Psst...allow me to let you in on a couple of little secrets regarding dog training. Are you ready for it? Ok, here they are. Dog training is not rocket science. It is not complicated. There is no magic to it, there are no special techniques, tricks or skills. Some trainers talk about the use of “balanced energy”. Some use terms like positive reinforcement, behavioral shaping, systematic desensitization, counter conditioning. All of which by the way are very valid tools. However at the end of the day if you keep these two things in mind you would be well on the way to solving any issues you are facing with most dogs. So what are those two things? I will lay them out for you.
Secret number one....a dog’s behavior is usually a precursor to a specific response. In other words, a dog does something in order to get something. If it does not get what it wants by doing a particular behavior, it will move to another behavior which will bring about a more desirable result. Keep this in mind, I will discuss it more in a minute.
Secret number two...dogs do not speak human. That’s right. They understand certain phrases for sure but for the most part the spoken language is a foreign one to them and one they are not native in. Ponder that for a second. I will come back to it.
Here is another hint that really pertains to both secrets above...we humans tend to make our canine companion’s behavior more complicated then what it is.
I have heard owners say things like
“My dog counter surfs and I have tried everything to keep him off the counter but nothing works...what do I do” or “We are walking and my dog pulls my arm out of it’s socket...I have tried every training collar out there, I use the “tsssst” sound but nothing works”
The whole “nothing works” is a really big statement to make. When I question most owners on what they have tried, usually I get a list of one or two things that they have done. Most times these solutions are ineffective because they are not getting at the root of the issue, the owners have set themselves up so that they cannot be consistent with them AND the solutions do nothing to detract the behavior as the dog is still getting the desired result at the end of it.
Let’s take the first counter surfing statement as an example and analyze it. A dog counter surfs because it has learned that usually when it does, it leads to getting some food that is left on the counter. The food can be the cooling turkey or it could be the left over crumbs from the breakfast toast. Simply the dog has learned that by doing a behavior ie jumping up on the counter, it will get a desired result ie food. Most people understand this. They resort to yelling at the dog to “get down and get away” or getting a spray bottle and squirting the dog. All of which is well and good IF you are around the counter EVERYTIME the dog walks by it but it really does nothing to address the root of the issue. This kind of solution usually fails because you cannot be consistent and the dog gets smart. Your dog quickly figures out that he can jump up on the counter when you are not there, get the food and make a get away.
So...how do you fix a behavior like this? Well the BEST way is to ensure you have clean counters all of the time when you are not directly in front of them. If the dog gets no results from jumping on the counter, he learns that there is no desired outcome for the behavior and the behavior will disappear. This is not really a solution though as it is impractical.
What you need to focus on is developing a pattern where you are effectively able to interrupt the undesirable behavior each and every time and replace it with a more positive behavior which will get the dog a desirable result. By doing so, you can shape this new desirable behavior and have it replace the old undesirable one.
How do you do this? If you want to discourage a behavior like counter surfing, you want to ensure that each and every time for a longer time frame, you can effectively interrupt the behavior as soon as it happens. I like to use a tethering exercise where I attach a leash to the dog, the other end gets attached to me. Now the dog cannot jump up on the counter without me being there to watch things and being able to control and interrupt that urge. I usually like doing this for a couple of weeks. It puts me in tune with them and them in tune with me. It is a really powerful tool. During this time, I am also going to teach the dog alternative behaviors to jumping on the counter which will lead to desired results for both myself and the dog. I will work them through long sit or down stays in a specific spot while I am cooking the meals. These stays are reinforced with desirable treats or even parts of the food that I am cooking (if it is ok for the dog to eat). The reinforcement needs to be consistent and timed in order for it to be effective especially in the beginning where you are looking to mark the behavior and shape it into being. Once this is established then you can move onto making it harder for the dog such as leaving the room for short periods of time with the dog in the stay and you watching. If the dog breaks, you come back in the room, return the dog to the stay position and start over. If the dog does not break...reward.
Are you understanding what I am getting at here? This is just basic psychology and it surely is much better then doing the things that most people would do in order to try to break a behavior. This method is not quick. It is not pretty BUT it allows consistency and it is effective.
So the second statement: a dog does not speak english. This is one that baffles me. We humans think that if we say something to our dog and our dog does not do what we tell them, all we have to do is say it a little louder and the dog will respond. It is funny and sad at the same time. Little word of advice...if your dog is not responding to you after you tell them to do something the first time it is either because 1. your dog really does not understand what you are asking or 2. you are not making it enticing enough for your dog to do it. Yelling the command a little louder will accomplish nothing in either of these cases.
Proper communication is so important and we humans do a very poor job at it with other humans...look at all the misunderstandings that happen in our daily lives as proof of this. When it comes to communicating with our dogs, most humans suck at it.
You can see the breakdown in communication as you read through the last example. The first set of solutions that were failing were good examples of how there was poor communication between the owners and the dog. The communication was neither consistent nor was it effective. In the second set of solutions discussed, you can see how this type of communication was much more effective as it allowed the owners to be consistent and to shape a behavior.
Let’s examine the second scenario I presented with the pulling dog and look at some of the ways owner’s communication is inconsistent, and ineffective and propose an alternative way to communicate to your dog proper manners when walking.
So, your dog is pulling. First off, let’s examine why your dog is pulling. It is pulling because it is outside, it smells all kinds of smells, it sees a dog walking toward it and it wants to get at that dog, it hears a squirrel in the trees and it wants to check it out...
This is all typical behavior. The dog’s brain is moving forward and it wants to go in that direction.
A typical response to this behavior of an owner is to pull back on the dog. The resulting response from the dog is normally to pull harder. Hence a huge tug or war results in which a walk gets done but it is very uncomfortable for the owner and the dog. Training collars get introduced..some of which help aspects of it, but usually they just mask a bigger issue and when the dogs become conditioned to the collar, the behavior returns. Sounds like “tsst” get thrown in as a magical sound that all dogs listen to (but really it just makes the owner sound like a choo choo train) or the owner just gives up because they hate walking their dog. All this is unfortunate and so preventable if the owners just learn to communicate effectively with their dogs.
So lets go back to first preventing the behavior from the dog getting it’s desired response. There are a number of different ways that you can handle this that are effective. Some ways are more effective with certain dogs then others. One of the methods I explain to owners during the one on one phase is “the tree method”.
If every time the dog pulls you stop moving (you become a tree), the dog quickly realizes that it cannot move forward to investigate more . Once this is realized the dog will must move on to another behavior if it wants to move forward. Now we teach an alternative behavior and shape it. So dog pulls, you stop, call the dog back to your side. You reward the dog for returning and continue on (thus giving the dog exactly what it wants for doing a behavior that you want). The dog begins to pull, you stop, call the dog back to your side, the dog returns, you reward and continue. Eventually the dog gets it through it’s head that when it pulls, the moving forward stops BUT when it is by mom’s and dad’s side, it gets rewarded AND it moves forward. Hmmmm, PROPER COMMUNICATION, that did not involve yelling at the dog. It did not involve making any special sounds and it did not involve forceable corrections and it did not involve the use of any training collar. Again, this method is not quick and it is not pretty. It might mean for a number of walks, you only get half a kilometer in a specific time frame when you could get five kilometers done. However, at this point try to keep in mind, it is not about quantity of milage but the quality of it. Also please note I am not discounting the value of a training collar or the use of proper body language as both are another means of being effectively able to communicate with your dog when used correctly. What I am saying is that start with the basics and use those tools to solidify them. You build a solid foundation with the basics such as this, the rest just adds to the foundation and strengthens it as opposed to masking the existing cracks.
By using the theory I just discussed, it really does build a solid foundation with most dogs that will allow you to address most issues. Slowly building on a solid foundation comprised of proper and effective communication with your dog where proper behavior is taught and understood will allow you to shape desirable behavior. It will allow you to work the behavior through increasing distractions and will allow you to have a fantastic canine companion.