The Secret of Dog Training

Jul 162015
 

IMG_9337-Edit

I found myself watching a novice obedience class a few nights ago, and I wanted to cry. Don’t get me wrong, nothing awful was happening, no physical abuse, no harsh corrections, but so little joy… Watching most people plod along with their dogs connected to them by a leash but nothing else is like some macabre satire of what dog training ought to be.

If you watch 20 people train their dogs, you will immediately observe that there are two distinct groups who are essentially doing two completely different things: those who are going through the motions but their dogs are disconnected, flat, out of control. And those whose dogs are beautifully, magically, joyfully playing the game. Within each group you will see a variety of techniques and skill levels, the difference between them is something more fundamental…

Here is the secret that separates the two groups:

You cannot effectively teach your dog anything until you get him engaged and connected. Attentive, happy, excited, eager to learn, enthused. You need to make learning enjoyable. You must figure out what makes your dog excited and build an expectation that playing/training together is super fun. One of your very first responsibilities as an owner and trainer is to figure out how to induce joy for your pet, what combination of treats and toys and tone and luring and whacking and squealing and petting really lights them up; and if you cannot figure out a path to joy, you need to build one. You need a great attitude yourself. You need to make sessions short and fast. You need to tug and fetch and race and wrestle and play. You need to be willing to get on the floor, to run, to praise and cheer like a loon. You need to play with your dog many times each day at home and everywhere so that you have built this into your relationship. You need to teach your dog that looking at you is great, on its own, and that it is the key that will unlock the best and most rewarding game of all. Only when you have built this reward base and tapped into attention and attitude can you really start worrying much about specific behaviors, and you will find they are so much easier to train when you and your dog have this core connection.

If you are dragging your dog around, pushing and pulling him into various positions, giving him commands that he ignores, you are not merely wasting your time, you are actually hurting your relationship. You are making your dog like you less. You are convincing your dog that you are a boring bully. You are inculcating resistance, lethargy, disinterest. Better to NOT train your dog than to keep slogging through these miserable sessions. Stop training immediately, and from now on any time you feel yourself starting to do this, stop! Go do something else. Come back when you are ready to be present, joyous, enthused, connected.

If you can get five beautiful seconds of your dog looking at you, ears perked and eyes bright, listening, eagerly trying to play the game with you, then you are genuinely training your dog. Tomorrow it will be ten seconds, then twenty… Now you have a partner, you can start dancing, start working on super-fast sits followed by a game. A step or two of perfect heeling, an eager down. Happy, happy chase recalls. Now you are working for several perfect minutes, increasing distance, duration, distraction, but never for a moment sacrificing attitude and relationship… Do this for a few months, and you will be amazed! You will have a dog that loves training with you, that has a fabulous attitude, and that can do all those behaviors you originally wanted.

Share
 July 16, 2015  Posted by at 7:14 pm Tagged with: , , , , ,

Why I Train My Dogs

Jul 072015
 

RallyJustice317I was conversing with a friend recently who does not train her dogs beyond the minimum required. She does not want to diminish their individuality, to be their master, to break their spirits, to turn them into automatons. She does not even really want them to be obedient—she wants them to do what they want, not her bidding.

As we talked, it became clear to me that her idea of training is something very different from mine. She perceives it as diminishing—removing unwanted parts of a dog, while I perceive it as enriching—nurturing and developing additional facets of a dog.

Dog training is a broad catch-all term encompassing a huge range of techniques used to modify the intensity and frequency with which a dog offers certain behaviors. The goals, objectives, and methods are nearly infinite. Of course, in the strictest sense of the word dogs are always learning, so you are always training them whether you mean to or not, you only get to decide what they are learning. But for the purposes of this post, I am talking about structured intentional training, and I want to share why I train my dogs:

Let me start with a few ancillary benefits that I believe accrue from dog training but are not the core reasons I train:

  • Fun: virtually every animal I train values training sessions above almost all other activities. Better than food, better than walking, better than swimming—when I pick up the tools and take an August09005animal to go train they are giddy, ecstatic. They bounce and glow and vibrate. It is pure joy.
  • Proscription: teaching a dog what not to do makes them more pleasant to live with. Do not pee on the floor, pull on the leash, bark, take food off the counter, chew on the electric cords, etc.
  • Increased range of opportunities: the world is full of fun places that welcome well-behaved dogs. Friends’ homes, restaurants, busses, concerts; if you have taught your dog to have good manners you can take them on many adventures.
  • Skills: Sit, down, stay, wait, fetch, leave-it, all very useful for a dog to know.
  • Safety: a dog that comes when called, that does not take things off the counter, that holds a stay, and that can relax in a crate; is safer than a dog that cannot.
  • Trust and leadership: your dog learns to look to you when unsure, to rely on your guidance, to come to you for assistance.
  • Vocabulary: language and communication make it much easier to live with an animal. flintwithlamba7
  • Activities: training opens up doors to fun shared activities: agility, dock diving, tracking, carting, obedience, if you train, you and your dog can have so much fun doing so many things. You can do these things recreationally or competitively.
  • Tricks: many dogs really enjoy showing off, gathering a crowd, making people smile and laugh.
  • Fun: okay, I have fun too! I love the challenges, trying to figure out how to induce some new behavior, watching them think, reinforcing in just the right way at just the right moment. I usually end training sessions tired and glowing and happy and fulfilled.

While many of those are valuable, in truth I train my dogs—lots—for two fundamental reasons:

Untitled-23-Edit

  1. To maximize their development through education. For the same reasons I would send my child to school: I want to help them actualize their potential. The act of learning, regardless of what one is learning, increases neural development and plasticity. It increases the ability to solve problems, to be thoughtful, to mindfully assess challenges and solve them. Learning begets learning. Learning literally changes and grows their brains. Each day children wonder why they need to learn algebra, what real-world application is there for solving a quadratic equation. And while there are real world applications, the ultimate answer is that what we really want from their education is something different: we want them to become free, thoughtful, kind, effective, confident, happy, engaged, etc.
    By choosing what we work on, and how, I can develop drives, increase confidence, improve problem solving skills, alter energy levels, change reactions to various stimuli, decrease contentiousness. I can help them become the best possible version of themselves, the most content, confident, happy, relaxed, enthusiastic, intelligent, well-rounded individuals they can be.
  2. To build connection, relationship, intimacy. I want the best partnership possible. I am not sure I can explain this to someone who has not experienced it, but somewhere after a few hundred hours of shared training time, a partnership develops that simply does not come without those hours. Trust, communication, anticipation—the dance becomes delicate, fluid, nuanced. Your dog knows when to look to you for leadership, knows your subtlest cues, knows how to succeed. You trust your dog, and know how to help him. You can read his every raised eyebrow or IMG_2492tightened muscle. You are a team.

Many people have lovely dogs with little training. And many people have rich and fulfilling relationships with their dogs without ever having taught them a single formal behavior. I simply know that in my experience, good training can make great dogs even better and wonderful relationships even deeper.

Share
 July 7, 2015  Posted by at 5:48 pm Tagged with: , , , ,

Tone of Voice

Jan 302014
 

RallyJustice318

Some dog trainers, particularly those with less or a more narrow range of experience, believe that issuing commands in a staccato, clear, authoritative voice is optimal. I am always a little amused when I am near these trainers and I myself can hardly avoid sitting when they demand it!  There certainly are times when clarity and authority are the most important criteria, but in many instances there are other options worth considering.

It is important to recognize that a dog becomes habituated to respond to a certain level of command intensity, and will often not respond to less intensity.  So if you normally give commands at a 70% volume and intensity level, your dog will likely learn to ignore commands given at a lower level.  There are several “drawbacks” to this:

  • If you need to increase your intensity for whatever reason, you will not have much room.  You are already near the maximum.
  • By giving commands at a loud volume, you eliminate the need for your dog to listen.  They do not particularly need to keep an eye or an ear on you because they know that you will make sure they hear you.  This put the onus on you, instead of on them.  Think of it like talking to another person—if you are quiet, they will generally lean forward and listen more intently.
  • Most of us want our dogs to become lighter—more responsive to less and less forcefulness.  But a dog will only become as light as your first command.  But you need to give them the opportunity to succeed at the lower volume and intensity or they will never learn it.
  • Variation is important—whatever tone you tend to use, if it has little variation, it becomes, well, monotonous, and therefore less effective.
  • Tone of voice has a cascading impact upon tone in general.  Personally, I like the tone created by giving primarily quiet and enthusiastic cues.  It becomes almost a game in which my dog learns to stay attuned to me at all times, even while playing or doing other things, because he is hoping I will make a subtle sound or movement that will invite him to play the great game. It becomes almost like mind-reading as he learns to watch and listen and see tiny predictive markers and almost always he beats me to the punch and is sitting in front of me offering some behavior before I have even finished formulating my intention.  That to me is far more wondrous than if I bellowed out a command like some Germanic drill sergeant.

In addition to volume and forcefulness, I would suggest people give a little thought to how they pronounce each word they commonly use to communicate with their dogs.  It is amazing how much information can be conveyed by a tiny lilt, by drawing a word out, by truncating a word.

Drawing out their name into the next command, so their name lingers and hangs in the air with them listening carefully for the word that is coming next: “Seeeeequuueeeelllllll…..sit.”

Saying “down” quickly, almost daring them to try to complete the task before I can get the word finished.

“Heel” with an upbeat sing-song quality that sets a mood and rhythm for the behavior.

“Ready” with an inviting tone.

One very useful technique is to videotape yourself training and playing with your dog, and then watch it and evaluate the tone your voice and body-language are setting… Does it sound, look, and feel inviting? How is the dog reacting to commands, not just in terms of performing them, but ears, eyes, tail, does each command make the dog more happy and attentive, or less? There is no single “right” tone, but observe yours and its effect, and make sure it is the best choice for your animals and your goals.

Share
 January 30, 2014  Posted by at 11:11 pm

What Do I think about the Dog Whisperer?

Jan 062012
 

­I am asked about Cesar Millan fairly regularly, generally by novice dog owners who are curious as to whether I recommend his show and techniques. This is a reasonable question since Cesar Millan is perhaps the most recognizable and influential dog trainer ever: millions of people watch his show and listen to his advice on how to address behavioral issues with their dogs.  Yet many of the most respected experts in the field consider his techniques to be harmful to dogs, ineffective, and destructive to relationships.

So, what is the truth?  There is no single right answer about how to train animals. We all have opinions, and most of us are certain we know the best way and everyone else is wrong! Most trainers are very good in some areas and less good in other areas. And we all have different goals–one trainer may be much better at helping you achieve a particular objective while another trainer may be much better at something else.

I do not know Millan, and can only comment on what I have observed on television. People are entitled to like Millan’s methods–many people do! And it would be hard to fault his business and marketing savvy… I am not judging anyone’s opinion, merely sharing mine:

I think Cesar Millan is a first-rate bully and a fifth rate trainer. While he does some things well, and offers some excellent advice, in aggregate I do not like what he does to most of the animals with which I have seen him work. He is uninformed, unimaginative, cruel, and absurdly coercive.  The fact that his bullying sometimes works at least temporarily does not make it less offensive.  In my opinion he has hurt far, far more dogs and relationships than he has helped, and of the ones that he has helped, I suspect the recidivism rate is extremely high. He has set dog training back decades. He is dangerously irresponsible. (For example, one person taking 30 dogs off leash to a dogpark ought to be a felony in my opinion)

Let me start with what I like about Millan’s message: exercise, calmness, and leadership.  I absolutely agree that a huge portion of the behavioral issues people see in their dogs can be ameliorated through increased exercise and mental stimulation.  Canids evolved to spend a large portion of their lives active and challenged, and sticking them in a room all day with rich foods and little exercise leads to many problems.  I also agree that canids thrive in an environment with clear boundaries and a calm and strong leader.  This allows them to be relaxed and confident and know how to behave. I also recognize that many average pet homes want a dog that is as “shut-down” as possible: they do not want a happy, curious, and confident pet, they want a pet that just lies quietly in the corner, and Cesar’s techniques are in many instances an effective path to that end.

Now to the negatives about Millan’s techniques:

  1. Impatient: Millan often takes little time to get to know the dog, or to teach it what is desired, or to build a relationship, he simply grabs the dog, puts it into the situation where it is known to have problems, and then corrects it for failure. In most cases, good training is just the opposite of this. You find situations in which the dog can succeed, and then you gradually increase the difficulty of the situation while rewarding the dog for success at each step. Good training is often almost invisible.
  2. Correction first: Millan often hits, chokes, kicks, drags, and electrocutes dogs that do not yet know what is being asked of them as part of a systematic routine of intimidation. There are several steps that should occur before correction: it is very rarely effective to correct or punish a dog that does not yet understand what you are asking.  In many instances Millan could work the dog a little further away from a particular stimulus and teach the dog how to succeed and then get closer, but instead he rushes up, lets the dog fail, and then corrects the heck out of it. This may create good TV drama, but it is patently not in the dog’s best interests.
  3. Micromanaging: Millan often keeps the dogs on such a short leash (literally and figuratively) that they do not learn accountability.  They do not learn to make the right choices and respect the rules, they simply learn to give up and shut down. They learn to do and try nothing because they will get attacked if they move.  Good training allows dogs to feel empowered and instructed; to clearly understand what behaviors are not allowed, and be responsible for making the right choices.
  4. Confrontation: Millan routinely creates confrontation where it does not naturally exist.  This was a popular notion in the 50s—you cannot really train a dog until you have shown it that you are the boss by kicking its butt, so you should make this happen—set up the dog to fail without any training, just so that you can induce a confrontation that you can then win and make sure the dog knows you are stronger, bigger, and tougher. Good trainers absolutely may do this with some animals, but it is fairly rare, and Millan seems to want to go there with almost every dog.
  5. Unimaginative: Millan sometimes uses different tools, but his basic range of techniques is very narrow.  So when he happens to get a dog that needs those techniques he will be very effective, when he happens to get a dog that needs something different he will be very destructive. I would have the same problem if he were purely positive and gave treats for everything—one technique does not work across the board. Good trainers are fabulous problem solvers. They come up with brilliant ways to induce behaviors, change attitudes, and mold responses. They have a remarkable range of techniques that they use to work with different dogs. They can be very positive when needed, very harsh when needed, supportive, quiet, loud, calm, exuberant, etc.
  6. Cruel: Millan chokes dogs till they pass out and he electrocutes them repeatedly until they are biting and terrified. The American Humane Association who monitors animal use on set has requested that Nat. Geo not air some Dog Whisperer episodes because the treatment of the animals is so inhumane. Good training is never cruel.
  7. Archaic / Uneducated:  Millan’s training is essentially exactly what one would have seen in 1950.  But then, what educational background does Millan have?  How many of the relevant books has he read?  Has he made any real effort to learn what others know so that he can improve? Or is he just reinventing unrefined and simplistic dog training? We have learned so much in the last 50 years that it is hard to imagine someone who would not integrate some of that learning into their training. Good trainers avail themselves of available knowledge and science and continually improve. Even the best trainers in the world often attend each others seminars, but I have never seen Cesar…
  8. Isolation:  I am not a huge fan of competition with animals, but occasionally it can be useful to objectively assess how your techniques are working.  Entering an obedience trial, or agility or Schutzhund or whatever, lets you gauge your performance against your peers.  Cesar not only does not compete, he has never, so far as I know, tried any canine competition so he could see where he stands.
  9. Indifference to canine attitude: Millan sacrifices attitude for quick superficial results, and I believe that is very counterproductive. Watch any of the dogs he works, and you will rarely see truly happy dogs, confident dogs, secure, trusting dogs. Good trainers focus on attitude and character—training rules and specific behaviors is essentially trivial. Once you have taught a dog how to learn, how to take cues, how to relax, it is easy to teach specific behaviors.

Adding all of this together, I find Millan’s relationship with the dogs unappealing—I do not see trust, respect, confidence, and adoration, I see subservience, temerity, and learned helplessness.

Millan fans sometimes suggest that those who dislike Millan must be softies who reject notions of control and discipline.  It is absolutely true that some people who dislike Millan do so because they dislike any sort of correction.  However, there are also many, many excellent trainers who do believe in appropriate corrections but who revile Millan’s techniques. Virtually all good trainers impose rules, boundaries, and limits.  Some excellent trainers even use strong corrections when they are appropriate. Go to any canine competition (obedience, French Ring, agility, herding, etc.) and ask around, you will generally find the top people with the best trained and most obedient dogs dislike Millan’s methods, while hordes of novices with unruly dogs are devotees.  Some of the most accomplished trainers in the world dislike his methods, and I assure you their dogs are not disobedient or disrespectful.

I do not understand why many people equate control with intimidation.  Abusive parents who beat or terrorize their children may achieve “control.” So do reasonable parents who set and explain clear boundaries, teach and reward desired behaviors, earn respect and trust, and effectively utilize punishment when necessary.  These good parents or dog trainers absolutely may use intimidation when it is the best option, but it is not the foundation of their relationship—it is not where they start or how they interact most of the time. (I vividly remember the few times my father seriously intimidated me, and they were hugely effective in large part because they were not frequent!)

Perhaps the best place to observe the dichotomy between dominance based training and cooperation based training is in training any wild animal.  Work with a tiger, a grizzly bear, a pack of wolves, an orca, or even a raccoon or squirrel, and you quickly discover that these schools of thought are NOT the same.  Dominance based trainers exert a clear and absolute dominance every moment of interacting—it is imperative that the animal understands that humans have absolute power and should never be challenged.  Non-dominance trainers exert a clear and absolute cooperation every moment—it is imperative that the animal understands that humans are their friends and are not going to challenge them or hurt them. While a single trainer may utilize both attitudes at different times, if you switch back and forth with these animals, you have a VERY short career—suddenly showing weakness to a wild animal that has been dominated, or suddenly showing dominance to a wild animal used to cooperation generally elicits extremely undesirable results… Each attitude can be powerfully effective, but they are essentially different in far more than language. (I think it is important to concede that even many of the most cooperative trainers do have a line that cannot be crossed.  A point at which dominance training does come into play.  A point at which they say, “You have no choice here, you must do what I say.”  The critical distinction is that they strive to help the animal avoid crossing that line, rather than regularly luring the animal across that line so that they can have an “opportunity” to dominate and intimidate some more…)

If your primary method of control is intimidation, the animals you train learn that intimidation and power are tools to get what you want.  Sooner or later these animals may well decide to try to get what they want using intimidation.  This is what happens eventually to most animal bullies in the wild, and is extremely dangerous.  So I elect to use cooperation and leadership so that they learn that I am a powerful and benevolent leader who will help them get what they want in the world.  I outsmart them by making sure that their success coincides with my desires until they reflexively and habitually do what I ask. I am smarter, but not stronger or faster, so it makes sense to use my intellectual advantage rather than bluffing about a physical advantage.

There is a genuine distinction between a leader who is revered and idolized and a leader who is feared, and I personally believe that being revered leads to better working, more reliable, happier, healthier dogs, but I rarely see this occur on Millan’s show.  I see bullying and intimidation instead of leading and teaching.

It makes me profoundly sad to think that such a bully is out there working with dogs every day, but far worse is that so many people do not see his techniques for what they are.  That millions of people still see intimidation and cruelty as viable leadership techniques makes me sad indeed.

Share
 January 6, 2012  Posted by at 9:15 am

Helping Your Dog Learn to Love to Swim

Feb 262011
 

I am a passionate advocate of swimming your dog.  It is one of the very best all around exercise activities, it is a great way to cool them down on hot days, reduce parasites, keep your dogs clean, and generally have a great time.

The vast majority of dogs will learn to love swimming.  Some will take longer than others, and a few might never come to love it, but for most it will become a favorite activity and is well worth the time spent introducing.

First of all, there are a few things to avoid:

  1. Do not take your dog to the water—the first few times—unless you are ready to get wet.  I am amazed how many people I see on the beach trying to get their dogs to swim while the owners are wearing shoes and are running away from each wave.  You dog looks to you for leadership, and if you act like water is something to be avoided, they will too!  So make sure that, before you get anywhere near the water, you have removed your shoes, rolled up your pants, put on a swimsuit, or whatever else you need to do so that they will see you happily and enthusiastically entering the water.
  2. Do not force your dog—do not pull, push, drag, shove, or trick your dog into the water.
  3. Try to avoid the accidental entry.  Do not start out on a slippery dock, or a steep edge, or in a location where the surface of the water appears solid and your dog will try to run onto it and sink…

A few times before you head out to swim, take your dog to shallow water to splash around.  Warm, fun, shallow, where you can both run and play fetch and generally have a great time in the water.

Next, create an optimal situation for swimming:

  1. Pick a warm day. I know you may be excited, but rushing and trying to get them to enjoy going into the water when they are cold and uncomfortable will backfire.
  2. Select a great location:
    • Select water with no current or waves.
    • Pick reasonably warm water.
    • Look for a place with a gradual slope into the water so that they never have to step off a precipice—they just walk forward and find themselves swimming.
  3. Easy egress: a dog that feels trapped in a pool or other body of water is prone to panic and not want to get back in the water.
  4. In a perfect world, you find a pond that is narrow, so they do not have to turn around to exit, and can just swim a few feet across.  But these are hard to find, so if they have to turn it is not the end of the world.
  5. Take along a water loving dog, or a couple of water loving dogs. Seeing other dogs run and jump into the water can help your dog see that it is fun and not frightening.
  6. Have treats, floating kibble, and a few favorite toys in your pockets.

When you first arrive, head down to the water, enter right away, and start playing in the shallows.  Go out a few feet past where your dog can still stand, and lure him with whatever he finds most enticing.  Ideally you want him to swim just a stroke or two, get rewarded, and then swim back to solid ground so he know he can. Do this a few times, and then start gradually increasing the distance.  And really, that is it—once they are swimming comfortably you just start gradually increasing the distance and you are off to the races.  You may want to carefully introduce them to current and waves and dock diving, but essentially once they can swim these are all easy if you make them fun and go slowly.

Some dogs swim too vertically—instead of kicking with their rear legs and moving forward, they try to swim up and out of the water and their front feet come out of the water and splash and they get nowhere.  The key to helping these dogs is to motivate them forward—throw a ball or a treat so that they are focused on that and are pushing to get to the reward, and they will accidentally start moving forward, and will teach themselves that forward motion works better than vertical…  If necessary, you can support their rear slightly and help them to move forward.

It is possible that with some dogs, even after doing everything above, they will just not take that last step.  If this is the case, depending on your dog’s attitude, it may be time to force the issue:

  1. Find a creek crossing where your dog will have no choice but to swim or be left behind, and wade across.
  2. If your dog is of a size that he can be lifted, carry him out past the point where he would have to swim, face him towards shore, and gently set him in the water, still supporting him somewhat, and let him swim to shore.  Repeat this a few times.  Try to praise when he is swimming, not when he gets to shore.
  3. Find a pond where you can swim out and make them feel like you are leaving and call them to come to you.

I have had many dogs that needed no help—they just ran in and started swimming.  Some have taken a few trips, while a few have taken up to a year to really start loving water.  I have only had one dog over the years that never really came to like swimming.  He liked splashing and wading, but not swimming.  But in fairness, I do want to point out that the point of this is for your dog to have fun, so if your dog does not enjoy swimming, move on to another activity.  But most dogs, if you are a little patient and enthusiastic, will come to love swimming…

 

Share
 February 26, 2011  Posted by at 11:58 pm

Resource Guarding

Feb 162011
 

Your puppy is a delightful charmer most of the time, but when he has a favorite treat, a stolen sock, or gets near the food bowl or refrigerator, he turns into an evil beast …  What to do?

I write about this issue with some trepidation because in many cases it is not something that should be tackled without experienced assistance.  This is not because it is particularly difficult to resolve—in most cases it can be completely eliminated in a few weeks of relatively simple work.  Rather, it is because there is something of an art involved in determining when to implement which techniques, and applying the wrong technique in a particular case can easily exacerbate the problem or create new problems.  There are moments when confrontation will be effective, and moments when it will completely backfire, and unless you have been through it a few times they are very hard to tell apart… Additionally, resource guarding is not something to ignore or address ineffectively for very long—it is a behavior that tends to become ingrained with rehearsal and can be very challenging to eliminate once it is habitual.  So, I am going to enumerate a few techniques that are useful, but if you do not see immediate improvement, I would strongly encourage you to find an authentic expert to help…

The first thing you need to genuinely understand is that resource guarding does not mean you have a bad dog.  It is not a bad behavior, nor a sign that your dog does not love you.  This is simply an animal behaving in one of the most natural ways possible.  Virtually every animal has evolved to guard valuable resources.  Particularly wolves, who live in packs, have for millennia needed to protect what is theirs.  Those that did not do this died millions of years ago, so growling, snarling, snapping and otherwise telling your packmates that you are not going to share is very much hardwired into every canid. You also need to remember that after a snarl comes a bite, so be careful–your dog is behaving in a reasonable way, but you certainly can be injured, so do not push beyond where you feel comfortable.

Here are things to work on to resolve general resource guarding (note: if the resource your puppy guards is you or your lap, that is somewhat different, this list applies to dogs that are guarding food or toys):

  1. Give: you need to teach your dog to drop what is in his mouth.  This is not a negative—just another behavior.  He gives, you reward him with a treat.  Then you can have him get the object again, and then give.  He is learning to give on command and also that giving does not equate to loss.  Start doing this with low-value items and work up until he can give just about anything on command and get a treat…
  2. Leave it / Take it: you must be able to sit on the floor with your dog and toss treats, sometimes saying take it other times saying leave it, and having him absolutely listen.  If he cannot do this with low value treats in a controlled situation, you have little chance of success when he has something valuable and is 20 feet away…
  3. Stay and wait for treat: work on having your dog sit before you give him dinner.  Sit before you hand him a yummy treat, and hold the sit until you release him.  He needs to learn patience and delayed gratification, and that you control the resources.
  4. General deference: as a rule, dogs that are guarding resources tend to have an inflated sense of their standing in the pack.  They need to learn in other contexts that YOU are the one making the decisions.  A basic obedience class can go a long way to establishing the right relationship, as can a few training sessions per day on anything. In particular, they need to learn to hold a stay with distractions, to wait at the door, to get out of your way when you are walking, to accept restraint, to relax in the face of stimulus, and other subtle lessons that reinforce that they are not the decision-maker in this pack.
  5. There is no shortage of resources: I like to work on resource issues (at first) when my dog is not particularly hungry, and I like to give LOTS of treats and food and rewards during the training.  I want him to “feel” like his world is full of bounty and he does not really need to fight for resources because resources are virtually infinite.
  6. I will trade you something better:  I often call my dogs to me when they have a toy or something they like, and I give something awesome in exchange.  A piece of steak or something.  I do this all the time with things they have that are NOT critical, so they just become habituated to my calling them, taking what they have, and giving them something better.
  7. Management: while you are working on fixing this issue you need to make sure that your dog is not rehearsing the undesired behavior, this means whatever he is tending to guard you need to make sure he is NOT getting it and guarding it at random times.  Pick up socks, move the cat food, and in general make sure there are no opportunities for your dog to gain possession of high value items that are disallowed.
  8. Feeding by hand:  lots of hand-feeding, entire meals.  You want him to associate that the resources come from you.   That you are the key to his getting more.
  9. At dinner time, put his bowl on the ground, and reach down and drop a handful of food into the bowl.  Repeat until he has eaten his entire dinner, one handful at a time.
  10. Have him do a few behaviors while you are holding his dinner bowl, before you set it down.  End with him in a sit, and do not let him get up until you release him.
  11. Feeding from fork: feed really yummy treats from a fork.  This helps him learn to be less grabby and more thoughtful and restrained about taking treats.
  12. Hands in food bowl: spend lots of time with your hands around his food bowl.  Moving it, adding food, adding higher value treats, holding it, having it in your lap, etc.
  13. Feed him in different places.  Sometimes in privacy, other times in the middle of life.  Do not avoid him when he is eating, go about your business so he learns that people walking around are not a threat to him.
  14. Pet him when he is eating. Start gradually, you may be some distance away, but hang out at the distance where he starts to get tense, and gradually decrease this distance, never getting so close that he is uncomfortable, until you can sit next to him and pet him while he stays relaxed and eats.
  15. Incompatible fun behavior: practice doing something he loves that is also exciting and endorphin inducing as an alternative.  Call him away from a bone to come play tug or fetch.  In essence you are instilling the sense that the resource is less valuable than coming to play with you.
  16. Incompatible static deferential behavior: sometimes call him away from an exciting resource and put him into a down for five minutes and then let him return.  You are conditioning him to stop, listen, restrain himself, and relax in the middle of a rewarding resource experience.
  17. Growling at me does not work: in general if a dog growls at me, I make sure that the growl does not get him what he wanted.  If he wanted to push me away, I step forward, if he wanted to tell me not to take something, I take it…  However, you need to be very careful with this, because if the dog is growling from insecurity, you do not want to reinforce that insecurity by advancing, adding pressure, or taking something away.  You also need to be safe, so if the dog is going to bite, do not push the issue.  And, you need to be careful not to take away a dog’s best tool for warning you—there may be times in life when your dog needs to legitimately warn you or someone else, and you want him to know that growling is better than silent biting and that he will not simply be ignored if the issue is real and legitimate.
  18. Growling at me has negative consequences: with all the same cautions as above, there may come a moment when a particular dog growls and the right response is to correct him.  To tell him, “No, that crap will not be tolerated…”  If you think you are in this position, enlist the aid of an experienced and objective trainer who can confirm that your dog is being a jerk and needs to be corrected.  However, while I am a very positive trainer, I also want to make clear my view that this behavior cannot be tolerated, and there absolutely is a point at which I will not be nice.  Just as I understand that my dog is behaving reasonably according to pack mentality, he needs to understand that, according to the same rules, I am not a member of the pack to whom he gets to be nasty, no matter how much he wants something.  A dog that will growl or bite to protect “his” resources is likely to end up homeless, and will then likely fail most shelters’ evaluations and will be killed, so not fixing this behavior is not an option.

There are many additional techniques, but if you consistently and effectively work on these, all but the most dire resource guarders are likely to be fixed.  However, let me reiterate: resource guarding can almost always be fixed, and doing so is generally fairly simple, but you really need to be able to read your dog’s underlying emotional state and respond appropriately, so if you are not confident that you can do that, seek skilled help soon!

Share
 February 16, 2011  Posted by at 10:32 pm

Maximizing Puppy Potential

Jan 282011
 

I was discussing with a friend what I believe are the primary activities to maximize puppy development, and he asked me for a list, so…

In my opinion, your goal is NOT to have a perfect puppy; rather, it is to have a perfect dog.  The reason I stress this difference is that many people try to achieve adult goals quickly, and unintentionally overshoot the mark as their animal matures.  You need to think of your puppy as a sapling: not yet a tree, merely a potential tree.  It is your job to nurture, prune, bend, and otherwise create spaces and pressures so that as the puppy grows and develops it will become the best dog it can.  For example: let’s imagine that you have a puppy who is playing too enthusiastically, so you discourage play at every opportunity.  A year later, this dog begins to mature, and naturally reduces his playfulness by a significant percentage.  This natural reduction, coupled with your modification, yields a dog that has NO interest in playing.  Instead, you need to look at your puppy’s play drive, and his personality and breed, and make a best guess at where his play drive is likely to be in a few years, and then apply training techniques to increase or reduce that end-point rather than to modify the current behavior.

This article is not about socializing (which I discussed here).

This article is not about teaching “behaviors” to your puppy, although in the first few months I generally teach the basics: name recognition, sit, down, stand, come, stay, wait, spin, twist, speak, rollover, foot, other foot, feet up, feet off, head down, lift, mark, take, hold, give, get, hup, cover, shake, touch, press, sit-up, rise-up, left, right, easy, over, under, on-your-side, back, agility obstacles, etc.

This article is about core skills, attributes, and attitudes that will allow your dog and you to have a great relationship for decades to come.  These are the things that, without even really thinking about it, we start doing with every puppy the moment they arrive, and are always surprised when we meet dogs do not seem to have spent time developing.

  1. Attention:  I spend a huge amount of time rewarding simple eye contact.  Teaching my dog to look at my eyes, to look to me for cues, to look to me when distracted, to look to me when nervous. Without attention almost no training is possible.
  2. Drive: I spend lots of time building the drives I want, diminishing those I do not, and refining them all to mesh with my preferences.
  3. Playing the game: virtually every training session I ever have with my dogs is based on the notion that we are a team working together to achieve a shared objective.  My dog needs to understand that I am the leader in our team, but that I am there to help him succeed.  That in every transaction, there are paths to success and reward.  That if he can figure out what I want, I will give him praise and play and treats and whatever else he enjoys.
  4. Response contingency: I want my dogs to understand that they can control their worlds.  I set up lots of situations in which they can make choices to be in the wind or not, in the light or not, on the bed or not.  I want them to learn that their actions can alter and define their world.
  5. Problem solving:  almost every day I set up problems for my puppies to solve.
  6. Curiosity: I regularly introduce new items, and make sure they are fun or yummy when investigated, so he learns that novel items are worth investigating.
  7. Patience/self control: I want my puppy to understand delayed gratification. We do lots of Premack exercises in which I put a reward 10 feet away, but he cannot go get it until he does what I ask.
  8. Calmness/thoughtfulness/non-reactiveness in stimulating situations: this is closely related to socialization, but is not identical. I spend lots of times rewarding a thoughtful attitude in a challenging environment.
  9. Comfort in restraint: I want my puppy to be comfortable being held down, carried, or otherwise restrained.  We play lots of games in which he is held, and gets released and rewarded only when he relaxes.
  10. Confidence: I mostly work on this when socializing, but I almost always want my dogs to be confident, so I spend a lot of time rewarding this attitude.  It is MORE important to me that my dog be confident than that he has “manners” which I can always train later.  So In the first year, I reinforce confidence, even if he is putting his feet up, or chewing on something or doing something that I will ultimately not want…
  11. Respect: I want my dog to yield to me spatially, to release things when I ask for them, etc.  But training and earning respect in a young puppy must be very subtle or it will erode his self-confidence.  If he is extremely self-confident, then you may spend more time on respect, if he is less confident, you may not work on respect much at all…
  12. Settling when asked: I want my dog to understand that there will be times when I want him to go lie down.  Not play, not get into things, but just go settle.  So we work on this for brief periods right from the start.
  13. Look where I point.
  14. Body awareness: I want my dogs to be aware of their rear feet, their tail, where their bodies are.
  15. Connectedness: I want my puppy looking for me as the center of the universe.  This requires that, for many months, I be fun and interesting and warrant his focus.  It also requires that I give him focus, because if your dog is looking to you for cues and you are not paying attention, he will quickly learn not to look to you.
  16. Enjoy a wide variety of foods.
  17. Play with me: I want my dog to LOVE to play, so we do it often and joyously, and we end before he gets bored.  I particularly work on tug and fetch.
  18. Play with other dogs: many people do nothing to teach their dogs “how” to play with other dogs and are then surprised that their dog learns a style that they do not like.  I spend a lot of time teaching my dogs what is preferred: lie down with small dogs, do not go harder than a certain threshold, etc.
  19. Bite Inhibition (for details on how I train bite inhibition, look here)
  20. Body position matters: sit, down, heel, on-your-side, and many other behaviors are built on the notion that the position of a dog’s body matters.  So early in life I start instilling the notion that it matters whether the puppy goes under or over something, or on the left or the right, or sits or downs…
  21. Relationship of the dog’s position to my body or another object matter.  So I play games where it matters whether the puppy is on my left or my right, is looking at me or not, is looking at a particular object, etc.
  22. Swimming is fun. (not merely tolerable, but FUN!)
  23. Weather tolerance.  Wet grass, cold floors, rain, snow, heat, all are fun.
  24. Bathing/drying/nail-clipping/toothbrushing/ear-clearing are fun: it is amazing how much more pleasant life is with a dog that genuinely enjoys standing for a bath, so spend a few hours now making it fun and pleasant, and you will thank yourself for years to come!
  25. Car rides are fun. (not merely tolerable, but FUN!)
  26. Crates are fun, moving crates are fun, loud crates are fun. (not merely tolerable, but FUN!)
  27. Cats and other prey animals are not to be injured.
  28. Collection: I really want my dogs to be able to be running and quickly collect themselves to turn or jump or transition if necessary.
  29. Using your nose to find things: while most dogs are naturally very scent oriented, this skill can be significantly developed in their early months.  And the idea can be instilled that they need to use this skill when asked…
  30. Objects have names:  I do not need my dog to know 500 different items by name, but I want him to understand the concept that a specific word can be associated with a particular toy.

Those are the top things that I work on with a puppy in the first few months.  I did not really discuss the details of “how” to work on each of them since that would have made this much, much longer, but if you want specific exercises for any of these, let me know!  If you have favorite things you work on that I did not mention, let’s hear them!

Share
 January 28, 2011  Posted by at 1:32 am

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road (Dog Trainer Version) by Roland Sonnenburg

Aug 082010
 

Pavlov: we fed the chicken on the opposite side of the road each day at 4pm until the chicken’s autonomic system actually began causing the chicken to cross the road at 4 pm without even questioning the “why.”

B.F. Skinner: on prior occasions when the chicken voluntarily crossed the road, this behavior was followed immediately by a reinforcing consequence.

Cesar Milan: I bullied, chased, poked, and intimidated the chicken until it raced across the road, because I am a strong leader…

Barbara Woodhouse: You just say, “Walkies” with the right accent and place a crumpet on the other side of the road…

Karen Pryor: by associating R+ with road crossing and P+ with standing still, with a VR schedule, and offering a reward in keeping with the Premack principle, we increased the intensity and frequency of the road crossing behavior.

Victoria Stilwell:  Who cares?? The important question is,  do these pants make me bumm look fat?

Bill Koehler: a few well-timed pops on the choke chain and the chicken was happy to cross the road.

Nicholas Dodman: I gave the chicken fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, carbamazepine, and azapirone and then it was happy to cross the road.

Patti Ruzzo: I crossed the road, pausing every step to spit a treat out of my mouth like a human pez dispenser, and the chicken followed along catching the treats.

Electric Collar Advocate: whenever the chicken does not cross the road I give it an electric shock. But do not worry, the shock is no more than you would feel if you walked on a carpet wearing socks and it does not bother the chicken at all. The feathers standing up and the smell of burning flesh mean nothing. In fact, they are happier having nice clear communication than they would be otherwise.

Yuppie: chickens are just like little people in feather jackets, and if you love them and give them diamonds and feel sorry for them all the time, they will be happy to cross the road for you.

Paris Hilton: Because I put it in a Gucci bag and carried it…

Shelter director: Any chickens that do not cross the road will be euthanized for their own good, and the others we will “adopt” out tomorrow for only $200 each. Please send us money so we can keep doing more of this important work!

HSUS member: I do not know anything about animals, I have never been around animals and am not really fond of animals, but we passed a law mandating that chickens be kept without cages because animals belong only in the wild and cannot be happy coexisting with man, so now they are walking wherever they want.

PETA member: chickens have the right to live in world without roads. Any chicken that lives within a hundred miles of a road is suffering an inhumane existence and might eventually be hit by a car so we should kill it today to ensure that it does not die tomorrow.

Share
 August 8, 2010  Posted by at 2:39 pm

Flint is 16

Dec 052009
 

Our Flint turned 16 a few weeks ago, and we cut together a quick video of some of the many great moments we shared with Flint which you might enjoy.  Flint is a fabulous dog, half Malinois, half border collie, and has been one of the great gifts of our lives.

Share
 December 5, 2009  Posted by at 10:27 am
 Older Entries  Newer Entries