Oh Behave!

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.