We expect so much from our dogs when we introduce them to our homes and lives – be able to be a café dog; walk nicely on a lead; like all other dogs and people and know exactly what we want from them.
Dr Linda Wilkinson of Kaleidoscope K9 Training and Life Skills says: “Imagine getting parachuted into a foreign country where you don’t know the language, the rules, the customs or the food – this is what we do to dogs. We parachute them into our world – and expect them to immediately be able to navigate the complexities of our lifestyles.”
So, how do we help our dogs to understand what we would like them to do.
1. Introduce new things slowly – and try not to overload with new experiences.
2. Train new behaviours at home before expecting your dog to be able to do it when out and about where there are lots of distractions and potentially scary. Eg. Practise recall in the garden (lots) before letting your dog off lead where there are creatures to chase.
3. Be consistent in your messaging to your dog – eg. Use the same cue words and /or signals; always reward the behaviours you do want; try not to reward behaviours you don’t want by inadvertently patting them or even talking to them. Eg. Jumping up – if you don’t want this behaviour then don’t pat them when they do it.
4. Learn to “read” your dog – understand that sometimes your dog may be anxious in a certain situation – and exhibit whining or barking – do not scold this behaviour but remove your dog from the scary place or thing and understand that much of the behaviour you don’t want is due to them being scared or anxious.
5. Be aware that a series of exciting or scary events will build on each other (trigger stack) and when it reaches a peak level – behaviour may deteriorate. Try to minimise exposing your dog to many new/busy/active/scary events in a day.
Imagine your dog’s capacity to cope is like a bucket being steadily filled with each successive event – this may include pain, tiredness, excitement, fear – until it overflows.
Once the bucket is full – your dog’s capacity to maintain a calm behaviour is difficult and they can turn into a zoomy, bitey, barky, difficult to manage dog. Keep their “bucket” level as low as possible each day by pacing levels of activity and exposure to potentially scary events or environments.
6. Enrichment – dogs need to be stimulated with enrichment activities. This needs to be more than ball throwing. Try food puzzles, games, licky mats, hunting out their dinner in the garden, calm slow walks with lots of exploring and sniffing or check out the many dog sports that are available such as agility, scent work, flyball.
7. Reward all the behaviours that you want – eg. With food rewards, toys, praise. Avoid all aversives such as e-collars and punishment.
8. Build a great relationship with your dog – by implementing the above strategies you are well on the way to building a wonderful relationship with your dog, where they will be so anxious to please you. Our job is to show them what we want so they can please us and get rewarded for it.
9. Undertake training with your dog – no matter how experienced you are with raising dogs, each dog is different and individualised training is invaluable for making sure you get it right.
Remember dog training is more about you, than it is about the dog. Dog training equips you to make sure you get the best dog ever. Training is also about more than sit, drop, stay – it is about giving your dog the life skills to cope in your world.
Help your dog to live happily and comfortably in our world by implementing the above ideas and strategies.
Have fun with your dogs – they are our most loyal and loving companions.
