What do good manners and playing with your food have to do with one another?

Everything . . . if you’re a dog!

One of the best and easiest things you can do to enrich your dog’s life and lay a foundation for polite dog behavior is encourage him to play with his food. Food puzzle toys abound – nifty contraptions into which you stuff food or treats, and give to your dog to “solve” so he can eat what’s inside.

Kong, Tricky Treat Ball, Tug A Jug (L-R)

He might have to chew on the toy to get the food out (as in the case of Kongs and Busy Buddy toys); nose, bat and roll the toy around to get at the yummies inside (e.g., Buster Cubes, Tricky Treat Balls); manipulate puzzle pieces (Nina Ottoson’s interactive toys); or come up with a combination of moves to work the puzzle (e.g., Tug a Jug). The point is he’ll need to use his brain and sometimes his brawn to devise a winning strategy.

Feeding your dog from food puzzle toys has many advantages over bowl feeding. Working food puzzle toys:

• Is fun! Not every food puzzle toy is a hit with every dog, but with the wide variety of available toys there are sure to be a couple that get your dog’s groove on.
• Helps dogs eat more slowly than if they were gulping food from a bowl. Eating more slowly helps avoid bloat, a serious and often fatal ailment.
• Staves off boredom. Boredom breeds undesirable behavior like excessive barking, fence fighting and destructive chewing. Besides, living in a perpetually or mostly bored state must be a serious drag for a dog. Food puzzle toys gives dogs mini mental workouts and are a good antidote to boredom.
• Burns doggy energy. Don’t you wish you had your dog’s energy? Without daily outlets for that energy, dogs find other things to do with it. All too often, those things are activities humans don’t appreciate. Interactive toys provide outlets for some of dogs’ mental and physical energy.
• Satisfies the urge and need to chew. Many interactive toys require chewing action to get the food out. Chewing keeps teeth, gums and jaw muscles healthy and is a natural behavior that many dogs really love, especially pups and adolescents. Directing dogs towards acceptable chewies – like food puzzle toys – is essential when teaching dogs to keep their teeth off of your stuff.

If your dog is already a food puzzle wiz, mix up the types of puzzle toys he plays with. Some puzzle toys (like Kongs) can be frozen after stuffing to make solving them tougher for dogs ready for more of a challenge.

Get creative with food stuffings. You can layer different ingredients; alternate wet food with dry; mix wet food with dry dog food before stuffing the toy; or mix an extra special treat with the rest of the food (like the prize in the cereal box).

Does your dog have a favorite food puzzle toy? Do you have a favorite “recipe” for food puzzle toy stuffings? Please feel free to share in a comment.

If I let my dog on the furniture or sleep on my bed, he’ll think he’s dominant over me.

I’m sounding the Mutt Myth Alert!! Let’s bust this myth one piece at a time.

First, no one can look inside a dog’s head and read his thoughts. My dog Vinnie sometimes sleeps in my bed. When he’s snoozing there he looks peaceful and comfortable, but I have no idea what he’s thinking. Neither does anyone else.

“Dominance” is a term that’s misunderstood, misinterpreted and misused rampantly in discussions of dog behavior. In ethology (the scientific study of behavior), dominance refers to “priority access to a limited resource,” and is dependent on context and the distribution of resources. This is not what most people have in mind when they say their dogs are trying to dominate them.

In my experience, what folks usually mean when they say their dogs are trying to dominate them, is, Fido isn’t doing what I want him to do, or, If I let Fido do X, he’ll try to control me.

Let’s take a common sense look at this notion of “dominance as control.” As expert dog trainer and founder of the SF-SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers Jean Donaldson points out, humans control everything dogs need and want in life – food, water, playtime, walks, medical care, companionship, affection, access to other dogs, shelter, sleeping spots, and ultimately, life and death. Given that, who’s dominating whom? Who’s really in control? Here’s a hint – it’s not the dogs.

Though we can’t read dogs’ minds, we can observe their behavior. What’s more, we can manipulate the environment, resources, and consequences to get dogs to behave in ways we like and want to see more of. Simply put, dogs can be trained, undesirable behaviors can be changed, and at the end of the day, much of our dogs’ behavior is up to us.

Sleeping on a human bed is surely far more comfortable than sleeping in a crate or on the floor. When Vin lounges on my bed, he’s rewarded immediately by softness and comfort. Because sleeping on the bed is inherently rewarding to him, every nap on the bed sets him up to nap on the bed more frequently in the future.

There’s no scientific evidence showing that bed snoozes will make Vinnie want to control me, nor that they cause dogs to behave badly. Dogs do behaviors that work to get them what they want. I’d bet lots of money that Vinnie likes sleeping on the bed because it feels good.

Even if he secretly wants to be my boss, the reality is that he’s only allowed on the bed if it’s OK with the humans in the home. Each dog guardian gets to decide what behavior is acceptable from her dog. Some people don’t care if their dogs pull on leash. Others don’t mind if their dogs beg under the table during dinner. I don’t mind if Vinnie sleeps on my bed; in fact, I like it.

Comfy or trying to seize control?

If I were to decide that Vinnie could never again be on the bed, I could implement that change easily. I’d manage the environment to prevent him from getting on the bed – i.e., keep the bedroom door closed or install a baby gate across the door.

I’d also make his sleeping spot more attractive and comfortable. I could put blankets and a crate pad in his crate, or get him a nice plush dog bed.

He’s already trained to get off of beds and furniture when we ask him to, so if I were to find him on my bed, I’d ask him to get down and direct him to his comfy crate/dog bed.

With consistent practice, he’d learn that whenever he gets on the bed I’m going to ask him to get off and go to his own bed. Dogs are economical in how they spend their energies and creatures of habit; in time, he’d stop getting on the bed as often and instead, go to his own bed.

I suppose Vinnie could be plotting to dominate me. He’s a clever guy. When he wants to play tug, he brings his toy to me, drops it rather dramatically at my feet, and sits there and stares at me for a while. If I look at him, he picks up the tug toy and tries to put it in my lap. Sometimes after all that, I get up and play tug with him, but that’s when I feel like it, when I have the time and the energy, and according to my rules. When we’re finished, he likes to go to my bed and take a nap. I see him, smile, and think he looks adorable.

* * *

IMPORTANT NOTE: Some dogs behave possessively around furniture and sleeping locations. This sort of behavior, known as resource guarding, is normal dog behavior, and doesn’t arise from letting dogs sleep on beds. It’s a common behavior that many dogs come pre-programmed with and is an advantage in the wild. Dogs that guard food, sleeping locations, and other resources have a better shot at surviving. Resource guarding presents safety risks for humans; fortunately, it’s a behavior that can be changed through positive training. If your dog growls/behaves aggressively when you approach him when he’s on the bed, on other furniture, or when he’s eating or playing with toys, punishing or trying to “show him who’s boss” is dangerous and will make his behavior worse. Instead, consult with a good positive reinforcement trainer as soon as possible.

It took me a LONG time, much diligent training and careful management to teach my Kelpie mix Vinnie not to chase my cat Ted, and to get a tug toy instead when he gets the cat-chasing urge. We enjoyed a lengthy stretch of peace at home; dog and cat could both chill out in the same room in close proximity to one another without problems.

Vin Settled With Ted Nearby

I was overjoyed. There’s almost nothing I like better than the company of both my critters at the same time. And the dog-cat harmony at home was no small achievement. Vinnie is a herding mix with high energy and an intense desire to herd moving critters.

But that was then.

Lately Vinnie starts whining in frustration and his eyes light up in that, “I’m dying to chase you now!” way whenever he sees Ted. Vinnie has also taken to following Ted so closely, he’s practically standing on top of him. Ted is not amused.

At first I was puzzled about the change in Vin’s behavior. Then I remembered that of late, our garden has been overrun with feral cats. There always seems to be at least one feral kitty lurking in the shadows. (I don’t leave food or garbage out there. A well-meaning neighbor has been feeding the ferals daily and ever since, the surrounding yards have become a feline playground.)

No wonder Vin’s interest in Ted has revived. Vinnie’s had plenty of recent opportunity to chase the feral cats outside. And chase them he does!

For Vinnie, chasing cats is a self-reinforcing behavior. Chasing cats is tons of fun for him. He’s rewarded powerfully whenever he does it; chasing and herding cats must feel incredible to him. Herding is after all, what he’s hard-wired to do.

Animals aren’t static entities or robots. They’re living organic creatures who respond and react to their environments. In other words,behavior changes. It can change for a host reasons such as an illness, a health problem, or as a result of natural development and maturing (transitions from puppyhood to adolescence to adulthood to the golden years).

Ted

Behavior can also change as a result of environmental factors. These run the gamut and include changes in diet, in amounts and types of exercise and mental stimulation, in life routines, a move to a new home, the addition of a new pet or family member, or the death of a loved one to name a few.

Vinnie’s in perfect health and the only recent change in his life has been the feral festival in our yard and the many opportunities he’s seized to chase those cats. Behavior that’s rewarded increases in intensity and frequency. The more Vinnie chases cats — a rewarding behavior to him — the more he wants to chase cats, and the more he wants to chase cats, the more he chases them. This explains his changed behavior and attitude towards Ted.

One of my instructors at the SF-SPCA Academy for Dog Trainers always said, “If you want the animal to change its behavior, change your behavior.” So true.

If I want to curb Vinnie’s desire to chase Ted, I need to change my behavior. Relying on my pre-feral cat training plan won’t suffice. I need to manage the environment to prevent Vin from chasing the outdoor kitties.

I can’t block them from my yard and it doesn’t seem fair to suspend Vin’s yard privileges. My management plan is to go outside and get any feral cats to skedaddle before Vinnie is allowed into the yard. I also need to ramp up the training – more recall and leave it practice away from Ted, lots of practice calling Vinnie to come inside from the back yard, and stupendous rewards for those behaviors.

If your dog’s behavior has changed suddenly and it’s not to your liking, try to figure out what may have caused the change. If it’s not due to maturing, rule out any physical problems with a vet exam.

If there are no health issues, consider whether there have been any changes in your dog’s life or routine. If he’s been getting less physical or mental exercise, increase it. If the environment has changed, depending on what’s changed and how intensely it’s affected your dog, he may just need some time to adjust.

If you’re concerned and/or your dog’s behavior doesn’t improve, it’s best not to let the undesirable behavior continue as it will most likely worsen.

Do your best to prevent your dog from doing the behavior and consult with a good positive reinforcement trainer. Deciphering behavior puzzles and crafting a plan to address them is what dog trainer geeks like me relish.

A new client dog who I’ll call Misty is very fearful girl with multiple fear triggers. Misty has growled, snarled and lunged at people in certain situations but hasn’t bitten anyone. Misty’s human definitely has her hands full. “I don’t want her to be the type of dog that bites,” she said when we first met.

I know what the woman meant but I explained to her that actually, all dogs are “the type of dog that bites.” Any dog in the right circumstances can bite.

Biting and other forms of aggressive behavior most commonly arise from fear. Dogs typically avoid engaging in physical combat including biting, because fighting is expensive behavior for the dog from a survival standpoint. In combat, dogs risk being killed or seriously injured. Rather than do battle when faced with an upsetting, threatening or scary situation, most dogs flee or use ritualized forms of aggression to diffuse the conflict and avoid fighting. In other words, most dogs try to get the heck out of dodge, or do things to get the scary thing to go away. Barking, lunging, snarling, and growling are some of the more obvious behaviors that in dog language mean, “Go away. Back off. You are seriously freaking me out.”

I think of bites as a dog’s last line of defense. It’s unusual for a dog to leap frog over warning signals and proceed to biting. Usually long before biting, the dog has been communicating his fearful upset state using subtle warning signals. Well-meaning humans are frequently unaware of the dog’s warnings. Humans don’t notice the signals or don’t know what they mean. But ignoring a dog’s warning signals is a good set up for a dog bite.

All dogs have bite thresholds – points beyond which they are likely to bite. Because every dog is a unique individual, bite thresholds vary from dog to dog.

A dog can be pushed over his bite threshold when multiple fear triggers are presented simultaneously. Think of each fear trigger as a rock. Exposing the dog to fear triggers is like putting rocks in a paper bag. The bag might stand up to the weight of one rock, maybe two, possibly even three. But the more rocks you put into the bag, the bigger the risk the bag will rip apart.

Misty is afraid of men, loud machinery, and strangers who reach towards her head. Misty could easily bite if a strange man tried to pat her on the head just as a noisy street cleaning machine was passing by.

Besides stacking several fear triggers together, another set up for a dog bite is to present a single trigger at a sufficiently high intensity. This is like “growing” the rock into a boulder and putting it in the paper bag. The bag may very well break. In the case of Sam who guards his bones from humans, Sam is fine if a human is 6 feet away while he’s gnawing on a bone. Put the human 4 feet away from Sam and he growls. Put the human 1 foot from Sam and it’s boulder time — Sam bites.

To avoid bites, take the time to “learn” your dog. Identify her fear triggers and pay attention to her body language and warning signals. Avoid putting her in scary upsetting situations in general, and avoid pushing her beyond her bite threshold at all costs. If your dog is showing signs of fear, listen to what she’s saying and get her out of the scary situation as quickly as you can.

Getting a dog out of an upsetting situation may calm the dog in the moment but doesn’t resolve the problem. Fears don’t dissipate on their own. Without positive training interventions, fear-based behavior often gets worse. An experienced positive reinforcement trainer — along with an owner’s diligent follow-through on training instructions — should improve the dog’s emotional response to and behavior around the trigger.

I’m opposed to punishment-based training, period. But I can’t emphasize this enough: punishment-based methods should never be used with a fearful dog, or to address fearful behavior. Punishment-based training will most likely to escalate the dog’s underlying fear and the resultant behavior.

Some excellent resources to address fearful dog behavior include:

• Help For Your Fearful Dog, by Nicole Wilde
• Click to Calm, by Emma Parsons
• Debbie Jacobs’ Fearful Dog Blog

As you can see from my scant February blog posts, last month was a whirlwind for me. I’ve had zero time to write and have really missed blogging. This post is a quick one but a good one.

When it comes to training dogs, it seems like everyone’s got an opinion about how to do it the right way. Visit a dog park and mention a dog training or behavior issue and it won’t be long before someone’s giving you advice. Google “dog training tips” and in milliseconds you’ll get over 15 million results that are just a few mouse clicks away.

But whose advice should you follow? What tips are worthwhile?

As is the case with much of the data on the web, it can be daunting to parse out what’s the best most accurate information about dog training and what isn’t. Instead of spending your time plowing through website after website, here’s a tip on finding trustworthy positive reinforcement training information:

One of my favorite web-based resources for excellent information about puppy raising, dog training and dog behavior is www.DogStarDaily.com. And guess what? It’s free.

At the risk of sounding like a commercial, I must give Dog Star Daily it’s due. Whether you’re looking for the lowdown on exactly what’s involved in raising a puppy, or what to expect from your adolescent dog, or how to potty train a pup using positive reinforcment, Dog Star Daily has answers. The site’s “Training Textbook” covers scores of useful topics such as what you need to know before you adopt a puppy, how to puppy-proof your home, how to train your adolescent dog, how to train basic manners, and common behavior issues and what to do about them. Dog Star Daily’s information is spot-on and presented in a clear easy-to-follow format.

Dog Star Daily is one of the resources I recommend regularly to clients and students in group dog training classes. Check it out today.

One of the most frequent concerns among dog guardians is how to stop unwanted behavior. As Jean Donaldson explains in her phenomenal book, The Culture Clash, much of natural dog behavior is at odds with what humans find acceptable.

Dogs however, need appropriate outlets for their energies, which are usually significantly higher than ours. Without legal channels for behavior and energy, dogs become frustrated, bored, and stressed. In that unfortunate condition, it’s just a matter of time before dogs find other ways to vent. Behavior borne of frustration and boredom is often even worse and less acceptable to humans than the original unwanted behavior. Excessive barking, destructive chewing, fence fighting, and digging are just some of the behaviors in which frustrated and bored will engage. Besides all that, it’s not fair or humane to consign any animal to a life of chronic boredom, frustration or stress.

Enter, “Instead Of Thinking.” It’s not enough to find ways to shut down undesirable behavior. A far more effective strategy is to train your dog to do alternative behaviors that are acceptable and incompatible with the undesired behavior.

Let’s use jumping up as an example. Jumping up is a natural normal dog behavior. Dogs do it to greet us by getting closer to our faces. But most people don’t like it when Rover jumps on them. This is a classic instance of the clash between behavior that humans deem acceptable and that which is acceptable and common among dogs.

Well hello!

Typically humans think in terms of, How can I get Rover to stop jumping up? “Instead Of Thinking” asks a different question: What would I like Rover to do instead of jumping up?

Instead Of Thinking solves two problems at once: it stops the unwanted behavior while providing Rover with an acceptable alternative.

Sitting to greet people is an alternative behavior that’s acceptable and incompatible with jumping up. If Rover is sitting to say hello to people, he isn’t jumping on them. The training plan would be two-fold. You’d stop rewarding Rover altogether for jumping up, teach him to sit to say hello, and reward him with attention and lovies when he sits.

With consistent positive training, voila! Rover will learn that jumping up never works to get human attention but sitting does. If everyone who meets Rover follows the same plan, his jumping should decrease substantially and eventually stop. Instead of jumping on folks he’ll do lovely sits to say hello, and he gets a legal outlet for his exuberant greeting energy. Doing a short down stay or hand-targeting are two other examples of alternative behaviors that are incompatible with jumping up.

Rover won’t learn these things overnight, especially if he has a long history of jumping up and being rewarded with some kind of attention when he does that. Patient consistent practice will pay off so hang in there with your training plan.

The next time you find yourself wondering how to stop Rover from doing X, put on your Instead Of Thinking cap. Ask yourself, What would I like Rover to do instead of X? Then start training Rover to do the alternative behavior, reward him handsomely when he does it and stop rewarding him for doing X.

Rewarding Rover for desirable alternative behavior is a powerful tool in your training kit, and means he’ll do more of that behavior in the future.

Happy Training!

In honor of National Train Your Dog Month, I’ll be posting as many fun and easy training tips as I can throughout January. Welcome to the inaugural post.

“Sammy pays attention to me when we’re inside, but as soon as we go outside, he’s all over the place. He acts like I don’t even exist.”

Although this may sound like a lover’s complaint, it isn’t. It’s something many dog guardians say as they lament the fact that outdoors, it’s difficult to get their dogs’ attention.

This makes perfect sense from Sammy’s point of view. Dogs by nature are extremely impulsive creatures. Many dogs are very inquisitive. Puppies, adolescents and young adult dogs love to explore and investigate and are notoriously easy to distract. Home is a familiar place filled with sights, smells, sounds and people the dogs encounter every day and know well. As environments go, home isn’t very distracting to dogs — that’s why training at home is the best and easiest place to begin teaching dogs new behaviors. Confined to a familiar location with few to no distractions, most dogs pay great attention to their people.

Step outdoors and it’s a different story. Just think of all the wonderful stuff there is out there to grab a dog’s attention! Bushes and hydrants, trees and sidewalks, trails and beaches are all filled with exciting things and scents to sniff out, mark, roll in or dig at. Birds, squirrels, gophers and other wild creatures beg to be chased. Humans roam around exclaiming over Sammy’s cuteness and wanting (naturally!) to pet and coo over him. Other humans carry delectable edibles about or have the nerve to eat full meals in sidewalk cafes right in front of Sammy. Dogs galore pass by or frolic off leash inviting Sammy to join in the fun.

All of that spells distraction with a capital D. The world outside your front door is crammed with one amazing distraction after another as far as Sammy’s concerned. Whenever you’re outside, you’re competing with everything else that’s going on for your dog’s attention. As much as our dogs love us, when they’re out in the world they’re bombarded with enticing things that cry out for investigation. Given that dogs are so impulsive, those things often claim dogs’ attention immediately.

Fortunately you can easily click your way to getting better attention from your dog outdoors and in other distracting places. By rewarding your dog for paying attention to you outside and around distractions, you teach him that focusing on you is fabulous for him no matter where you are. The more you reward him for attending to you outdoors, the more he will repeat the behavior.

Like training any other behavior, you need to train better attention and focus gradually and incrementally, making sure to reward your dog at every step of the way. When training outdoors, use treats your dog loves, instead of treats he just likes. Why? Sniffing and digging and investigating and playing outside are activities that are highly rewarding to your dog. If you want him to come away from butterflies, pinecones and other dogs to check in with you, make it worth his while to do so. As rewards go, kibble, a hard dog biscuit and/or praise don’t even come close to a dog’s delight when playing with other dogs or sniffing a gopher hole. However, rewarding your dog with spectacular yummies for paying attention to you around distractions makes that behavior highly rewarding to him and means he’s much more likely to repeat that behavior.

I especially like using the clicker for this training because it enables you to mark precise behavior the moment your dog does it, and because dogs can usually hear the clicker in noisy places and at a distance.

If your dog is clicker trained, try this easy exercise. Take him outside on leash to a familiar spot that’s more distracting than your home. Your yard or the sidewalk/street in front of your home are good places to start. Take your clicker and some really yummy treats your dog loves. Doing this training when your dog is hungry will make him more motivated to play the training game.

Stay in one spot the first time you try this and observe your dog closely. The moment he turns his head in your direction, click and then treat. Keep clicking and treating every time he turns his head towards you. Once he figures out that the head turn is earning the reward, he’ll do it more often.

With consistent training, head turns will become deliberate looks at you and later, your dog will most likely begin approaching you to claim the reward for his hard work. That’s progress! Click and treat those behaviors when they occur. They show that your dog is focusing on you more intently.

When distractions like cyclists, other dogs or people pass by, reward the heck out of head turns, looks at you or approaches towards you. Give him lots of treats and praise for focusing on you around distractions. That’s hard work for a dog! You can prompt him to look at you as distractions approach by saying his name in a happy upbeat voice, making kissy noises or doing lots of jolly talk.

Keep training sessions short — about 3-5 minutes at a time — and train in different outdoor locations. Gradually increase the distraction levels so your dog doesn’t get frustrated and doesn’t give up on training. When you first try the exercise off-leash, practice in a familiar spot at an off-peak low activity time.

A wonderful recipe for teaching your dog to respond to you outdoors is a combination of the above exercises, training a strong recall and “leave it” behavior. When your dog is an expert at paying attention and responding to you outdoors, remember to reward him randomly for doing so. Random rewards will maintain a learned behavior and ensure that it doesn’t disappear.

The other day I told the kids in my humane education class that they’re not just training shelter dogs, they’re saving lives. At first blush, that may sound like an outlandish claim. On closer examination, it really is true.

One of the primary reasons dogs are relinquished to shelters is due to behavioral issues that could easily have been prevented or curbed with positive training. Behaviors like jumping up that were seen as cute when the dog was a puppy become an annoyance when the dog becomes a bigger stronger adult. Problem behaviors are often punished making them worse, or overlooked until they become extreme and harder to modify.

Many guardians with a poorly-behaved untrained dog throw their hands in the air out of frustration. Many give up on their dogs altogether and surrender them to shelters. Once in a shelter, a dog’s future prospects are far from rosy. Given the severe pet overpopulation problem, current economic realities, and the common mentality that shelter dogs are “defective,” shelter dogs have a slim chance of adoption and a high chance of being euthanized.

However, dogs that are well-trained in polite manners have a much greater chance of staying in their homes. The same is true for dogs whose undesirable behaviors have been modified with positive reward-based training.

The best strategy for dogs and their guardians is a positive proactive one. If you have a newly adopted puppy or adult dog, start him off on the right paw by training him to behave in ways that you like. Dogs are creatures of habit. It’s far easier to teach a dog to behave politely from the outset of your lives together than to correct bad habits in full bloom. Even if your dog hasn’t had much or any training it’s never too late to start.

If you suspect your dog has or may be developing problem behavior, address it as soon as you can through positive training. Fearful or aggressive behaviors most often arise from underlying fear and/or stress and/or anxiety. If left unchecked or if punished, the dog’s fears/stress/anxiety worsen and so does the resultant behavior. This poses a danger for humans interacting with the dog, and ultimately the dog himself who may well find himself in a shelter or at the wrong end of a needle.

By training shelter dogs, the kids in my humane education class are doing so much more than training. They’re giving the dogs a leg up on adoption, improving their chances of staying in their eventual new homes, and giving the dogs a real second chance at a happy life, one click at a time.

Being proactive about your dog’s training and behavior may feel like a pain in our overly-busy lives. But a proactive approach is an investment that yields fabulous long-term results. A few minutes of positive training every day improves your dog’s quality of life, his happiness and your own, and may make all the difference between a future without your dog and forever future for you and him, together. When you think of it that way, training’s more than worth the effort.

In my last post I pondered the legend of the PerfectDog and suggested adopting a different perspective on dog behavior – a “bowl-half-full” approach. Part of that bowl-half-full approach is having realistic expectations for dog behavior. This means realizing that like humans and other species, no dog is perfect, and accepting that dogs are after all, dogs.

Dogs bark, chew, shred stuff, dig and chase things that move. These are innate behaviors that dogs come pre-programmed with the same way humans come hard-wired to look for patterns in our environments and to speak. Dogs are close relatives of wolves and share DNA so similar that the two can mate and produce viable fertile offspring. Though dogs aren’t wolves, dogs have inherited some wolf behavior. That’s why some dogs guard food and other things they value, dissect stuffed animals, chase moving objects, chew and bury things.

So often, humans expect dogs to behave more like stuffed animals and less like dogs. I’m puzzled over that. We don’t expect fish not to swim or monkeys not to swing from trees. Why a different standard for dogs? That’s another question I can’t answer. Dogs need to be real live dogs, free to indulge their true doggy essences some of the time. In addition to exercise, mental stimulation, attention, love and fun, dogs need legal outlets for dog behavior. Otherwise they’ll find other channels for their stores of doggy energy, often engaging in activities we find irritating to say the least. Boredom barking anyone? How about dissection practice with every paper item in the recycling bin? Or maybe a digging party in the indoor planters?

“Misbehavior” isn’t the dog’s fault. It’s ours. It’s up to us to train and communicate consistently with our dogs about what they can do and when they can do it. And like any good relationship, it’s important to do some give and take when crafting a living arrangement with our dogs. Sacrificing a few square feet of our small garden for a legal digging pit for Vinnie was a small price to pay for keeping his paws out of my husband’s beloved indoor planters and flowerbeds. Once we installed the digging pit, we were liberated – Vinnie could dig to his heart’s content and we were free to marvel at how he seemed to remember exactly where he’d cached something, days after having buried it. Similarly, investing in some bully sticks and food puzzle toys was well worth it to keep Vinnie’s teeth off of everything else in our home. We’ve compromised a little, so has Vin, and at the end of the day, everyone benefits, everyone’s happier.

Dogs will be dogs, not stuffed animals or figurines or rugs. Forget about that mythical PerfectDog. Train your dog to behave the way you like. Appreciate him for his unique personality and all his dog-ness. Wonder at the magnificent being that he is. And if you get frustrated, it helps to remember that like each of us your dog is a wonderful work in progress.

In the midst of grocery shopping the other day I stole a few minutes to browse the magazine aisle. One headline jumped out at me. “HOW TO TRAIN THE PERFECT DOG,” it read, against a slick color close-up of a certain celebrity dog trainer.

“Ahh, the Perfect Dog,” I sighed as I moved on in search of apples. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard of this creature. Loads of people are convinced he or she exists. You know, the dog who never barks, digs up gardens, or chews stuff. PerfectDog never jumps on people or pulls on leash or begs, and wouldn’t dream of raiding kitchen counters or garbage bins. PD loves other dogs, plays Perfectly with all dogs, and adores everyone all the time, vets and groomers included. PD never gets scared or growls or whines. PD stays, sits, lies down, leaves things alone and comes when you call, anywhere anytime, even if gophers are salsa dancing in front of his nose — and he does all this the first time you ask.

Early attempts at counter surfing

I hear folks lamenting a lot about their dogs’ imperfections. “Viv’s almost perfect. If only she’d quit barking when the doorbell rings and stop begging at the table,” they say with grim looks on their faces. Some rate their dogs’ level of perfection. “ Fred’s 80% perfect. If only he’d stop growling at men in hats.”
Almost? 80% perfect? Fred and Viv sound like top students to me. So why the sad looks on the guardians’ faces?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for well-behaved polite dogs. I know what it’s like to live with and train a dog with behavioral issues. My dog’s got a few. But what’s up with holding dogs to a canine standard of perfection? I’ve been on the planet for a while, I’ve lived in three different countries and traveled quite a bit. Yet, I don’t know a single human who can claim the title of Perfect. Why do we expect dogs to be perfect when we aren’t?

I’ll continue to ponder that question. I do know that many humans tend to focus on what’s wrong with stuff, rather than what’s going well. We home in on how badly Fred pulls on leash, or how obnoxious it is when he won’t stop chasing the damn pigeons. We barely notice the times that Fred does walk nicely on a loose leash, or the times we called him to come away from dog play and flying Frisbees, and he did.

If you were to take a “bowl-half-full” approach, you’d probably be surprised at how brilliantly Fred behaves and how often. Try an experiment. Pick an evening when you and Fred will be at home. Make a note of every time he behaves politely or in a way that you like over a pre-determined time period. I’d bet he behaves well significantly more often than you’d thought.

If you aren’t in the habit of noticing Fred’s polite manners, you may not think to reward him for his wonderful behavior. Rewarding good behavior is fun for your dog, and there are sound reasons to do it. Behavior that’s rewarded increases in frequency and intensity. This isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s a tried and true principle of behavioral science. Rewarding Fred for good behavior makes it more likely that he’ll do the behavior again. Timely rewards give him important feedback about which behaviors you like.

By the same token, not rewarding Fred’s good behavior will cause that behavior to disappear or extinguish. If you like the way Fred’s behaving, let him know. Reward that dog! He’s earned it.

When you start observing all of Fred’s lovely behavior something else may happen. You may be pleased with him, or tickled, heck – you might even feel proud of him. Instead of harboring constant low-grade frustration about Fred’s behavioral flaws, you might start thinking, “Fred sure is a great dog. I love the way he sits when he’s trying to get my attention. I love that guy.”

The bowl-half-full approach doesn’t mean we should ignore problem behaviors. If those arise they should be addressed as soon as possible through positive training. But noticing and rewarding Fred’s good doggy manners will make your relationship that much more positive and harmonious, and go a long way to ensuring that Fred behaves politely again and again.

As for that elusive PerfectDog, more on him in Part II of this post, “Dogs Will Be Dogs.”