During a recent consultation, a client mentioned that though her 6 month-old shepherd mix loved to play tug, she’d decided the game was taboo. She’d heard that tug would make him “aggressive.” I’ve heard this concern from loads of dog owners. But fortunately, it ain’t so.

Aggressive behavior is usually caused by fear, stress or anxiety, not fun and games. In fact, many expert dog trainers (such as Jean Donaldson and Pat Miller) maintain that that tug, if played by a few simple rules (see below) is a fabulous game to play with your dog for lots of reasons.

Tug is a wonderful energy burner for dogs and something you can do inside to burn some of that doggy energy. Vinnie’s an especially high-energy dog; I suspect that on rainy days, if not for tug, we’d both go a little bonkers.

Tug is a great legal outlet for dogs’ natural predatory instincts. Instead of shutting natural dog behavior down, tug allows dogs to redirect their energies to the game.  

If played by the rules, tug teaches your dog to control his jaws even when he’s really revved up, and is fabulous impulse control training. Your dog practices calming himself down when he’s in a state of high arousal.

Tug offers lots of lovely little real-life training moments for real life rewards – another tug match! It provides an appropriate safe outlet for puppies’ and adolescents’ natural desire to mouth and play bite. Perhaps best of all, tug is FUN for you and your dog and deepens the bonds you share.

Follow these simple rules to ensure you and your dog are safe whenever you play tug:

• Only play with 1 or 2 designated tug toys. They should be long enough that your dog’s teeth area far from your hand. Braided rope or fleece toys are best because they’re strong and won’t hurt doggy teeth or gums.
• Play begins only when you initiate the game by offering the tug toy to your dog. Don’t allow your dog to lunge/jump/snatch the toy from you. If he does that, say, “Too bad,” or “Uh oh,” matter of factly and put the toy away for 20 seconds.
• Take frequent obedience breaks. Ask your dog to sit (or do another easy behavior) every time you offer him the tug toy. After he sits, reward him by offering him the tug toy to grab onto.
• Teach your dog to drop the tug toy on your cue. Ask him to do so randomly during tug matches.
• Teeth on skin means an automatic time out. If his teeth make any contact with your skin even by accident, immediately say “Uh Oh,” or “Too bad,” and put the toy away for 20 seconds. This will teach him to be extra careful with his mouth during tug games.
• Avoid doggy injuries. Keep the tug toy level with his shoulders and don’t jerk it around. Move the toy side-to-side instead of up and down. Keep the intensity of tug games appropriate for his age and overall physical condition.
• Safety first. Don’t allow frail people or kids under 13 to play tug with your dog. Make sure that anyone who plays tug with your dog knows the tug rules and always follows them consistently. An adult should always supervise tug games between dogs and kids.

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.

I should have known better.

Yesterday was Vinnie’s and my first public freestyle performance. We danced in a group routine at a dog festival in a park, with a large audience of dogs and their people, including my husband a.k.a, Vinnie’s “Papa.” (Very corny, I know. But c’mon, I have a hunch you’ve dished up some corny talk to your dog.)

Back to the festival. As soon as we arrived, a little voice in my head said, Uh oh. Vinnie was very excited. He wanted to play off-leash with other dogs, to inhale the scent of grilling meat wafting about and hunt for dropped tidbits. He saw kids playing soccer and wanted to nab their ball. And he was hell-bent on keeping his group – me, him and his Papa – together. Rounding us up is something my dear Kelpie mix has always done, and more intently in new environments.

I’d agreed at the last minute to dance in the routine, and Vin and I’d been practicing our parts diligently. But that was mostly indoor practice at home, a familiar relatively distraction-free location. I’d come to the park ready with a large bag of chicken, which had never failed to help Vin’s focus and for which he’d danced eagerly the day before in the same park. But that was without barbecues, human food galore, scores of other dogs in the vicinity, and Papa at the ringside.

When it was our turn in the ring Vinnie’s performance fell apart. Instead of heeling and spinning next to me across the stage, he took off towards the gate, his eyes darting around for any sign of my husband. I quickly got Vin’s attention and he did most of his routine after that only to lose it again during his solo finale. Instead of trotting towards me and taking a bow, he spotted my husband and ran to the side of the ring to greet him.

Like I said, I of all people should have known there’s just no short cutting the training process. One essential key to effective training is to train gradually, making tasks more challenging for your dog one step at a time. It’s like training for a marathon; you don’t vault from jogging a mile a day to being able to run a 26-mile race.

It’s not surprising that Vinnie didn’t perform well. I rushed his training and neglected to set him up for success in several ways.

For one thing, dogs don’t generalize easily. It you want them to apply learning acquired in one context to another, you have to help them get there. If you only train “sits” in the kitchen, it will take a bit more training for the dog to learn that “sit” means the same thing in the living room, a yard, at the beach and on the sidewalk. Even though Vinnie had nailed the routine again and again at home, he’d only had one practice at the park and another in someone’s back yard. That wasn’t nearly enough to bet on a solid performance on the day of the show amidst a sea of distractions.

The world is a mighty distracting place!

For another thing, dogs are notoriously distractible. To get behavior around distractions, increase distraction levels incrementally. A dog who responds reliably to, “Let’s heel,” in your hallway may look as if he’s never heard the words the first several times you try heeling at the beach. Other dogs, new people, food, new smells and sounds are just some things most dogs find pretty darn enticing. Poor Vin was faced with multiple high level distractions at the same time. That together with insufficient practice to generalize was enough to doom his performance.

On top of all tha, Vin was grappling with a strong competing motivator. Most dogs love food and are very motivated to do stuff, training included, to get it. But a treat that keeps a dog’s attention on training when there’s nothing else going on may very likely pale in comparison to a chance for a squirrel chase, to romp with other dogs, or in Vinnie’s case, to round up his humans. On show day, Vinnie was highly motivated to keep his group together. While he was motivated at times to score chicken by doing parts of his routine, at other times the desire to find his dad won out.

Thankfully, the performance was just for fun. We all laughed about it. No harm was done except for a little bruise on my ego. And I’ll make sure not to repeat the same mistakes as we prepare for our next performance. Next time, we’ll both be ready!

Max, Lola, Roxie, Charlie, Pancake, Izzy, Suki! . . . When it comes to dogs, what’s in a name?

As it turns out, with the right training, quite a bit.

Your dog’s name can be a lot more than just the word you use to refer to him. With the right training, your dog’s name can serve as a cue to look at you. Getting dogs to pay attention to their humans around lots of distractions is one of the most common dog guardians’ challenges. Name training is the first step to teaching your dog to attend to and focus on you no matter where you are. Name training is also a terrific building block for teaching your dog to come to you when you call him.

To train your dog to look at you when you say his name all you need are a clicker and some treats he really likes. Small soft smelly treats work best because your dog can eat them quickly, which helps you get the most mileage out of a training session. Most importantly, use treats that your dog likes. (Every dog is different and just because one dog likes a certain type of treat doesn’t mean another dog will. A student in one of my group training classes had a puppy who would happily train for tiny pieces of apple! I tried giving my dog a piece of apple and he just sniffed it and walked away from me.)

This exercise rewards your dog for looking at you when you say his name, and will teach a newly adopted dog or pup his name if he doesn’t already know it. Your dog learns that looking at you when you say his name is a splendid thing to do because doing so means yummies are coming his way.

1. Do this exercise at home in a room where there’s not a lot of activity.
2. Have your clicker ready and a handful (about 15-20) of treats in one hand held behind your back, or in a treat pouch or in a pocket.
3. Say your dog’s name one time only in a happy upbeat voice. The moment your dog looks at you, click, then give him a treat. Be sure to click first, and then give the treat.
4. If your dog doesn’t look at you, don’t repeat his name. Instead, watch for any response to hearing his name. It might be a slight head turn, a pricking up of his ears, or a tail wag. Click the moment he responds and then feed him a treat.
5. If your dog does absolutely nothing when you say his name, try making kissy noises, clapping your hands, or using jolly talk to get his attention. The moment he responds click, then treat.
6. Continue the exercise until you’ve used up your handful of treats.

Do the exercise a couple of times a day for 2-3 minutes at a time. Practice at different times of day and in different rooms of the house.

It won’t take long for you to notice progress. Small head turns will soon become quite deliberate looks at you. Looks at you will very likely turn into actual approaches. (See what I mean about name training serving as a great foundation for training your dog to come when you call?)

When your dog is reliably looking at you at least 8/10 times when you say his name, kick the exercise up a notch:

• Randomly say your dog’s name when he’s not expecting it. Remember to click when he looks at you, then give him a treat.
• Ask a helper to do the exercise with you so your dog learns to respond to his name when other people say it.
• Gradually increase the level of environmental distractions when you do name training. Enlist a friend or family member to be the distractor. Their simple presence might be enough to distract your dog, or your helper can bounce a ball, squeak a squeaky toy, or jump around and act silly.
• Practice on leash walks and outdoors in an enclosed yard.

When your dog is looking at you 90% of the times that you say his name, treat him less often and phase in real life rewards. Treat him occasionally and randomly for looking at you in response to his name. Reward him at other times with other things he enjoys such as belly scratches, playtime with you, a special toy, or a long-term chewie like a bully stick or tendon. If you stop rewarding him altogether for looking at you, he will eventually stop doing the behavior.

Happy Training!

In an old Destiny’s Child song a woman singer, suspicious that her boyfriend is cheating on her, asks him on the telephone to say her name. If he says it, it will mean one thing – no other woman’s with him to give him grief about talking to the singer/girlfriend. If he won’t say the singer’s name, it means something else. Without much thought we understand implicitly the context of the singer’s request and that the boyfriend’s utterance of her name or not is loaded with meaning. As members of a verbal species, such is the power of language among us.

All of this nuance, context and meaning would be completely lost on dogs.

In training classes and the real world, I frequently hear folks saying their dogs’ names in a disapproving tone when the dogs are doing something the people don’t like. Someone says the dog’s name and only the name without saying a verbal cue, and becomes perplexed and aggravated when the dog doesn’t comply.

Here’s a typical scenario:

Sadie the yellow lab mix is jumping on a visitor. Mary, Sadie’s person says, Sayyyy–deeee, in a long drawn out way. Sadie continues to jump.

Mary (to the visitor): I’m sorry, she knows she knows she’s not supposed to do this.

Mary (again in a long drawn out way): Sayyy-deeee.

Sadie, unphased, keeps jumping.

Now Mary’s frustrated. Sadie, she says, raising her voice. No effect.

Mary’s very annoyed. In an angry sharp voice she shouts, SADIE!

We know what Mary’s tone of voice means. Stop jumping. I don’t like it when you do that. We’re human. Speech and tones of voice are two of our primary means of communication.

But Sadie’s a dog. All she hears is Mary repeating her name in different ways. Mary hasn’t given Sadie any guidance about what to do. Mary hasn’t asked her to sit, lie down, or do anything else.

Sadie, like most dogs, probably does pick up on tones of voice. While she may be aware at some point that Mary is upset, Sadie probably doesn’t know why. It’s a good bet that Sadie doesn’t know what Mary wants her to do or not do. These situations must be awfully confusing to dogs.

Unless you’ve trained your dog to do something in particular when you say her name, your dog’s name by itself isn’t a cue or request to do something. Saying your dog’s name doesn’t communicate anything to your dog. It doesn’t mean sit, or stay, or stop jumping.

Dogs aren’t mind readers. If you’d like your dog to do something particular, give her clear unambiguous cues for behvaiors you’ve trained her to do. Instead of just saying your dog’s name and expecting her to know what you want her to do, say her name and then say the word for a behavior you’ve trained her to do. In Sadie’s case, Mary might say, Sadie sit, or, Sadie go to your mat.

Communicating clearly with your dog will save you a lot of time, avoid frustration on your part and confusion on your dog’s part. You’ll both be a lot happier if you spell things out in a way that the dog can understand.

(Training your dog to look at you when when you say her name is a great foundational behavior. I’ll write soon on the hows and whys of doing that in another post called, “What’s in a Name?”)

Some flea and tick control products may do serious harm to pets and possibly to humans. On March 17, 2010, the EPA issued a report on flea and tick treatments and urged consumers to be extra careful when using them. The agency announced plans to develop stricter testing and evaluation standards for these products, new restrictions on product use, and better warning and labeling requirements.

The EPA’s report follows an alarming increase in adverse pet reactions to flea and tick treatments. Reports of bad reactions to these products have increased dramatically in recent years, from 28,895 reports in 2007 to 44,263 reports in 2008. Pets’ reactions have run the gamut from mild to severe and include skin irritations, vomiting, seizures, and in some cases, death. According to a 2009 ASPCA report, cats’ reactions tend to be worse than those of dogs.

Last year the EPA did a study of “spot on” treatments (in which a concentrated dose of a product is applied directly to a pet’s skin) and concluded that:

• Smaller dogs (10-20 pounds) suffered more harmful health effects than larger dogs. Small dog breeds most affected were Shih Tzus, Chihuahuas, Bichon Frises, Pomeranians and Dachshunds.
• Consumers need to be aware of and follow correct dosages when using these products on pets.
• It’s dangerous to use products designed for dogs on cats.
• Current product labels warning against using dog products on cats are not sufficient.

The bottom line? Flea and tick treatments contain chemicals – pesticides and in some cases, known carcinogens. Some of these chemicals can be toxic to pets and humans, especially children. To date the EPA hasn’t advised consumers to avoid certain products or formulas. However, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has an on-line guide that provides a safety rating for products by brand name and advises which ones to avoid completely.

If you are going to use pest control products on your pets make sure to:

• Consult with your vet about the safest options.
• Read product labels carefully and follow instructions for use.
• Know your pet’s exact weight and use the correct dosage for your pet.
• Never use dog products on cats and vice versa.

The NRDC also offers these non-chemical tips for flea and tick control:

• Flea comb your pet regularly with a special fine-toothed comb designed for the job, and rinse the comb in soapy water in between strokes.
• Bathe pets regularly using soap/shampoo designed for pets.
• Wash pet bedding in hot water once a week.
• Vacuum your home regularly and frequently, including furniture, carpets, rugs, floors and crevices. Immediately after vacuuming, empty the canister or discard the vacuum bag so fleas and ticks don’t reinvade your house.
• Keep grass and shrubbery clipped short in yards and outdoor areas to keep flea and ticks to a minimum.

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

Sometimes in the midst of group training classes, I wonder if anyone’s taking in anything that I’m saying. It’s been a welcome surprise to learn that in the Teaching Love & Compassion (TLC) program – an anti-violence humane education class in which I teach kids to train shelter dogs – the kids really have been paying attention to the stuff I say in training class.

Here are a few sound training tips my TLC students have shared with reporters and one another:

Work at the dog’s pace. Like us, dogs learn at different rates. Just because Max learns to lie down in response to a hand signal in one class session doesn’t mean Muffy will or should. A soild training plan is also a realistic one. It increases the difficulty of an exercise only when the particular dog is ready to go to the next level. Another way of saying this borrowed from my instructors at the SF SPCA’s Academy for Dog Trainers is, “Train the dog in front of you,”. . . not the dog as you think he ought to be, or the neighbor’s seemingly perfect dog.

If your dog isn’t getting it [i.e., the full behavior], do baby steps. Sometimes a dog won’t do a full new behavior right off the bat. This happens often when training a dog to lie down as well as to do more complex behaviors. If that’s the case, break the behavior into small incremental steps and train one step at a time. If Max won’t lie down in response to your well-positioned food lure, you may need to click and treat for lowering his nose to the floor; then nose to the floor with a slight bend in the front elbows; then nose to the floor with progressively deeper elbow bends; then chest lowered to the floor and so on. Training in this way takes time and patience but with a consistent, careful training plan, Max should eventually learn to do the full behavior.

If your dog is tired of training, stop and spend cuddle time with him. Just because you want to train for 20 minutes doesn’t mean Max can last that long. In fact, it’s far more effective to keep training sessions short — anywhere from 3-10 minutes at a time depending on the individual dog and what you’re working on. As for the reference to “cuddle time,” I plan quite a bit of that in TLC classes. Why? I’ll segue to the words of another student:

Dogs need love and affection. Indeed! Dogs are highly social animals. They need companionship, touch, affection and attention. Dogs are not furry robots on the end of the leash, stuffed animals or rugs. Cuddling with your dog deepens the trust you share, feels good to the dog, and does wonders for you such as lowering stress, anxiety and blood pressure.

There’s no point in yelling, cussing at or hitting your dog. That won’t teach him what you want him to do. A long time ago, someone who was trying to teach me to drive shouted at and berated me whenever I made a mistake, and was clearly angry and frustrated with me throughout the lesson. I was miserable, unable to focus on what I was supposed to be doing, terrified of making a mistake, and began to think driving wasn’t for me. I dreaded lessons with that person and eventually enrolled in a driving instruction class, which was a far more positive experience. (If you”re wondering, I became a very good driver!)

Similarly, getting angry at a dog, intimidating, scaring or hurting him are good ways to ensure that he doesn’t learn or doesn’t learn quickly or well. These tactics will likely cause the dog to fear the trainer, drive down the dog’s confidence, can cause behavior to worsen, and create a very negative association with training. Simply put, the dog won’t want to train.

In the TLC program I teach the kids to train the dogs using positive training, which rewards dogs for behaviors we like and want to see more of. It’s effective and fun for everyone involved and results in dogs who are eager and happy to train, and TLC students who as they put it, “had a blast” training their dogs.