Christine Hibbard

Police Shooting Dogs

Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT Rosie's Memorial

Maybe it’s social networking, all the yahoo group memberships, Facebook and Twitter but about once a week someone sends me a story about police officers shooting a dog. I even saw that Pat Miller wrote an article about this in the most recent edition of Whole Dog Journal. Then I got an email from one of my clients and my heart sank. On Sunday, November 7th 2010, Rosie, a two year old Newfoundland got loose in her neighborhood in Des Moines, WA. Police officers were dispatched. According to the police report (of which I have a copy), the officers yelled at the dog to go home, attempted to use a catch pole, used their Taser on the dog twice and finally shot the dog four times with a Colt M-4. For interested readers, the local KOMO News station has broadcasted/published several items on Rosie’s story. [Read more...]

Behavioral Ecology & Evolution of Dogs

Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT

A few weeks ago, I attended a day long lecture by Ray Coppinger, PhD and co-author of Dogs: A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior and Evolution. This book was published in 2002 and I read it several years ago. I remembered how much I enjoyed the book and how much I learned by reading it so when I had the opportunity to attend a Coppinger lecture, I jumped at the chance. I was not disappointed. It’s been a long time since I attended a lecture or workshop and took notes, let alone ten pages of notes. If you ever get the opportunity to hear Dr. Coppinger speak, I highly recommend it. He brings knowledge, experience and great humor to a topic he’s been studying for many years; dogs around the world.

It would be impossible to boil down a book like Dogs into an eight hour lecture so Dr. Coppinger treated us to his own version of the highlights of the book. First off, he gave us a primer in studying dogs. He organized the study of dogs into three categories: genetics, paleontology and anthropology. This was an excellent refresher and as throughout the entire day, Dr. Coppinger’s personal stories and sense of humor made wading into these topics fun and interesting. [Read more...]

But Sometimes, It’s Really the People

Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC Girl with her dog.

It’s a truism among people who do what I do that “it’s not the dogs, it’s the people.” In fact, there’s even a good book by that title about running a behavior consulting business. (The author is Nicole Wilde, CPDT). The truism reflects that it’s generally pretty easy to get the dogs to do what we want… but getting the people to change their behavior, or beliefs, can be a real bear.

Of course, we see many wonderful clients. We see clients who are already well up-to-date on modern behavioral methods, who are already able (or ready to learn) how to use a clicker effectively, and who actually do what we recommend. We have clients who are funny, wise, charming, earnest. Some clients become friends. [Read more...]

National Veterinary Technician Week

Louisa Beal, DVM iStock_3170536XSmall

This is National Veterinary Technician Week. NVTW has been an annual tradition beginning in June of 1993 when the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America passed a resolution declaring the third week in October as NVTW.

The National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA) was formed in East Lansing, Michigan in 1981 with the goal of allowing Veterinary Technicians to have input on national issues. Since then, NAVTA has grown and seen many successes, including the declaration of National Veterinary Technician Week, the formation of the Committee on Veterinary Technician Specialties, development of a scholarship program, and much more.
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Invisible Fences: Not a Recommended Solution

Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT

iStock_000004067879XSmall I’ve been wanting to write an article about “invisible” fences, aka electric fences for some time. I was spurred to action after reading an article by an esteemed colleague, Laurie Luck at Smart Dog University. She got herself and her dogs home safely after one of her neighbor’s dogs broke through the invisible fence but it was a scary experience. I’ve experienced this frightening situation myself with my own dogs and client dogs when out on walks. I wrote an article titled Protecting Your Dog on Walks where I made many suggestions for protecting your dog from people and other dogs that are off leash to help you if you ever find yourself in this situation.

If invisible fences are such a wonderful invention, why are off leash dogs breaking through the border towards those of us walking our dogs on leash? When I ask clients why they’ve installed an invisible fence, the two most popular answers are: the prohibitively high cost of solid fencing and neighborhood covenants that prohibit solid fencing. I thought I’d take this opportunity to go through the justifications I hear from people for using these things and why invisible fences are often not a good idea for dogs or people. [Read more...]

Adoption Counseling

Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT

At Companion Animal Solutions, we offer Adoption Counseling for people interested in adding a puppy or dog to their family. I’ve been honored to assist many clients in making their home a forever home for a dog but to be honest, prospective owners don’t avail themselves of this service as often as we would hope. Too often, we get called in to work through behavior problems with dogs that are really just a mismatch between the breed/dog and the owner. It’s not the dog’s fault and it’s not the owner’s fault, it’s just a bad match. This summer though, I was engaged to find puppies for two different families and I’m thrilled at the outcome for these families (and their new puppies)!

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Tricky Treats: Avoiding a toxic food scare

Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT

When Halloween rolls around, informed pet owners know to keep chocolate far from the reach of inquiring muzzles. Less commonly understood, however, are the dangers associated with different forms of chocolate, or the many other poisonous foods that may be lurking, disguised as common human treats!

While the size, weight, and individual sensitivity of your dog or cat will determine exactly how they react to chocolate consumption, the formula of the confection is also important. Milk chocolate, while still unsafe, has a lower concentration of the toxic substance, theobromine. Dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate are definitely to be avoided, with unsweetened baker’s chocolate posing the greatest risk. If Fluffy manages to get her paws on chocolate this Halloween, contact your vet: The more information you can provide about the quantity and type of chocolate immediately after it is consumed, the better. [Read more...]

Protecting Your Dog on Walks

Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT

In one of my previous posts, Why Dogs Bite, I talked about fear aggression and why asking an owner before trying to approach or pet their dog is so important. But let’s face it, humans love dogs and sometimes people get so caught up in how cute a dog is or how unusual a particular breed of dog is that they just approach or reach out without thinking. In my article, What Is a Reactive Rover?, I discussed different types of leash reactivity and why dogs behave the way they do on leash. Owners of non-reactive dogs simply don’t understand the plight of the owner of a reactive dog. They honestly don’t see anything wrong with letting their dog walk towards your dog for a greeting or allowing their off leash dog run up to your dog for a quick butt sniff. iStock_000003337729XSmall

If you’re the owner of a fearful or dog reactive dog, read on because this post is for you. If you own one of those lovely, non reactive dogs, or maybe you don’t consider yourself one of those clueless dog lovers, you might be tempted to stop reading. Please don’t. When you see a dog owner using any of these techniques or tools while out walking their dogs, you’ll have a better understanding of what is going on. [Read more...]

Training Dogs Who Are Blind AND Deaf

Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT

In the past two months, I’ve received calls and or emails from two different shelters asking me for advice on training a dog who is both blind and deaf. There are terrific web sites for training blind dogs and for training deaf dogs, but I’m not aware of a web site Blind Very old poodle (15 years) devoted to training a dog who is both. I thought that publishing some ideas here (ideas I have gathered from many other sources) would not only help other rescue workers, but I’m hoping that it will generate a dialog on how to best train these dogs who not only have the misfortune to find themselves deaf and blind, but homeless as well. Let me be clear, I’m not stating a position on whether these dogs should take up precious rescue resources when plenty of “able bodied” dogs are euthanized every year. That’s a debate for another time. The reality is that some rescues will take these dogs, do their best, and try to place them (or not). So, how do we train these dogs? [Read more...]

Tips for Greeting Other Dogs on Leash

Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT

You’re out on a relaxing walk with your dog when you see another owner walking towards you with their dog. The owner says to you, “can our dogs say hello”? How do you decide whether allowing your dog to greet a strange dog on leash is a good idea? After all, some of these greetings go beautifully with both dogs and owners parting company with a smile. Other greetings with dogs on leash go horribly wrong with both dogs and owners leaving the scene upset with pulses racing. What went wrong? [Read more...]

Police Shooting Dogs

Behavioral Ecology & Evolution of Dogs

But Sometimes, It’s Really the People

National Veterinary Technician Week

Invisible Fences: Not a Recommended Solution

Adoption Counseling

Tricky Treats: Avoiding a toxic food scare

Protecting Your Dog on Walks

Training Dogs Who Are Blind AND Deaf

Tips for Greeting Other Dogs on Leash

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