If you have a dog you need to know a few things to help you get through your life together as pain less as possible.
- Dogs don’t speak English, they don’t speak Spanish, french, or German either. They speak dog. They communicate through body language and tone. They investigate with their nose, then eyes, then ears. It’s important that they be on the floor, not carried around in a purse or stroller to be treated like a baby, or an accessory. Elevation is status to a dog, you carry them around and they think they have higher status than others, also they never deal with being a dog and at their normal height. They never get to build self confidence, they will become nervous and afraid, timid and shy, which then can lead to high anxiety or aggression. Being in your arms, being dressed in clothes, limits their ability to speak with their body. Dogs noses are one of the best, a lot of their brain is dedicated to the nose and what they smell.
It’s like this: you smell beef stew, dogs smell every ingredient of beef stew, They smell the meat, the potato, the carrot, every herb you put in there, they can probably tell you how old the cow was when it died and if the potatoes are from Idaho or your local grower, if they could speak English they could tell you.
- To socialize them they need to be around other dogs of different sizes, people of different ages, sounds, smells and sights. The door of opportunity to do this very easily is when they are 4 weeks old to 16 weeks old. After that time the door closes and you have a window that is closing fast if you don’t keep up the socialization. Find a place that has puppy classes so you can work with them, and do socialization safely. Find co-workers, church members, friends, family that have "puppy" friendly dogs to help your dog interact and learn to be a dog, They learn from each other, good stuff and bad. Make sure the interactions are really good, don’t let another dog bully or terrorize your puppy. Classes should be run by an Accredited Trainer or a Certified Trainer, you can look for one on APDT.com.
- Don’t use come or their name for something the dog perceives as bad. After they learn their name and the come command is really good, then you can use them for emergencies when needed, to get the dogs attention quickly. If you are constantly and consistently saying their name or come and doing what the dog thinks is non rewarding, they will start to not answer because they are trying to avoid that non rewarding and sometimes bad situation. If you say "come" to the dog and he comes but: you put him his crate or room, trim his toes nails, give him a bath, stop his fun outside or want to shove him outside when he doesn’t like it, or leave for work, the dog thinks this is bad or non rewarding to them, they will start to avoid coming and answering there name.
- Don’t reprimand after the fact, dogs learn when they’re in the act of doing things. You can’t take them to what they did, ie…chewed rug, potty accident, and tell them bad dog. The dog is reading your energy and body language and they will get submissive due to this, not because they know they went on the carpet an hour ago and you are showing it to them. Getting into a routine of knowing your dog potties on your carpet and you know you always come home and there is an accident, and you consistently have to correct them and tell them bad dog, will also get your dog to start getting anxiety about you coming home, and they will always approach you with a submissive ("guilty") look. Whether they did bad or not, but when you see this you automatically look for the bad thing, which then gets your energy and body language tense again and the dog sees it, and knows it was best to act submissive cause here it is again, it’s a vicious cycle to get into, and causes lots of damage to your dogs mind and your relationship with them. If your dog potties in your home it’s your fault, not his, read the potty training tips in the dog training section on Factoidz.
For unacceptable behavior: interrupt with a sound (“eh-Eh, or say “hey”) then redirect or just ignore it. You decide what is acceptable.If they are chewing on a table leg, you won’t ignore that, interrupt them and redirect them to something they can chew on and then praise them for chewing on it, anytime they make the right choice, praise them. If they are barking to get your attention, ignore them, if they continue then get up and leave for 20 seconds, if they follow you and keep barking go inside of a room and shut the door on them and wait for 20 seconds, you need 3 seconds of quiet to come back out, praise and go about your business, if they bark, do it all over, they only get attention when they are quiet. If you always leave when they bark, they will learn to be quiet for attention, so make sure you praise quiet when they are and when they would normally bark, tell them that’s what you want through praise (attention) and rewards.
- Dog’s will repeat a behavior they find a pleasant experience with, or are rewarded for, either by you or the environment, and tend to not repeat a behavior they find an unpleasant/unrewarding experience with.
- Control their environment so they don’t get rewarded for chewing on shoes or getting in trash etc..Control their environment and you can control their rewards, you can control their behavior. Use baby gates or repellents or taste deterrents or shut doors to deny access, also put everything up that you don‘t want them to get a hold of. As they learn the rules and/or mature you can start putting things down and test them, if they don’t go after things, you can start to put your house back in order. Odds are it’s not if they will damage something expensive it’s when. Keep the odds in your favor.
- Get your dog use to being touched all over: Desensitize dogs to touch, good for vet exam, grooming, trim nail or giving a pill, brush teeth and to check dog everyday for skin changes. Don’t release if they squirm, hold them gently, when they calm down for 3 seconds then release them for a little while. Progress slowly, treat for good behavior. If they seem to squirm to much, next time you try to practice with them, wait till they are slightly sleepy and go to lay down for a nap. Slide in next to them and gently touch and handle them, just a little at a time. You don’t have to rub all over them all at once you can break it down into small sessions through out the day.
- Positive Reinforcement training: using treats, toys and praise. Don’t have to use treats forever. Treats are used for gently luring, shaping or catching a behavior, to motivate the dog to get the behavior to repeat, treats are not used as bribery. Toys/praise can be used as reward, after the behavior/cue is taught.
To train you need to reward every time at first, in a non-distracting area. Then move it to every room of the home, most dog’s don’t generalize. After cue is taught, then start to random reinforce (reward), reward every second compliance, then every third then every fourth, then go back to every second then do every 6th, then do every 7th compliance, keep it random so the dog never knows when they get a reward.
- Juvenile behavior: This shows up around 5 months old and can go for a year or more, before they turn into "adults".They will test limits like teenagers. Seem to forget things they’ve learned. Start marking territory, Will test you and see what they get away with, they need to do this to find out where they belong in the family group. Training should be down before this stage comes along, if not, everything will hit the fan. If you don’t Neuter them the males will start to learn to lift their legs, (to advertise themselves and to say it’s theirs), some males never lift their leg or do so late in life, it’s mostly a learned behavior and they will need to lift their leg to mark over another dogs smell they have to figure out how to do this, some learn to get close, balance and lift, or if they see others doing so. They will get distracted, due to raging hormones and the need to release that which drives them inside, males have hormone inside them all the time, at certain times they get an EXTRA burst of them. Females don’t have this, but they will start to loose focus the closer they get to their heat cycle, (anywhere from 6 months to a year) this is when they start to act different. Please realize females mark also to advertise their availability, and to say it belongs to them. Aggression is known to show up at this time in their lives.
Cues are words and or hand signals are what we teach them, like Sit, Down or Stay.
- Positive word marker (PWM) like “YES” will “mark” the action they are doing to let them know they earned a reward (treat), because they did it right. I try to use clicker (c/t = click and treat). Read the Factoidz on clicker training with your dog.
- Negative word marker (NWM) (like Uh-Uh, or Eh, or wrong, you can use No as long as you haven’t use it too much and your dog thinks it is their name). will let them know they didn’t do it right and treat is going away for a short time and we need to try this again.
- Release word (RW) is given after the control cues (sit, down, stay) are done and the dog can get up, for that moment in time . You can use “Done” or “Free” or “Release” .
- Praise: this is used AFTER the treat is given, you can say "good boy/girl", "good Puppy/dog", if giving a pat don’t pat them on top of their head, always pat under the chin, it makes the dog feel better about themselves. Don’t confuse the praise words with your release words or Marker.
- When you are practicing with your dog the order is: Mark (click or "yes"), give treat, Praise, say your Release word after praise.
When Cues are finally given to action, it’s then those cues (sit, down, stay), then Mark it, treat it, praise, then release it.
To avoid Separation Anxiety from forming: Deliberately Ignore your dog 3 times a day for 20 minutes, don’t pet, talk to, or pay attention to them. Make sure all needs have been met first. This will help them start to deal with being alone and not having constant feedback and input from you, so you can leave without them having a panic attack. Everyone in the family must do this, for it to work. Don’t make a big deal when you leave and don’t make a big deal coming home. Be nonchalant about it. Don’t let them follow you all over unless you are trying to potty train them, then they have to be with you, because you must supervise. Put them in the dog proof area or crate for a few minutes even when you’re home.
Teach “Focus” exercise, Put dog on leash so they don’t walk away. Put a treat at your nose and hold it there, Say your dog’s name, and if they look at you, when they make eye contact say “Focus”, While they are looking at you for just 2 seconds, mark (click or say YES), treat, then praise. Do not bend over and get into the dogs face, they need to get use to looking up at you, in the position of authority. If they see you bending over talking to them that diminishes you in their eyes, your putting yourself into a submissive body position, remember they use tone and body language to communicate. If they don’t look at you when you say their name, put the treat at their nose and say their name, then move the treat quickly to your nose and do the above, if they don’t stay on your face long enough or look away to fast make a kissy noise with your lips or click your tongue, this will usually make your dog look at you again. If it’s too distracting where you are move to a quieter area. Try to get them to look longer as the dog gets better at this. You can’t tell your dog to do something if they aren’t focused on you. Never repeat repeat repeat your cues cues cues. It will make the dog ignore you and tune you out, until they hear that certain tone when you get aggravated.
More to come.
