A frequent complaint from clients about their dog is:
"But he KNOWS better..."
While I am always diplomatic in these situations and even sympathetic, the truth is that this type of thinking sets dogs up for failure. We not only expect our dogs to be better than dogs; we expect them to be better than humans!
Here is a short list of things that I have done even though, "I know better..."
Roll a stop sign
Bite my nails
Scream at my dog
Pee in a parking lot or public park
Eat cookie dough with raw egg in it
Go to the beach without sunscreen
Drink beer, wine & champagne in the same evening
Use my cell phone while driving
What I would love to say to my clients (if I didn't think it would seem rude, or hurt their feelings) is: "So, what!"
Lets say your dog does KNOW BETTER. Knowing is still just a small part of the equation. There are other/more important factors. Even without morals behavior is mitigated by:
Motivators: Motivation is HUGE. Even a very moral person might steal or lie if they were starving or under threat. Motivation is at the core of debates on torture because if sufficiently motivated you can drastically alter a beings "normal" behavior.
Consequences: The severity of a consequence, or the absence of any consequences CAN matter...but you can't control what is learned.. I got a $300 ticket for not wearing my seatbelt on a 1/4 mile drive to the corner store. Now I always wear my seat belt in small towns. I say CAN matter because despite fairly serious hangovers from partying too hard at weddings I continue to drink too much with old friends and I pay the price the next day.
Experience: There are technically consequences for driving and talking on a cell phone, but my experiences with this have been good. I have not had an accident, nor have I been ticketed... yet!
Setting: Could you explain to an alien from mars why peeing by a tree when camping is OK, but to do so in a public park could result in arrest for public indecency?
So the next time you find yourself thinking: "She knows better..."
Remind yourself, KNOWING just means that you CAN do something;
it has very little to do with the action you take.
This is true for humans; this is true for dogs.
AND, this is why creating good habits with your dog is far, far more important that teaching them to understand your rules, logic and/or potential consequences for not following them.
Related Blog: WHAT IS A CLICKER?
Modified Version: CLICKER TRAINING YOUR CAT.
A Clicker must be "Charged Up" before you can use it.
Teaching your dog what a clicker means is EASY!
Do it from the couch, your favorite chair, while cooking dinner, or working on your laptop.
The big trick is to remember that in the beginning there is only equation.
CLICK --------------> Dog Is Give A Treat.
HERE IS WHAT YOU DO.
1. Prepare 30-50 small pieces of TASTY Treats. Tasty is very, very important. I use tiny pieces of chicken or cheese.
2. Set the treats in a bowl or tupperware container. Be sure your dog can't reach them. Fiddle with them for a moment, but don't give any to your dog. In a way you are teasing your dog with the scent, sound and presence of the treats.
3. Get your clicker out. Show it to your dog & then pick up the treat container, but don't give your dog a treat... yet.
4. Make a plan for keeping your dog within earshot of the clicker: Close doors, or leash your dog. In my house sitting on the couch or standing in the kitchen seems to keep all the dogs nearby.
5. Look at the clock and plan on training for 20-30 minutes (This is a perfect TV show activity).
6. With your clicker in hand, start doing something. Watch TV, type, dishes -whatever!
7. Without warning press down on the clicker "CLICK!"
8. Now reach for the container and give your dog 2-3 treats. Do NOT call your dog to get the treats. This is room-service. You deliver the treat!!!! Toss it, hand it, whatever!
9. Continue doing what you were doing & ignore your dog. Ignore begging too! When your dog spontaneously stops begging, you will know they are almost "Clicker-Charged." A clicker charged dog doesn't need to beg, they just wait for the click.
10. Randomly reach for the treats or the container. Fake-toss your dog a treat. Pick up the container, etc... Each time you do this you will NOT give your dog a treat. This is an important step. You must un-teach your dog that treats = treats. You are "ruling this out" (nerdy trainer talk :).
11. In between DOING NOTHING & DOING RULE-OUTS, "CLICK" (just once) and THEN give your dog a treat (room-service, remember).
12. While Charging-the-Clicker" 40-50% of what you will be doing is: Nothing. 30-40% of the time you will be doing Rule-outs (taunting your dog with the container, fake-tosses, picking up treats and putting them back in the container. During this time, your dog is free to do what s/he wants to do, including sleep, ignore you, lick, stare, beg -whatever!
13. Only 10-15% of your time will be spent on CLICKING. Each click must happen randomly and be followed by a treat.
14. When your dog completely ignores everything (including fake-tosses & reaching into the treat container, AND ONLY looks excited when they hear CLICK, your dog is clicker charged.
15. Over the next 2-3 days, randomly CLICK and then immediately get your dog a tasty treat.
You are now ready to CLICKER TRAIN YOUR DOG!
>>>>>>STAY TUNED for TEACHING NEW BEHAVIORS WITH THE CLICKER!
Clickers are not just for dog training!
You can use clickers to train cats, rats and birds too. There is even something called Chicken Camp where trainers learn to improve their timing and clicker training skills. Zoos use clickers to train animals to lift lips and limbs, open mouths, bend down and perform other behaviors that make routine health checks less stressful for the animals and the keepers. Over the years, I have come to love training with clickers.
Perhaps you've wondered, "Could my dog be clicker trained?"
Any dog can be trained with a clicker. If you decide to try clicker training you won't need to use the clicker forever, or even all the time. Clickers and verbal praise can be used simultaneously to mark desired behaviors and/or variations in performance. They are most often used by trainers to teach dogs new things. Eventually the clicker is faded out, or shifted as new behaviors are taught.
WHAT IS A CLICKER?
Clickers (shown above) are small, hand-held tools that make a CLICK-noise when pressed with the thumb. Clickers are used when new behaviors are being learned or when known behaviors are being applied in new situations. Clickers MARK behaviors that are currently being rewarded. Verbal Markers can also be used to teach behaviors, but the crisp, clean sound of a clicker is preferable when trying to mark precise moments of a dog's actions. A clicker is like a high quality, professional camera that can take a photo showing drops of water falling from a glass. Whereas my phone-camera might only show a fuzzy blur of water. When used correctly, clickers make for crystal clear communication.
A. Standard, Box Clicker (Cheap & clear, easy to hear sound)
B. Karen Pryor's iClick (Raised button is easy to push with a gloved hand)
C. Triple Crown Clicker (Contours to hand and is comfortable to hold)
DO I NEED SPECIAL TRAINING TO USE A CLICKER?
A clicker is a tool; it can be used correctly, used incorrectly and abused. As with most tools, the product depends on the user. For example, if I was given watercolors, a brush and instructions to paint a portrait of your dog, you would get a picture of a dog, but you might not be impressed. Ask my mother, an artist, and you'd get a technically correct product with added style and artistic flair -a painting you could frame. Hands-on instruction and coaching from someone who has trained with clickers will give you an advantage, but what you really need is practice. The best thing to do is start using the clicker for simple behaviors.
Stay tuned... >>HOW WILL MY DOG KNOW WHAT THE CLICK MEANS?
Teach your dog to TAKE-A-BOW!
Many of my clients dogs have a hard time playing with and interacting with other dogs. These dogs often play well with well-known, "buddy-dogs" and demonstrates good play-skills in comfortable situations, but do poorly with new dogs or in new places.
With work the dog can learn to meet and greet the novel dogs without being inappropriate, but there is often no play. In these cases the dog-in-training often starts getting jumped by the other dogs (in a not so friendly way). This happens after the Meet-&-Greet, because the dog-in-training sniffs a hello and then just stands there stiffly. This is awkward and invites aggressiion -a sort of preemptive strike against the dog who is standing stiffly and giving everyone the willies.
In these cases teaching a PLAY-BOW can bridge the gap between meeting and becoming friends. It gives the dog-in-training something to do (besides standing awkwardly). Furthermore, despite its trained-awkwardness it gives the other dogs something to do too -they can respond with more playfulness.
How To Teach A Play-Bow
Dog is standing...
1. Take a small treat and place it on your dogs nose.
2. Let your dog smell and lick at the treat, but don't let them eat it.
3. Slowly, very SLOWLY move the treat from your dog's nose in a straight-line down to the floor (right between your dogs front paws).
4. If your dog bends her elbows (even a little) while her tail-end is still in the air (not a down), praise and treat your dog.
If your dog's bottom flops to the ground, pull the treat away, stand-up and move away form your dog. Wait until your dog is standing to begin again.
5. Keep doing this for 5 or 10 minutes everyday until your dog easily goes into the position shown above.
NOW ADD THE COMMAND
a. Call it something cute! I like: "Go play" or "New Friend"
b. Say this new phrase or the word, BOW
c. Then pause.... wait 10-15 seconds.
d. Now give your dog a HINT: lure the trick.
If your dog does it, praise and treat your dog.
e. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
f. When your dog finally does this after the command and BEFORE the hint, JACKPOT your dog with 7 or 8 treats all at once!
g. Repeat some more.
h. Take it on the road; try it outside with no dogs around.
Don't be surprised if your dog needs a review in new places or once dogs are around.
Include a picture of YOUR DOG'S PLAY-BOW.
Comment below & send the pic to: kelley@dogEvolve.com
Nicole's dog CLOVER
How serious is it when a dog fights?
Most dog fights are minor spats -I consider them playground scuffles. There's a lot of noise and a lot of commotion, but when the fight is interrupted, the dogs go their separate ways, shake-off the fight and resume playing as normal. However if your dog is consistently getting in fights you should contact a certified trainer or behaviorist so that the problem can be diagnosed and a behavior modification plan can be implemented.
The usual Cause-Of-Fight Suspects are:
1. The dog is uninterested/uncomfortable with other dogs. Dogs like this can appear to do fine at a park, but rarely seek out other dogs for play. they tend to go about doing their own things (sniffing, playing with a toy, or walking by themselves or with their people). Fights erupt when other dogs try to engage the loner-dog in play, try to sniff the unsocial dog, or inadvertently invade the sensitive dog's personal space.
2. The dog loves playing with other dogs, but gets carried away and the play tips into a fight. This is common with rough-players like young Labradors, Boxers, Bulldogs, Staffordshire Terriers, Jack Russell Terriers and Ridgebacks (individual dogs of any breed can enjoy rough play, this list is not complete by any means). Dogs that like rough play often don't take play-breaks to sniff or change roles (chaser vs. chasee) they simply keep mouth-wrestling until one or both dogs are unsure about the status of the game: Real or play?
3. The dog gets along fine with known dogs and often plays well within that social group, but guards resources from unknown dogs. Resources are anything the dog feels are valuable. Some dogs guard toys, some dogs guard their playmates and some dogs guard people, food and locations (the park bench).
More on Playful Body Language >>>click here.
More on Guarding >>>click here.
Whether your dog fights a lot, or has only been in one fight...
The seriousness boils down to ONE KEY QUESTION:
How much damage did your dog do to the other dog?
Dogs have what trainers, behaviorists and veterinarians call Bite Inhibition. This refers to the amount of tooth/jaw force used by a dog when they fight or defend. Bite Inhibition is learned when the dog is a puppy. At about 3-4 months of age, a dog's socialization window closes and the dog will have established their Bite Inhibition. Puppy classes include puppy-to-puppy playtime to increase the practice time puppies have and improve their Bite Inhibition skills.
Dogs with Poor Bite Inhibition (sometimes called a Hard Mouth/Bad Mouth) use greater force than is needed and cause damage: punctures & tears.
Dogs with Good Bite Inhibition (Soft Mouth/Good Mouth) limit the force that they could use and do little to no damage when they bite: yelp, brusie, scrape.
More on Bite Inhibition (appropriate corrections in play) >>>click here.
What it means...
Bite Inhibition cannot be re-learned, trained, or punished out. A dog that fights vary rarely, but who causes serious damage (veterinary care and sutures required) is far more dangerous than a dog that fights all the time, but never leaves a mark.
If your dog has seriously injured another dog, the prognosis for rehabilitating the dog's Bite Inhibition is poor. Dogs that cause damage, even if they fight rarely, should be muzzled at the dog park. Exceptions are rare and I limit them to ear-tears. Ears are thin, tear easily and bleed profusely. But exceptions are rare and this decision is left best to training professionals.
So if you have a dog that has injured another dog in a fight, the dog should always wear a MUZZLE. There are many, perfectly happy, muzzled dogs. It beats never getting out to play, paying large vet bills, or going to dog court!
NOTE: A Muzzle is NOT a replacement for TRAINING.
Dogs that fight need help from a certified trainer!
