Don't Forget to Pat, Pet, Pause!

Last month we talked about dog-to-children greetings and how to keep everyone safe. Pat, Pet, Pause is a great game to teach your kids to facilitate a positive greeting with a dog! (We’ve covered this game before in one of our first Brewery Dog Pro Tip blogs, but it’s worth a repeat and an expansion!).

A pre-step is to make sure to always ask the owner first if you can pet their dog. Once you have the owner’s permission, now it is time to ask the dog!

Step 1: Pat! Patting your legs is a common way our dogs learn to come over to a person. By patting your legs you are asking the dog if they would like to come over to be pet. If they decide to come over you can move on to Step 2! However, remember the dog has a choice! If they don’t want to come over, never force a dog to approach a stranger. 

Step 2: Pet! Your first interaction with the dog should be short; about 3-5 seconds. Go ahead and give the dog a quick pet. Remember those body language tips from last week? Make sure to observe the dog’s behavior to see if they are comfortable with you petting them. 

Step 3: Pause! After your very brief interaction, take a moment to pause. Return your hands back to neutral, either on your lap or at your side, then wait to see what the dog does. The purpose of this pause is to give the dog a chance to continue with the interaction if they are comfortable or give them the chance to walk away if they are not. If the dog comes back over for more pets then you can assume they are enjoying the experience and you can proceed with some more petting. Pausing periodically to give the dog another chance to end the interaction is always a good idea. 

At any point during this process if the dog chooses to walk away, we should respect that decision. An interaction should never be forced onto a dog as this could lead to a serious situation very quickly! By using this Pat, Pet, Pause process we give the dog a choice. Just like we want our choices to be respected, so should the dog’s. 

Teaching your kids this quick game is the best way to ensure a safe and comfortable dog-to-human interaction. This game isn’t just for kids though! It is best practice for everyone greeting a dog to go through this process.

Dogs & Kids in the Brewery

Just last week was National Kids & Pets Day! In honor of this let’s talk about dog-to-children greetings. Did you know that, according to the Humane Society of the United States, about 50% of dog bites reported annually are directed towards children. Since typically breweries that are dog-friendly are also family-friendly, this is something we need to talk about! 

Normally, a dog will give cues with their body language before resorting to a bite. It is so important for adults to know what body language to look for to ensure that our children are in a safe situation with the dog. So what should you look for?

1. The dog turning its head away from the situation

2. The dog having a stiff body composure

3. The dog backing up trying to get away from the situation

4. If you can see the white’s of a dog’s eyes this is usually an indication that they are uncomfortable or stressed

5. A growl or showing of teeth

What should you do if you see any of these signs when your child is greeting a dog? The most important thing to do is to step in before the interaction goes downhill. If you see any of these body language signs from the dog, don’t wait until you see another, but rather cut the greeting short and play it safe. Interrupt the current greeting and redirect. Discuss with your children why the dog might be uncomfortable and why we should always listen to the dog’s body language. Then, if the dog is feeling more comfortable with some space, you can redirect your children to play a game with the dog called Pat, Pet, Pause (we will discuss this game next month!)

Another thing to look out for is if the dog has a toy. While some dogs may be happy to share their toys, many dogs are not keen to share with a stranger. Many kids also think toys are fun, so you want to make sure there isn’t any grabbing of the toys as this may cause the dog to try to snatch it back, accidently resulting in an injury. 

Moral of the story - if you see something, say something! While it can be an uncomfortable discussion to tell a parent their kid’s behavior isn’t okay or telling the dog owner that their dog looks uncomfortable, this could prevent a serious situation from happening. Keeping everyone safe is what is going to keep allowing dogs to be welcomed into breweries!

Essential Brewery Manners Skills for Dogs - Human Relaxation!

As we have mentioned in previous weeks, settling on a mat is a foundational skill to get your dog ready to join you on a brewery adventure. The next step to this is adding in human relaxation! You want to be able to sit back in your chair, talk with a friend, take a drink from your glass, all without your dog popping up out of their settle behavior. 

We start this by encouraging our human students to first sit back in their chair, relax their shoulders, and take a deep breath in...and out. Reward your dog slowly and calmly. It can help if you avoid making direct eye contact with your dog so as to not accidentally cue them that their settle behavior is over. Now, chat with your friend for a minute, have a laugh, then again calmly deliver a treat to your dog so they continue the duration of relaxation on their mat. And repeat! 

Always remember that your energy goes down the leash. If we can relax ourselves and enjoy our time (and reward our dogs for relaxing with us!), our dogs will also have a more relaxing experience when joining us at a brewery!

Essential Brewery Manners Skills for Dogs - Waling Past Distractions

Building off of last week’s topic of polite ordering, now that you’ve got your beverage you need your dog to be able to walk past distraction smoothly to get back to your table. Start with your basic loose leash walking behaviors and build off of those! 

When walking past other people or distractions, reward more frequently to make yourself more exciting than the distraction. You can set up a simulation of this at home by making an obstacle course of chairs. You need your dog to be able to navigate small spaces, so put the chairs closer together, then practice walking through them, rewarding more when in the tight spaces. 

Then, add some of your dog’s favorite toys along the way in the obstacle course as a distraction. Again, reward more generously when passing the distraction to keep your dog’s focus on you. As you practice, you can try passing the distractions without an immediate reward, but make sure to still mark (verbally praise with “Good Dog!” or “Yes!”). Then reward your dog when you make it to the end of the obstacle course. This will translate to when your hands are full with a beer in one hand and a leash in the other and you are trying to make it back to your table. You now get to enjoy your beer!

Essential Brewery Manners Skills for Dogs - Polite Ordering Routine

One of our signature skills is teaching our dogs how to participate in polite ordering! We want our dogs to be able to approach the bar with us and automatically sit, waiting for us to place our order and then smoothly walk back to our table with drink in hand. 

First teach a stopping by your side behavior. You can do this by taking a few steps, then stopping and rewarding your dog right next to your pant leg before they wander out in front of you. Remember not to make this an abrupt stop. One tip for preparing your dog to know when you are approaching a stop is to take three slower steps first. This will tell your dog you are about to stop walking so they should prepare by slowing down! 

Next, we want to add a wall as a cue to your dog to sit. When your dog approaches the bar with you, all they see is a tall wall, so we can use this to our advantage by turning it into a cue! Practice walking towards any wall, then taking your three slow steps coming to a stop. Reward your dog for stopping by your side and cue a sit. Keep practicing this until they automatically sit when you stop at the wall!

Image Description: White dog sits beside a person next to a wall; the person is handing a treat to the dog for awesome!

See you next week for our next blog in this series of essential brewery manners skills!

Essential Brewery Manners Skills for Dogs - Calm Greetings

Everyone wants their dogs to be a calm greeter to friendly strangers, but how do we help get them there? There are many strategies to achieve this, but today we’re going to talk about the hand touch greeting.

First practice your hand targeting cue with your dog. You can teach that this way:

Next, we will transfer this behavior to targeting someone else’s hand rather than your own. With your dog on a leash, have a helper approach you and your dog but stopping just out of reach of your dog. Ask your helper to extend their hand out, then you can tell your dog to “Say Hi” or “Greet” cueing them to target the friendly stranger's hand. If you need to start by using your target cue first, like “touch,” that is perfectly fine to help your dog get the idea.

Then as your dog targets the stranger’s hand, mark (verbal “yes!” or using a clicker) and reward your dog while taking a step or two back. This is encouraging the dog to return back to you after targeting the stranger’s hand in order to keep the excitement under control. Practice this with a variety of friends and helpers before introducing the behavior to a complete stranger. 

Then when you are at the brewery and the next time someone asks if they can pet your dog, you can say “Yes, but please hold out your hand and I will have my dog greet you.” I guarantee the stranger will be so impressed with your dog's friendly greeting!

Want to learn more options for teaching polite greetings? Check out the whole YouTube playlist dedicated to this topic here.

See you next week for our next blog in this series of essential brewery manners skills!

Essential Brewery Manners Skills for Dogs - Settle on a Mat

Settling on a mat is an essential part of your dog’s relaxation protocol in or outside the house! When attending a brewery or patio, it is so helpful to have a mat your dog knows as a cue to get ready to settle and relax. Their mat is telling them - hey we might be here a while - and that they will get rewarded for being placed calmly on their mat. 

Once they have the basics down for settling on a mat, you can add distractions. This is important as there will be many things happening around you and your dog when out and about, and you want your dog to be prepared to observe them while still being able to stay on their mat. First, practice drinking out of a glass. We want to generalize this human action so that our dog doesn’t think this is a cue to get up. 

Then, recruit a friend and practice having conversations while your dog remains settled. Don’t forget to reward your dog intermittently so they know they are doing a good job! If they pop up out of their settle behavior, you may have pushed the time between rewards too far. Go back to rewarding every 3-5 seconds and work your way up from there.

See you next week for the next skill in our Brewery Manners series!

How to Prepare Your Dog (At Home) For Returning to the Brewery!

You don’t have to wait until the breweries reopen to prepare your dog to be the best brewery buddy! The time to practice your skills is now at home before dropping your dog in the deep end at the brewery and expecting them to swim. Join us for our weekly mini-series on what skills you and your dog should practice before attending a large event, like a busy brewery tap-room. 

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to be discussing several ways you can start your practice NOW, at home, so that you can jump back into brewery hangouts and events with a confident four-legged brewery buddy at your side!

• Start Small & Practice at Home! (See Below!)

• Review Essential Skills for success (Next up in our blog series!):

  • Settle on a Mat

  • Calm & Polite Greetings

  • Polite Ordering Routine

  • Walking Past Distractions

Start Small & Practice In Easier Environments, Like Your Home!

In order to ensure our dogs are ready to attend a larger event or fully crowded tap room, we must first start small! Your dog should have foundational skills like settle on a mat, polite leash walking, and friendly greetings to strangers, but before we take these skills to the big leagues we need to build up to more distractions. 

Try taking your dog to a local cafe at an awkward time, maybe in the mid-morning and practice all your skills to make sure your dog feels confident and comfortable. (If you aren’t able to visit any cafes or public areas right now due to the pandemic, another option is to ask a neighbor if you can use their back patio when they are at work!) When your dog has mastered that level, being able to settle & focus on you in a new place, you can increase the difficulty by changing to a time like the lunch hour where there will be more distractions and noises. If your dog has a hard time performing their asked behaviors, then you’ve advanced too quickly and need to go back to an easier level. 

Once they are again confidently able to do their skills during the lunch hour, then they might be ready to take on the big leagues of a busy evening at the brewery! Make sure you have practiced at this more advanced level before taking your dog to a large event where you know there might be an abundance of other dogs and people. 

In order to keep events, breweries, and patios dog-friendly, it is our responsibility as dog owners to make sure we have appropriate expectations for our dogs and set them up for success. Practice makes perfect! So, start small and work your way up that big event you have coming up!

We’ll see you next week for the next installment in this blog series where we’ll talk more about the specific skills needed for brewery success!  In the meantime, pull out your dog’s training gear and dust off some of those rusty skills at home!

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Listen to Staff Requests

If a brewery staff member asks you to do something different with your dog while visiting their brewery - "oh yes, of course!" is the appropriate response.

The more we can minimize our dogs' impact on the normal operations of the brewery, the better we can keep them welcome in that space!

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Call Ahead

If you aren't sure whether a brewery is dog-friendly - there's one way to know for sure. Call ahead!

It is much better to get some intel beforehand rather than turn up with your four-legged drinking buddy and be turned away. Many of the online answers to the question of dog policy are incorrect. In many cases, the information online comes from outside sources. Also, rules change, management can change, and it’s best to get news straight from the horses’s mouth when your dog is involved.

If you plan any special additions to your brewery visit like a tour, ask specifically about the dog policy on those excursions.

Most breweries will not be able to accommodate dogs on their tours, so it's always a good idea to double check first before assuming your dog will be able to join you.

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Dogs in Cars

What should you do if you show up at a brewery that turns out not to be dog friendly?

At almost every brewery staff workshop we've done, one of the staff has asked what to do if someone says "Oh, I'll just put the dog in the car" when told that the dog couldn't accompany them on the brewery tour.

While hanging out in the car can be fine for dogs who are used to this and in weather conditions within a certain temperature range, leaving your dog in your car is not something to take lightly.

Even if it is comfortable temperature outside of the car, temperatures can increase rapidly in a closed car, causing your dog to overheat. Test it out: sit in your parked car with no AC, windows mostly rolled up, and the sun beating down. How long can you stand it?

Your brewery staff are worried about your dogs, and no one wants to be the reason your dog is in physical distress or danger from overheating. Call ahead, and if the brewery or brewery tour is not dog friendly, leave your pup behind for that adventure.

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Leash in Hand

Ok, brewery dog owners out there . . . we talk to a lot of brewery staff members through our brewery staff training, and one of the things that consistently comes up as an issue with dogs in the brewery is loose compliance with on-leash rules.

So, let's remember: breweries are areas designed for human enjoyments. It is so much fun that our dogs are welcomed too in many cases, but the main purpose of the brewery is a human entertainment center.

Whatever your feelings are about leash-laws in general, we have to understand that the brewery is a high-traffic, privately-owned area. Off-leash dogs (or dogs who were attached to a chair and are now dragging that through the taproom) impact the efficient operations of the brewery and the enjoyment of their patrons.

If we want to keep our dogs welcome in brewery spaces, let's do everything we can to follow both the letter and the spirit of the on-leash rules!

This is a staged photo demonstrating what NOT to do!

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Know your Dog

Not every dog is a good candidate for brewery hangouts. How do you know whether your dog might be good candidate or not?

There are a lot of different factors that go into determining this, but a good way to get started is to ask yourself these three questions:

1. How does your dog feel about other people and other dogs?

If your dog is nervous, overexcited, or anxious about people or other dogs, they might not enjoy the brewery environment as much as you'd hope.

2. How does your dog feel about loud noises and crowds?

Breweries are loud, crowded, and have a lot of weird sounds outside of your control. If this isn't something your dog is comfortable with, they probably aren't going to enjoy hanging out with you at a brewery.

3. Would your dog enjoy hanging out at the brewery?

In general, do you think your dog would have a good time or hate it? That will help inform your decision on whether to bring him along or not!

Just because your dog isn't open to a brewery hangout currently doesn't mean that he couldn't learn skills that would change his preference, making him a successful candidate for that environment in the future!

If that’s the case, your first brewery visits with him should be on quiet days at less crowded venues. Think: no live music, no corn hole tournaments, no major game days! Evaluating these things at each stage in your dog's life is an important piece of helping him enjoy your outings as much as you do.

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Eye Contact

Let's talk about eye contact!

This is something that we as humans naturally do - staring at someone is a sign of interest and often respect and attentiveness. So, when we meet a new dog friend, we often default to this method of human non-verbal communication.

This is not great communication in dog language, though. Staring is not "polite" dog communication in most cases - when you see two dogs staring at each other, this is not a calm, polite interaction. When communicating with each other, dogs choose more side-by-side communication methods.

When you are approaching a dog you don't know, it's best to adopt this preferred dog communication strategy. Instead of staring, think about turning your body and eyes to the side as the dog approaches. Allow the dog to direct the level of interaction they are comfortable with. Avoid hard staring until the dog has made friends with you.

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Stress Behaviors

Understanding what stress might look like in your dog is very important to make sure your brewery visit together is fun for both of you!

What are your dog's indicators that he or she might be a little stressed?

Some common dog body language examples to watch out for are:

- Excessive sniffing
- Avoidance through head turning
- Panting unrelated to temperature or exertion
- Repetitive lip-licking
- Not listening" to easy cues

Every dog is different, and coming to understand the stress signals specific to your dog is your responsibility. Use your knowledge to determine if the brewery is fun for your dog or if it’s overwhelming and unpleasant!

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Puppies

How old should your puppy be before you take him to his first brewery hangout?

We recommend waiting until your puppy is at least 16 weeks old before he comes along to the brewery. At this age, he is usually fully vaccinated against infectious diseases like Parvo and Distemper.

Bringing your puppy to an environment with a lot of dogs (many of uncertain vaccination history) prior to this time increases the risk that your puppy may be exposed to one of these diseases - or expose other dogs if your puppy has something that hasn’t showed symptoms yet.

Additionally, the brewery environment can be overwhelming and potentially scary for puppies just learning how the world works. Jumping in with a first brewery visit on a busy weekend is not the best socialization plan.

We recommend avoiding taking your puppy to the brewery until they are fully vaccinated. In the mean time, plan small trips to public places with less concentrated dog exposure. Keep outings fun, short, and sweet, gradually working up to busier places.

When your puppy is fully vaccinated and feeling confident, that's a great time to start adding the brewery environment to their socialization routine!

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Pat Pet Pause!

We're all about asking the dog for his permission! We like to do this through a little game called Pat Pet Pause!

PAT - pat your legs gently to encourage the dog to come over to you. If he doesn't approach you, this probably isn't a good time for a greeting.

PET - If he does approach you, now is the time to pet gently for 3-5 seconds. Pet the areas that the dog offers you, like their back, butt, or chest. Avoid petting on his head unless he specifically requests it.

PAUSE - At the end of your 3-5 seconds, stop petting and withdrawal your hand. Watch the dog's response. Does he walk away? Does he come back for more? This will help you know whether he wants to keep greeting!

Following this routine gives the dogs we interact with a choice - and an easy way to say "no thanks, I'm done now"!

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Always Ask!

ALWAYS, ALWAYS ask before greeting a dog you meet at the brewery, or anywhere in public! Teach your kids to do the same! And, teach your dogs to wait patiently by your side while you say hello to others.

Not all dogs are at the brewery to socialize. Some of them might be working service dogs. Some of the dogs might be practicing their distraction manners, meaning that their owners might not want them to say hello to every person walking by. Some of them might be the friendliest dogs off leash but get frustrated by on-leash greetings.

It's always a good idea to check BEFORE you start the interaction with the dog so that everyone can be safe and successful!

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Trick for Treat!

One of the hardest parts of public manners for our friendly dogs is calm while meeting new human friends. We usually try to teach our dogs from an early age that human friends are SO. Much. FUN.

Sometimes we do our work too well! Our dogs love to say hello so much that it is hard for them to maintain their composure, or even respond to cues like "Sit" and "Stay" as a friendly stranger is approaching.

Here's an alternate idea: instead of focusing on having your dog sit and stay before he can say hello, instead ask him to do his favorite trick (or two, or three). Reward with treats from your pocket or praise from you (not from the friendly stranger). These trick behaviors are often the behaviors we reward the most with our dogs, both with treats and with our enthusiasm. That means that when you ask for "Shake!," your dog has a long history of that behavior being really exciting and worth doing! Contrast this with boring "Stay," which isn't nearly as much fun.

Your dog will likely find it a lot easier to do his trick skills when he's excited - and it will be a big crowd pleaser too! This is a great way to change your dog's greeting routine from "Friendly stranger approaches and I jump on them and they love on me and it's the best thing ever!" to "Friendly stranger approaches and I show off all my tricks and my human is happy because I'm not jumping on the stranger!"

Brewery Dog Pro Tip: Walk it Out!

If you want to be able to hang out for a while at the brewery with your dog, give him frequent breaks . . . BEFORE he really needs them.

When he's been laying under the table for a while, that's a great time to reward him with a chance to walk around outside for a minute. We want him to know that laying under the table = we'll go outside eventually!

Catch and reward his good brewery skills before he starts the behaviors that would normally communicate that he needs a break (such as barking, whining, pacing, etc.). You can then expand the time between each break. This will help your dog's brewery hangouts last longer and be more fun for both of you!