by Martha Norwalk

I left off last month after explaining how to teach "a jolly routine" to a dog. Now we are going to talk about how to use it. The first way to use a jolly routine is as an emergency push button to get the dog out of a potentially dangerous situation. The potential danger could involve a child, the dog, or both.

Let's say you are about to enter your family room and across the room you see the dog hiding under a table. You see your baby or someone else's kid crawling toward the dog to get at him. The thought occurs to you that the dog is cornered and could bite the child. That is a definite possibility, especially if you, the dog's leader, do the wrong thing.

At this point, most owners would start yelling at the dog to stay put and at the child to stay away from the dog. At the same time in their mind, they would be imagining the worst happening and the dog biting the child. That would be the wrong thing to do because those thoughts and pictures in your mind would go to the dog's mind along with all the panicked energy you would be feeling. The dog could end up biting the kid just because of your reaction to what you were seeing.

The correct reaction, knowing that you are too far away to physically stop the action, would be to start a jolly routine and move away from the situation. "Oh boy, cheese! Oh boy, cheese, Bozo. Let's get cheese! Oh boy, cheese!" If you have laid any groundwork at all, the dog will fly out of the corner anticipating the jolly routine. At worst, the kid might get knocked over, but jollies work the same for kids as they do for dogs and the child will get right up to see what all the fun is about. You get everyone out of the situation without injuries or trauma.

It is important to note here that dogs generalize, assume, and flash back. So if the dog does end up biting and then gets into big trouble and punishment, he will blame the kid and then if ever he finds himself in a similar situation, he will flash back to the last time and is likely to bite faster and harder. On the other hand, if he is jollied out of the situation, if there ever is a next time, that is what he flashes back to and he remembers treats so is much less likely to even consider getting defensive and biting. Remember, this concept as it is very important and will come into play again in this series when we deal with dogs that are already biting the kids.

Ever wonder why a hunting dog is okay with gunshots? That is because in their experience, every time they hear a gun shot, miraculously a bird falls out of the sky that they get to retrieve. Oh boy!

So, in preparing your dog friend for having a toddler around, think of all the things that babies and young children might do to a dog. They are very likely to pull ears and tails or grab fur and skin. They might step on the dog or hit them or poke at them with something. They might kick them or try to take their toys or chewables away from them. None of these things is going to make the child more endearing to the dog unless you have set the dog up to interpret these situations differently. And, if the dog has not been prepared, he may react by biting. Hard to blame him if he did. It is not reasonable to expect your dog to just "put up" with the abuse that a child can dole out.

Once you have taught the jolly routine you can start regular conditioning sessions with the dog. Remember monkey-see, monkey-do applies to dogs and to kids, so if you have older children do not do these sessions with the dog when the older kids are around to watch. We do not want them copying this with the dog when you are not around.

During these practice sessions you will alter the jolly routine slightly. It is okay to have a pouch with small food rewards in your pocket. You can buy little pouches to hang on your person that are made for this purpose at most pet stores. Having one makes it easy to reward over and over again as you proceed through the desensitizing process.

Start with ear, tail or fur pulling. Always begin gently, at a very low level of pulling. Take hold of the dog's ear then let go, do a jolly and reward. Do it again and again. Gradually add more strength to your pull. You want to get to the point that you give the body part a good, reasonably hard tug with rewards. The harder the tug the better the jolly. When you have reached the point where you can grab and pull the dog's body part without doing a jolly and all the dog does is wag his tail and look for a treat, you are ready to move on to a new challenge. This could be done in one session or with a very sensitive dog could take many sessions over a period of several days or weeks.

It is important to take all of the examples I listed above, break them down and sequence through each one of them. Then "out of the blue" just do this kind of stuff to the dog from time to time, remember the jollies along with it and you will be on your way to creating a very kid-proof dog.

Martha Norwalk is an animal behavior therapist and host of Martha Norwalk's Animal World, Sunday mornings, from 9 a.m. to noon on Alternative Talk AM 1150. She can be reached at Martha's Canine, Feline and All Creature Counseling at (360) 217-7258 or www.marthanorwalk.com. For a free, no obligation telephone evaluation or to make an appointment for Martha to work with you and your animal friend, give her a call.