Author: Jenny Ruth Yasi

I deliver and control “go sniff”opportunities much like I control food treats. I give “go sniff” to reinforce my dogs for paying attention to me.

If your dog loves to sniff, stop viewing this as a problem! The interest in sniffing around isn’t just a “distractions,” it’s a very affordable (free!) reinforcement that you can harness and deliver to reinforce behaviors that you like.

How? You put the opportunity to “go sniff!” on cue, and then deliver it, regularly, generously, as a reward for behaviors that you like. There is one little trick to it though, and the trick is that your dog needs to know and trust that you are going to deliver these “sniff” opportunities. Imagine if your dog was starving and didn’t know that you were going to feed him. That’s the sort of behavior you might get from a dog who needs to sniff and doesn’t know that you are going to give him all the sniff he needs.

I’d been doing giving my dogs “go sniff” opportunities for quite a while, before I started to really understand what was happening and what a gold mine of reinforcement I now had at my disposal. My eye-popping awakening came at an AKC rally and obedience run-through event, held in a huge barn/indoor arena. The facility owner told me they regularly had horses in there and “normally, we keep chickens in the corner.” They might as well have built the whole facility out of hotdogs, as far as my dog was concerned! My young dog was much too excited to eat treats, and so I settled him on his mat and watched competitor after competitor walk in with distracted, scent aroused dogs, take a look around and leave, saying things like, “not today!” and “I don’t think so!”

I started to warm up my dog. I gave him a sit cue, and then rewarded it as he had hoped, with a limited sniff opportunity.

Whenever I deliver a “sniff” reinforcement, I deliver it in bite size pieces, just as I do with hotdogs. My dog is on a six foot leash and I remain stationary until he’s done sniffing that limited area, and looks up at me for his next cue and reinforcement opportunity.

I always ask for a stationary behavior before delivering sniff reinforcement, so we heeled up to each aromatic corner of the barn. I delivered a “sit” cue, and walked around my dog, and then rewarded with “okay, sniff!”

When you have a hundred pound Czech bred German Shepherd, the cost of food reinforcements can be substantial, and there I was, discovering that all I had a literally limitless supply of free sniff reinforcement!

Previously, I had been using “sniff” opportunities to teach loose leash walking. I used telephone poles and fire hydrants, along with a little food in between, which resulted in a somewhat variable delivery of reinforcement reinforcing nice leash walking behavior. It’s important to make a clear delineation between the end of cued performance and the beginning of the reinforcement opportunity, so I always ask for a stationary behavior, or at least some hand targets, before I deliver “sniff!” So we would heel, walk trott, and come to a halt near a potentially smelly spot. Today, I might cue another few behaviors, maybe sit pretty, hand targets and then reward with “go sniff!”

Part of my trick included head halter training. When you have a dog as powerful as mine, head halter training is essential for safety, both for me and for my dog. The head halter meant my dog couldn’t drag me around collecting sniff reinforcement whenever or where-ever he wanted. So my dog is completely comfortable and relaxed wearing a head halter (see https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1E6379E57F518AF0 ), and it helps me control sniff reinforcement, and deliver it after behaviors that I like.

But even if you have a tiny dog who doesn’t need a head halter, you can teach your dog to respond to sniff reinforcement the same way they respond to hotdog reinforcement. Rather than ignoring or pestering your dog when he is sniffing around, you need to anticipate his interest and start controlling and delivering “sniff” opportunities the same way you control and deliver food: intentionally, not accidentally, and immediately after behaviors that you LIKE.

As time has gone by, my dog has learned to glance towards things he would like to sniff, and then he look back at me, hoping I will give him an opportunity to earn the sniff. When I let him off-leash, I often say, “okay, go sniff!” and I think of those times as being his “sniff-meal” times, similar to the way he experiences food-meal times. He doesn’t ALWAYS have to work for sniffing reinforcement!

But when you use sniff as reinforcement, it means you really need to pay attention to your dog. You need your dog to trust that you understand what they want, and you will deliver. When your dog trusts you, they can ignore smelly sniffy stuff the same way they can ignore a bowl of meat on the floor, confident that you are going to deliver, and they don’t need to steal it.

You might be familiar with old fashioned “board and train,” where you ship a dog out of state, someone applies shock/prong/choke and sends the dog back to you, “broken,” a shadow of their former self. These gigs used to be sold in blocks of about ten days, for $2000, and it included the shock collar. If you’ve done this, I’d love to read your comments about what it cost and how it worked out, how your dog made out over the long haul. Usually these “board and train” lessons aren’t videotaped and it’s a sad mystery what transpires, but maybe you can imagine.

It might be harder to imagine how humane “board and training” works, so I thought I’d show you my videotapes of what I am doing this week to help an awesome, super intelligent collie who has been trying SO HARD to figure out how the world operates.

This doggie belongs to a Whole Dog Camp member, who will train with us forever I hope, but at least for the coming year. Training takes time, but even just one week of Whole Dog Camp style “board and training” offers learning opportunities that aren’t possible in hour long lessons, dog parks, kennels or daycares. Dogs are social creatures, and they benefit from having a training plan, in a habitat designed to facilitate safe socialization(gates, fields, and 24/7 social meat and potatoes).

A central feature of Piper’s plan was to help him learn to play. I enlisted the help of M’Ocean, nicknamed Dogzilla, who I hoped could put up with (and help discourage) Piper’s relentless herding. 100 pounds M’Ocean was muzzled during this process to ensure that no matter how annoying Piper’s herding behavior might sometimes be, M’Ocean wouldn’t puncture him for it.

I employed mat games and other strategies to help prevent practices of reactivity (screaming/barking) while still encouraging Piper to go on adventures. By Day 7, and Piper and M’Ocean both have earned the playmate of their dreams. Piper has also been exposed to 12 year old Bee and Piper is being super good about not bothering her at all. I just walked Piper through LLBean’s packed holiday celebrations, kids, dogs, crowds, and Piper was relaxed and didn’t make a peep! The next time he comes we will see how we can expand his social circle.

So no, we don’t use prong, choke, shock because that creates more anxious, stressed dogs. But Whole Dog Camp’s board and train is effective! The results of this sort of training cultivates a calmer, happier, more trusting and understanding canine companion.

This is a question I am often asked, and I see the question online as well. And no wonder: how often do we see “The Dog Whisperer” using food on his program?

But truthfully, if you “don’t want to use food,” your dog will die. You are going to “use food,” and every time you do, your dog will learn something about how the world operates, and how s/he can operate the world. F

In behavior science terminology, food is a primary reinforcer. That means, we are born with an instinctive drive to get food, and so the delivery of food reinforces (ie strengthens) whatever behavior happened right before the food was delivered. Other primary reinforcers for dogs are freedom, physical comfort, opportunities to sniff, hunt, play, socialize. Eventually, we will learn to use ALL of these primary (plus secondary) reinforcers to shape the behaviors of our dogs.

See one of my dogs laying nicely on a mat, in a quiet down-stay in a busy dog training hall? That’s my dog, “begging at the table,” except there is no table and the cue isn’t me sitting down at a table with a plate of food. The cue is the mat, and the context of where we are and what we’re doing, and they know if they lay there (you could call that “beg”) long enough, the wait will be rewarded.

Why is it that people often “don’t want to use food,”but they aren’t as reluctant to punish? Maybe food is inconvenient? Instead of delivering treats, Cesar Milan says “fsst!”, and then he uses (and sells) pinch/prong/shock/choke, and if you watch enough episodes with the sound turned off, you’ll see him choking, twisting a dog’s ear, or delivering his famous swift kick to the ribs (no close ups of that). But no food.

Use of force or punishment is reinforcing to us. It makes us feel powerful as we can see an immediate impact, it creates an illusion of control or success, but what we don’t see immediately is the longterm impacts. Using force and punishment builds uncertainty into dogs. It stimulates reluctance or resistance, avoidance in our pet, when what we really want is to get them to participate.

And just so we’re on the same page, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviorists just came out with a position paper, reflecting decades of research, that reinforcement based training is the most effective way to resolve any behavior problem. https://avsab.org/resources/position-statements/ .

So, learning how to most effectively, efficiently use food, as well as other reinforcers, is a key component of understanding how to train any animal. Food is not the only primary reinforcer. Freedom and movement, physical comfort, are also a primary reinforcers that pet owners dish out arbitrarily, unconsciously delivering reinforcement when dogs are barking at the door, pulling at the leash, or otherwise misbehaving.

Learning how to use food and freedom, as well as secondary (learned) reinforcers, such as toys, games, cues, allows dogs to become confident in how the world works. Instead of avoiding you (or Cesar’s “sst” which he often follows with a swift kick to the ribs or off camera ear pinch), your dog is orienting to you, and offering you behaviors that s/he knows will help the dog get where or what he wants. You’re working with your dog, instead of just trying to control your dog.

Using food consciously in dog training is like teaching your dog how to drive you, like you’d teach a kid to drive a car: this is always your gas pedal, and this is always brake. And the car doesn’t go by itself, you need to have the key and you need to know how to start, stop and steer the car. You need to know the rules. If you don’t know how to use primary and secondary reinforcers, but instead deliver reinforcers with a sprinkle of punishers haphazardly throughout the day, that would be like trying to teach someone how to drive when red sometimes means go. If you aren’t consciously aware of reinforcement and how you are using it, your dog will be confused about how to successfully operate your world.

Bottom line: yeah, you are going to use food. It’s impossible to avoid “using food.” So the bigger question is, do you know HOW to use food? That’s where we begin.

Cesar Milan has a new program coming out on National Geographic, so I thought it was time to update my opinion on his methods. I watched this program, and it had many of the features of past versions of his show, with some new surprises. https://youtu.be/Wm66HLT2j3E

Cesar Milan isn’t always wrong. After some legal and personal troubles ( https://www.bphope.com/cesar-millan-discusses-his-depression/) it seems he did take some training classes and supplement his so-called “natural” (“magical”) ability with dogs with some actual education. In this show and in some other examples, he is acknowledging fearfulness more often (whereas in the past he was often labeling it “aggression.”). But this is still all about entertainment playing off fear of dogs, and it employs his regular techniques.

1. Violence. It’s not Cesar Milan without a dog fight and/or bite, amirite?!? Bad animal handling makes for exciting videos. If there’s not a dog fight, some sort of blood (dental surgery?) ! But don’t try this at home. And not at my place either.
2. Editing to create a more dramatic storyline. Dun dun dun dun dun dun Hear the scary drum beat? and narration to make you feel this is a SERIOUSLY dangerous dog? It’s a golden retriever for crying out loud! But Milan manages to set up an aggressive incident so the viewer is wowed. First, he shows Leon with one dog, no reaction. Then, he’s got a dog fight a minute later. Milan says this is because the woman is in the picture, but the fight involves a different dog, and also Milan has brought toys ( a ball and a ball launcher) into the pen. We don’t know really what’s caused the fight, but we know Milan needed fight footage for his dog show.
3. He blames the woman, and her emotions. A consistent feature of Dog Whisperer episodes is editing to make women look like idiots, frequently playing clown music, but in this case playing a “danger danger” drumbeat. This makes it appear that her concern is A. wrong and B. the cause of the aggression. But look again. Competition over toys can often cause a dog fight. And we know that resource guarding is a common cause of this type of aggression. The woman knows her dog. But as usual, Milan doesn’t give advice about resource guarding, he takes no responsibility and offers no apologies. He delivers pop-psychology and congratulates himself for “stopping the fight before any dogs were hurt.” They even title this episode “Stopping a dog fight” because, it titling it “Cesar Causes another Dog Fight” wouldn’t sell as many ads.
4. Milan hides the ear twist. I saw the ear twist at 3:28. Did you? Funny that he doesn’t talk about that, but in past episodes I’ve seen him, on camera, deliver very swift kick to the ribs. Usually, he chokes dogs. And now this ear twist. Who knows what other techniques he employs on the dogs off-camera? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224252/Yes-I-dogs-electric-shocks-use-spike-chokers–Im-NOT-cruel-says-Hollywoods-favourite-pet-guru-Cesar-Millan.html That little “sst sst” intimidation sound he makes? It’s a warning, and Milan follows up on that. So, whatever you think about using punishment, he isn’t talking honestly and openly about these techniques on camera. Viewers are led to believe it’s just calm authoritative male energy that is subduing the REALLY DANGEROUS (not really) dog. But, the ear twist, kick in the ribs, choke and off-camera zaps mean that the relationship Milan is growing with the dogs isn’t a friendly one.

So I’ve seen all that before but there are some new twists to the “dog psychologist” schtick. This is the first time I’ve seen him traumatizing and injuring other species. Actually he calls it “herding” at 7:40 and then he takes that back, “not herding, just sheep and Lorenzo.” I’d call it chasing.

“Leon has been getting into fight after fight since he’s been here.” (whoa. And you’re still in business?!) “I want to give him a new job.” Show this to anyone you know who keeps sheep or lamas. The dog chases the animals and Milan is pleased at the dramatic shot of the terrified lama colliding, bash!, with the camera man. “Camera alright? You got a good shot there.” And then the dog is given another opportunity to chase, which he does until he is exhausted. Again, Milan treats the owner like she’s an idiot and applauds his mistreatment of the animals, asking her, “Have you ever seen herding?” The right answer would be, “No, Cesar, have you?” Because apparently not. How in God’s name is this produced by National Geographic?

M’Ocean became a lot more intense as he hit full maturity at 3 years old. The best way I can explain it is, he became more like a wolf. Yeah he’s got his Rally Obedience levels one and two but his 95 pounds of serious intact male German Shepherd was making it too risky for me to ever let him off leash in the real world.

Recently, after A horrible thing happened I started my new “adult dog” training plan by neutering him. The testicles have been gone three weeks, and I’m already beginning to notice some improvement in his energy and frustration level. I’m also grooming him daily. I’ve always noticed that dog cuddling and brushing is good for “gentling” dogs and now science can explain how friendly human’s gentle petting and grooming of dogs helps cultivate the cuddly friendly hormones. https://news.arizona.edu/story/hormone-could-be-making-your-dog-aggressive

And, after addressing the hormones, I’m harnessing his really big mouth. M’Ocean’s dog social environments have mostly been indoors or on leash. Outdoors, I’ve been cautious about socializing off-leash, as M’Ocean’s so powerful, he can easily overwhelm every dog we’ve ever seen. He’s done well in big groups, on this beach, when he was younger. Wearing a muzzle, and getting neutered for him is sort of like a golfer’s handicap. It knocks him down to size so he can’t lord over all the citizenry, at least, not with his mouth. And I don’t want him barking at other dogs or reacting, I’m going to wait until these dogs doing this stuff on the beach is old news, where he can just hang out and watch and feel bored, and then I’ll let him onto the beach. Check in here if you want to see how it goes, I’ll post what I try and how his dog-social behavior changes. Everything is always changing, right? Nothing stays the same, it’s either getting better or getting worse. He could still knock some over or squash another dog, but on a muzzle, he can’t bite. Disarming teeth can slowly open a new world of safer social possibilities for dogs and handlers.

I got this muzzle from ETSY (excellent buy! Bespoke Premium Leather Muzzle, listing #565458786) about one week ago. It’s made of woven leather, very strong, with little metal rivets. I lubed it with a little petroleum jelly. M’Ocean can eat, drink, bark, swim and (most importantly) SNIFF and practice tracking in it! Having a super comfortable muzzle helps dogs feel relaxed and “normal” while wearing it. They are just exactly what I was hoping to find!

Dogs act nice when they feel nice. Conditioning a friendly (Oxytocin) emotional response in connection with dog/dog social interactions takes time, and kindness. Some trainers get faster submission by conditioning intimidation, but unhappy emotional responses have many unhappy side effects! At three and a half years, M’Ocean is still a young dog. Dogs can live to be 15 years or older. This is still just the beginning of M’Ocean’s adventures with me.

Why I don’t teach or use “leave it.”

1. Because it’s doesn’t tell the dog what you DO want him to do. It’s a concept that is frustrating and confusing to dogs.
2. Because it can make the “leave it” item seem more valuable.
3. Because what will the dog do when you’re not looking? Sneak?
4. Because when I train a “drop it” cue, I can teach them to “drop it” in a basket or on a target or in my hand. When I cue “this way” I can use it in agility.
5. For all the same reasons we never use a “leave it” cue in agility.
6. Because people get grouchy/punitive when they say “leave it” and they typically don’t reward the dog even if he leaves it.
7. It they DO reward the dog they are often rewarding a problem behavior chain.(IE: the dog digs at the garbage in order to get a “leave it” cookie from you.)
8. Because when the default behavior is “wait for permission” we don’t need to say “leave it.”
9. Because when your dog is trained to get reinforcement from YOU, you don’t need to say leave it.
10. Cuing “leave it” is a lose/lose game.

Anything I should add to the list?

One day, I was upstairs writing and Dandylion was downstairs barking. I did NOT want to answer the door. I said “thank you!” several times, and finally, sighing, I went downstairs to see what the dog was barking at.

He was staring at the woodstove, barking his head off. The temperature gauge on the stovepipe was far above the dangerous red line. Chimney fire! Apparently a chimney fire makes noise! Who knew?!? I shut down the stove, gave Lion leftover chicken, called the fire department.

If Dandylion had been “obedient,” he would have shut up the first instant I said “thank you.” And the house might have burnt down, with me in it!

Canine eyes, ears, sense of smell are different than ours. Dogs can understand and do and know things that we can’t do or know. I like that. I want my dogs to trust me enough that they can disagree with me sometimes, and tell me what they know.

Once, we were fixing an old boat on a dock in Puerto Rico. It was nighttime, we were sleeping when Tigerlily started going nuts. I guessed feral cats, and told her “Thank you!” But she kept on barking, waking up the whole marina, racing up on deck, staring into the water, so I had no choice, I had get up. And oh look, there’s a teenager in snorkle gear getting ready to steal our dinghy! Good girl Tigerlily. Another time she woke us up barking because a junked ghost ship had broken off a mooring and was drifting up, about to smash into us. I learned to appreciate the value of seemingly “naughty” (confident, independent, communicative) behaviors.

Another time, I was renting out the house we’d built for extra summer income, and we were living in a nearby funky cabin. Our renter came to our gate needing some sort of assistance, and my dog Bee (this is well after Lion had passed away) went nuts, barking at the guy. How embarrassing! That’s my paying client! I’m afraid I spoke sharply to her. Stop that! Sit! So Bee gives me a look, but she is a good girl and she sits, I open the gate and the guy falls through, grabbing me on his way down, drunk as a skunk. Fortunately my husband was home and came out to see what the commotion was all about, but I apologized to Bee, and vowed never again to disrespect her when she was trying to tell me something.

Many many years before these dogs, I had a wonderful smooth coated St. Bernard, Sampson. I was working double shifts dispatching emergency services at a police department 4 pm til 8 am, and during the day me and Sampson would go to the local pond. I’d swim and sleep and he would just hang out, sleeping beside me, good as gold. One day I woke up and he was barking, I’ve never before or since heard barking like that, it was more like ROARING, circling around me.

I looked up to see three men headed towards me, with shovels on their shoulders. They were actually headed towards a little cranberry bog dike that was on the other side of me, to shovel it out. I tried to take Sampson’s collar, but he wouldn’t let me touch him. He just pranced in a circle around me, daring them to take one step closer. The workmen were forced to veer off, a big detour. My dog didn’t settle down til he saw them starting to shovel out the dike.

So, while I compete and train in obedience, I appreciate some “dis-obedience” in my dogs! Brains are good. I don’t want dogs to stop thinking. I try to help them develop their brains. I try to be more like their guru, and less like a prison guard.

If we are going to work or play together effectively, they need to trust and understand me. I need to understand them. So I’m not so much aiming to “command” them around , but we’re building skills so we can share a better life. I have dogs because there are things we can know and do with dogs that we could never do without dogs. Why do you have your dogs?

In 2016/2017 my husband and I sailed to the Bahamas and back with 2 dogs aboard. Along the way, we visited many elementary schools where I would play my guitar and have the dogs do some tricks and explain how a little bit about the amazing field of behavior science.

I called my program “How Animal Trainers Make Big Problems Littler,” and I got my husband to participate. It was a wonderful adventure, and my husband just published a story about the trip on one of our favorite little sailing magazines. They put me and my dogs on the cover! It was a great adventure and I’m so grateful that we got to do it. Here’s the link: http://www.pointseast.com/our-current-issue/

My 3 year old german shepherd dog is intact. This was on the recommendation of my veterinarian, who suggested if I am not having a problem with my dog’s behaviors, his reproductive hormones actually come with a host of benefits. I’ll let you google all that, but recently I noticed a potential downside.

We were out walking in the woods, and he began sniffing around in a manner that I’ve never noticed before. It wasn’t the way he sniffs when he is checking our a squirrel or deer poop. And a thought flicked through my mind. “I wonder if a coyote in heat might leave scent that is fascinating to a dog.”

Kind of a scary thought. I definitely don’t want my dog to discover that he could take off on me to find a coyote or wolf in heat.

So I did some research and it turns out that wolves and coyotes typically go into heat January through March. It’s near the end of January now.

Fortunately M’Ocean has been really good at sticking with me, and when I see him start to sniff around and drift in his thoughts, I clip a long line to him. The issue I get is when I start heading home, and he doesn’t want the walk to end. So I’ve added a new trick, which is leaving a raw beef bone in a container just inside my gate when we head off into the woods. He seems to remember that I left it there, and it has a different impact than the treats I carry, that poor sad unguarded bone, hanging out all by itself. This seems to make him more interested in getting home, less interested in diversions that might prolong his walk.

I hear myself saying that a lot lately, and by that I mean, you need to use the parts of your brain that are about empathy, not “objectivity.” A dog is not an “object.” You are not an “object.”

I’m a firm believer in behavior science. So we do need to “count things” in behavior science. Maybe we can count how many barks, bites, successful retrieves, how many repetitions of undesirable behaviors. Count how many nuggets of meat, how many seconds, minutes duration, latency. How many weeks, months, years of sustained performance.

That’s the science. That’s the way we collect data and evidence, that’s the way we assess success or failure, but that’s not the way we APPLY behavior science.

We apply behavior science via lifestyle. That’s where we see behavior play out. Sure, exercises are good, but we can’t just take one behavior we observe at toilet time and deal with that separate from the whole picture of an organism’s life and environment. One behavior is connected to the next. The whole picture, as I see behavior science, is about understanding the importance of “lifestyle.”

So, more on that later, but with rocket science, we also aren’t sharing breakfast with the rocket. We don’t need to empathize with a rocket. But we do need to understand how rockets work. Rockets have rocket fuel. Dogs and people have reinforcement. Reinforcement is a lot more complicated than rocket fuel.

And it’s “all relative!” What’s reinforcement? I can promise you it isn’t always “petting,” and not always “roast beef” either (though I’ll take the roast beef when I’m training my dog). Dog’s won’t always take food. An icy orange popsicle is only appealing certain moments, but at that moment!! There’s nothing better! Understanding reinforcement isn’t rocket science. Not at all. It’s much more complex.

And when does reinforcement begin? Did it begin before you even give your dog a cue? When you stick your hand in your pocket to get the treat? Or maybe when you were chopping it up on the counter? Maybe the reinforcement began when you said, “sit!” And definitely when you put the food in the dog’s mouth, UNLESS you have a handful of treats, and you put one treat in the dog’s mouth, and you take six treats away (from the dog’s perspective).

Oh yeah, there are things to count, in the warp and weft of behavior and environment. Yes we can numerically influence behaviors by making specific changes to the environment. Well okay. I guess that is kinda like rocket science.

Trust me

Some say, “I don’t care WHY the dog does this, I just want him to stop!” And if you don’t care why dogs resource guard, read something else. But I find helpful to wonder why. When I think about it, “resource guarding” might be a somewhat “normal,” or understandable, defensive response.

Picture your reaction if someone tried to steal a bite off your plate . That happened to me once, and I almost snapped! Imagine if someone borrowed your bed, car, boyfriend or job without getting your permission first! It may be somewhat “instinctual” for us to guard, hide and protect our stuff,  but aggressive behavior around resources is expressed where resources feel threatened, or where there’s a sense of competition over a limited resource. Imagine if you felt there was only so much water to go around. Maybe you’d fight for your share?

Some dogs learn that dramatic noises or behaviors chase away “threats.” And oh, the feeling of power when another dog runs away squealing! Apparently it’s a bit intoxicating, and unfortunately, that powerful feeling can become a form of entertainment for many a bored dog.

As always, first, rule out any physical issues with your veterinarian. Tick-born diseases, thyroid disease, pain, dementia, seizures, rabies, toothache etc can all contribute to aggression arising in dogs. Veterinarians can also prescribe anti-anxiety medications which can make conditioning more relaxed behaviors easier.

Next, make an inventory of everything that seems like a problem. Write in a journal all the details that surround everything that goes wrong in your relationship with your dog.  Where do problem behaviors take place? What time of day? What’s the weather or other circumstances? Is someone cooking or cleaning or visiting? Is it noisy or quiet, hot or cold, bright lights or dark? Is the dog tired? Hungry? Are YOU tired hungry? Recently immunized? What is going on? Is the dog frightened? Excited? Bored? Is the dog hunting? Is the dog frustrated? What is the dog frustrated about or stimulated by?

Some dogs have been previously punished for growling, so they don’t warn you about their feelings. Instead of growling when they feel pressured, they go straight to a bite. So…don’t punish growling, and don’t punish dogs who take stuff. Say “thank you for letting me know!” to a dog that growls, and deliver yummy food rewards to dogs when you need to take something away from them.

A client dog, Barney, loved to aggressively guard almost anything. If a dog regurgitated on the ground and I cleaned it up, two days later Barney would be laying on the spot of scent, ready to startle any dog who dared approach. For Barney, resource guarding was pure entertainment. More addictive than facebook!  As soon as you see resource guarding, enlist your entire household to change the game into one that makes everyone, not just the dog, happy.  

Some recommend that you pick up and keep all resources away from the dog. That doesn’t work very well, as it is makes each resource even MORE valuable, and you can’t possibly pick up and put away every stinky spot on the rug. And what if the thing they are fighting over is you?

Instead try teaching the “trust me” game.  Many trainers call this game “trade ya,” and it should be a regular part of life with any dog. The idea is to show your dog that whenever you (or another dog) takes anything away from your dog, your dog gets “paid”  with something even better. Start the game by giving him something low value – maybe a cardboard box to play with, and then trade it with a piece raw beef. After he’s eaten the beef, give him back the cardboard box. That was easy!

You can also do this with dog/dog trades. If you see one dog steal a toy from another dog? Give the dog who lost the toy an even BIGGER prize. Reward your dog when the other dog takes his stuff.

Practice trades dozens of times a week. Practice saying “trust me!” as you take away the popped tennis ball and give him a hunk of chicken. When the chicken is gone, give him back an even better tennis ball! You want the trade to turn out better than the dog expected. Who wouldn’t love that? “Trust me” as you take away your broken eyeglasses (oops, hate it when that happens), and reward him with a piece of flavored rawhide. “Trust me” when the sibling dog takes away his favorite toy, give the sibling dog a milk bone and give the stolen toy back to the dog who loves it. If YOU are protecting your dog’s “special stuff,” your dog doesn’t need to protect it.

We aren’t rewarding the dog for stealing eyeglasses, we’re rewarding him for giving them back. After all, how can s/he  know which items are his/hers and which are not?  My three year old dog had one toy that he REALLY loved (till it was destroyed) and I gave it back to him every time his sibling dog took it. The next thing I knew, the two dogs were playing with the toy together! His confidence that it was “his” toy, that he didn’t need to guard it (because I kept giving it back to him) had increased to the point that he wanted to share it!

Our goal is to see tails wagging and happy eager ears whenever someone intervenes in whatever the dog is doing. Over time, dogs learn to “trust” that you kicked them off the bed … because you wanted to show them the raw chicken wing you “found” in the crate! They learn to “trust” that if another dog steals their ball, you give them a hotdog or another ball (or their special thing). They “trust” that there is PLENTY of good stuff for all! Over time they learn which items are available for chewing and which are not.

 Safety gear — leashes, gates, crate training, muzzle training—are essential, especially if you have kids or other animals, or your dog is displaying dangerous behaviors. But often, the biggest success comes with cultivating your dog’s sense of resource abundance and security.

 I cultivate resource security partly by flooding the environment with resources. You want identical resources. If I have six dogs, I dump out a bag of 24 brand new tennis balls. If one dog gets a dog bone, they ALL get dog bones and there are lots of extra bones too.

When dogs behave aggressively around food treats, if you can, practice with the dogs on opposite sides of a safe fence or gate. If this is too much, you could hang a piece of fabric over the fence to reduce the visual stimulation. Throwing handfuls of identical low value food (many tiny pieces, such as Cheerios, or pieces of bread, or “Charlie Bears.” ). You’ll have the dogs grazing on both sides of the fence. Throw the food far, abundantly, by the handfuls so dogs and treats are spread out, and the dogs sniffing around at a comfortable distance from each other. You can also try giving each dog long lasting chews on both sides of the fence, to help dogs habituate to seeing/smelling/hearing each other dogs eating, while safely separated, without experiencing any threat. Allow dogs to have the space and privacy they need.

Skills to learn:

Playing jump up and off is fun. Ask the dog to jump up, and then get off the bed, because you found some chicken over here!  Practice jump up and get off for a treat.

If you need/want to practice taking an item away from a dog, first play with a tug toy. Drop the toy and with one hand gently take the dog’s collar. Don’t touch the item in your dog’s mouth. Have an excellent food treat in your hand other hand. As soon as the dog drops the toy, yay, praise and give him the treat as you release the collar. Then, give him back the toy again, playing a little game of tug. Take the dog’s collar as before, while dropping, not touching, the toy. Wait and when the dog drops the toy, say “drop it!” This time give the dog a raw beef bone or something chewy and long lasting as you deliver praise. Pick up the toy and put it away. My goal is to teach dogs to “trust me” when I ask them to get off the bed or take the toy (or bone or dead mouse), and reward them highly!

Evaluate:  Are you reinforcing your dog(s) enough for sharing? Is there plenty of “good stuff” to go around, or is your dog being asked to share too much? Do you reward him EVERY time you take a toy or other item from your dog? Go over your inventory. What the dog is experiencing? When? Where? How can you make the learning process more fun for you and your dog? If s/he “trusts” you, she will want you to be in charge of guarding the resources!

Use it or lose it applies to social skills. Especially for younger dogs, under 3 or 4 years old, there is nothing better for their social skills than the experience of regularly having to use them.

So now what? How can we safely keep our dogs socialized through this period of “distancing?”

If you have your own little pack of dogs, you can help them practice self control, practice sharing and taking turns. There’s a lot to that, as dogs have an acute sense of what is fair and what is not. You have to be able to read your dogs. Rather than going into lengthy details on that, I’ll share a little video of me practicing a two toy game with my puppy, and the rest of the pack watching. I make sure everyone gets a turn (not all in this video) and when I give one dog a piece of rawhide, I make sure they ALL get a piece of rawhide.

If you have an “only” dog, rest assured that effective dog socialization can take place from a distance. When dogs can see, hear, and smell other dogs without having to worry about getting pounced on, they learn to relax. Distance helps dogs relax around unfamiliar dogs.

A well-socialized dog is rather like a well-socialized human being. They can play nicely with others when the situation calls for this, and mind their own business when the situation calls for that.

In the wild, the most frequent cause of death for wolves is other wolves. I’ve observed feral dogs maintain safe “getting to know you” distances from other dogs. At first they give wide berth. Over a period of days, they gradually dare to move closer, and even more slowly the attempt to share food. The “slowly getting to know you” period promotes peaceful pack behaviors. “Physical distancing” now is our perfect excuse to lengthen the “getting to know you” experience for community dogs.

It’s not our excuse to stay home, but to seek spacious outdoor environments with new dogs in the distance. Regularly seeing, hearing and smelling other dogs from a distance can benefit canine social awareness and skills more than wild paws-on play. We don’t give children the the keys to the car before they’ve graduated from drivers ed. Why should we give dogs off-leash close-ups before they’ve fully master social skills (and emotional self-control) from a distance?

Take advantage of this “distancing” time to re-fresh your training plan with your dog, and commit to educating rather than just trying to “wear out” your dog. Simple training plans can be very fulfilling and enriching. Load up on hotdogs, put him on a long line, and practice calling him to your for a treat. Having more distance between your dog and other people and dogs should make it easier for your dog to practice success! After your dogs understands the game, only food reward the prompt responses, and the dog will learn to respond faster!

Get outside in the fresh air, where you have plenty of space. It’s not a bad idea to wear a bandana as a face mask, and protective eye glasses, and have wipes convenient to wipe your hands. By now you likely know the hygiene rules. You’ll want to bring and use your own gear and treats, carry your own poop pick up bags. Don’t pet each other’s dogs. We can do it! During this period, if we play it right, our dogs will be learning to ignore each other. That’s not a bad thing!

I had a student once who exclaimed, “I don’t care why the dog does this, I just want him to stop!”

Clients like this are the bane of dog trainers, not because we don’t enjoy a challenge, but because our goal is to make you happy. If you don’t want to know why a dog does something, we’re not going to force the information on you.

Most pet owners, like trainers, do care about why dogs behave the way they do. But many are afraid to know whatever it is we don’t want to know, and frequently we don’t want to know how our behavior is driving the dog’s behavior.

Dog training can feel more embarrassing  than a nude dance class.  Your dog reveals all your flaws.  To spare your ego,  your trainer might let you blame your dog for whatever your dog is doing.  Do you need to step up your training , improve the value of your reinforcement, train your dog to wear a head halter? Your trainer might tell you once, but don’t expect him or her to tell you twice, twist your arm, or the leash connected to it. After all, the dog isn’t paying for these training classes!

Am I right?

So here’s your warning:  your teacher will grow to  tell you what you want to hear, because if she is telling you stuff you don’t want to hear, you will find another trainer.

I just realized recently that my doctor never told me when I was getting a bit overweight. My weight was “average” for a woman my age, but not really my healthiest weight. After I lost twenty pounds I started to wonder why he never mentioned that really, I had technically become almost obese. I’m a healthier weight now and so it’s easier for me to see where I was going wrong before.   And I realized,  my doctor didn’t blurt out “you’re getting fat!”  for the same reasons it is often hard to tell dog-clients, no matter how carefully, anything that sorta means, “you’re not doing it right!”

To advance and grow as dog trainers, we have to believe that we can do better. It’s nice to believe you’re doing great, until it means you aren’t growing as a trainer . Don’t worry,  your dog training instructor isn’t going to give you a “C-” !  You’ll just never know what you don’t know. These classes are electives. You really need to go after your education, challenge yourself (that’s why competitions are so helpful) if you want to grow.

Is dog training an adventure for you, or a chore? Cross species communication, reinforcement schedules, behavior science, cognition:  dog training is a delightfully enlightening hobby, that helps us make more sense of the world.  And since you have a dog anyway… grow with it! And when you can handle knowing more, your teachers will show you more! 

It does no good if you can’t or won’t do the things a leader suggests to you.

You won’t learn if your focus is on the dog, and changing his or her behavior. To be a successful animal trainer, the focus has to be on changing our own behavior, because that’s how we can best shape the behaviors in our environment(s).

So, if you know right from the start that you don’t want to crate train, or if you are sure that the problem is something wrong with your dog that has nothing to do with you, then maybe I’m not your teacher! If you think that animal training is a sort of magic that is completely different from the ways we educate and socialize our human children, then maybe I’m not your teacher.

Animal training, in my experience, is about building a relationship based on trust with the animal. It’s about learning where reinforcers and punishers exist in the environment, and learning how to control consequences to help our animals adapt to our environments and understand our rules and games. It takes time. And just like humans, animals can unlearn things as fast as we learn them. Animal training requires a consciousness of YOUR responsibility for the state of your dog’s behaviors.

We control our dog’s environment in order to control available reinforcers. For many dogs, but not for tiny ones, a head halter gives you great control over a dog’s environment. Crates, gates, mats, doorways, fenced in yards, rooms in the house, hallway, in and out of the car: each one of these environments can be very carefully controlled to help condition a dog’s responses to distractions and exciting transitions.

But if we can’t control our own behavior, our dog’s behaviors won’t change.

So, that’s the challenge in animal training: we have to be fine with the idea that behavior modification is about us, too. I make mistakes every day, and everyone does! I open the door and the dog goes out. “Oops.” It really doesn’t destroy my training plan, it’s just our quirky imperfect style. Perfection isn’t perfect! If you don’t value mistakes as a natural part of the learning process — and powerful opportunities for growth – then maybe I’m not your teacher.

But if you want to create a plan to feel better and have more fun with your dog; if you aren’t afraid to use real “choice” (rather than force) to motivate your dog; if you expect dog training to be a lifelong activity that you do with your dog, and not just a temporary thing that you can do and it’s “done,” then  I would love to share what I know with you!

I like the idea of reinforcement based training, that’s how I see my approach, but part of reinforcement based training involves understanding the function of punishment, and noticing where it is, what it does. Maybe the best way to describe a training method grounded in behavior science is to observe how trainers control both reinforcement and punishment.

Understandably, it’s harder to observe behaviors shrinking and disappearing, than to notice and observe growing behaviors. Punishment is the function that shrinks behaviors. And most often, punishment is unintentionally shrinking behaviors the trainer WANTS.

Punishment can interfere with creativity, make an animal nervous, avoidant, less interested in the game. It can demotivate dogs. Very often, I notice people are “flattening out” their dog. They want him to behave so badly, they’re like back seat drivers, turning the dog into a passive puppet on strings. To achieve all that is possible with a dog, I think I need to encourage my dogs to think, not just “obey.” That means I have to let the dog make mistakes, have choices, learn from their own decisions, help me solve problems. Seeking “obedience” in dog training might lead towards more authoritarian body language and unintentional punishment, than training aimed more at enrichment, education, cooperation, and games of choice.

Trainers need to be aware of any punishment or reinforcement in the environment, and how it may be influencing our dog’s behaviors. Often, we need to condition our dogs to reduce the impacts of a sometimes punishing environment. That’s the core of communication. We control reinforcements and punishments to reduce suffering and strengthen cooperation.

Understanding behavior science is like understanding gravity, or even more, it’s like understanding chemistry. Understanding all the environmental elements of reinforcement and punishment, how they go together to impact behaviors, we can begin to recognize what shapes our own behaviors, not just our pet’s behaviors! This is one of the fun rewards of training with your dog!

In dog training, you’ll often be told to say nothing. And I don’t mind that. People talk too much, I know that, I definitely talk too much, and our mindless babble can easily confuse, distract or distress a dog who is trying to THINK!

But then we might also get told to manipulate the dog with the leash, to tug him this way or that, to give him a pop if he starts heading in the wrong direction. And that’s not saying nothing! It’s better to use your words.

One reason people tell you to “say nothing” is because otherwise we might say words that are not conditioned cues, that are not providing clear information, that distract the dog. All good points, but don’t think that physical force has greater clarity, because it doesn’t.

I’ve trained verbal directional cues for two decades, mostly with my water dog Tigerlily. Once, we dropped her off the boat into moving water to retrieve a sinking much-loved baseball cap. We were cheered as she responded to my verbal cues, which were probably something like this: “Oopsie! Uh oh! Turn! Yay! Circle circle circle! Good girl! Get it! Yay!! Yay!” and she dove and saved it just as it started to sink.

When dogs know what they are doing, of course we want to say little and stay out of their way.

But when we can give the dog useful information (I knew where the cap was sinking), it’s nice to be able to tell her. Also  in the clip above, if I said nothing my dog would be wolfing down the rotten grass compost my husband helpfully spread yesterday.

When we positively condition response and meaning to each one of these words, I can use verbal cues, not manhandling, to motivate my dog.

All animals seek information. Verbal cues can be like little hotdogs of information. Not that way, but this way? Yes? This way! Yay! Yay! Yay! I’ve got it!!!” Responding even to the “no reward marks” are associated with a big win!

Videotape trials and examine body language and words. What  untrained or confusing signals do we see?  Does the dog cringe or deflate, or hit their stride with greater confidence? Verbal cues can be used to increase drive and joy, as well as potential for success, in both handler and dog.

You don’t have to be sniffing butts to be socializing. Socialization, for us as well as for our puppies, involves  success in a wide range of environmental challenges. Socialization is about building confidence, a history of good experiences,that helps your dog set his/her expectations in a positive way.

I adopted an eight week old german shepherd puppy 4 weeks ago, and as we are hoping to join a Search and Rescue dog team,  great socialization is essential. He needs to be able to respond to people, other animals, environments  with calm confidence.

My puppy’s breeder gave M’Ocean a jump start by exposing him to a variety of environments, horses, chickens, cats, adult dogs, kids. And since I brought him home at 5 weeks ago, we’ve gone to puppy classes each week in at several different locations, we’ve been to adult dog seminars, scent work classes, we’ve met  people on ferry boat rides, in the ferry terminal, at the YMCA, in a horse barn, friend’s homes, sheep and cow barn. We’ve visited country parks and city parking garages. He’s been in elevators and  visited cats, ducks, chickens, goose. Mo has played on beaches, in pack walks, at parties, around bonfires, on docks. I keep a journal recording each new place we go, and we’ve been doing something quite interesting every single day. Sometimes social events are short,  but always sweet!

Socialization is about learning to cope with many different environments. It’s about being comfortable while alone as well as in a crowd. Think about how we socialize as humans. We don’t  entertain every stranger we meet nor shake hands with every person we see as we cross a sidewalk. We learn  to maintain a socially appropriate distance, and not touch or interrupt !  And that’s what we need to teach our puppies as well. Puppy playgroups that include free-for-all puppy romping might be unintentionally teaching your puppy the wrong lesson entirely.

Good socialization does not require physical romping, but it does require you take along your puppy to many different activities. Here are some suggestions.

1. Socialize your dog with friendly nicely mannered adult dogs. Adult dogs with good manners won’t jump all over your puppy, but they can be very helpful in helping your own dog develop nice manners.   I’ve been bringing my puppy to agility classes, taking a noseworks class and tricks classes. Even though my puppy is too young to go over jumps, he learns a lot by relaxing as he watches other dogs working.
2. Keep your dog safe and just say no. We wouldn’t let a stranger knock over your child or even pat your child on the head, right? Just say “no” to fly-bys and treat any  interaction with a stranger the same way for your dog as you would for your kids. Example: Recently I was at the ferry terminal, and a young woman had a large young dog who was staring and pulling towards my puppy. My pup started to bark. The woman said, “Is it okay if I let them meet?” I said, “not while my puppy is acting like this!” My puppy settled down and then he visibly sighed with relief as they headed off in another direction. When  your dog knows that you are not going to force him to put up with unwanted advances of pushy strangers, your dog is going to relax a lot more. He’ll learn to trust your judgement.
3. Greetings should take place when everyone is relaxed. I can’t tell you how many times people with dogs dragging them down the street have said to me, “My dog is much better once they sniff! Can they sniff?” That’s kind of like saying, “My kid stops screaming once I give him the icecream.” Sometimes it reminds me of a drunken uncle charging towards a child, “let me pick you up!” Eek! I only let my dogs physically connect with others when when all the dogs are responding to their handler and behaving politely.  I’ve gotten very good at saying no, and my dogs really appreciate that.
4. Don’t try to use dog parks or dog daycare to “wear out” your dog. Dogs that are being “worn out” by other dogs may develop an undesirable emotional reaction to other dogs.

Socialization is not about wearing out your dog. It’s about exposing your dog to many safe environments, and many variations in those environments: alone, and in groups, day, night, sunshine, rain, snow, city, country.

Today my puppy experienced his first elevators, and also his first parking garage! Tonight we are going to a nose works class. Socialization is a lifelong process, not just for puppies, but forever! What good places do you go to socialize your dog?

There is nothing like having a german shepherd puppy to develop more empathy for clients who complain about biting puppies.

My now 11 week old puppy hasn’t drawn blood yet, but like many puppies, he explores the world with a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. The other day I was trying to put on my socks and boots to keep him from biting my feet but he was biting my socks and pulling them off faster than I could put them on! Someday, this might be a useful trick, but for now, it’s like having a pet shark!

Many of my clients tell me they try to turn their back on their bitey puppies, and then they show me the scars to prove it.  Don’t stand there and let your dog bite you! If your dog is biting, kindly separate him from you, with a gate. You want your dog to find out that when he starts biting, the party with you is over.  And here are some other tricks to dealing with this.

1. Tired puppies are bitier puppies. This is REALLY important and very true.  My pup has a nap schedule and when he starts to get tired he gets definitely like “let me bite your arm! your face! your hair!”  When I’ve had enough, he has also had enough. I put him down for a nap with a good chewy thing in his crate, and he wakes up much more gentle and calm. At 11 weeks, he seems to be sleeping two hours, then awake two hours all day long, but then he sleeps 10 hours through the night. Puppies, especially large breed pups, need a lot of sleep.
2. Give him something else to bite. Sometimes, I stick his own paw in his mouth, or his tail and that seems to be very helpful in helping puppies learn not to bite so hard. It’s convenient too!  I keep other toys conveniently located too (tied to my belt), ready to redirect and engage his play in a positive way. People worry about rawhide, but I use small pieces of rawhide (just one “rawhide chip” a day) and my pup chews and chews and chews and turns it into gum. That seems much safer to me than the raw beef bones which he turns into shards of glass. Carrots are good. Half a pig ear is good. Dogs need to chew, rip, bite. Provide them kongs and bones and paper bags.
3. Collar grab/ drop it games. I practice toy games so that he learns “drop it.” If he won’t drop my pants leg, sleeve, or toy, I gently hold the collar and wait, being as still and boring as I can be so that now his “toy” is inactive.  The instant he drops whatever he’s grabbed, I release the collar and reward (often with a game of tug)! If he re-grabs my pantleg, I re-grab his collar. I aim to be gentle and just hold the collar, freeze, while he figures out that dropping his mouthful means I drop his collar. If I don’t feel like more games of tug, I reward the drop by feeding.
4. While sometimes I can’t help but shriek “ouch!” and sometimes shrieking might let provide good information for a puppy, other times it might be more rewarding to bite you if you shriek! Puppies don’t understand that they are not supposed to make us shriek. So I try to set myself up to be “bite proof.” My boots mean he can’t herd me if he bites my ankles. Gloves mean I have the upper hand. Sleeves mean he can’t bite my arm and I still am going to pick him up. My goal is to teach him that his bites do not influence my behavior. I’m in charge, bitey puppy or not.
5. Use lots of food and chew toys to keep his teeth where they belong while you are socializing your puppy. Give him big soft toys to chew, and these will give him something to do with his mouth while the kids are patting the puppy. Warn people, kids especially, not to yank hands away. Keep very close tabs on when you socialize your pup (NOT when he’s tired!), and separate him with a gate if he is in a bitey mood.
6.  Condition your puppy to love a head halter and crate. That means, a crate is not just a place to lock your dog up at night, but we use it as a training tool, and it’s associated with lots of reinforcing opportunities. We always give a chew when the dog goes in the crate, even if I’m putting him in the crate because he’s being bitey. If he is biting a lot, playing intensely as a pup, you know you have a good dog with a lot of drive and you’re going to need him to love that gear when he is a teenager. Train train train.Self control is a learned skill, it’s not something any dog is born with.
7.  Teach a hand target, and only mark and reward when he targets your hand with his nose, don’t reward when you feel a tooth.
8. Deliver food rewards to the tongue, not the tooth. How to practice: Put peanut butter in the palm of your hand, and present your closed fist to your pup.  When you feel his tongue “click” and open your hand for the puppy to lick the peanut butter, but if you feel a tooth, take away access to the peanut butter.
9. I play with my puppy in all the ways you should never greet a strange dog. I stick my fingers in his mouth  and stick my face in his face (while carefully guiding his mouth safely away from my face. I  try to get him used to biting gently. In some situations, if he is being too intense biting on my hand, it works to stick my hand a little bit further into his mouth, rather than yank my hand away. When you yank your hand away, that can unfortunately reward the dog for biting and also rip open your hand. Instead, if you go in the opposite direction and move into his bite, he probably will back right off.
10. I change my expectations. Puppies explore the world with their mouth. I don’t expect my puppies to never bite, but I know that they will. I help them find out what kind of biting is part of our games,  and what kind of biting ends our fun games.

His name is Mocean, or Mo for short. I’ve had him 2.5 weeks. I have a training plan that I keep taped on the fridge, I fill it out in pen as the day goes on, then at the end of the week, I enter that as a simple training record on an Excel file. At the end of each week I modify that file by adding in a few new exercises fields, and then monthly I’ll start with a whole new training plan.

So, among the things I’m doing daily, is desentizing the puppy to various training tools, ie: crate, dremel, brushes, blower, pen, leash,booties,harness and chief among them is head halter. Every day I practice feeding him through his head halter and taking it off. At this point now I am clipping it on him completely, with no leash but that clip attached to his collar and heeling around the living room. I like this type of head halter to start, as it isn’t so easy to wipe off with a paw, but we will eventually graduate to the simpler “Gentle Leader.” I want him to be super comfortable and relaxed with his head halter, because he is going to be a big dog. Head halters are valuable learning tools, and once the dog is demonstrating learning and understanding, then it’s easy to fade and eliminate the head halter (and then fade and eliminate the leash). Here’s a video I did that demonstrates how we ultimately fade the head halter. Head halter 

But how do you fade a prong, or a body restraining harness? Beats me. So I train to a head halter, and also to a non-restrictive harness. I would never want to use a no-pull harness because when my dog is on a harness (for skijoring or tracking), I want him to pull! The body harnesses we use are unrestrictive as possible, and I allow pulling and sniffing when on harness.   Sled dog type cross back harnesses can help me cue  my dog to track, scent, or pull ahead of me.

But when I want a dog to “walk nicely?”  Head halters help dogs learn that trick much faster than any other system.  I think of it as being very similar to handling the reins of a horse: f you are a gentle responsive handler, you can teach your puppy to be respond very well to gentle handling. There’s no need to jerk/choke/shock or yank on a leash.

I did a pet behavior survey where I asked pet owners what type of gear they used, and whether they were successful in teaching loose leash walking. Some pet owners tried 6 different types of collars and harnesses, and still struggled in vain to teach their dogs to walk nicely. Head halter trainers stood out as the group that seemed to have the least difficulty not just with leash walking but with their dogs in general. When dogs aren’t simply “managed,” but when they actually “learn,” then they have the opportunity to earn more freedom. That means, they don’t get utter freedom as puppies and then grow up to be a dog in a straight jacket, but we dole out freedom incrementally, and they earn ever more freedom as they  grow.

There are a few different kind of alerts that you might want to teach your dog. The natural alerts, ie: “someone is in the driveway!” Or maybe the not so natural alerts, as when you train a dog in hearing service behaviors ( “there’s a weird noise coming out of this machine!”) or Search and Rescue,  where a dog might notify you, “I found the missing person!” 

Regardless of the sorts of alerts you are thinking about training, there are a few that you already might know how to train, and these are good behaviors to think about for examples in how you are already training alerts.

For example, does your dog tell you he needs to go outside to go to the bathroom? Maybe you’ve taught him that you will open the door when he bashes a bell, or maybe he whines at the door, or maybe he comes and says “woof” and you know to follow him back to the door. You’re rewarding his alert (whatever it is) with following him to a “reinforcement zone,” or “reinforcement machine.” You operate that machine by letting him out to do his business.

At the simplest level, this behavior equation is:  Dog offers behavior,  you reward it by following him to a “reinforcement machine” that you know how to operate.  We can change the conditions in the formula.   What do we want the dog to do to alert us to act? How can we help the dog discover how this “reinforcement machine” is operated?

To help me think through what sorts of alerts I want  with my new puppy, I’m experimenting with training several different “alert” alternatives  in my older dogs. I’m re-training really, as they have previously learned other alert behaviors, and so of course they begin with offering those old behaviors (Bee steps on my feet to alert me to a sound machine, or they bark me to come), but they are quick to understand a few simple new rules to our old games.

Today I began with anew alert, but previously conditioned RZ.  Individually, training one dog at a time, I click and treat the dog to “nuzzle” my toy,  I have two  balls on a rope that we haven’t played with  before. Click and reward that behavior, then “yay! Okay! Show me! Mat” And  back on the mat we have the big reinforcement party.  In these games, Bee to learn that the nuzzle is what gets me on my way to the RZ,  I fade the old cues to go to the mat, but she heads to the mat anyway for a treat after nuzzling the toy. From here, all I need to do is elaborate on the conditions in which I am willing to play the game.

With hearing alerts, it’s too easy to ignore  sounds that you can hear, but if you want your dog to alert to things you can’t hear, you’ve got to reinforce many times when you didn’t really need your dog’s hearing assistance. I want the dog to think, “oh maybe that’s one of those sound game things! I’ll show Mum! She rewards me when I let her know.” It’s really very similar to what happens when the dog thinks, “oh there’s that “I need to pee” sensation ! I’ll alert Mum because she rewards me when I let her know.”

The hard part about training any alert is that if you ignore the alerts, then alerting behavior is not reinforced and it goes away. The good news is  if you don’t open the door when the dog scratches at it, he’ll stop scratching at it. But he still might pee on the floor. So what alert behavior do you want  to reinforce? Ultimately, we want the natural dog’s sensory awareness (I need to pee! Or, I hear a funny noise! Or, I smell something!) to cue an alert behavior and set off your reinforcement machine. Subtle body language might be all you need to understand that he is alerting you to his need to go outside, but if you want him to alert with bigger behavior, you need to condition bigger alerts. If he pulls at your sleeve, or nudges your toy, click and treat that behavior and then further reinforce it by bringing him to a RZ .  Never ignore that special nuzzle. The alert becomes the dog’s way of cueing you into a RZ operation!

I found my puppy! I believe he meets all of the criteria of my search ( see https://wholedogcamp.com/2017/05/13/is-this-my-puppy/ ) except he will be bigger than I thought. Since I don’t REALLY want even a 50 lb dog landing on my back, or catching too often in my arms, probably a 95 lb dog has other advantages, such as leaving me feeling safe to walk in the woods where we have coyotoes and who knows what else.

I’ll call him Mo, short for M’Ocean, and someone will call him a Mofo or Mr. Mojo, Mopey mope, Mosey Mo, Moshe, Mosheski M’cean motion,   I haven’t even met him in puppy yet and I’m in love. Quest M’Ocean Von Kleinenhain.

The breeder sends me new pictures and video every other day, and we plan to do a facetime! I found this breeder through a fellow trainer, who met this competitor who has german shepherds and competes in the same venues (agility and rally) and she knows the dogs and knew there was a litter of dogs on the ground whose parents all have SAR credentials. The breeder had three males, 4 weeks old, all the dogs in the line health tested and trialed and she was considering which one she might keep. I told her my training plans, we facebook messenged like mad, and she sold me this puppy I’ve been calling Mo.

Albert just gave me a birthday card (I’m now 59!!!) with Mo’s picture on it! Happy birthday to me! He will fly in from Kentucky when he’s 8 weeks of age (in about 2 weeks)! Here’s  my training plan for introducing Quest M’Ocean to my 13 year old dog, my 8 year old dog, and our world. We’ll find out how many times I have to change my plan as we go! But my hopes are as follows:

1. I’ll walk in the door with Moses in my arms. My dogs will come around and I well explain. “No Tigerlily, this is for Bee.” I’ll gate Tigerlily off separately. “Bee, is this your baby! Yay! Are you ready? Bee! Yay!  puppy!!  Sorry Tigerlily, no no, this is for Bee.” I’ll have Albert videotape this.
2. I’ll do the above for about 2 minutes, and then take the puppy outside, and then crate in the room with me and my other dogs. In an out of the crate and other pens and yard, under constant close supervision.
3. Today. I am already setting up crates and gates. When I don’t have the puppy in my arms, I’ll have him in the thick of things, but contained in some variation of crate/x-pen or smaller gaited room, never walking around the house unattended until he’s fully housebroken, beginning around one year of age.
4. Already, I’m pestering and questioning and driving my breeder nuts to hear about all the things she is doing that will influence what work is ahead of me at the start of the monumental journey of conditioning Mo’s association to people, toys, mat, dremel and blowdryer, crate, head halter, birds, sheep, cows horse cats kids wheelbarrows, bicycles, brooms, hats, police men, nighttime, etc. . The whelping pen has a big influence on puppy temperament. I feel lucky that my breeder is experienced and a trainer as well as a breeder.
5. To the best of my ability, my plan is to condition Bee and Tigerlily to view Mo as a prize, a reward, a special and limited opportunity, a new toy. Or at least, like the halter, something tolerable and they can control with good behavior and never need to resort to obnoxious behavior to discipline the puppy. So Mo himself will be hopefully conditioned as a reward , in limited doses as reward for cued/planned behavior. Then put him away when the reinforcement period is over! Short doses are easier to digest!
6. Planned trips: first, when he is 8.5 weeks, we will expand his sense of his place in our tribe by hanging out with our children/grandchildren and their small dog. I’ll carry him around  to visit our immediate neighbors. Veterinarian.  Then at 9.5 weeks, I’ll  carry him back and forth on the CBL Ferry boats, twice that week, hoping for nice exposure to school kids, dogs, passengers etc on the boat ride.  Sit on a bench and listen to kids in a playground, 20 minutes each day possible? Find friends with cats. Visit Cathy and her alpacas! Walk in island neighborhoods, where there are feral cats, visit horses, visit fire department?
7.  10.5 weeks, shots fully kick in and we can hang out around LLBeans where people often train dogs, go to Wolf’s Neck Farm on family day and smell some new smells, see some new sites, such as back bay Portland (East end beach dog park hours? Maybe?), start to introduce him to waterfront boats, docks, beaches,
8. I think I’ll call some of the local daycares or schools and see if they would enjoy a visit from a puppy, and learn about how we teach dogs with a clicker! And demonstrate how puppies learn, and how we can condition dogs to relax and settle down on cue, by taking special attention to the puppy and rewarding calm behaviors.
9. We will have at least 2 sessions per week of each: exposure and response to moving wheelbarrows, bicycles, brooms, rakes, vaccuum cleaners. Evaluate all the above and write next plan.
10. At 12 weeks, the waterfront park, training in front of LLBeans, have first visits in classes in various training facilities, foundations training begins in earnest.

I just participated in an interesting facebook discussion regarding what IS an animal behaviorist, and who has the right to put that “title” after their name, or even to use that phrase as a descriptive phrase when describing yourself as a dog trainer.

Legally speaking, you can give yourself any title you want, as long as laws do not require special certification or licensing for your title. As far as I understand currently, the term “dog trainer,” just like the term “animal behaviorist” is unlicensed, unregulated descriptive phrase and anyone can described as a dog trainer or animal behaviorist just as we can describe ourselves as herbalists, artists, left or rightists. Anyone can call themselves a “love nugget,” or “doctor of procrastination.”

Albert, Pa.Pa.

Bee, Doctor of Toes

A title is a little bit different. A title becomes part of the way a person is addressed on letterhead, or on a sign by the door.  For example, Joe Schmoe, Animal Behaviorist. Or Jane Smooth, Ph.D.  Or Donald Trump, President. When someone uses a phrase as a title,  we all expect some sort of justification for the title. Maybe an employer or University has awarded the title. There’s been an election. But also a title can also be self-awarded. Think Joe Schmoe, Herbalist, or Mary Contrary, Doctor of Unintended Spider Bites, Betsey Boop, Pet Psychic.

So, titles are a marketing tool. If you aren’t trying to sell something, rule over or influence someone, you don’t need a title.

For human beings, reputations and titles function strongly as reinforcements and punishments. Dogs don’t work hard simply because they want to be called, “Sampson, King of the Yard,” but humans do. I had a friend years ago who had a triangular sign on his front lawn over his name and the word “author.” So there are whole industries  built on the incredible value of  credentials.  There are many that are available.  Some of these programs are really great, some aren’t.  But you don’t need a credential to be many things, and the endless list of of what you could be without a license includes author, artist, cook, animal trainer and animal behaviorist.

A Veterinarian Behaviorist on the other hand is a licensed professional title for a Veterinarian who is versed in prescribing behavioral medications and treatment plans for stressed animals. They will have DVM after their name. That stands for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and you have to be licensed and graduate with a degree in Veterinary medicine to use that title or to describe yourself as a veterinary behaviorist.

In my business, I title myself “Head Trainer” because I want guests to know that the buck stops with me here.  I also describe myself as an herbalist,  animal behaviorist, performing artist. I have a bachelors degree from a self designed study in Animal Behavior and character development that I completed at Vermont College, but they gave me the initials B.L.A. and I think B.S. is what it should really be called so I don’t bother putting the initials after my name!

Animal behaviorists may be lay or professional practitioners of behaviorism. What’s the difference between an animal behaviorist and the many other sorts of dog or other animal trainers?

Behaviorists use terminology,research and concepts from the field of behavior science as it goes back to Pavlov, B.F.Skinner, Watson and other behaviorists. Here is a brief overview: https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/Cognitive-Development-in-Children-from-Watson-to-Kohlberg

You know you are working with a behaviorist where  instead of “training commands,” you learn how to  “condition a cue.” Instead of discussing your “energy” or “dominance,” or “pack behaviors” or “pack rank,” behaviorists talk about “stimulus and response,” “operant and classical conditioning,” “reinforcements” and “marker signals.”  Instead of “showing the dog who’s boss” by entering a door or eating a meal before a dog,  behaviorists show how the behavior of passing through a doorway is functioning as a reinforcement or punishment of desirable or undesirable doorway behaviors.

Terminology such as reinforcement and punishment are scientific terms. The biggest difference between what I will call “traditional” or “program” pet dog trainers and those who refer to themselves as animal behaviorists SHOULD be (if I was Queen for a day) that animal behaviorists use behavior science terminology correctly. Just as herbalists should be able to identify many different plants, animal behaviorists should be able to identify positive and negative reinforcements or punishments, cues, stimuli, etc.

Behaviorists, like behaviorism, focus on visible behavior and avoid straying into  Freudian or Jungian style analysis regarding sad childhoods or abused puppyhoods. Behaviorism is about  behavior as it is happening in the present moment. Behaviorists have learned to “see” emotions more as physical behaviors, maybe appearing as a surge of activity, or a depressed affect, or trembling and whining.  Behaviorists focus on behaviors that are  visible and avoid attributing emotions such as jealousy, anger, protectiveness, pride, shame laziness etc on behaviors. But people describe themselves all sorts of ways, and  there is no guarantee that any self-described “dog trainer,”  “pet psychic,” “behaviorist” or “whisperer” is describing their abilities accurately or simply marketing themselves.

As in any field of study,some “behaviorists” might also be economists, pharmacists, ethologists, or have credentials in a related or unrelated field. Some animal behaviorists are specialists in a particular type of behavior (flock, herd, human, pack, economic). But all behaviorists are interested in behavior science, and believe that behavior science has the best data, and researched strategies for understanding and shaping the behavior of any animal.   So, in addition to dog training, animal behaviorists might also be able to help you with your cat, bunny, birds, goats, horse cow and snake (But if it was me, I’d tell you to get rid of the snake!). 

Dear fellow dog trainers who are frustrated by those who give themselves some misleading titles, I hear you. I have an issue with people describing themselves Pet Psychics or Dog Psychologists, but even they have the right to do that and you have the right to market your services however you see fit as well. If you haven’t already done so, I invite you to read crack open the goldmine that is behaviorism. Get in the game with reinforcement marker signals,  operant and classical conditioning and matching theory. Empower yourself. Avail yourself of the science. Take classes, learn from the best. Continue to grow. And feel free to describe what you are doing in the most accurate language you’ve got.