THE 'CLICKER' IS AN EASY TOOL WITH POWERFUL TRAINING RESULTS

In the last year, it seems like I've been doing nothing but raising puppies. First came Ned, a Shetland sheepdog who's bright but a little on the shy side. Then Riley, an outgoing, bouncy retriever puppy I'm raising for friends.

While most of what I do with puppies involves socializing them to new people and places, sights and sounds, I also lay a foundation for a lifetime of learning by setting limits and by teaching a few basic behaviors in a way that makes it clear that training is fun. To get that latter idea across, the tool I reach for is what trainers call a "clicker." It doesn't look like much, but it's an object that seems to possess a magic power when it comes to building a good relationship with an animal -- any animal.

To the untrained eye, a clicker is a small plastic box that fits in the palm of your hand -- a child's toy that's also called a "cricket." To make the noise, you press down on the metal strip inside the housing and quickly release it -- click-click!

Of course, the clicker itself isn't magic. What it provides is timing -- it allows a trainer working with a dog who understands the game to let the pet know that the behavior he's doing right now is the one that's being rewarded. And that means the behavior will be repeated. The clicking noise becomes a reward because in the early stages of training, the sound is linked to the delivery of something a dog wants -- most usually, a tiny treat.

You start by teaching your pet that a click means a treat. Pick a time when your pet isn't sleeping (not just after a meal) and is a little hungry (a couple of hours before a meal). Choose a relatively small, quiet place you can work without too many distractions, and prepare a pouch or bowl of tiny, yummy treats (diced hot dogs are popular, as are pieces of cheese or even bits of kibble). For the next few minutes, click and treat. One click, one treat. Again and again and again. Eventually, your pet will show you he understands that the sound means food. For example, he may look immediately to the source of the treats after hearing the click.

When that happens, you're on to the next stage. But wait until your next session, because clicker training works best with a couple of short sessions -- less than 10 minutes -- every day.

When you're all set up again, sit quietly with your clicker and treats -- and wait. Your dog should start volunteering behaviors, everything from sitting to pawing to wandering in a circle. When your pet chooses one you like, click, treat and wait again. Your dog will initially be confused, but should eventually offer the behavior again. Be patient! When that moment comes, click, treat and wait again.

Say you clicked your dog a couple of times because he finally got bored and sat. Soon your dog will sit to test his theory that sitting means a click-treat. When that happens, click and "jackpot" him with a handful of treats. When the pattern is firmly established, you can then give it a name ("sit") and make the food reward more random to strengthen it (this is the same principal that keeps you pulling the slot machine handle).

In future sessions, you'll move on from the "sit" that your dog knows, waiting for more behaviors to click, treat and name as you build your pet's repertoire of commands. More complicated behaviors are trained by "chaining" -- training in segments and putting them together.

One more thing: Never punish your pet for not "getting it right." Clicker training is all about the payoff, and once you get it mastered, there's no end to the things you can teach your dog to do. And that's true no matter if your puppy is big or small, outgoing or shy. In my house, both Ned and Riley, although very different puppies, are thriving as they learn that training is fun.

Q&A

Treats, trickery key

to pilling your pet

Q: I don't want to be a bad pet owner, but I just can't get pills down my dog. What can I do? -- via Facebook

A: I know you know that any medication prescribed for your pet will be of no use if it doesn't get into your pet as prescribed. But you are certainly not alone with this problem. Let me recommend some strategies to make the pill-popping easier:

-- Pop and treat. Have your veterinarian demonstrate. Always start with a positive attitude and end with a treat and praise. You can find "pill guns" through pet retailers that help with getting the pill quickly in the right place.

-- Stealth. Perhaps the most popular method is to hide the pill in something pets love, although many pets may figure this out soon enough and start eating around the pill. Try treats that are designed for pill-popping, such as Pill Pockets: They're yummy little bits with pockets for hiding the treats.

-- Presto-chango. For pets who just won't tolerate pills (or people who just hate giving them), ask your veterinarian about using a compounding pharmacy. These businesses take all manner of medications and turn them into edible treats in pet-friendly flavors.

-- New technologies. Ask your veterinarian for the latest options. The medication you're using may be available in an easier-to-use format, such as transdermal.

No matter what, always give pet medications exactly as prescribed to the end of the supply. If you have questions or problems, or if the condition hasn't improved after the medications are gone, you must call your veterinarian for advice on the health of your pet.

If you need help, ask! Your veterinarian wants your pet to get better just as much as you do. -- Dr. Marty Becker

Do you have a pet question? Send it to petconnection@gmail.com or visit Facebook.com/DrMartyBecker.

THE BUZZ

Maddie's free adoptions

find homes for thousands

-- The Maddie's Pet Adoption Days placed 8,000 pets in five states over the first weekend in June. It was the first national effort to expand focused adoption efforts around the idea of waiving adoption fees for homes that otherwise met adoption criteria. Maddie's Fund, the California foundation founded by the family of software mogul Dave Duffield, put up $4 million to offset the costs of the event to participating shelters and rescue groups. The group had aimed to place 5,000 pets.

-- Obesity is as prevalent among North American pets as it is among their owners, and with many of the same health complications. Until cats can open the cupboard or work the can opener on their own, though, they can't be blamed for their size. But who can be? In Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, a woman faces animal cruelty charges after her 24-pound cat had to be euthanized for health problems related to his size after he was brought to the Ottawa Humane Society. The woman faces up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

-- Tigers get hairballs, too. A 400-pound tiger in Florida who'd stopped eating at the wildlife refuge center where he lives was treated surgically to remove a 4-pound hairball. Veterinarians at BluePearl Veterinary Partners in Clearwater found the mass after inserting an endoscope into the sedated cat. The tiger, who is named Ty, is recovering well. -- Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori

ABOUT PET CONNECTION

Pet Connection is produced by a team of pet care experts headed by "Good Morning America" and "The Dr. Oz Show" veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker and award-winning journalist Gina Spadafori. The two are affiliated with Vetstreet.com and also the authors of many best-selling pet care books. Dr. Becker can also be found at Facebook.com/DrMartyBecker or on Twitter at DrMartyBecker.

TIGHT BUDGETS LEAD SOME CITY SHELTERS TO STOP TREATING CATS LIKE DOGS

How do you help more cats with less money? Contrary to decades of conventional practice, some in the shelter community are now arguing that for municipal shelters, the answer is to leave free-roaming cats alone, and to ask communities' nonprofit shelters to do the same.

"We help when a cat is in trouble, or is causing trouble," says Tracy Mohr, a 30-year shelter veteran who recently turned the California college town of Chico into one where cats are no longer routinely accepted at the city's tax-funded shelter. "If that's not the case, we leave them alone and ask that others do, too."

Chico's city shelter no longer accepts "nuisance" cats trapped and brought in by citizens, nor cats presumed to be lost pets. The city shelter also no longer accepts cats given up by their owners for adoption. Those animals now go to the Butte Humane Society, a local nonprofit that had already been pulling cats from the city shelter for adoption. By sending people looking to rehome a pet directly to the nonprofit shelter, the community has "one-stop shopping" for adopting cats while sparing the animals the stress of being moved from one shelter to another.

The changes were put in place in February, and they've resulted in fewer cats killed and, more surprisingly, fewer unhappy citizens. Mohr says that's because the shelters were all on the same page when it came to handling cats, and because the community outreach ahead of the change was extensive.

"We have a very active animal welfare community here, with a lot of organizations and a lot of very active, concerned people," says Mohr. "The change made perfect sense."

What didn't make sense was continuing with traditional sheltering methods when budgets are being slashed, says shelter medicine pioneer Dr. Kate Hurley of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis. Hurley points out that landing in a shelter is a good thing if you're a dog, but that's rarely the case for cats.

"People know when a dog is missing, and they know it right away," she says. "The dog was here, and now he's not. That's not true with cats. It's not uncommon for an owned cat to be missing for a while, and an owner won't start looking because the cat always came back before."

"With all our efforts in shelters to reunite cats with their owners, more commonly what we're doing is killing people's pets," says Hurley, noting that 67 percent of lost cats are reunited with their owners by returning on their own, but only 2 percent of shelter cats are reclaimed by their owners. In other words: Cities can save money by not dealing with "lost" cats or feral cat colonies, which are both situations that typically will resolve or can be resolved without official intervention.

The change is in part a realization that free-roaming cats, whether pets or feral, have more in common with wild animals than with dogs. No one would ever suggest that there were enough money and man-hours to eradicate entire populations of wild species in urban areas. Instead, the strategy is to remove dangerous animals and help those wild animals in trouble. The same strategy works for cats, says Dr. Hurley, and Mohr agrees.

"Take people complaining that there's a cat in their yard, going to the bathroom in their garden," says Mohr. "If they trap that cat, really, is that going to solve the problem? No, because there are probably more cats in the neighborhood. Trapping will be an exercise in futility.

"What we're counseling people to do, the same way we counsel them with wildlife, is to use strategies that make a yard less attractive for a cat.

"The problem gets solved by leaving the animal alone in most cases, and we're using our community to solve it."

The bottom line, says Mohr, is a collaborative community effort aimed at problem-solving, using strategies that actually work with and for cats, while saving money for taxpayers.

Q&A

No easy cure for bird's

self-destructive actions

Q: Is there anything I can do to keep my bird from pulling out his own feathers? Specifically, is this a dietary problem? -- via Facebook

A: Feather-picking is a symptom of something else that's wrong with your bird. Any one (or any combination) of the following can be at the root of the issue:

-- Health problems. Medical conditions behind feather-picking include allergies, parasitic infections, bacterial infections, abnormal growths (cysts) in the feather follicle, internal health problems, vitamin deficiencies and hormone-associated problems. And that's the short list. Low humidity can also be a factor.

-- Boredom, pent-up energy and psychological problems. Birds are active and intelligent, and they don't handle the strain of being forced to sit around in a cage all day very well. Without things to play with and stuff to destroy, and without being able to get out of the cage and exercise, birds may direct all their energy toward self-mutilation. Obsessive-compulsive disorders can also trigger feather-picking, as can attention seeking.

Find a veterinarian with experience in caring for birds as soon as the problem appears. Medical problems need to be addressed before looking at any behavioral strategies.

After any medical issues are resolved, start a diary to record changes to your bird's world and any effects they may have on his behavior. For example, a daily misting with a spray bottle and the addition of a room humidifier may be help, as might different toys, a smaller or larger cage, a new cage location, keeping a radio playing during the day, covering the cage to ensure your bird gets 12 solid hours of sleep, and more interaction and play with you.

Some birds will never stop plucking. The best you can do is to be patient, work with an avian veterinarian toward fixing the problems and be prepared to love your bird no matter what he looks like. -- Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori

Do you have a pet question? Send it to petconnection@gmail.com or visit Facebook.com/DrMartyBecker.

THE BUZZ

Famous feline paradise

for sale in San Diego

-- The world-famous San Diego house where cats wandered freely on overhead walkways is for sale. Updated and remodeled, but with its cat-friendly features left intact, The Cats' House is listed at nearly $600,000. Owned by artists Bob Walker and Frances Mooney, the house has been the subject of two best-selling books and countless media appearances. Once a wild display of color inside and out, the home's interior walls now sport an off-white hue, and the old, deep-purple exterior is now a more sedate and traditional green. The couple is moving to the Washington, D.C., area with plans for a second Cats' House.

-- Americans spend about $500 on average, or 1 percent of their annual budgets, on their pets. Statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that people ages 55 to 64 and couples without children are most likely to spend money on pets and their care, dedicating hundreds of dollars more per year than people in their 20s and 30s. While the spending accounts for $61.4 billion last year, it wasn't all for health care: One-fourth of all pet owners admitted skipping veterinary visits for wellness care or other pet needs.

-- Want to catch a glimpse of one of the rarest of cats? Check out the big cat view from the Center for International Forestry Research's 30 hidden cameras in the rainforests of Java (http://tinyurl.com/JavaLeopard). Images of three Javan leopards looking healthy and acting normally have given hope to researchers studying these beautiful and endangered animals. The Javan leopard population is believed to comprise fewer than 250 adults. -- Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori

ABOUT PET CONNECTION

Pet Connection is produced by a team of pet care experts headed by "Good Morning America" and "The Dr. Oz Show" veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker and award-winning journalist Gina Spadafori. The two are affiliated with Vetstreet.com and also the authors of many best-selling pet care books. Dr. Becker can also be found at Facebook.com/DrMartyBecker or on Twitter at DrMartyBecker.

STRESS-FREE CATS ARE LESS LIKELY TO DEVELOP ILLNESSES OR BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

Sometimes when I talk to a pet owner about her cat's stress, I can almost hear what she's thinking.

"Stress? You must be kidding. This cat sleeps 20 hours a day, gets handed food to him twice a day and never has to lift a paw for anything," I imagine her saying. "Now if you want to talk about stress, listen to what I'm dealing with every day."

It's true that cats aren't dealing with long commutes, tight budgets and all the other modern strains that we people have. But it's also true that many of them feel stressed. You need to care about that, because when a cat is stressed, he's more likely to get sick or develop behavior problems.

My colleague and longtime friend Dr. Tony Buffington leads the Indoor Pet Initiative at The Ohio State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Here are some of his suggestions for keeping your cat calmer -- and healthier, as a result.

-- Understand that cats do not respond to force, and that they do respond to praise. Punishment that follows an action by more than a few seconds won't stop the cat from doing it again, and may even cause the animal to become fearful of the owner or the surroundings.

-- Provide a room or other space that the cat can call his own, complete with food and water, a bed (a cat carrier with a soft pad inside is a good choice), a litter box, a scratching/climbing post (cats need to be able to scratch and climb), a window to look out of and some toys.

-- Offer vertical space as well as horizontal. Even a small apartment can become a good-sized place for a cat if you provide cat trees, feline stairways and other ways for him to enjoy living the high life.

-- Place food and the litter boxes away from appliances and air ducts that could come on unexpectedly, and locate them so that another animal (or human) cannot sneak up on the cat while he's using the box. Food and water should be kept fresh, and the litter box should be scooped every day.

-- Give your cat something to scratch on to ensure that he can engage in this normal behavior without damaging furniture. A cat can easily be enticed to use scratching structures by placing them in places the cat likes, pairing with treats, feeding and playing near the structure, and praising profusely when the cat is seen using it.

-- Remember that cats seem to prefer to feel like they are "in control" of their surroundings, so allow them to choose the changes they want to make. When you make changes (food, litter, toys, etc.), offer them in a separate container next to the familiar one so your cat can decide whether or not to change.

-- Take your cat to the veterinarian regularly. In addition to providing preventive health care through regular checkups, your cat's doctor can help you troubleshoot and resolve any issues before they become problems.

There's more to keeping a cat happy and healthy indoors than putting down food, water and a litter box. Learn more at The Indoor Cat Initiative (indoorpet.osu.edu), where you will find more ideas and a free video to download that will help you turn your home into a feline spa.

Q&A

Yellow ribbon on leash

helps keep everyone safe

Q: We're the proud owners of a poodle mix we adopted from a rescue. She doesn't like strangers, and she is especially frightened of men. She has snapped, but never bitten, when strangers reach to pet her because she is so cute. How can we tell people that she needs her space? -- via Facebook

A: You're certainly not alone in having a hard time saying, "My dog needs her space." Top veterinary behaviorist Dr. Ilana Reisner (ReisnerVetBehavior.com) says she actually role-plays with some of her clients so they get used to standing up for their dogs. The Philadelphia-area veterinarian says that people are proud of their dogs, and don't like admitting that the dog may have an issue.

"A stranger will say, 'What a cute dog,'" she said, and then move to pet your dog without formally asking. "It's fine to acknowledge the compliment and say, 'Please don't come any closer.'"

No further explanation is needed, she said, and in fact, it's really not advised. Although many people do have the common sense to ask before petting, many don't. And if you admit beforehand that your dog "may bite," you're setting yourself up for a lawsuit if someone swoops in anyway. I've actually found that more children know to ask permission to pet a dog than adults do, perhaps because adults figure they can "read" a dog, while children are often taught to always ask, no matter what.

While speaking up for your dog is still the best method of keeping strangers at bay, you might also put a yellow ribbon on your dog's leash. In the past couple of years, people in the training and behavior community have been promoting the use of yellow ribbons to let people know a dog needs some room. The concept (more at TheYellowDogProject.com) likely came from the horse world, where a ribbon on a horse's tail is used to signify an animal who may kick.

Dr. Reisner likes the idea of a yellow ribbon, but cautions that it will take a while to catch on. "If you mentioned the idea to the average Joe, they've never heard of it, and that's true of many veterinarians as well," she said.

That's certainly true, but if you put a yellow ribbon on your dog's leash, you may slow someone down long enough for them to ask what the ribbon means. Letting them know not only gives you a polite way to keep them at a safe distance, but it also spreads the word about yellow ribbons. -- Gina Spadafori

Do you have a pet question? Send it to petconnection@gmail.com or visit Facebook.com/DrMartyBecker.

THE BUZZ

Flame retardant may be

linked to feline illness

-- Is a chemical commonly found in homes linked to an increase in hyperthyroidism in cats? As laws are introduced to ban the flame retardants known as PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, advocates for ending the use of these products point to "canary in the coal mine" studies that link the chemicals to a commonly malady in cats. A study in the February 2012 issue of the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health showed that levels of PBDEs in owned cats, even those with no symptoms of hyperthyroidism, were higher than those in feral cats. Cats with the condition have thyroid glands that overproduce, shifting their metabolism into overdrive. Left untreated, the animals will die; the preferred treatment, however, is an expensive stay at a special veterinary clinic where the affected gland is treated with radiation.

-- The Maine Coon Cat is thought to have the highest incidence of extra toes among all feline breeds. The condition is known as "polydactyl," and is considered a harmless and even endearing genetic mutation.

-- Stand-alone veterinary emergency clinics have long been the norm in most communities, allowing the "family veterinarian" to turn off her pager after hours. Many "pet ERs" are staffed by veterinarians certified in emergency and critical care. The organization that accredits these specialists, the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care, is now providing additional certification for practices. Nine veterinary hospitals and clinics in the United States have been conditionally identified as veterinary trauma centers. Most of the centers are in the teaching hospitals of university-based veterinary schools and colleges, but four are stand-alone practices, including two in Southern California. -- Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori

ABOUT PET CONNECTION

Pet Connection is produced by a team of pet care experts headed by "Good Morning America" and "The Dr. Oz Show" veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker and award-winning journalist Gina Spadafori. The two are affiliated with Vetstreet.com and also the authors of many best-selling pet care books. Dr. Becker can also be found at Facebook.com/DrMartyBecker or on Twitter at DrMartyBecker.