Barking by Ian Dumbar

Some dogs get extremely worked up when visitors ring the doorbell, or when dogs walk by the house. Some spaniels and terriers bark at the drop of a hat. And our good friend Larry Labrador will bark whenever a leaf falls from a tree three roads away. Barking is as characteristically doggy as wagging a tail or burying a bone. It would be inane and inhumane to try to stop your dog from barking altogether: "You’ll never bark in this town again!" After all, some barking is extremely useful. My dogs are much more efficient than the doorbell and much more convincing than a burglar alarm. The goal then, is to teach dogs normally to be calm and quiet but to sound the alarm when intruders enter your property. The barking problem may be resolved to our advantage by management and education: first, immediately reduce the frequency of barking before we all go insane; and second, teach your dog to "Woof" and "Shush" on cue.

Reduce the Frequency of Barks

Dogs bark the most right after their owners leave home for the day. The easiest way to immediately reduce woof-frequency is by exclusively feeding your dog from hollow chew toys. Each evening weigh out and moisten your dog’s kibble or raw diet for the following day. Squish the gooey food into hollow chewtoys (Kong products and sterilized bones) and put them in the freezer overnight. In the morning, give your dog some frozen stuffed chewtoys. Your dog will spend well over an hour extricating his breakfast from the chewtoys. And if your dog is busying himself with chewtoys, he will be lying down quietly! 


Here is a video on stuffing toys:

Do not leave an excessive barker outdoors. Garden-bound dogs are exposed to many more disturbances and their barks more easily penetrate the neighborhood. Leave your dog comfortably in a single room (away from the street) with a radio playing to mask outside disturbances. If you have been leaving your dog outside because he soils or destroys the house, housetrain and chewtoy train your dog so he may enjoy indoor comforts when you are away from home.


Teach "Woof" and "Shush" On Cue

It is easier to teach your dog to shush when he is calm and focused. Therefore, teaching your dog to "Woof" on cue is the first step in "Shush" training, thus enabling you to teach "Shush" at your convenience, and not at inconvenient times when the dog decides to bark. Moreover, teaching "Shush" is now much easier because your dog is not barking uncontrollably—barking was your idea!

Station an accomplice outside the front door. Say "Woof" (or "Speak," or "Alert"), which is the cue for your assistant to ring the bell. Praise your dog profusely when he barks (prompted by the doorbell); maybe even bark along with your dog. After a few good woofs, say "Shush" and then waggle a tasty food treat in front of his nose. Your dog will stop barking as soon as he sniffs the treat because it is impossible to sniff and woof simultaneously. Praise your dog as he sniffs quietly, and then offer the treat.

Repeat this routine a dozen or so times and your dog will learn to anticipate the doorbell ringing whenever you ask him to speak. Eventually your dog will bark after your request but before the doorbell rings, meaning that your dog has learned to bark on command. Similarly, your dog will learn to anticipate the likelihood of sniffables following your "Shush" request. You have then taught your dog both to speak and shush on cue.


Over repeated "Woof" and "Shush" trials, progressively increase the length of required shush-time before offering a food reward—at first just two seconds, then three, then five, eight, twelve, twenty, and so on. By alternating instructions to woof and shush, the dog is praised and rewarded for barking on request and for shushing on request.


Remember, always speak softly when instructing your dog to shush, and reinforce your dog's silence with whisper-praise. The more softly you speak, the more your dog will be inclined to pay attention and listen (and therefore, not bark).

Teach Your Dog When to Bark

Invite a dozen people for afternoon tea to teach your dog when, and when not, to bark. Instruct your visitors (some with dogs) to walk by the house a number of times before ringing the doorbell. When the first person walks by the house, it will take all of your attention to keep your dog shushed. But persevere: it will be easier when the same person walks by the second time, and again easier on the third pass by. Eventually your dog will habituate and will no longer alert to the same person's presence in the street. Profusely praise your dog and offer treats for silent vigilance. Repeat reinforcement for quiet vigilance several times on subsequent passes by. But when the visitor starts up the garden path, eagerly and urgently say "Speak! Speak! Speak!" Praise your dog when he woofs, and then instruct him to sit and shush at the front door while you welcome the visitor. If your dog exuberantly barks and bounces at this point, simply wait until he sits and shushes and then praise and offer a treat. Have the visitor leave and come back a number of times. Eventually, your dog will greet him by sitting in silence. This procedure becomes easier with each new visitor. Your dog soon learns to watch passersby in silence and to give voice when they step on your property, but to sit and shush when they are invited indoors—a trained neighborhood watchdog, which even non-dog-owning neighbors will welcome on the street where they live.

If you require a more detailed description, read our Barking booklet. To teach your dog to be calmer and bark less, you will need numerous stuffable chewtoys. To teach your dog to "Woof" and "Shush" on cue, you need some liver treats. All of these products are available from your local pet store or on-line from www.dogwise.com. BEHAVIOR BLUEPRINTS from www.jamesandkenneth 

Digging Doggies!

Dogs Don’t See Your Problem

Dogs consider digging to be a perfectly normal and natural doggy activity. In fact, terriers consider digging to be their very reason for being. It would therefore be fruitless to try to stop your dog from digging altogether. Prevention and treatment of misplaced digging focus on management and education: preventing your dog from digging in inappropriate areas and redirecting your dog's natural digging-desire to a suitable area.



Prevent Digging in Your Absence
When you are away from home, keep your dog indoors. When you are at home, try your best to accompany your dog outdoors to supervise and teach garden rules.Housesoiling, destructive chewing, and hyperactivity are the most common reasons why dogs are relegated to unsupervised, solitary confinement in the garden, where they predictably learn to bark, dig, and escape, and become over-excited whenever let indoors.


Digging for Freedom or Boredom 

Some dogs dig to escape because they cannot bear the boredom and anxiety of solitary confinement in the garden. Escaping is exceedingly dangerous for your dog's health. So if you decide to leave your dog in the garden, make the garden more interesting and be sure to fix the fence. Also make sure your dog has a cool resting place in the summer and warmth in the winter. Teach your dog to dissipate digging energy with other activities. Make sure your dog is well exercised (psychologically as well as physically) and entertained, and thus has no need to dig to escape from the garden. Teach recreational diggers to become recreational chewers. If your dog is busying himself with a chewtoy, he has little time to dig. Consequently, chewtoys stuffed with breakfast kibble are the best objects to leave indoors, or to bury in your dog’s digging pit. You must teach your dog how to entertain himself outdoors. This means your dog needs chewtoys outside, too.

Redirect Digging to a Digging Pit
Since you consider your dog’s choice of digging locations to be inappropriate, choose a location to your liking and teach your dog to dig there. Build your dog a digging pit (much like a child’s sandbox) in a suitable corner of the garden.Bury a meaty bone in your dog's digging pit. Your little doggie will be utterly delighted when she finds a huge meaty bone. Now, this single simple procedure may not totally prevent holes in other areas of the garden, but your dog will now be much more inclined to dig in her digging pit. Every morning, fill several chewtoys with your dog’s breakfast kibble and bury them in her digging pit. Your dog will discover that the digging pit is a virtual treasure trove where she can find toys for sustenance and entertainment.

Garden Rules
Once the dog's digging activities have been redirected to a suitable location in your garden, you might consider protecting other parts of the garden. Lay down chicken wire or chain-link fencing over the lawn and flower beds, add plenty of topsoil, and reseed.
Use boundary fences to partition the garden into doggy and non-doggy zones. The fences are not meant to be dog proof; rather, they are used as training aids to clearly demarcate lawn and garden boundaries to help you teach the rules. Always try to accompany your dog when he goes outside, especially during puppyhood or the first few months an older dog is at home. Remember, an owner in the garden is worth two in front of the television! It is not fair to keep garden rules a secret from your dog and then get angry with the dog for breaking rules he didn’t even know existed. Encourage and praise your dog for walking on paths and for lying down in dog zones. Tie a number of stuffed chewtoys to ground stakes or hang them from tree branches in dog zones to encourage your dog to want to spend time in those areas. Discourage your dog from entering non-doggy zones.

To learn more, read Doctor Dunbar's Good Little Dog Book and our Digging booklet, available on-line from www.amazon.com.  Reprinted by www.dogstardaily.com with permission of Dr. Ian Dunbar and James & Kenneth Publishers, behavior blueprint by Dr. Ian Dunbar

Review - Kathy Sdao "Plenty in life is free"

Kathy Sdao has just launched a book and dvd called "Plenty in life is free" which is an alternative training model to rank/dominance based training models. In the book and dvd she talks about SMART training and how this can be a simple, effective training method.

What is SMART training?

Smart means SEE, MARK and REWARD training. Which means for all the behaviours you wish to reward and increase when you see them, mark them with a word or a click and reward them. This process will increase the behaviours happening more frequently. 

How to use this simple method?

1. Write a list of behaviours that you would like to see my frequently. e.g. dog lying in their bed, dog sitting, dog retrieving balls, 

2. Have some rewards ready, either on your person or at key places around the house.

3. When you see a behaviour you like say "yes" or "good" or click

4. Reward

5. carry on as normal until you see more behaviours you would like to reward and repeat steps 3 and 4.

Who can use this method?

Anyone with any dog. The more observant you are the more frequently the behaviours can be rewarded.

Can I use this method in class?

Yes, SEE, MARK and REWARD training, can be used anywhere, any time. If you are training your dog in class and they do the behaviour or a behaviour near what you would like than you can MARK the behaviour and REWARD. 

Review by Gemma Palmer 

Why has training not worked for your reactive dog ?

Why has training not worked for your reactive dog ?

There are lots of reasons why our dogs might be slow to respond to training or behavioural modification. By incorporating the tips and training methods found in this blog and from the trainers at Sussex County Dog Training your dogs behaviour can improve. Your daily interactions with your dog and your dogs interactions with the world around them will become as you understand your dog more and are able to better shape your dogs behaviour.

There are several barriers to improving your dog’s behaviour these include:

Using the wrong methods - to improve a behaviour on a permanent basis the root cause of the behaviour must be addressed. If the diagnosis of the cause is incorrect or training is simply addressing the symptoms then the real cause will go unresolved and the behaviour problem will continue. Common incorrect diagnosis often include dominance, guarding the owner and being a "bad" dog. Finding out why the dog is behaving in a certain way is step one, identifying the reward to the dog (the dogs reinforcement for performing the behaviour) is step two. Once we have done this we can look at how to reduce or prevent the dogs reinforcement and use appropriate methods to treat the dogs behaviour based on the root cause (such as fear).

Lack of Practice – our dogs may need more practice to become fluent. Dogs need far more practice than most of us realize to really ‘get it’. And, they need to be trained in a variety of environments with a variety of distractions before they understand how to apply knowledge to any situation, this is called generalization.

Lack of Relevance – our dogs can question the relevance of our requests. We need to help them understand that our requests have meaning and consequences to the dog. This may be that a word that means reward or a behaviour that leads to a consequence.

   

Punishment - our dogs may have been consistently punished when s/he behaved in a set way. A good example of this is when your dog barks at someone we punish the dog with a lead jerk and a firm “NO” – if the dogs outburst was caused by fear we have paired an aversive or negative feeling with the person the dog had barked at –not improving but damaging the dogs expectations of future encounters with people. Even if the dog stopped barking it has probably only suppressed its feelings rather than learnt not to do it in the first place. Be aware that using "training" tools which also punish the dog such as check chains, prong collars, citronella collars and electric or e collars will also suppress the behaviour of a dog without curing it. They can cause further mental and physical damage to the dog and carry a heavy negative moral burden.

Lack of Focus– our dogs may not be focused on us enough to hear our requests. They may be under too much stress, suffering from sensory over load or worried about what is going to happen next.

Lack of Impulse Control – our dogs may not have learned how to control their impulses (or self control) around certain distractions yet. If we can improve impulse control we can often reduce reactivity.

How We Change Dog Behaviour

How We Change Dog Behaviour

Prevent rehearsal:  Managing situations so that unwanted behaviours cannot or do not occur. Each time the dog does the unwanted behaviour, the “pathway” in the brain to that behaviour gets used and something like “muscle memory” is established.  These things make the behaviour a more likely option the dog will turn to when presented with similar situations in the future.  Not all behaviours can be prevented completely, but recognising what triggers the unwanted behaviour will help you prevent that situation from occurring.

Train a substitute behaviour:  If the dog is not doing the undesirable behaviour, he is doing something else.  If he’s being quiet, he’s not barking.  If his feet are all on the floor, he’s not jumping.  When behaviour gets a reward (either from you, the environment or the dog himself) it will be repeated.  You need to be sure that it’s the desirable alternative that gets the reward and attention from you.  Think about what you want the dog TO DO rather than what you want to stop.  Try to get the dog to do the desired behaviour in place of the unwanted one.  Be sure to reward heavily for the desired behaviour, especially if the dog chooses that behaviour on his own.

Understand normal dog behaviour:  Often, a behaviour people don’t like is perfectly normal for a dog to do (or for the breed of dog to do.)  In some cases, such as chewing, it’s a behaviour the dog NEEDS to do.  By giving the dog an appropriate outlet for these natural behaviours, the dog will be much happier and more relaxed.  You can use these highly desired behaviours as a reward for when the dog does something you like.  If your puppy is chewing on furniture (then you have not taken appropriate steps for management/prevention) but you can ask the pup to sit and then reward that desired behaviour with a Kong he’s allowed to chew on.  Often supervision and redirecting the dog to an appropriate outlet is the best solution for natural dog behaviours.

Be consistent:  Dogs learn much faster when the rules remain the same.  If you sometimes got a pay cheque for going to work and sometimes got it for staying home, but the rules about which was which weren’t clear, you would have some stress and confusion.  People do this to their dogs all the time!  Jumping up is OK unless I’m wearing nice clothes or your feet are dirty.  Barking is ok unless the neighbours have been complaining or a sleeping baby is visiting.  Sometimes it’s ok to get on the sofa, sometimes it’s not.  The problem is compounded when more than one person routinely interacts with the dog.  Make sure all family members understand and apply the same rules.  Dogs are often willing to follow the rules when the rules are clear and consistent.

 

Nothing in Life is Free:  The “Nothing in life is Free” program, when implemented in a reasonable manner, can greatly help increase the odds of good behaviour.  When the dog learns that the way to get what he wants is by doing something you like, your dog will start doing what you like more often.  This program also helps teach the dog the concept of self-control.  If mugging you for food works, why should he sit politely during meals?  If pulling on the leash works, why should he try to keep the leash loose?  But, if the dog has to sit before he gets a treat and has to keep the leash loose before you are willing to move a single step, he has more reason to try self-control.  This program goes hand in hand with helping the dog toward an acceptable behaviour and then rewarding that behaviour with something the dog wants.


Look for the good:  We are a punishing species.  It is a proven fact that when a person uses punishment and it gets results, the use of punishment is more likely.  However, the same can be said of using rewarding methods.  If you are watching for behaviours you can reward (& you reward them) those behaviours will become more frequent. This works better than always looking for what the dog is doing wrong so you can yell or jerk on the leash.  The punishment method will cause a dog to hide the behaviour from you.  The reward method will cause the dog to bond with you because he wants to figure out what you want him to do (so he can get what he wants.)  For some complex behaviours, you might need to gradually “shape” the behaviour of the dog to get it closer and closer to the desired behaviour.  You can do this by timing your rewards in a way that keeps the dog trying and moving toward the desired behaviour.

Be active:  Most dogs do not get the exercise they require.  Many are overweight and bored out of their minds.  By keeping their mind and body active, the dog will have less time to get himself into trouble by creating his own fun but often troublesome games.

Don’t mix signals:  As humans, we communicate primarily with words.  Dogs, however, are best at reading non-verbal signals like body language and tone of voice.  We also tend to use our words in a confusing way- saying “down” when we mean “get off” and repeating the cue so fast it becomes a new cue (“sit, sit, sit”.)  Now the dog waits to hear “sit-sit-sit” before he responds. Our message and tone can be confusing too.  Saying “come here!” in a rough and growly voice does not indicate to the dog that going toward you will be safe.  Dog’s are masters at reading our body language.  Even subtle changes like breathing patterns and raised eye brows are often noticed by dogs.  Be aware of what you are saying with your tone and body to be sure it’s not confusing the dog.  If your dog is not correctly responding to what you ask, check to make sure your body language and tone aren’t asking for something different (or indicating a bad mood that could make the dog hesitant to respond.)

Train, train, train:  Dogs do not come with “good behaviour” naturally.  In fact, most behaviour that DOES come naturally to a dog is in direct contradiction with what we want.  By looking for and rewarding the desired behaviours, and redirecting unwanted behaviours into ones we can reward, you will be teaching your dog what you like and expect.  Just as with raising a small child, teaching dogs what will make you happy and what will upset you is a 24 hour/ 7 days a week job!  Dogs and children are always learning.  You need to make a decision to be sure they are learning what you want them to learn.

Love your dog:  It is very easy to get frustrated, when this happens, take a moment to take a deep breath, then assess the situation.  What can you do to prevent it? What should you have done to prevent it?  What alternative behaviour can you try to get the dog to do so you can reward it?  Is it a natural behaviour the dog needs an outlet for?  Is anyone else allowing the dog to practice the unwanted behaviour?  Can you use the situation to teach the dog self-control?  Does the dog need more exercise?  Would the dog be doing this behaviour if he was tired?  Are your desires being communicated clearly to the dog?  When you answer these questions, it is likely that you will have something to work with.  You’ll have behaviour (or more than one) you can watch for and reward.  You will understand how to prevent the unwanted and reward the good dog.

If you are unsure how this advice applies to your case please discuss this with your trainer:

Miranda Sasse                  miranda@sussexcountydogtraining.co.uk           07958522732

Jeff Sasse                            jeff@sussexcountydogtraining.co.uk                    07861121079