me through your eyes.
Let me see the world a new in your first puppy steps.
Keep me centered firmly in play.
Help me understand the transitions of youth and age.
Honor me with your grace in those days of slower steps.
Privilege me in your composure on that final day.
Be my Angel of Light as I follow your foot steps in the years to come.
In honor of all the personal, rescue and clients dogs who have entered and touch my heart with their light.
Jeanne Perciaccanto
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Friday, May 06, 2011
The Learning Curve
The Leaning Curve
When someone calls to have their dog trained, they do so by first telling me what behaviors they seek to stop. Then, they tell me all the things the dog does well.
This a normal response. Owners don’t want people think their dog is bad, just that there are a few things that need to be cleared up to make living with them a pleasure.
Typically, the jumping, barking, biting, pulling, running away or not coming when called
are the main “BAD” things owners seek to stop.
The good things usually are the dog is house trained, very loving, isn’t destructive, good with the kids or doesn’t do one of the afore mentioned “bad” things.
So it would seem that when the dog is bad, it really bad and when good, really good!
So which is it?
Is the dog good or bad?
Actually, they are neither!
I never look at a dog as being good or bad.
I see them a series of learned behaviors.
Anything a dog does was learned in some manner.
What they learn may not be what the owner hopes they will learn, but in the learning curve; the owner has given credence to what the dog ultimately does.
You call your dog! Easy enough to understand what the end result should be, the dog comes to you!
But in the learning curve, you may have called your dog, it didn’t come, so you went to them.
At some point your dog also learns were the end of you arm is and how to stay just outside of your reach to not be caught.
Now the game is a foot as they say.
“Come” now means, run away as fast as you can and what was a simple command morphs into a game of catch me - catch me.
They are having fun running around and think you must be as well, since you keep playing along by chasing them!
The intended course of action was to teach the dog to come but the learning curve became run away.
Your dog isn’t being a bad dog, rather, a very smart dog since they learned exactly what you taught them!
When your dog pulls on a leash, a cause and effect reaction sets in. They pull away from you, you pull them back and they in turn pull away.
Some people compensate for this by keeping the leash short, holding the dog next to them. The dog hasn’t learned not pull but when to pull.
The dog doesn’t have any idea where they should be walking because they continually rely upon leash pressure to indicate action.
The learning curve is, I will pull until you indicate doing something else by your pulling me.
If the leash were taken completely out of the picture, where would your dog end up?
All dogs should learn to walk as thought there is no leash connected to them.
Training is not about correction but about a teaching process that informs the dog of the full context and positional placement of each command.
If the learning curve is clear, simple and concise, the end result will be a well trained dog.
Jeanne Perciaccanto has been a professional dog trainer for 30 years. She has training and behavioral article translated into over 10 languages around the world. Ultimate Dog Training
Offers obedience-behavioral-social dog services.
www.ultimatedogtraining.com
When someone calls to have their dog trained, they do so by first telling me what behaviors they seek to stop. Then, they tell me all the things the dog does well.
This a normal response. Owners don’t want people think their dog is bad, just that there are a few things that need to be cleared up to make living with them a pleasure.
Typically, the jumping, barking, biting, pulling, running away or not coming when called
are the main “BAD” things owners seek to stop.
The good things usually are the dog is house trained, very loving, isn’t destructive, good with the kids or doesn’t do one of the afore mentioned “bad” things.
So it would seem that when the dog is bad, it really bad and when good, really good!
So which is it?
Is the dog good or bad?
Actually, they are neither!
I never look at a dog as being good or bad.
I see them a series of learned behaviors.
Anything a dog does was learned in some manner.
What they learn may not be what the owner hopes they will learn, but in the learning curve; the owner has given credence to what the dog ultimately does.
You call your dog! Easy enough to understand what the end result should be, the dog comes to you!
But in the learning curve, you may have called your dog, it didn’t come, so you went to them.
At some point your dog also learns were the end of you arm is and how to stay just outside of your reach to not be caught.
Now the game is a foot as they say.
“Come” now means, run away as fast as you can and what was a simple command morphs into a game of catch me - catch me.
They are having fun running around and think you must be as well, since you keep playing along by chasing them!
The intended course of action was to teach the dog to come but the learning curve became run away.
Your dog isn’t being a bad dog, rather, a very smart dog since they learned exactly what you taught them!
When your dog pulls on a leash, a cause and effect reaction sets in. They pull away from you, you pull them back and they in turn pull away.
Some people compensate for this by keeping the leash short, holding the dog next to them. The dog hasn’t learned not pull but when to pull.
The dog doesn’t have any idea where they should be walking because they continually rely upon leash pressure to indicate action.
The learning curve is, I will pull until you indicate doing something else by your pulling me.
If the leash were taken completely out of the picture, where would your dog end up?
All dogs should learn to walk as thought there is no leash connected to them.
Training is not about correction but about a teaching process that informs the dog of the full context and positional placement of each command.
If the learning curve is clear, simple and concise, the end result will be a well trained dog.
Jeanne Perciaccanto has been a professional dog trainer for 30 years. She has training and behavioral article translated into over 10 languages around the world. Ultimate Dog Training
Offers obedience-behavioral-social dog services.
www.ultimatedogtraining.com
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Comparative Learning
Comparative Learning
by
Jeanne Perciaccanto
Ultimate Dog Training
www.ultimatedogtraining.com
Why or in some case despite all obstacles, does a dog learn?
How is it, one dog can go through multiple training sessions and never learn to sit, yet take the same dog to a different trainer and the dog is sitting and staying quickly?
Is the dog different or the training different?
Are the trainers more in tune with the dog or do the owners see the training process differently?
I believe the answer lays between all worlds.
Watching dogs in large off leash social groups for years, I had the opportunity to observe how they learn from and teach each other.
First, dogs live in the world of allowance and consequence.
This sounds very simplistic which it is not.
There are many levels of conversational and corrective body language that dogs use with each other. Here are just a few behaviors you might see for both expressions of language.
Conversational language of course would be things such as: play posture; vocalization; seeking chase; invitation with toys; calming signals and ignoring or walking away from as a sort of talk to the paw comment.
Corrective language would be actions such as: eye set; tail carriage; growling; raised lip or showing front teeth; alpha roll ( yes they do); biting; snapping and nipping; chase away; pawing; climbing on and draping head over neck. They would also use ignoring and walking away to correct.
Most interaction are a combination of both. A dog unsure of another dogs’ intentions may rely on calming signals or play language to assess the full intent and potential behavior.
Basically they seek some form of a response without being fully direct or perceived confrontational.
These languages are comparative learning which produces self control.
Watch a pup who was corrected for trying to take a bone away from another dog. The corrected dog learns to give a wide berth the next time that particular dog is eating a bone.
They are not being made to leave them alone, self control is keeping them from going back and trying to take the bone.
Second, puppies learn through trial and error.
They test and explore their own personal limitations and boundaries both physically and emotionally. They do this by simply doing. In this process they learn how to achieve all their basic survival and life saving skills, along with social boundaries and pack structure.
They also learn how to get what they want and need from other pack members which includes us.
A example of trial and error would be paws up. A puppy puts its paws up on us and we pick them up. They repeat this a few times and have learned how to get picked up.
Puppies nervous in a play group may vocalize from fear of the unknown and find each time the are vocal, it draws the other dogs attention on to them but being quiet the dogs stay away. So in trial and error, the nervous dogs learn how to control their environment by being silent. Self control over vocalization is taking place.
So what is Comparative Learning and how do we need to use it?
Dogs assess everything they do by comparing. I do this and that happens. I put my paws up on another dog and get growled at. I bark in another dogs face and get chased away.
I pick up a toy and run, the others dogs follow and chase me.
They do and a response happens directly to their behavior.
They climb onto an unstable surface a fall off, they learn to test the surface the next time.
We cannot make our dogs do anything they do not want to do.
You can use as many treats or correct the dog as many times and the end result will be the same. Dogs will only do what is in their best interest.
We have seen in so many situations when a dog refuses a treat because the value of the distraction is higher. So treats are not the answer.
We have also seen dogs, despite leashes and collars, will still drag the owner down the street when the distraction value is high enough. Leashes and collars are not the answer.
So neither food nor equipment trains a dog.
But owners are ever hopeful to use and rely on either to get their dog to listen to them.
Makes you think our dogs are smarter than we are!
Training if done right, allows the dog an opportunity to assess and compare behaviors. The dog is the one choosing to sit and stay, we do not make them do so nor can we.
Comparative learning is when the dogs is able to determine the best course of action for themselves in any circumstance.
It is taught in the smallest part of the learning curve by marking thought not action.
This requires the trainer/handler to be able to read the dogs thought process and see where and when the marking needs to take place.
Is it an eye glance, a leg movement, a body lean or any number of indicators to what the dog may be is thinking.
Marking behaviors is a skilled technique and all to often done improperly for the dog to learn clearly.
If you mark the wrong moment, you may in fact teach the dog do something you don’t want. They need to clearly understand exactly what they did in that moment that they were rewarded for.
The same is true with correction. If the correction is poorly timed, you will end up marking the wrong part of the thought process.
Heel is taught first by getting the dog to just look at you.
Stay by getting the dog to become emotionally calm.
Come by teaching the dog what being next to means first.
They have to find the value in what they do through comparison.
Dogs are reward first via marking thought as it progresses closer to what will eventually become the final desired action. Correction is later used to help the dog further define a more exact moment in behavior.
Since dogs teach with correction, dogs learn when correction is used appropriately in defining thought.
Comparative learning teaches our dogs to develop self control which is the end result for all training.
The dog must be able to ascertain the appropriateness of what they are doing.
In learning to self control, our dogs create a fuller life as true companions.
by
Jeanne Perciaccanto
Ultimate Dog Training
www.ultimatedogtraining.com
Why or in some case despite all obstacles, does a dog learn?
How is it, one dog can go through multiple training sessions and never learn to sit, yet take the same dog to a different trainer and the dog is sitting and staying quickly?
Is the dog different or the training different?
Are the trainers more in tune with the dog or do the owners see the training process differently?
I believe the answer lays between all worlds.
Watching dogs in large off leash social groups for years, I had the opportunity to observe how they learn from and teach each other.
First, dogs live in the world of allowance and consequence.
This sounds very simplistic which it is not.
There are many levels of conversational and corrective body language that dogs use with each other. Here are just a few behaviors you might see for both expressions of language.
Conversational language of course would be things such as: play posture; vocalization; seeking chase; invitation with toys; calming signals and ignoring or walking away from as a sort of talk to the paw comment.
Corrective language would be actions such as: eye set; tail carriage; growling; raised lip or showing front teeth; alpha roll ( yes they do); biting; snapping and nipping; chase away; pawing; climbing on and draping head over neck. They would also use ignoring and walking away to correct.
Most interaction are a combination of both. A dog unsure of another dogs’ intentions may rely on calming signals or play language to assess the full intent and potential behavior.
Basically they seek some form of a response without being fully direct or perceived confrontational.
These languages are comparative learning which produces self control.
Watch a pup who was corrected for trying to take a bone away from another dog. The corrected dog learns to give a wide berth the next time that particular dog is eating a bone.
They are not being made to leave them alone, self control is keeping them from going back and trying to take the bone.
Second, puppies learn through trial and error.
They test and explore their own personal limitations and boundaries both physically and emotionally. They do this by simply doing. In this process they learn how to achieve all their basic survival and life saving skills, along with social boundaries and pack structure.
They also learn how to get what they want and need from other pack members which includes us.
A example of trial and error would be paws up. A puppy puts its paws up on us and we pick them up. They repeat this a few times and have learned how to get picked up.
Puppies nervous in a play group may vocalize from fear of the unknown and find each time the are vocal, it draws the other dogs attention on to them but being quiet the dogs stay away. So in trial and error, the nervous dogs learn how to control their environment by being silent. Self control over vocalization is taking place.
So what is Comparative Learning and how do we need to use it?
Dogs assess everything they do by comparing. I do this and that happens. I put my paws up on another dog and get growled at. I bark in another dogs face and get chased away.
I pick up a toy and run, the others dogs follow and chase me.
They do and a response happens directly to their behavior.
They climb onto an unstable surface a fall off, they learn to test the surface the next time.
We cannot make our dogs do anything they do not want to do.
You can use as many treats or correct the dog as many times and the end result will be the same. Dogs will only do what is in their best interest.
We have seen in so many situations when a dog refuses a treat because the value of the distraction is higher. So treats are not the answer.
We have also seen dogs, despite leashes and collars, will still drag the owner down the street when the distraction value is high enough. Leashes and collars are not the answer.
So neither food nor equipment trains a dog.
But owners are ever hopeful to use and rely on either to get their dog to listen to them.
Makes you think our dogs are smarter than we are!
Training if done right, allows the dog an opportunity to assess and compare behaviors. The dog is the one choosing to sit and stay, we do not make them do so nor can we.
Comparative learning is when the dogs is able to determine the best course of action for themselves in any circumstance.
It is taught in the smallest part of the learning curve by marking thought not action.
This requires the trainer/handler to be able to read the dogs thought process and see where and when the marking needs to take place.
Is it an eye glance, a leg movement, a body lean or any number of indicators to what the dog may be is thinking.
Marking behaviors is a skilled technique and all to often done improperly for the dog to learn clearly.
If you mark the wrong moment, you may in fact teach the dog do something you don’t want. They need to clearly understand exactly what they did in that moment that they were rewarded for.
The same is true with correction. If the correction is poorly timed, you will end up marking the wrong part of the thought process.
Heel is taught first by getting the dog to just look at you.
Stay by getting the dog to become emotionally calm.
Come by teaching the dog what being next to means first.
They have to find the value in what they do through comparison.
Dogs are reward first via marking thought as it progresses closer to what will eventually become the final desired action. Correction is later used to help the dog further define a more exact moment in behavior.
Since dogs teach with correction, dogs learn when correction is used appropriately in defining thought.
Comparative learning teaches our dogs to develop self control which is the end result for all training.
The dog must be able to ascertain the appropriateness of what they are doing.
In learning to self control, our dogs create a fuller life as true companions.
Monday, December 27, 2010
One lucky boy!
I received the best Christmas present this year.
It wasn't wrapped in a decorative package with bows.
It came in the form of a phone call from a dog owner on Christmas Eve.
This about a 6 year old Greyhound who lost his right front leg to cancer.
He is doing well from the surgery and has full mobility. He loves to run and play with his house mate but he lost more than his leg, he lost his confidence particularly on stairs.
He learned to adapt to everything else in life but his adaptive process, using his back legs to propel him up into the van, was not functional to use on stairs.
This boy is lucky however, he has owners who were dedicated to helping him live a full life once again.
The problem they were facing was the home they would be moving to has stairs and many of them.
Two levels of stairs to get into the house and a flight to the upper living level inside the home.
The current home had no stairs. The owners realizing a potential problem tried to use a neighbors front steps in an attempted to get him doing stairs using treats before the move but to no avail.
He was scarred and lacked in the self confidence to balance and support his body while moving his legs independently required to go up steps.
My goal was to help him re-learn balance and trust in his own abilities to adapt once more this time to stairs.
None of this would have worked had the owners not been dedicated to helping their dog past his fears.
We started slowly. The first was to get him walking and stepping on something different and foreign to him.
I placed a small, collapsible A-frame flat on the ground. Flat and low but had just a little bit of movement when stepped onto. At first I used treats to try and lure him forward, no go for the treats.
So we adapted and just had the owner walk him to the board and limit his options of being able to move around and away from it or to just jump over by completely avoiding the board.
We built one movement forward at a time. One foot, then another until finally standing and choosing to get on and off by his own design.
We built the degree of difficulty slowly by changing the level and angle for him to step onto and walk up. The goal was to build confidence, self control, balance and to use his legs independently while maintaining support.
Then we limited his options to keep him from seeking to jump over or away from and praised him wildly for making a move forward.
Each forward progress was met with lots of praise. After a repetition of behavior, he was rewarded with play time.
In between our session, his owner found stairs for him to climb. First big wide steps that would allow for stopping and balancing between steps. He starting with just a few step, increasing to as many as twelve steps up and down.
We ended our first hurdle by accomplishing an achievement past fear. The big fellow had made a self discovery by starting to trust himself and his owner to keep him safe.
We continued to increase the degree of difficulty by changing the angle, level and surfaces for him to step onto, up and over.
Once he accomplished the first stages of getting up and onto a surface, we repeated this a few times and at some point confidence set in he did it by himself.
Our last session we took him to a friends house who had eight steps up the front of her house but built in the typical size, narrow and steep.
He didn't like them at first and refused to try. We limited his options and the owner went up the stairs with him one at a time holding onto his vest handle and I handled the back end to keep him from rolling backwards.
He made it to the top and we cheered.
Down he went and after two more tries, he was heading up and down the stairs on is own as proud as could be!
We talked about the possibility of altering and adapting the outside stairs up to the new house by either making them wider or adding another landing or two. The builder was able to come up with some variations and we hit on something that would work well.
I got my best Christmas present when the owner called me Christmas Eve to tell me his boy is walking up and down not only the outside steps but the more difficult inside stairs on his own.
The owner said he was sitting and having a cup of coffee in the morning was greeted by his big fellow standing next to him in the kitchen on the second floor. He came up the stairs all by himself!
This is one lucky boy! His owners never gave up on hoping for his having the best life possible. Nor did they chose to get rid of him because he didn't fit their lifestyle needs.
It wasn't wrapped in a decorative package with bows.
It came in the form of a phone call from a dog owner on Christmas Eve.
This about a 6 year old Greyhound who lost his right front leg to cancer.
He is doing well from the surgery and has full mobility. He loves to run and play with his house mate but he lost more than his leg, he lost his confidence particularly on stairs.
He learned to adapt to everything else in life but his adaptive process, using his back legs to propel him up into the van, was not functional to use on stairs.
This boy is lucky however, he has owners who were dedicated to helping him live a full life once again.
The problem they were facing was the home they would be moving to has stairs and many of them.
Two levels of stairs to get into the house and a flight to the upper living level inside the home.
The current home had no stairs. The owners realizing a potential problem tried to use a neighbors front steps in an attempted to get him doing stairs using treats before the move but to no avail.
He was scarred and lacked in the self confidence to balance and support his body while moving his legs independently required to go up steps.
My goal was to help him re-learn balance and trust in his own abilities to adapt once more this time to stairs.
None of this would have worked had the owners not been dedicated to helping their dog past his fears.
We started slowly. The first was to get him walking and stepping on something different and foreign to him.
I placed a small, collapsible A-frame flat on the ground. Flat and low but had just a little bit of movement when stepped onto. At first I used treats to try and lure him forward, no go for the treats.
So we adapted and just had the owner walk him to the board and limit his options of being able to move around and away from it or to just jump over by completely avoiding the board.
We built one movement forward at a time. One foot, then another until finally standing and choosing to get on and off by his own design.
We built the degree of difficulty slowly by changing the level and angle for him to step onto and walk up. The goal was to build confidence, self control, balance and to use his legs independently while maintaining support.
Then we limited his options to keep him from seeking to jump over or away from and praised him wildly for making a move forward.
Each forward progress was met with lots of praise. After a repetition of behavior, he was rewarded with play time.
In between our session, his owner found stairs for him to climb. First big wide steps that would allow for stopping and balancing between steps. He starting with just a few step, increasing to as many as twelve steps up and down.
We ended our first hurdle by accomplishing an achievement past fear. The big fellow had made a self discovery by starting to trust himself and his owner to keep him safe.
We continued to increase the degree of difficulty by changing the angle, level and surfaces for him to step onto, up and over.
Once he accomplished the first stages of getting up and onto a surface, we repeated this a few times and at some point confidence set in he did it by himself.
Our last session we took him to a friends house who had eight steps up the front of her house but built in the typical size, narrow and steep.
He didn't like them at first and refused to try. We limited his options and the owner went up the stairs with him one at a time holding onto his vest handle and I handled the back end to keep him from rolling backwards.
He made it to the top and we cheered.
Down he went and after two more tries, he was heading up and down the stairs on is own as proud as could be!
We talked about the possibility of altering and adapting the outside stairs up to the new house by either making them wider or adding another landing or two. The builder was able to come up with some variations and we hit on something that would work well.
I got my best Christmas present when the owner called me Christmas Eve to tell me his boy is walking up and down not only the outside steps but the more difficult inside stairs on his own.
The owner said he was sitting and having a cup of coffee in the morning was greeted by his big fellow standing next to him in the kitchen on the second floor. He came up the stairs all by himself!
This is one lucky boy! His owners never gave up on hoping for his having the best life possible. Nor did they chose to get rid of him because he didn't fit their lifestyle needs.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Dog Food for Training
Dog owners are becoming more savvy!
Owners are seeking ways to connect with their dogs in training classes, group meet ups, social pack walks and taking their dogs to the dog park for some off leash fun!
Yet many are unaware that what they feed their dogs daily effects how well their dogs’ will train, behave, learn and develop self control.
The Brain is the engine that runs the body but what fuels the Brain?
Sugar!
The brain runs on glucose (sugar) but it is not able to store its own reserve of glucose, so the Brain must be fed to keep you awake and alert!
Think of the times you have grabbed for candy, caffeine or cookies to off set the sluggishness of late afternoon mental fatigue. Your brain is calling for energy and your body knows it needs glucose, so the body drives you towards sugar.
Simple sugar in cookies and candy offers the fastest source of glucose but it only gives you a short jump start for that necessary brain power.
Continual use of simple sugars has your Brain cycling through running highs and lows during the day.
A nutritional way to stem these cycles is to properly eat complex carbohydrates with your meals.
What does glucose really do?
Our bodies require glucose to maximize all the cellular energy our bodies need to keep functioning effectively. The catalyst for the control and metabolism of glucose is the pancreas which produces insulin. Insulin maintains blood sugar levels entering the muscles and brain cells. Poor pancreatic function lessens how glucose is used properly by the body.
Low sugar levels, Hypoglycemia, can cause lethargy, impaired mental function, and irritability, weakness and becoming easily stressed or confused.
Too much simple sugar intake throws the pancreases into over drive which over time limits its ability to properly control sugar intake as it should.
High sugar levels can lead to Diabetes.
What happens when extra sugar isn't needed for energy?
Glucose is there for energy but when not needed for immediate use, it is stored as glycogen until the body demands energy.
An over weight and obese dog is eating too much simple sugar which becomes stored fat. Fat is glucose which has been converted into glycogen.
The reserve of glycogen is kept until needed for energy. If sugar is continually put into the diet, the glycogen is never used and the body continues to store the additional glucose. Glycogen is not only stored under the skin but also stored around internal organs such as the liver.
Sugar comes in two forms, simple and complex.
Simple sugar is broken down, digested and used very quickly and requires more to sustain energy needs. It contains little to no nutritional value.
Simple sugars would come from sugar, fructose, wheat, corn, honey, to name a few.
Complex carbohydrates have nutrient value and breaks down by digesting more slowly. Digesting more slowly gives the body longer access to valuable glucose, giving the muscles and brain energy resources as needed to maintain focus and activity.
Sources of complex carbohydrates would be oats, barley, legumes, and whole wheat.
Our dogs can’t ask for a cup or coffee or tell you they are fatigued, or do they?
Are there certain times of day your dog seems to have high or low energy, mental focus and attention? How long before or after feeding do these behaviors start?
Are you having difficulty training your dog or they just don’t seem to get it no matter how many repetitions or varied ways you try and teach?
Does your dog mentally wander or no longer focuses on known commands?
Is your once stable dog becoming cranky?
Have a normally dog friendly dog not interested in or seem bothered by or snaps at dogs they normally enjoy playing with?
If you have a normally well balanced dog that seems to have highs and lows in behavior, attention and activity, they may be having blood sugar rise and drops through out the day. Do they train better in the morning or evening, before or after eating?
Food for thought, you may look into changing their food to change their behavior.
Visit www.dogfoodplus.com for information on behavior and food.
Jeanne Perciaccanto is a Dog trainer with over 25 years professional experience. She also holds Science and Health degrees.
Owners are seeking ways to connect with their dogs in training classes, group meet ups, social pack walks and taking their dogs to the dog park for some off leash fun!
Yet many are unaware that what they feed their dogs daily effects how well their dogs’ will train, behave, learn and develop self control.
The Brain is the engine that runs the body but what fuels the Brain?
Sugar!
The brain runs on glucose (sugar) but it is not able to store its own reserve of glucose, so the Brain must be fed to keep you awake and alert!
Think of the times you have grabbed for candy, caffeine or cookies to off set the sluggishness of late afternoon mental fatigue. Your brain is calling for energy and your body knows it needs glucose, so the body drives you towards sugar.
Simple sugar in cookies and candy offers the fastest source of glucose but it only gives you a short jump start for that necessary brain power.
Continual use of simple sugars has your Brain cycling through running highs and lows during the day.
A nutritional way to stem these cycles is to properly eat complex carbohydrates with your meals.
What does glucose really do?
Our bodies require glucose to maximize all the cellular energy our bodies need to keep functioning effectively. The catalyst for the control and metabolism of glucose is the pancreas which produces insulin. Insulin maintains blood sugar levels entering the muscles and brain cells. Poor pancreatic function lessens how glucose is used properly by the body.
Low sugar levels, Hypoglycemia, can cause lethargy, impaired mental function, and irritability, weakness and becoming easily stressed or confused.
Too much simple sugar intake throws the pancreases into over drive which over time limits its ability to properly control sugar intake as it should.
High sugar levels can lead to Diabetes.
What happens when extra sugar isn't needed for energy?
Glucose is there for energy but when not needed for immediate use, it is stored as glycogen until the body demands energy.
An over weight and obese dog is eating too much simple sugar which becomes stored fat. Fat is glucose which has been converted into glycogen.
The reserve of glycogen is kept until needed for energy. If sugar is continually put into the diet, the glycogen is never used and the body continues to store the additional glucose. Glycogen is not only stored under the skin but also stored around internal organs such as the liver.
Sugar comes in two forms, simple and complex.
Simple sugar is broken down, digested and used very quickly and requires more to sustain energy needs. It contains little to no nutritional value.
Simple sugars would come from sugar, fructose, wheat, corn, honey, to name a few.
Complex carbohydrates have nutrient value and breaks down by digesting more slowly. Digesting more slowly gives the body longer access to valuable glucose, giving the muscles and brain energy resources as needed to maintain focus and activity.
Sources of complex carbohydrates would be oats, barley, legumes, and whole wheat.
Our dogs can’t ask for a cup or coffee or tell you they are fatigued, or do they?
Are there certain times of day your dog seems to have high or low energy, mental focus and attention? How long before or after feeding do these behaviors start?
Are you having difficulty training your dog or they just don’t seem to get it no matter how many repetitions or varied ways you try and teach?
Does your dog mentally wander or no longer focuses on known commands?
Is your once stable dog becoming cranky?
Have a normally dog friendly dog not interested in or seem bothered by or snaps at dogs they normally enjoy playing with?
If you have a normally well balanced dog that seems to have highs and lows in behavior, attention and activity, they may be having blood sugar rise and drops through out the day. Do they train better in the morning or evening, before or after eating?
Food for thought, you may look into changing their food to change their behavior.
Visit www.dogfoodplus.com for information on behavior and food.
Jeanne Perciaccanto is a Dog trainer with over 25 years professional experience. She also holds Science and Health degrees.
Monday, September 22, 2008
NJ elections - dog owners beware!
If you live in NJ check this list out to see a list of those running for office.
Those in favor of the animal rights agenda are not in favor of dog ownership or dogs in general. They seek to remove our rights to own dogs one bill and legislation at a time.
I urge you to vote those approved by SAOVA. The SAOVA approved are opposed to PETA and HSUS legislation and those bought by animal (deplorable) welfare groups.
Remember, PETA and HSUS have been supported by unsuspecting loving dog owners who have paid millions for the lobbyists who now try and remove dogs from loving homes via legislative bills.
http://saova.org/2008/NewJersey08.html
Those in favor of the animal rights agenda are not in favor of dog ownership or dogs in general. They seek to remove our rights to own dogs one bill and legislation at a time.
I urge you to vote those approved by SAOVA. The SAOVA approved are opposed to PETA and HSUS legislation and those bought by animal (deplorable) welfare groups.
Remember, PETA and HSUS have been supported by unsuspecting loving dog owners who have paid millions for the lobbyists who now try and remove dogs from loving homes via legislative bills.
http://saova.org/2008/NewJersey08.html
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Animal laws around the US.
Here are new lists of proposed an newly enacted animals laws around our U.S.A.
Read and weep for what was and were our animals lives are going.
Read and weep for what was and were our animals lives are going.
http://monthlynationallegislationreport.blogspot.com/
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