Grad combines her psychology and biology degrees to help humans and an imals work out their problems Becoming better friends by Cynthia o. Stowell There he is, cute as can be, sining under the Christmas tree with a red bow around his neck. As Ihe new puppy bounds and burrows through the piles of wrapping paper, you wonder how your family sneaked him into the house. later, as you get up from Christmas dinner and find your brand new slippers in shreds and the living room carpet stained in two places, you're beginning to wonder why they bothered. You'd better hope your family thought to buy you Ann Childers' videotape "Puppy's First Year." Until you and the puppy work it out. the video could be your best friend. Actually, Childers ('85), who owns Animal School, Inc. in Beaverton, prefers that people come see her or view her tape before they get a puppy. And she doesn't recommend dogs as gifts. As with children, those first few weeks of a puppy's development are critical and an owner has to be ready for the responsi bility. By the time a barking, biling, or chewing dog comes through Childers' office door with his distraught owner in tow, it is usually way past the ideal time for correcting the problem. "A puppy's behavior is set by the time he's 12 weeks old," claims Childers. Nevertheless, she and her trainers have a number of success stories to report. There was the dog who faithfully guarded the family's front door, but from the wrong side. So much did this dog have "the upper paw," said Childers, that his mistress had to leave the house through a window. ~ ~ : r l r ° ~ ~ m ~ ~ ! ~ ~ h ~ i ~ ~ ~ ~ ' : h e n Childers used a more forceful training technique than her usually gentle style to show the dog who was boss. It was a classic example of a dog's t h ~ t d ! ~ ~ i ~ ~ t J ~ : n ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I ~ ~ ~ ~ dogs tend to "set up a social structure, a dominance order," she explains. "Every dog discovers its rank through body languagewrestling or brief power displays." With people, 100, dogs want to know where they stand. 'rrraining does not change a dog's nature," says Childers. "II tells him what he wants to know." And unless he is told otherwise, the dog just might decide for himself that he is number one in a family. That's when the owner sneaks out the window and goes to see a professional. "Most of the people who come here are very intelligent, open to new ideas and wanting information," says the proprietress of Animal School. Most are dog owners, since Childers admits she still has a lot to learn about cats. But contrary to the "dog on the couch" image that the public conjured up when animal behaviorists first began to practice, Childers and her feY\l counterparts across the nation spend a lot more time counseling people than their pets. This suits Childers, who set out to be a pediatrician with the encouragement of PSU professors such as Dawn Dressler, Physics, and Gerald Guthrie, Psychology. "I figured I could use my psychology background to communicate with parents," said Childers, who has two degrees, in biology and psychology. But she didn't gel into medical school on her first try and in the meantime an opportunity came up to handle behavior problems at a downtown veterinary business. '" really wanted IC ••• loe "Every clever circus dog started by leam;ng to sit: 1 reminds Ann Childers ('85) in her videotilpe "Puppys First Yearl " produced in Beaverton by Media West. Childers works with if family dog during one of her evening obedience classes (above) and gives her Shetland Sheepdog Jonathan if hug (/eh). to work with people and I love animals. So it all clicked." Now in business for herself, Childers does about a dozen private consultations each week, but most of her clientele attend Animal School's weekly dog obedience classes. Held in a warehouse adjoining Childers' office, the classes are a cacaphony of canine barks and whines and human coaxing and commands, with Childers in the middle of it all, offering pointers and handing out doggie treats to the owners, who are encouraged to reward their dogs liberall y. Positive or negative reinforcement - but no hitting - within one-half second of a particular behavior is the key to successful training, maintains Childers. For, beneath some of her gentle and creative techniques lies nothing more mysterious than simple stimulus· response theory. While dogs' mental faculties can go beyond the purely behavioral, says Childers, "we have to work with them on a stimulus-response level because we can't communicate with them." She doesn't discount interspecies communication, but says it can be as difficult as communication between human cultures. The pack instinct is one "cultural" difference between dogs and their owners. As Childers points out in her videotape, it is difficult for Americans with their notion of a democratic order to understand the dog's hierarchical view of the universe. Democracy, for a dog, is chaos. But, 12,000 years after the first dog was domesticated, dogs and humans continue to reach across the abyss to work together and provide companionship to one another. Only recently, however, has the subject of human-animal bonding been of scientific interest, says Childers. The little old lady doting on her poodle is an amusing stereotype, but the beneficial effects of pet companions to the elderly and heart attack victims have finally been measured - in lower blood pressure and longer lives. "Dogs and cats are very non-threatening. They offer unconditional love," says Childers, adding in layman's terms, "If you come home and you've had a bad day or your breath is bad, they don't care!" That may be small comfort, however, when you find your feather pillow gutted and spread around the bedroom and your blood pressure going up, not down. "It's hard to believe that cute furry thing has not turned oul to be everything you wanted," says Childers of the Christmas pup gone amok. But at the moment when a trip to the pound is looking really good, the soh-spoken Ann Childers can step in with some sensible advice and an apron full of treats and restore peace between the species. PSU Perspective, Fall 1986/_ 5
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