This week on Ask The Expert, animal behaviourist Mark Vette takes animal-related questions - and reveals how he managed to train an octopus to take photos.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
Follow this and our Wide Ranger podcast now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Mark Video is a world renowned animal behavior a dog
trainer and educator who has been working with animals for
over forty years. He's a trained animal psychologist and created
the Dogs In online training program. He's about to launch
Katz and Katzen rather and he joins us once a
month on Ask the Experting. He's back with us, Matt Mark,
Good afternoon, How are you very very good?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Let's jump straight into it.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Yes, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Hello, Hi Jess, Hey, our question.
Speaker 6 (00:48):
So, I've got a covertal who's a year and a
half old, who's a six and a half klo guy,
and we have just acquired a bagel who's two years old,
a very relaxed beagle, and the covertial hates them and
keeps like cruising around trying to fite beagles.
Speaker 7 (01:07):
Years.
Speaker 8 (01:08):
I thought it would be how old how old is
the beagle? And and he is the.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
Both male and h The bagel is two years old
and he is fourteen. So he's the bigger of the truth.
Speaker 8 (01:25):
Right, And are either them entire or the desex.
Speaker 6 (01:30):
The beagle is desex the little caboodle event as.
Speaker 8 (01:33):
Yet right right, okay, yeah, and you're saying the kaboodle
is having a crack at the at the beagle. He
is being.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Aggressive of the beagle and a lot of humping.
Speaker 8 (01:45):
Ye, so yeah, I mean, the good news is it's
a relative civilians if you're happy to do it, and
that's d sex in the cavidle. One of the problems
with an entire male with another dog generally, and particularly
a D six male, he'll treat it more like a
female as you can see he's doing. And so it
doesn't mean that males don't mount females and vice versa.
(02:07):
But when you've got an entire mail, almost definitely, it'll
be the the androgens, you know, particularly testosterone that's stimulating
the behavior. And the simple answer is to if you're
happy to do that, is to get him d sext.
So if you're new to him, you will find that
his mounting behavior will fall away quite quickly, normally in
about a month. And what you've got to be careful
(02:31):
of is that the hump of the mounting behavior can
be perceived as a dominance threat as well, you know, because
that's what dominant dogs do also to subordinates at times,
you know, so that can be read that way. And
therefore the bigger dog, the beagle, may decide that he's
going to sort the cavoodle out and you know, andy
end up in a fight. That sounds good that he's
(02:51):
laid back degal So that's going to good use. And
that's partly because of de sext but because of twice
his size, you'll, you know, there's the risk that you know,
the beg will counter respond to theodle. So d sexing
is a simple answer you can do, and some behavioral
techniques that can help and so and we can talk
(03:13):
more about that, but it's a little more complex to
describe it. Basically, we use the effective meat and greet.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Technique every time they come together for a while.
Speaker 8 (03:22):
So that's something that you should be doing in the meantime.
And the best way to do this is with a clicker.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And yes, right, all right, all the best jeers, Thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Julia. You've got a hunt away a five year old
that hates motorbikes and planes.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Well, yeah, she's my grand dog and I get to
look after her quite a lot. She doesn't actually hate them,
but she just she just barks as tons of ways.
Do more at the sound of them. Definitely, if she
sees the post ego past on the on a motorbike,
she'll bark and as soon as the motorbikes turned off
she'll stop, so she's not aggressive.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I guess that's quite common.
Speaker 8 (04:02):
Yeah, it's quite common stuff for a hunderway.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
What's the best thing to do when it has happens
when you're out walking? That's one question? Can you do
anything about it long term and makes you grow out
of it?
Speaker 8 (04:16):
Yeah, she probably won't go out of it, so it's
better the trainer out of it. And it is very trainable.
So normally what I do is part of it that
there's to two batson. One of I teach the hunter
way to a quiet command, you know, so that and
I use the clicker for that. So you set it
up in a situation normally on a little short lead
(04:36):
while I'm training, and then I get it to bark
and then teach it to be quiet. As soon as
it's quiet for three to five seconds, I click and
reward and then I extend that out to learn is
what quiet means. So that's the first technique that I
use that I teach the hundway to be quiet, which
is pretty important because hunter ways are barking dogs.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
That's what they do for a job, you know.
Speaker 8 (04:57):
So when they see a motorbike, when they're hyper around
by something moving fast, like a motorbike or a plane,
think about what they bark at. They bark at sheep
and cattle that are moving, and they try and make
them move. So that's anything that moves stimulates their hurting behavior.
And so how orients them to the stimulus motorbike noise,
(05:20):
pain noise, they'll look at it and then they'll bark
at it. So normally I teach them I get some
audio tapes of those sounds, and then I am using
a desensitization technique and a clicker. I work and teach
them to accept those sounds without vocalizing, and I use
my quiet command when I'm doing that. Once I've done
that in a training context that takes probably a week
(05:42):
or two, then I'll start to extend it out in
real situations. And I normally get a mate with a
motorbike and just do a bit of work around home,
and then I slowly build that up and then I'll
go to something like can Airport and do some plane work.
But yeah, you can train it out of them. And
that's underways are really smart. So get them on a
clicker and you watch how quickie they learn.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
They love food, very vocal dogs.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Underways all the best, Julia.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Tell you what.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The weirdest thing that I've seen is ist. I'll go
no called Benny who lives in topor great name, great dog. Yes,
human eyes, but he only think he barks out as parasailors,
you know, out the back of the boats. Yeah, it's
so bizarre. He just sees them and they seem so
far away that nothing else but he sees these parasailors
and they just make them so angry.
Speaker 8 (06:25):
It's bizarre parasale acause the bloody unusual things.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Right, thank you very much, and teach them to yeah, perfect, right.
Speaker 8 (06:39):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
We've got a couple of text questions here. This one
says my husband and I have recently bought a new
puppy and we have had him for two weeks now.
He is six months old from a breeder. Unfortunately, he
barks at my husband whenever he enters the room, and
we are not sure what to do about it.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
It's driving us mad.
Speaker 8 (06:57):
Yeah, okay, So first first thing to understand, you should
get you puppy eight weeks. When when a breeder gives
you a puppy at six months old, then it means
it's had been kept to seference breeding potential, and then
they kept it to six months in the breeding context,
which isn't normally very good. It's normally you know, it's
normally a ken old situation, or they're not getting enough
(07:18):
exposure to people and other dogs. You always like to
get the puppy at two months, that's always the best.
So realizing that you've missed the formative period of socialization
for him, which is two to four months, and so
now he's six months, he's a teenager and he hasn't
probably been socialized well enough. That's my anticipation based on
lots of having seen many many dogs. So normally you're
(07:41):
now going to teach them a meet and greet technique
for people. And the first thing I'd do with the
male owner is that I'd get him on to the
clicker with the dog and get him working doing what
it called joining up. It's a simple little technique with
a clicker, the dog larrent to him quite quickly. You
need to start the dog on the clicker so he
gets responsive and understand what it does. And then within
(08:04):
two or three days you should better transfer that to
your husband with your partner, and in that context, he
needs to take control of the resources, particularly feeding and
the clicker training, and you'll see the dog very quickly
start to reorient to him as well, and maybe even dominantly.
But one way or another, you've now got the relationship built,
(08:25):
and then you need to extend that socialization to other people.
I would anticipate that that dog would be a bit
anxious about meeting any males. If if he's anxious about
one that he's already got to.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Know very good trying to get to know.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, great, right, if you've got a question for Mark,
now is your opportunity. Oh, eight hundred and eighteen eighty,
that's right, one hundred eighteen eighty.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Doesn't need to be a dog, could be a rhino,
could be a giraffe, donkey, donkey, absolutely, lama.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
We love lama questions. We had a few lama questions,
So get on the phone.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Frog, Yeah, whatever, how are.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You with lizards?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Doctor bos Pooky go Yeah, lizards are good.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Okay, right, let's get into it. Oh eight one hundred
eighty ten.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Eighty a giant shirpede and kraken, whatever you got.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Afternoon, and we are joined by Mark Vitz he Willed
renowned animal behavior. So he is taking your questions.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Hey, so this particular dog, Bennie's a kvoodle and so
I just bought it up. And then the mum of
Benny the Fantastic Rosies text in and she said, what
can we do about Bennie barking at the parasailors?
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Oh? What can we do?
Speaker 8 (09:28):
Exactly what I was talking about for the prior person,
you know, So that and that was teaching a quiet
command with a clicker.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
And then we work then. And so you do that
at home.
Speaker 8 (09:40):
If you can get some visuals or sounds of the parasailor,
that helps too while you're doing your training at home.
And then you take it go to sight and start
working him on a clip station with a clicker and
you're teaching him to quiet and click and reward him
as the parasailor starts getting up, and then while he's
up and then right through the routine and then comes
down and try and keep him quiet through the routine,
(10:03):
just using the clicker.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Has he got a strong food drug? Got what strong
food drive?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Food drive? He likes, he likes to eat, but he's
no labrador.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
Yeah yeah, yeah, where you might need sausages then either way,
high value food award in the context. But once you've
done it at home and you've got the basics of
the quiet command working, then it translates to the new situation.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
If you's going to do it systematically, oh.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
There you go, highly corrupt with me. It is just
time for my own family's problems. Peter Wak on the show,
You've got a problem with ultrasound alarms?
Speaker 7 (10:41):
Yeah, Mark, Hi, Mark. My neighbor has a caboodle and
it barks a lot. I don't think it's ever had
any training, runs around the back section, just barks all
the time. And I wanted to ask you whether these
ultrasound control boxes are of any use.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (11:05):
Well, I mean the people use them, you know, to
try and divert you know, a dog from barking, you know,
at them in that kind of context, and I'm not
quite you know. I mean they work at about twenty
to forty five thousand hertz, which is the high end
of the dog range and above our range, you know,
(11:25):
so they're.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Working at a higher level. But the dog can hear
it well.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
But you know, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going
to make it aversive, you know, just because it's in
their higher range. You know, that's the range of the
of the present the prey species that they aren't in
the wild, so like mice and rats and so on,
So they can hear it that range and that and
so it can have a verse in effects, and that's
what they're trying to do. And so I suspect what
(11:52):
you're suggesting as you use it to try and divert
the neighbor's dog from barking beside you. It's a possibility
that it will help a little bit, but really the
bottom line comes down to the owners doing the right
thing to train the dog. It's better to solve the
problem from the dogs owner's point of view.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
So I'd go and have a chat to.
Speaker 8 (12:13):
Them about it and and talk about the fact that
you know, there are ways of treating barking, but you're
probably not going to have much effect from that side.
I would suspect with an ultras on a dog.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Alarm thank you for cool Peter. It looks like dogs
are causing a lot more problems in the community than
octopi because just a whole heap of dogs.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
People want to talk about dogs.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Nothing on squids, out of control squid.
Speaker 8 (12:39):
No, but we did.
Speaker 9 (12:40):
We did.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
An octopus photographs, so did you. So that was a
very good world first, it was good.
Speaker 8 (12:50):
Yeah, we're Kelly Tarlton's two families coming in and having
a photograph. It took me about two months to train
one and then unfortunately, females when they have their eggs,
die and it had the eggs three days before the shoot,
which was pretty unfortunate. Luckilly I had two others watching
and managed to bring one of them men and he
(13:10):
did the job beautifully.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Good composition, beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
One thing that blows my mind about octopus, And I
know we're off topic, octopi, octopuses, whatever, octopusy. The thing
is they're so smart, but they don't live very long.
That's right for a creature to be that intelligent. Well,
they only live three years max, don't they.
Speaker 8 (13:32):
Yeah, well it depends on the species. But yeah, the
problem is when the female has her eggs, she dies
straight afterwards. So it's kind of a sad affair. And
I didn't really know that while I was training them, unfortunately,
which seems a bit silly as a zoologist. But yeah,
it never caught me out that we succeeded in saving
the day. It's very difficult though, to teach.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Her octopus to take a photographs.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
They ate ten cameras before we even go to the
one that worked.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
You know, we'll take your word for that, March.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
Not many people get into that situation, which it's not
a common thing though.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Did you I mean, we're getting off topic here, but
how do you choose which particularly tendacle they're going to
use to press the button with the Yeah.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Well they get to choose, right, and because one each
each tentacle's got a brain, because they've got nine brains,
and so you're actually talking to particular brains. And it's
interesting they do use the same foot and and they
change certain colors depending on how you're going. You know,
(14:33):
if you really pissed them off, they go red, you know,
and and then you know, and then they'll normally send
them squirt of water straight at you.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Quite and so they're fun to work with humans and
then bite you that's going to say, it's like working
with Tyler. If he gets angry, he goes redy gets
really angry. He squirts me.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Quick quick question here about donkeys, says Hi, we've recently
adopted a donkey. Lovely nature for most of the family. However,
when it comes to our ten year old daughter, the
donkey will chase her and head butt her at every chance.
Only only does it to her, and now she is
tear fight. Have said, donkey, why is this and what
can we do?
Speaker 8 (15:11):
Yeah, so it will be to with you know, how
how did the donkey grow up with that with that family? Uh?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
No, they said they've recently not.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 8 (15:22):
So you know, normally with donkeys, you know, they're quite
an individual and you do need to be experienced with
a donkey. They can they can kick out, and they
can be quite aggressive. So don't underestimate a donkey, even
though they look small, don't. They use donkeys to control
bull herds, So they'll put a male donkey in with
a bull herd and it won't know one much with
the donkey, and the donkey sorts out any fighting. So yeah,
(15:46):
they can shoot way above their weight range and they'll
punch above their weight range, so be careful with the donkey.
But but by the same token, they're a beautiful animal.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
It's all about.
Speaker 8 (15:56):
Food for donkeys if you want to, So I click
a train a donkey, and I always the best thing
for the little for you to do and then to
pass on to your daughter, is to use a just
a stick with the ball on them of it, and
I teach the donkey to touch it with its nose.
If you don't, it touches it. I clicked them food
and water with sweet feet. So have a little box
of sweet feed on my belt and I click, and
(16:19):
don't let it into your sweet feed belt. They make
them damn mess quickly. And then you click and reward
them for touching the stick. And then you move that
round and it follows you and touches it, and click
and reward, and then once you get control of it
that way, you can actually move the donkey round and
right from that point on you'll be fine with a donkey.
(16:39):
And then you transfer that to the dater, she'll be
the fine. Well, I mean you also should also hold
your train them, of course. They should be good on
a holter, of course, so anyone should be able to
walk them on a holter.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
I was staying at a farm, just on a ranch
just out of Los Angeles, and the borrows as they
call them, the borrels. The borrows were everywhere, just packs
of wild donkeys. It was crazy. You were driving down
the road and there'll be twenty donkeys come running past
the bottles, the bottles the food.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Yeah, under estimate the donkey.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, very good. Mark, afternoon A vow you're on with Mark.
Speaker 9 (17:16):
Thank you, Good afternoon, Mark. It's found nuals here. I
have a beautiful black Labrador and of course he's food orientated.
When I go to the dog park, other people have
a bag on the side with their treats and they're
training their dogs. My boy.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Liked, you know, she's right on the side.
Speaker 9 (17:36):
Sitting down wat he wants one as well, and he
gets one.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Yep.
Speaker 8 (17:43):
So the trick there is have your own bag of treats.
All you need is probably kibble, because you all had anything.
Probably if he's a lab And I mean, i'd take
a clicker as well, and you just reinforce your recall work.
And I'd run a little long line on him until
I knew I could call him back from that situation.
But when he comes back, click and reward him, and
of course then you're just as important to him. In fact,
(18:04):
we'll be more important to him than the other one
and their treats. So just yeah, find treats with treats
that should go, no problem, all.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
The bears foul and Mark. That is all the time
we've got. Thank you very much again, and we will
catch you again in a month's time. We've got so
many texts and questions to get next time you're on
with us.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
I plead that anyone needs to jump on the school,
find out, go for it.
Speaker 8 (18:26):
We'll be there, yep, love it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
You can check out Mark and his business and his
work at Mark Vitti dot com and he'll be back
with us in about a month's time.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from news Talk zed B.
Follow this and our Wide Ranger podcast now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Mark Video is a world renowned animal behavior a dog
trainer and educator who has been working with animals for
over forty years. He's a trained animal psychologist and created
the Dogs In online training program. He's about to launch
Katz and Katzen rather and he joins us once a
month on Ask the Experting. He's back with us, Matt Mark,
Good afternoon, How are you very very good?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Let's jump straight into it.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Yes, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5 (00:44):
Hello, Hi Jess, Hey, our question.
Speaker 6 (00:48):
So, I've got a covertal who's a year and a
half old, who's a six and a half klo guy,
and we have just acquired a bagel who's two years old,
a very relaxed beagle, and the covertial hates them and
keeps like cruising around trying to fite beagles.
Speaker 7 (01:07):
Years.
Speaker 8 (01:08):
I thought it would be how old how old is
the beagle? And and he is the.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
Both male and h The bagel is two years old
and he is fourteen. So he's the bigger of the truth.
Speaker 8 (01:25):
Right, And are either them entire or the desex.
Speaker 6 (01:30):
The beagle is desex the little caboodle event as.
Speaker 8 (01:33):
Yet right right, okay, yeah, and you're saying the kaboodle
is having a crack at the at the beagle. He
is being.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Aggressive of the beagle and a lot of humping.
Speaker 8 (01:45):
Ye, so yeah, I mean, the good news is it's
a relative civilians if you're happy to do it, and
that's d sex in the cavidle. One of the problems
with an entire male with another dog generally, and particularly
a D six male, he'll treat it more like a
female as you can see he's doing. And so it
doesn't mean that males don't mount females and vice versa.
(02:07):
But when you've got an entire mail, almost definitely, it'll
be the the androgens, you know, particularly testosterone that's stimulating
the behavior. And the simple answer is to if you're
happy to do that, is to get him d sext.
So if you're new to him, you will find that
his mounting behavior will fall away quite quickly, normally in
about a month. And what you've got to be careful
(02:31):
of is that the hump of the mounting behavior can
be perceived as a dominance threat as well, you know, because
that's what dominant dogs do also to subordinates at times,
you know, so that can be read that way. And
therefore the bigger dog, the beagle, may decide that he's
going to sort the cavoodle out and you know, andy
end up in a fight. That sounds good that he's
(02:51):
laid back degal So that's going to good use. And
that's partly because of de sext but because of twice
his size, you'll, you know, there's the risk that you know,
the beg will counter respond to theodle. So d sexing
is a simple answer you can do, and some behavioral
techniques that can help and so and we can talk
(03:13):
more about that, but it's a little more complex to
describe it. Basically, we use the effective meat and greet.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Technique every time they come together for a while.
Speaker 8 (03:22):
So that's something that you should be doing in the meantime.
And the best way to do this is with a clicker.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And yes, right, all right, all the best jeers, Thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Julia. You've got a hunt away a five year old
that hates motorbikes and planes.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Well, yeah, she's my grand dog and I get to
look after her quite a lot. She doesn't actually hate them,
but she just she just barks as tons of ways.
Do more at the sound of them. Definitely, if she
sees the post ego past on the on a motorbike,
she'll bark and as soon as the motorbikes turned off
she'll stop, so she's not aggressive.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
I guess that's quite common.
Speaker 8 (04:02):
Yeah, it's quite common stuff for a hunderway.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (04:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
What's the best thing to do when it has happens
when you're out walking? That's one question? Can you do
anything about it long term and makes you grow out
of it?
Speaker 8 (04:16):
Yeah, she probably won't go out of it, so it's
better the trainer out of it. And it is very trainable.
So normally what I do is part of it that
there's to two batson. One of I teach the hunter
way to a quiet command, you know, so that and
I use the clicker for that. So you set it
up in a situation normally on a little short lead
(04:36):
while I'm training, and then I get it to bark
and then teach it to be quiet. As soon as
it's quiet for three to five seconds, I click and
reward and then I extend that out to learn is
what quiet means. So that's the first technique that I
use that I teach the hundway to be quiet, which
is pretty important because hunter ways are barking dogs.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
That's what they do for a job, you know.
Speaker 8 (04:57):
So when they see a motorbike, when they're hyper around
by something moving fast, like a motorbike or a plane,
think about what they bark at. They bark at sheep
and cattle that are moving, and they try and make
them move. So that's anything that moves stimulates their hurting behavior.
And so how orients them to the stimulus motorbike noise,
(05:20):
pain noise, they'll look at it and then they'll bark
at it. So normally I teach them I get some
audio tapes of those sounds, and then I am using
a desensitization technique and a clicker. I work and teach
them to accept those sounds without vocalizing, and I use
my quiet command when I'm doing that. Once I've done
that in a training context that takes probably a week
(05:42):
or two, then I'll start to extend it out in
real situations. And I normally get a mate with a
motorbike and just do a bit of work around home,
and then I slowly build that up and then I'll
go to something like can Airport and do some plane work.
But yeah, you can train it out of them. And
that's underways are really smart. So get them on a
clicker and you watch how quickie they learn.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
They love food, very vocal dogs.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Underways all the best, Julia.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Tell you what.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
The weirdest thing that I've seen is ist. I'll go
no called Benny who lives in topor great name, great dog. Yes,
human eyes, but he only think he barks out as parasailors,
you know, out the back of the boats. Yeah, it's
so bizarre. He just sees them and they seem so
far away that nothing else but he sees these parasailors
and they just make them so angry.
Speaker 8 (06:25):
It's bizarre parasale acause the bloody unusual things.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Right, thank you very much, and teach them to yeah, perfect, right.
Speaker 8 (06:39):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
We've got a couple of text questions here. This one
says my husband and I have recently bought a new
puppy and we have had him for two weeks now.
He is six months old from a breeder. Unfortunately, he
barks at my husband whenever he enters the room, and
we are not sure what to do about it.
Speaker 7 (06:54):
It's driving us mad.
Speaker 8 (06:57):
Yeah, okay, So first first thing to understand, you should
get you puppy eight weeks. When when a breeder gives
you a puppy at six months old, then it means
it's had been kept to seference breeding potential, and then
they kept it to six months in the breeding context,
which isn't normally very good. It's normally you know, it's
normally a ken old situation, or they're not getting enough
(07:18):
exposure to people and other dogs. You always like to
get the puppy at two months, that's always the best.
So realizing that you've missed the formative period of socialization
for him, which is two to four months, and so
now he's six months, he's a teenager and he hasn't
probably been socialized well enough. That's my anticipation based on
lots of having seen many many dogs. So normally you're
(07:41):
now going to teach them a meet and greet technique
for people. And the first thing I'd do with the
male owner is that I'd get him on to the
clicker with the dog and get him working doing what
it called joining up. It's a simple little technique with
a clicker, the dog larrent to him quite quickly. You
need to start the dog on the clicker so he
gets responsive and understand what it does. And then within
(08:04):
two or three days you should better transfer that to
your husband with your partner, and in that context, he
needs to take control of the resources, particularly feeding and
the clicker training, and you'll see the dog very quickly
start to reorient to him as well, and maybe even dominantly.
But one way or another, you've now got the relationship built,
(08:25):
and then you need to extend that socialization to other people.
I would anticipate that that dog would be a bit
anxious about meeting any males. If if he's anxious about
one that he's already got to.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Know very good trying to get to know.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Yeah, great, right, if you've got a question for Mark,
now is your opportunity. Oh, eight hundred and eighteen eighty,
that's right, one hundred eighteen eighty.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Doesn't need to be a dog, could be a rhino,
could be a giraffe, donkey, donkey, absolutely, lama.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
We love lama questions. We had a few lama questions,
So get on the phone.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Frog, Yeah, whatever, how are.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You with lizards?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Doctor bos Pooky go Yeah, lizards are good.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Okay, right, let's get into it. Oh eight one hundred
eighty ten.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Eighty a giant shirpede and kraken, whatever you got.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Afternoon, and we are joined by Mark Vitz he Willed
renowned animal behavior. So he is taking your questions.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Hey, so this particular dog, Bennie's a kvoodle and so
I just bought it up. And then the mum of
Benny the Fantastic Rosies text in and she said, what
can we do about Bennie barking at the parasailors?
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Oh? What can we do?
Speaker 8 (09:28):
Exactly what I was talking about for the prior person,
you know, So that and that was teaching a quiet
command with a clicker.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
And then we work then. And so you do that
at home.
Speaker 8 (09:40):
If you can get some visuals or sounds of the parasailor,
that helps too while you're doing your training at home.
And then you take it go to sight and start
working him on a clip station with a clicker and
you're teaching him to quiet and click and reward him
as the parasailor starts getting up, and then while he's
up and then right through the routine and then comes
down and try and keep him quiet through the routine,
(10:03):
just using the clicker.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Has he got a strong food drug? Got what strong
food drive?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Food drive? He likes, he likes to eat, but he's
no labrador.
Speaker 8 (10:16):
Yeah yeah, yeah, where you might need sausages then either way,
high value food award in the context. But once you've
done it at home and you've got the basics of
the quiet command working, then it translates to the new situation.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
If you's going to do it systematically, oh.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
There you go, highly corrupt with me. It is just
time for my own family's problems. Peter Wak on the show,
You've got a problem with ultrasound alarms?
Speaker 7 (10:41):
Yeah, Mark, Hi, Mark. My neighbor has a caboodle and
it barks a lot. I don't think it's ever had
any training, runs around the back section, just barks all
the time. And I wanted to ask you whether these
ultrasound control boxes are of any use.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (11:05):
Well, I mean the people use them, you know, to
try and divert you know, a dog from barking, you know,
at them in that kind of context, and I'm not
quite you know. I mean they work at about twenty
to forty five thousand hertz, which is the high end
of the dog range and above our range, you know,
(11:25):
so they're.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Working at a higher level. But the dog can hear
it well.
Speaker 8 (11:29):
But you know, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going
to make it aversive, you know, just because it's in
their higher range. You know, that's the range of the
of the present the prey species that they aren't in
the wild, so like mice and rats and so on,
So they can hear it that range and that and
so it can have a verse in effects, and that's
what they're trying to do. And so I suspect what
(11:52):
you're suggesting as you use it to try and divert
the neighbor's dog from barking beside you. It's a possibility
that it will help a little bit, but really the
bottom line comes down to the owners doing the right
thing to train the dog. It's better to solve the
problem from the dogs owner's point of view.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
So I'd go and have a chat to.
Speaker 8 (12:13):
Them about it and and talk about the fact that
you know, there are ways of treating barking, but you're
probably not going to have much effect from that side.
I would suspect with an ultras on a dog.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Alarm thank you for cool Peter. It looks like dogs
are causing a lot more problems in the community than
octopi because just a whole heap of dogs.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
People want to talk about dogs.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Nothing on squids, out of control squid.
Speaker 8 (12:39):
No, but we did.
Speaker 9 (12:40):
We did.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
An octopus photographs, so did you. So that was a
very good world first, it was good.
Speaker 8 (12:50):
Yeah, we're Kelly Tarlton's two families coming in and having
a photograph. It took me about two months to train
one and then unfortunately, females when they have their eggs,
die and it had the eggs three days before the shoot,
which was pretty unfortunate. Luckilly I had two others watching
and managed to bring one of them men and he
(13:10):
did the job beautifully.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Good composition, beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
One thing that blows my mind about octopus, And I
know we're off topic, octopi, octopuses, whatever, octopusy. The thing
is they're so smart, but they don't live very long.
That's right for a creature to be that intelligent. Well,
they only live three years max, don't they.
Speaker 8 (13:32):
Yeah, well it depends on the species. But yeah, the
problem is when the female has her eggs, she dies
straight afterwards. So it's kind of a sad affair. And
I didn't really know that while I was training them, unfortunately,
which seems a bit silly as a zoologist. But yeah,
it never caught me out that we succeeded in saving
the day. It's very difficult though, to teach.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Her octopus to take a photographs.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
They ate ten cameras before we even go to the
one that worked.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
You know, we'll take your word for that, March.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
Not many people get into that situation, which it's not
a common thing though.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Did you I mean, we're getting off topic here, but
how do you choose which particularly tendacle they're going to
use to press the button with the Yeah.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Well they get to choose, right, and because one each
each tentacle's got a brain, because they've got nine brains,
and so you're actually talking to particular brains. And it's
interesting they do use the same foot and and they
change certain colors depending on how you're going. You know,
(14:33):
if you really pissed them off, they go red, you know,
and and then you know, and then they'll normally send
them squirt of water straight at you.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Quite and so they're fun to work with humans and
then bite you that's going to say, it's like working
with Tyler. If he gets angry, he goes redy gets
really angry. He squirts me.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Quick quick question here about donkeys, says Hi, we've recently
adopted a donkey. Lovely nature for most of the family. However,
when it comes to our ten year old daughter, the
donkey will chase her and head butt her at every chance.
Only only does it to her, and now she is
tear fight. Have said, donkey, why is this and what
can we do?
Speaker 8 (15:11):
Yeah, so it will be to with you know, how
how did the donkey grow up with that with that family? Uh?
Speaker 2 (15:19):
No, they said they've recently not.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 8 (15:22):
So you know, normally with donkeys, you know, they're quite
an individual and you do need to be experienced with
a donkey. They can they can kick out, and they
can be quite aggressive. So don't underestimate a donkey, even
though they look small, don't. They use donkeys to control
bull herds, So they'll put a male donkey in with
a bull herd and it won't know one much with
the donkey, and the donkey sorts out any fighting. So yeah,
(15:46):
they can shoot way above their weight range and they'll
punch above their weight range, so be careful with the donkey.
But but by the same token, they're a beautiful animal.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
It's all about.
Speaker 8 (15:56):
Food for donkeys if you want to, So I click
a train a donkey, and I always the best thing
for the little for you to do and then to
pass on to your daughter, is to use a just
a stick with the ball on them of it, and
I teach the donkey to touch it with its nose.
If you don't, it touches it. I clicked them food
and water with sweet feet. So have a little box
of sweet feed on my belt and I click, and
(16:19):
don't let it into your sweet feed belt. They make
them damn mess quickly. And then you click and reward
them for touching the stick. And then you move that
round and it follows you and touches it, and click
and reward, and then once you get control of it
that way, you can actually move the donkey round and
right from that point on you'll be fine with a donkey.
(16:39):
And then you transfer that to the dater, she'll be
the fine. Well, I mean you also should also hold
your train them, of course. They should be good on
a holter, of course, so anyone should be able to
walk them on a holter.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
I was staying at a farm, just on a ranch
just out of Los Angeles, and the borrows as they
call them, the borrels. The borrows were everywhere, just packs
of wild donkeys. It was crazy. You were driving down
the road and there'll be twenty donkeys come running past
the bottles, the bottles the food.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Yeah, under estimate the donkey.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah, very good. Mark, afternoon A vow you're on with Mark.
Speaker 9 (17:16):
Thank you, Good afternoon, Mark. It's found nuals here. I
have a beautiful black Labrador and of course he's food orientated.
When I go to the dog park, other people have
a bag on the side with their treats and they're
training their dogs. My boy.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Liked, you know, she's right on the side.
Speaker 9 (17:36):
Sitting down wat he wants one as well, and he
gets one.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Yep.
Speaker 8 (17:43):
So the trick there is have your own bag of treats.
All you need is probably kibble, because you all had anything.
Probably if he's a lab And I mean, i'd take
a clicker as well, and you just reinforce your recall work.
And I'd run a little long line on him until
I knew I could call him back from that situation.
But when he comes back, click and reward him, and
of course then you're just as important to him. In fact,
(18:04):
we'll be more important to him than the other one
and their treats. So just yeah, find treats with treats
that should go, no problem, all.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
The bears foul and Mark. That is all the time
we've got. Thank you very much again, and we will
catch you again in a month's time. We've got so
many texts and questions to get next time you're on
with us.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
I plead that anyone needs to jump on the school,
find out, go for it.
Speaker 8 (18:26):
We'll be there, yep, love it.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
You can check out Mark and his business and his
work at Mark Vitti dot com and he'll be back
with us in about a month's time.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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