P.S. We’re completely farkled if you don’t leave your answer in the comment box. And if you’re ready for your close-up, check out the answer to last week’s Wordless Wednesday!

Every time we interact with a shelter dog, one of us is training the other. Unfortunately, when we allow shelter dogs to lean into their collars and drag us along by the leash, the dogs are training us to go wherever they choose. And holding the leash improperly (wrapped around the hand, for example,) can result in hand or wrist injuries.

Good leash skills can help you walk dogs safely and teach them good leash manners.  If you walk dogs on a flat or martingale leash collar, here’s how to hold a leash in a way that gives you more control and more safety.

How to hold a leash:

• Slip your thumb through the handle of the leash. If you are taking the dog for a sniffing walk on a long leash, or if you have a dog who doesn’t pull, close your hand – and this is all you’ll need to do.
• If you need the dog to be a little closer to you, loop the leash over your thumb, and then fold it a few times in your hand until you have the length of leash you need.
• For a dog who is getting overexcited, or who might become aggressive, a shorter leash will give you more control.
• For maximum control and safety, make sure the leash is coming out of the bottom of your hand (near your pinkie finger) when you are finished folding.
• If you stop to talk to someone or give the dog a break, either put a foot on the leash or hold it, hands together as though you’re holding a baseball bat, braced against your belly button, so the dog doesn’t continue to pull you around.
• If the dog is pulling hard, simply point one hip in the direction of the pull, with your legs shoulder length apart. The dog will not get any give in the leash and will likely stop pulling.

If you need to give the dog more leash, you can easily open and close your hand, keeping your thumb through the loop. All of the accordion folds will immediately drop out of the leash, giving the dog the full length of leash, while you still maintain your hold.

The leather leash used for this video was quite thick, so the accordion folds are larger than they might be on a thinner nylon or cotton leash. Practice doing the fold shown in the video without a dog at the end until you can do this quickly and efficiently.

Remember, if a dog pulls and you bend and give like a willow tree, he will be encouraged to pull harder. If he pulls and encounters firm resistance, as though tied to an oak tree, he will give up pulling more quickly.

In the following two videos, we see Danielle Bender of Champaign County Humane Society in Urbana, IL, lead shelter dog Kia to her favorite play area. Compare how Danielle handles the leash in the “willow” hold versus the “oak” hold.

If you would like to learn more about dog behavior and leash handling, check out the recordings of the recent webinars in our Canine Communications Series.

How does your agency train new staff and volunteers in leash handling?

Trish McMillan Loehr, MSc, CPDT, ASPCA Director, Applied Research and Behavior

Related Links:
Webinar – Canine Communication: Understanding Canine Body Language
Canine Communications Series
More posts from Trish McMillan Loehr on Shelters’ Edge

The SAFER aggression assessment tool is designed to assess a dog’s response to multiple forms of stimuli. When the assessment is conducted correctly, the dog has many choices in how to respond, including pulling away, staying near and engaging in the interaction, or displaying behaviors indicating a bite may occur if the interaction continues.

When choice is removed during a SAFER assessment (i.e. the dog is cornered, being forced into position, or is not allowed to move away when he chooses to), and the dog perceives the stimulus as being a potential threat, the likelihood of the dog aggressing increases. As a normal function of survival, all animals may aggress when they see no choice for escape; therefore, it is important to perform the SAFER assessment correctly as it assesses the probability of aggression when behavior choices are provided.

Dogs use body language to indicate they are uncomfortable (licking lips, stress yawning, avoiding eye contact). We can use our body language to assure consistent assessments and decrease miscommunication during assessments. We can also diffuse a situation that might lead to aggression by avoiding eye contact and turning our body sideways. Our body language can actually provide dogs with more choice!

Providing the dog with many behavior choices is critical when performing an assessment like SAFER. If we “tag” the dog (during the Tag item) and then pull him by incorrectly using a tight leash as we move about the room, we are likely to get a different behavior than if we keep the leash loose so he can choose to follow along, keep his distance or move away. More examples of giving choice during an assessment include:

• Allowing the dog the choice to pull his head out of our hands during the Look item.
• Having the observer hold the leash while providing some slack in the leash so the dog can choose to follow the food bowl during the Food Behavior item.
• Letting the dog choose to enter the room and approach the helper dog during the Dog-to-Dog Behavior item.

See the following photo of a SAFER assessor conducting the Tag item. Note the loose leash and the assessor’s body crouched and turned to the side. All of these human behaviors are intentional and are providing the dog with many choices in his behavior response.

How do you give choice during assessments or in other interactions with your dog? We would love to hear your ideas.

To learn more about how to give choices and using your body language when interacting with dogs, check out our Canine Communications webinar series.

Related links:
About SAFER
SAFER assessment items
Webinar: Canine Communications Series
“Tip of the Week: How Not to Teach Dogs to Guard Their Food Bowl”

Ashtabula County Animal Protective League, Ashtabula, OH

Gotta love an agency with a sense of humor! This one's from the “Bloopers” photo album on their Facebook page.

What makes them a tough contender: “The ability to stay in the fight! We have done so much for our animals with such minimal resources. Fighting the good fight of being the voice for the animals is something we take pride in, and make top priority!”

Bay Area Humane Society, Green Bay, WI

BAHS' office cat, Sleepy

How they describe their innovative agency in 3 words: “Pushing the envelope!”

City of Bloomington Animal Care & Control, Bloomington, IN

Baked by a supporter in celebration of the agency's great showing during the Qualifying Heat

Why they’re a force to contend with: “We are fortunate to have a positive image in our community, strong community support, a dedicated staff and wonderful volunteers who will be excited to join us in this challenge to save more lives.”

Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter, Dearborn, MI

Spokesdog Pudge did whatever it took to wrangle votes during the Qualifying Heat.

What they love to tell their community: “Recycled pets are best.”

Heartland SPCA, Merriam, KS

Heartland SPCA adopter conferring with his new kitty.

What makes them a tough contender: “We believe that no matter what their size, shape or story, all dogs and cats deserve the chance to live long, happy and healthy lives, and our team of experts works hard every day as a lifeline to a better future for pets by providing comprehensive, affordable medical care, adoption services and innovative community programs.”

Humane Society of Greater Dayton, Dayton, OH

HSGD volunteers and staff after finishing the second shift of their recent 24-hour spay/neuter event

How they describe themselves in 3 words: “Proactive, Compassionate Leadership”

Kent County Animal Shelter, Grand Rapids, MI

KCAS staff and volunteers hard at work!

What they want their community to know: “Practice responsible pet ownership, spay and neuter, leash and license your dog and have your pets examined by a veterinarian regularly.”

Medina County SPCA, Medina, OH

Love the smart use of graphics to accompany each menu item on Medina's website

What makes them a tough contender: “We may be mini, but we’re MIGHTY!”

SICSA, Kettering, OH

Clap clap clap for this phenom Facebook cover photo!

How they’d use $100K: “SICSA would train volunteers and staff to supervise and grow off-site adoptions, supply funds for emergency veterinary care to pets at risk for euthanasia and provide low-cost microchip identification to the public to increase the number of pets returned to their owners.”

Toledo Area Humane Society, Maumee, OH

How they describe themselves in 3 words: "Respected, Compassionate, Responsible"

“TAHS is committed to promoting a healthy bond between animals and their human companions by providing temporary shelter and care for animals seeking permanent homes, advocating for animals and educating the community regarding animal issues and responsible care/training.”

Winnebago County Animal Services, Rockford, IL

Holy Engagement! WCAS got a great response when they asked Facebook fans to vote for the name of their new Senior Adoption program. (Psst, we like "Golden Whiskers.")

What makes them a tough contender: “Winnebago County Animal Services is striving to be a community leader and credible resource for the awareness and advancement of responsible pet ownership, adoption and animal health and welfare.”

Be sure to check in next week, when we highlight the contestants from the Northeast.

Related links:
The 50 Challenge Contestants
“Up for the Challenge, Part 3: Meet the 2012 Contestants”

An example may help to clarify. There have recently been some great conversations on the SAWA list-serv about pit-type dogs. The discussion focused on how cautious we should be of labeling them if we do not know their real heritage. Suggestions included using a generic mix-breed label for them. That is a great intention – but is not data- and risk-intentional. We know that in many agencies, dogs who appear to have bully-type breeds in their mix (whether they actually do or not) tend to be at higher risk than those without. If we cannot accurately track where those animals are coming from, and what happens to them when they are in our shelters, how can we measure the impact of program designed to support them?

Another common one we run into is the coding of cats as “owned” by some arbitrary number of days they are fed by a Good Samaritan who considers the cat a stray. While I understand some city ordinances state if a cat is fed X number of days he is owned – and I understand that some of those who work in shelters identify feeding as ownership – from our perspective, we can miss some important data by coding these cats as owned. Imagine I want to develop an intervention to provide spay/neuter for owners in a particular area. I flood the area with information about the spay/neuter services we can provide for their cats – but we’d be completely missing those that are just feeding cats they consider stray, as they do not consider themselves the “owner.”

Sometimes data is coded a certain way to get around a local ordinance or simply to get around a shelter software issue. We have found some dirty data where shelters “push” though a low-cost spay/neuter of a public animal by coding the animal as an intake and then out as an adoption at the end of the surgery day! As you can imagine, this can be an issue when looking at impact of spay/neuter on intake…

What is the intention with your data entry? What are you using your data for? If it is to track progress and impact, as well as your ROI – are you sure that is how your data is entered? It may be time to check…

Resources on naked data:
Shelter Data 101: What, why and how to collect
Basic Data Matrix
Naked Data posts on ASPCA Shelters’ Edge blog