Why don't clients see improvements with behavioural modification plans?

There is a common statement that clients will often make in their first consultation or I will over hear at shows, in pet shops and at the park etc that "nothing has worked for their dog". That their behaviour could not be changed or that the training they were given was incorrect, of a low standard, their dog is too naughty or doesn't listen.

Whilst there are some behaviours that are very hard to change, all behaviours can be altered in some way to some extent. These changes are very possible but they require a few things from the people training them.

• A desire to change the behaviour in their dog that is strong enough that they will change their own lifestyle and routines and of course the ability for the owner to do this. 
• A dedication to changing the behaviour that will last as long as the dog lives.
• Hard work and practise.  

Whenever you try to change behaviour it takes time, regular practise and the dedication to keep practising for as long as it takes. In some cases this will be forever.

Having recently embarked on training my dog a new discipline that I have never before attempted and also making the decision that in order to do this I will need to get fit it has really been made clear to me why so many people fail to change their dogs behaviours to the extent they desire.

Training to get fit takes real dedication, committing to regular exercise, forever. Pushing yourself harder and possibly changing your routines and diet to fit with your new way of life. Without this you will not get fit, or you will get a degree of fitness but not what you could ultimately achieve. Of course there is also the fact that if you stop training you will again become unfit.

Training a dog to perform the required behaviours really well also takes all these things. The bigger change you require the more dedication it will take. The things that are required are:

• Real dedication to run through training exercises and situational training every day. 

• To train in alternative and new behaviour that is incompatible with the behaviour you want to change or stop. To keep that behaviour strong by practising it every day.

• To proof the new behaviours so the dog will do them regardless of how hard the situation they find themselves in or what ever distractions are thrown at them.  

• To be ready change personal routines and those of your dog, your expectations for your life with the dog (i.e. that it wont be the easy ride you had anticipated), to realise that the changes you make and the training you commit to will be life long.

In short many people do not or cannot dedicate enough resources to altering their dogs behaviours and thus do not make the improvements they seek. Whilst the right advice and coaching cannot be ignored, it is only effective if the advice and techniques are followed and more importantly practised. 

A great trainer will guide a client through these processes, explaining what is required, talking about how to make changes, what solutions are possible. Teach the client how to train the dog so they can practise, teach the client coping mechanisms for when things don't go to plan. Showing the client how to build on successes and improve the behaviour all the time till the client feels safe, happy and in control.  Make sure they motivate and inspire their clients to keep going because the persistence of trying with the right techniques and support is essential. 

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 

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.

Reading Your Dogs Body Language

Understanding what our dog is feeling is an essential skill when assessing why dogs perform the behaviours they do and preventing bad behaviour.
Look for all the signs that your dog is under even a little stress and take appropriate action to reduce the stress and reward the dog for coping with what ever was stressing them. This will improve the performance of all dogs and prevent almost all socially unacceptable behaviours.

In this photo the dog is guarding her chew, notice she has stopped chewing, is staring hard at the person with the camera, you can see the whites of her eyes, her ears are back and she is very still.

In this photo the dog has been asked to do a dog trick, he has half done it (it is also not a natural play bow but a taught one on cue) but rather complete it he becomes stressed, note the closed mouth, worried expression and head turn away from the camera.

For more examples please look at the following two links:

This link is to the Turid Rugaas website – the person who has globally done the most research in to calming signals. http://www.canis.no/rugaas/onearticle.php?artid=1

This is another great video on body language, it can also be accessed from our You Tube site

Appropriate steps to reduce mild stress might be:

• Putting more distance between what ever is stressing your dog and your dog, i.e. move further away.
• Distracting your dog with a favourite toy or treat to take their mind off the stress.
• Trying to lower the intensity of what is stressing them. For instance if your dog was sensitive to noise try to shut out the sound of the thunder storm by shutting all the windows and moving the dog to the centre of the house. If the dog is sensitive to movement or energy levels ask children to walk not run when near the dog.
• Ask your dog to perform things you have trained them to do and reward them for it. This must be a pre-trained cue that your dog understands and enjoys.
• Comfort your dog and in some cases you could pick up your dog.
• Prevent what ever is stressing the dog from getting closer, louder, faster etc.

Appropriate steps to reduce major stress would be:

• Remove the dog at once from the situation or the thing that is stressing them.
• Remove the stressors (e.g. people, children, dogs, mower, bike, cat) at once from the dog.

Body Language of Fear in Dogs

This poster is a resource from Dr. Sophia Yin's website www.drsophiayin.com