Did Somebody Say Birthday?

You cannot sing "Happy Birthday" in my house if you don't have a treat to offer the the dogs. After years of spoiling the pups with a special meal and toy on their birthdays, the song is synonymous with "reward time!"

I remember the first time we sang "Happy Birthday" for my dad after we'd had Klaus for about a year, not realizing the dogs had such a strong association formed about the song. By the time we got the first bar sung the dogs began to frantically run around looking for the treat they just knew was sure to come. Even though it was dad's special day and not the pups', I didn't want to lessen their response by ignoring their desperate search for a treat, so I scrambled to indulge them.

Admittedly I was spoiling them, but so often in our communication with dogs we teach them cues only to turn around and poison the meaning of the cues (Ex. - Teaching a dog to potty outside but then ignoring him while he sits at the back door in an attempt to alert you he needs to "go out". Over time he will quit trying to cue you that he needs to go out and instead find another place to relieve himself).

For my dogs, I want to maintain the purity of the birthday song as a cue for great things to come. It's rare to have a truly pure cue. When you have one, as in the case of the birthday song, the intensity of the dog's response is so strong. Of course the dogs were expecting a treat; they've never heard the song without a yummy reward to follow!

Birthdays are not an everyday occurrence, so in my house we choose to maintain the meaning of the birthday song for the dogs by making sure we have treats for all the dogs before we sing, regardless of whose birthday. Or, in a pinch, we send the pups outside before we break into song.