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Sled Dog Psychology: Attitude and Burnout

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Sled Dog Psychology: Attitude and Burnout

By Robert Forto, PhD

This is a weekly series in which I explore a different topic relating to the sport of dog sledding and its impact on the social fabric of America and our canine companions.  I have been a professional musher for fifteen years and was given the privilege of writing my doctorate on the sport of dog sledding: Chasing the Dream: A Study of Human-Canine Communication in the Sport of Dog Sledding (2005). In these weekly articles I will showcase the sport, the history, how a dog team prepares for racing, and many more topics. If you have a story you would like to share about dog sledding please send me an email anytime at train@denverdogworks.com and be sure to check out our new website at https://teamineka.com

This week’s article is about a dog team’s attitude and burnout. Many mushers will tell you that they try their best to keep stress down in a kennel. A stressed dog is a slow team and a slow team is no fun. I teach a course at Denver Dog Works on training people to become certified canine obedience instructors. In doing so we spend an entire session talking about stress and your dog and how important it is. There is a very close parallel to human stress and canine stress and you would be surprised how many people deal with it in a way that is detrimental to their dog’s well-being. Well, now take that and multiply that by 50 (the typical size of a professional racing kennel) and you have a big problem on your hands.

 

Attitude

Many mushers believe that attitude is critical to a strong team.  Others feel, that compared to physical potential and training, attitude is much less significant; that is, a dog cannot run on heart alone.[i]  Since every team takes on a unique character, often complementing the musher’s character, the importance of attitude probably varies among teams. 

At the same time, most mushers today run dogs primarily because they like dogs.  They want their dogs to be happy.  For the recreational musher, attitude is rarely a problem unless severe disciplinary or training problems arise.  Hard working dogs, however, can get so tired of the daily grind that they slip into a depression, provoked by fatigue.  The problem may affect a single dog, called burnout, or the whole team, most commonly referred to as slump.

Burnout

All mushers should learn to recognize depression before a major burnout, and rest their dogs before they have a chance to go sour.  Symptoms of a sour dog include a reluctance to be harnessed, irritability, anxiety, apathy, lack of appetite, decreased performance, rebellion, a refusal to take commands or a change in character.  Whereby a sober dog might act goofy—looking backward, leaning on his partner, or plunging off the trail and the hyper dog may turn sober, apathetic, and sluggish.  Again, mushers must know their dogs.

If the dog is just trying to avoid responsibility, he needs discipline, but if he is truly burned out, discipline will only depress him more.  A musher can not cure fatigue by whipping, kissing, or giving drugs.  Only rest can cure it.  After a tough race a dog needs time to recover.  It may take as much as three weeks for him to truly regain his vitality.  If the musher demands too much, or tries to bring him back to soon, he may never completely recover psychologically.

Sometimes a dog tries too hard in a team that is a little too fast for him.  Perhaps new dogs outclass him this year and he is burning his heart out to keep up.  Or maybe he is older and slowing down.  It is not fair to drive this dog. The musher should put him in a slower team before he burns out, or retire the dog altogether.

A dog that is simply bored is usually helped by time off.  The musher can also run this dog in a different position, behind other dog teams, on different trails, or even the same loop in reverse.  The musher should convey to the dog that he really does care.  Spending extra time with the dog, bringing him inside and making him feel good are excellent ways to remind the dog of this.

Some mushers will take a burned-out dog on a private walk.  After the dog entertains himself for awhile, the musher will call him with open arms, hug him and let him go.  Soon most of these dogs are flinging themselves into the musher’s arms, and wriggling with joy.  Afterward, when the musher cries “Let’s go!”,  that fatigued, depressed dog, is running in circles of insane joy.

Just playing with a dog on the picket line or in the kennel can help stimulate him.  When men are caught in survival situations, experts recommend play periods to relieve stress.  Dogs are the same way.  Play relieves their tension and helps to reestablish the musher’s rapport with the dogs.

Next Week: The Slump

[i] Pilón, A., The Universe of Sled Dogs. Montmagmy, Quebec, Canada: Edition Marquis LTD., 1999.

Pg. 63.

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Dr. Robert Forto is a professional musher and is training for the Iditarod. Dr. Forto is also the training director of Denver Dog Works and The Ineka Project in Colorado. Dr. Forto is the host of a weekly radio program, The Dog Doctor Radio Show, every Saturday. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.denverdogworks.com

Sled Dog Psychology: Communicating

by

Sled Dog Psychology: Communicating

By Robert Forto, PhD

This is a weekly series in which I explore a different topic relating to the sport of dog sledding and its impact on the social fabric of America and our canine companions.  I have been a professional musher for fifteen years and was given the privilege of writing my doctorate on the sport of dog sledding: Chasing the Dream: A Study of Human-Canine Communication in the Sport of Dog Sledding (2005). In these weekly articles I will showcase the sport, the history, how a dog team prepares for racing, and many more topics. If you have a story you would like to share about dog sledding please send me an email anytime at train@denverdogworks.com and be sure to check out our new website at https://teamineka.com

Sled dog psychology is an interesting area of study. In order to be a great musher with an exceptional team you need to know everything you can about yourself, but more importantly your dogs. Any musher will tell you that you must become “one of the team” in order to be a successful dog driver. While this means different things to different people, I have found out over the years that “one of the team” has made me a better musher and a better person at that. I have literally lived with a pack of dogs for most of my adult life and that co-habitation has given me a different respect for my dogs (and them for me, I can only hope) but also made me one great dog trainer. You see, I understand how dogs think. I have literally spent thousands of hours observing them and working with them and in doing so it allowed me access into a world that few dog trainers can attain.

This week’s article is about communicating with your dogs. I hope you enjoy it and please feel free to leave any comments and feedback. If you have any questions about the sport of dog sledding or training in general please give Denver Dog Works a call at 303-578-9881 or email at train@denverdogworks.com

Communicating

You can communicate with dogs in two ways—your way and their way.[i]  Dogs can learn a number of words, even the names of their close companions.  They also respond strongly to tone and inflection.  They pick out key words and let the rest of your sentences slide, as in “You want to go out?” or “Stay out!’ (This is why you should not say, “You cannot go out”—the dog will not understand.)  The natural human tendency to repeat short phrases helps dogs pick up words. We say, “Good boy, yes, what a good boy.”

If you also understand how dogs communicate, you have an extra edge in training them.  Body language and physical contact play a greater role here than the voice.  Drooling, panting, and shivering are natural processes, but they can also occur at other times, such as when a dog recognizes a friend that he admires (you).  A dog will also shake off a bad experience.  If you have just freed a dog from a choking tangle, and he does not shake off, suspect a possible problem, such as shock or depression.  But a musher must know the dog—not all dogs will reliably shake off even when they again feel great.

Tail wagging can indicate either friendliness or aggression, depending upon whether the tail is waived loosely like a flag or in a slow arc, taut as a wire.  Eye contact, or avoidance of it, shows full attention, dominance, subordinance, or confusion.  No musher likes a dog that constantly looks backward, but unless it has become a habit, the dog is trying to make eye contact for some reason.

Howling brings dogs together and appears to relieve stress.  Most mushers like to make their dogs howl (by intimidating a howl) during long trips; it revitalizes the teams and keeps the dogs happy and secure. Vocalizations are often the sign of a dog’s mood as well.

Physical communication on the musher’s part includes petting for a reward, or putting a dog to the ground, as punishment, or to establish your authority.  Pinning down a rebellious dog proves your authority by sheer physical control.  A dog understands this—you are talking its language.  Some experienced mushers bite a dog’s ear to punish him, and they feel that it is a natural form of communication.  While it is effective, most mushers would hesitate to inflict sudden pain with their face so close to a dog’s jaws.

When you resort to your own language, you can only expect the dogs to obey what they know.  Teaching them a few extra words helps you communicate with them better.  For example, on a long trip many dogs learn the words, “We are going to camp now.”  They will leave the trail to struggle through deep snow to the campsite if they know the reason for it.

Most lead dogs learn that “Trail!” means a broken path to follow.  If they lose the trail and we spot it, most mushers say “Gee, trail!” and the dogs watch for it on the right.  With just a trace of the trail in drifted snow or ice, the dogs may wander away, but a sharp “Trail!” command wakes them up and gets them back in line.  When breaking trail across an untrammeled field, most dogs cross animal tracks without a glance, but if the track is going the way of the team, the command “Trail!” makes the dogs stay on it.

Most mushers also say, “Let’s eat!” at feeding time.  Even if we say it at an odd time, the dogs are up and yowling.  Mushers often use this, or a similar command, to lure in runaway dogs.  Some mushers will use this command to gauge how tired the dogs are.  If a musher stops to snack, and the dogs do not respond to the words “let’s eat!”, they know that the dogs have been pushed too hard.

By communicating with your dogs, you will build a stronger rapport with them.  They will also better understand what you want.  Dogs, especially young ones, sometimes disobey simply because they do not understand what you want.

Next Week: Attitude

[i] Collins, M., and J., Dog Driver. Loveland, CO: Alpine Publications, 1991. Pg. 46

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Dr. Robert Forto is a professional musher and is training for the Iditarod. Dr. Forto is also the training director of Denver Dog Works and The Ineka Project in Colorado. Dr. Forto is the host of a weekly radio program, The Dog Doctor Radio Show, every Saturday. Dr. Forto can be reached through his website at http://www.denverdogworks.com