A few minutes ago, I read a comment written by a trainer who calls themselves “balanced” — by that, they mean they use both reinforcement (like moi!), and also stimuli that harm and scare dogs, such as shock collars, prong collars, and similar (so…not like me). This trainer was angry, like, oooooh man, he was real angry, at a positive reinforcement-only trainer. A positive reinforcement trainer like me, of which there are thousands and thousands, with a ton of us just getting the job done all the time and in all the ways. But this “balanced” trainer said something along the lines of, “you only train dogs to do the easy things, you can’t get a dog who was previously aggressive or scared to walk in big crowds! There’s lots you can’t do!”.

Um, dude?

Hey, man?

Um.

That ain’t the flex you think it is.

I found myself cringing at this comment, for two big reasons. First up: Yes. We can. If a client came to any of us educated, credentialled positive reinforcement trainers, and said “I’d like my dog to be comfortable amongst crowds”, we’d assess the dog, create a plan, and train the heck out of that dog. This would involve something along the lines of protecting the dog during training so they didn’t practice unwanted behaviours, building the behaviour we want through incremental steps starting at where the dog is now and ending up at “walking comfortably and joyfully through crowds”, and setting realistic goals for the client. This is so absolutely, dreadfully, colossally, boringly typical of the work of us positive reinforcement trainers that I didn’t even have to check my notes or edit this paragraph as it spilled, unassisted, onto the page.

[Just kidding. I edit like a fiend. But you get my point].

Second. In some cases, it’s inappropriate to have dogs walk in crowds. Dogs who are profoundly fearful may never be comfortable walking in crowds. Dogs who bite readily when scared, especially those who bite with maiming force, should never be walking in crowds, at the very least without a muzzle. So, yeah, bud. There are cases when positive reinforcement trainers would counsel a client to say, Hey. Sorry, but your dog isn’t a good candidate for hanging in a crowd. Instead, let’s find them some other great options for when you’re doing the crowd thing, such as hanging out with their extended human family, or snoozing on the couch at home, instead of forcing them to be in a situation they aren’t prepared for and will make their lives interminably worse.

Balanced trainer dude was, from what I could tell, implying that dogs who aren’t ready, or aren’t comfortable, should be forced through the use of painful and scary consequences, to be amongst crowds of humans. Humans, including children, who probably don’t want to be bitten. Humans who probably don’t want to see scared, be-shock-collared dogs. Humans who haven’t signed up for the pretty-well-known consequences of hurting or scaring large domesticated predators, unlike my “balanced” trainer colleague.

So that’s the thing, isn’t it? We can get that job done, bud. We can get it done, and in the end, have a joyful dog who is comfortable with crowds. You will, at best, have a dog who used to be happy but unruly, and is now shut-down and scared, and at worst, have a dog who used to be scared and communicating clearly now be a dog who is scared, then more scared due to your training, but also unable to tell anyone how he feels until he tips into “time to bite” territory because of your training.

And that ain’t the flex you think it is, bud.

I just made the joy-sucking error of looking at the website of a dog trainer who seems to love aversive tools and, by their own proclamation, “We don’t use any treats in our training methods”. In case the hapless reader was unclear, they add for clarity purposes that they “Never reward with treats”. If you happen to be a new reader of mine, let me clarify my position, and the position of the vast and heaving mob of modern, educated, and credentialled dog behaviour professionals: using food to change a dog’s behaviour and emotional state is valid, useful, welfare-forward, and easy; and to avoid the practice of rewarding and conditioning dogs with food treats is probably sliding into (what we hope will eventually be accepted as) malpractice territory. Sure, there are some times and contexts when we use other rewards and we frequently use other practices such as management as well, but a blanket no-food statement? That’s the reddest of flags in the red flag shop.

Side note: it’s actually kind of nice that this trainer is so upfront. Many trainers who eschew food rewards and rely upon aversive tools and techniques obfuscate their methods using an attractive set of phrases like “build your relationship using leadership” and “rely upon natural communication between canines”. So the clarity at least is…refreshing?

And ugh, there I go, finding something nice about this whole thing and using positive reinforcement again.

So, upon reading this and doing my absolute best to not think about all the dogs under their care who are receiving what likely amounts to abuse in the name of behaviour change, I shook my fist and yelled into the sky, “WHAT A THIEF OF JOY THIS TRAINER IS!” Because…I can’t imagine not rewarding with treats. I can’t imagine not seeing my dogs tippy-toe dance around when they know it’s time to train. I can’t imagine my dogs not seeing me as a safe harbour and Pez dispenser of caloric joy. I just can’t imagine.

Calling them a thief of joy made me feel slightly better, and I started to get into a bit of a Shakespearean insult mood. I mean, wasn’t the Bard supposed to be the Bardy Best at this stuff? Let’s see what he has to say (in my imagination at least) about people who cling, somewhat absurdly, to their prong collars and shock collars, and who regularly make their way to our spaces to spew their dismaying vitriol.

You bull’s pizzle! I mean, we all know what pizzles are. Because WE GIVE THEM TO OUR DOGS AS TREATS.

Methink’st thou art a general offense. This one might not be as pithy but…how can you come back from this? You’re done.

Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage. But don’t you worry, bud, a dog will almost certainly still love you, because…biscuit. You heard of those? Maybe, you know. GIVE THEM A CHANCE SOMETIME.

I do wish thou were a dog, that I might love thee something. Like even the S-man knew that dogs were lovable, fam. And didn’t live solely for us to control, coerce, and crapeth upon.

I’m not in favour of heading out into the social media mosh pit and insulting trainers who use aversives with personal, ad-hominem attacks, which these most certainly are. Some of these trainers, like many of our clients, have absolutely been led astray by their own educational or life journeys. But sometimes, just amongst ourselves, it’s nice to share a bit of a laugh, isn’t it? Because when it comes to dogs being trained by people who baldly refuse to use food, I gotta say: If you don’t laugh, you do sometimes cry.

My dog, Timber, was an adorable, hilarious, puppy. As he grew into a lanky teen, though, things changed. I’ll be frank: he turned into a giant pain in the rear. In my rear, metaphorically, and in other dogs’ rears, literally. He started out high-energy and cute as a youngster, all giant feet and oversized ears. But when he became socially mature (which is sort of like puberty for dogs, and often when aggressive behaviours pop out), he started to fight. A lot. All over the place. He started out fighting with one dog, but then like some oddball diet fad, it spread. Soon, all of our dogs were fair game for his particular and absolutely unwanted attention: a hard-eyed glance so fast it was almost impossible to catch, followed by a snaking run across a room and explosive fights.

Read more about safely separating dog fights here!

After the first few fights, we knew we had a problem. Timber, so energetic but friendly as a puppy, had grown up to be “dog-aggressive”. And we lived with a whole bevy of other dogs, so we knew we had to do something. Dog-dog aggression like Timber’s includes both threatening behaviour such as growls, snarls, and snaps—which is how dogs ask for a bit of space, by the way—and actual biting and fighting.

Dog trainers usually group dogs who are aggressive towards other dogs into a few different categories. For trainers like myself who regularly work with aggressive dogs, these categories are based mostly on how to train or prevent the aggression, at least to the extent needed or possible. Since the type of aggression matters to the type of training, it’s worthwhile to have a general understanding of the common types.

Common Types of Dog-Dog Aggression

Resource Guarding

Many dogs will guard bones, food, sleeping places, or other valuable resources. They’ll snarl or hunker, or bite or fight, if another dog comes too close. They’ll do this even with dogs they are bonded to. This is neither rare nor pathological.
Fear

For dogs, aggression is a very typical response to feeling afraid (and...for us, too). Dogs will generally either flee or fight—that is, aggress—if they’re threatened. And every dog gets to decide for themselves what is scary to them. It is simply not up to us to determine. Some dogs delight in having other dogs nearby. Some dogs just find other dogs, particularly other dogs in close proximity, to be scary. If your dog is fine with other dogs “unless they get into her face”, she’s likely scared.

Note: An ounce of prevention is worth twenty thousand pounds of cure here, so if you happen to have a puppy under the age of four months, find a positive-reinforcement puppy class where free play with other puppies is a large component and head there today. Right now. This blog will wait. Go.

Leash Frustration/Fence Fighting

For many, many, many aggressive dogs, a weird quirk of modern life can be blamed. Dogs are social animals, like humans. They naturally like to greet and be friendly. But because we live in a world full of fences and a world full of leashes, dogs are thwarted over and over and over in their regular lives. They want to go say hello, but blammo they hit the end of the leash. Or tonk they come up against the fence. Over time, this frustration can build and build and bubble over into aggressive displays. A leash-frustrated or fence-fighting dog can look absolutely frightening, leading many owners to decide to prevent future dog encounters. This in turn makes the dog even more keen to have interactions with their own species, and therefore even more aggressive. Dog trainers need to do a better job of educating the owners of frustrated dogs about the joys of dog play, which can help to reduce frustration.

Play Problems

Some dogs love dog play but are just, well, kind of bad at it. Sometimes, they’ll play fine with a few dogs, but with other dogs they’ll scrap right away. With some, they may try a few awkward moves and then fight. Some dogs try hard to play with any dog they meet but just seem to get their moves wrong, and also end up scrapping.

Training the Dog-Aggressive Dog

Not every dog who scraps or shows aggression needs to be trained. For dogs who occasionally squabble with their housemates or other dogs without injuries beyond a few minor dings, you have the wonderful option of just not worrying about it (read more about dog squabbles here). But for those dogs who are scared of dogs, or those dogs who are reactive on leash, or those dogs who squabble frequently during playtime? In all those cases it makes sense to intervene and train. Dog trainers have a couple of tools for treating dog-dog aggression, and if you approach a professional, modern dog trainer about your dog, they’ll likely use one of the following approaches to reduce the frequency of dog-dog aggression.

Let’s Do this Instead

For dogs who display leash aggression, many dog trainers will recommend that you train your dog to do another behaviour instead of the lunging, barking, and displaying. This usually is some variant of sitting, looking at the owner, a “leave-it”, or other similar easy-to-do behaviour. This behaviour is usually trained with food treats. Your trainer will set up a sophisticated and comprehensive plan to get the dog performing the behaviour at first in non-worrisome contexts, and then over many repetitions and increasingly difficult contexts, end up in real life. A dog who used to lunge and snarl will, at the end of training, be able to simply do another behaviour instead, knowing that a delicious food reward is waiting. Many Reactive Rover type of classes are also great at helping leash reactive dogs.

Pavlovian Counter-Conditioning

For dogs who are fearful, many trainers will choose to use Pavlovian counter-conditioning. Have you heard of Pavlov’s dog? The one who learned to drool at the sound of a bell? The bell was always followed by food, which allowed the dog to learn to anticipate good stuff. This powerful learning system can be gently hijacked by dog trainers and dog owners in order to change a dog’s mind about something that used to scare her. In a Pavlovian counter-conditioning protocol, the dog learns that the sight of another dog (which used to be scary, and bring about aggressive displays) now predicts treats. If the protocol is set up well, the dog can’t help but start to like the sight of other dogs...it’s just how brains work! Generally, Pavlovian conditioning is paired up with another technique known as desensitization. So a dog won’t just see a dog two feet away, and then get a nice treat. No, no, no—that would be way too much for most scared dogs. So instead, the scary dog appears in the distance, far enough away that the scared dog can handle it. And then the treats start to flow. The good news is that Pavlovian counter-conditioning is fantastic at reducing fearfulness in dogs. The bad news is that it takes a knowledgeable and experienced coach. Training a dog to sit at the door or run through a tunnel on cue is much easier than getting Pavlovian conditioning right. It takes real skill on the part of the trainer. But hey, we expect our kids’ teachers and our dentists to have real skills, so expecting the same of your dog trainer isn’t outlandish in the least.

Speeding Tickets: Canine Edition

Occasionally, a dog who scraps at the dog park but isn’t scared needs some help learning what’s appropriate play and what’s not. These dogs do well if they get a speeding ticket when they start to speed up. For humans, a speeding ticket removes some dollars from our pocketbook, which means less fun in our future. For dogs, a speeding ticket also removes fun from their future, but not with a piece of paper... Instead of a summons to appear, these dogs are summarily leashed up and removed from play for a few minutes or even a few hours. And just like how speeding tickets work to reduce speeding, the consequence of “play ending” reduces scrapping in non-fearful dogs.

What We Don’t Do

Since dogs who are aggressive to other dogs are either frustrated, upset, afraid, or simply unschooled, there are a few techniques that are not effective or acceptable. Any technique which is designed to change a dog’s behaviour by scaring or hurting them has no place in a protocol to help aggressive dogs. It is actually a bit boggling if you think about it: the answer to “how can I get my dog to be less afraid” just can’t be “scare her or hurt her”. So any technique which purports to read dogs’ minds (reduce her status, show her who is boss, pretend to be her mother, and so on) but includes the use of yelling, shock collars, prong collars, choke collars, swatting, leash jerks, collar pops, or firm words… imagine it. Imagine if you went to a counsellor to help with your fear of flying, your fear of snakes, or to get past your trauma from a horrible incident you lived though. Imagine your counsellor saying “from now on, every time you feel scared, I’m going shock you with this special device, or yell in your face.” It’s a recipe for disaster, and the welfare implications for dogs are very sad indeed. Sure, dogs who are shocked, jerked around, or yelled at may change their behaviour, and they may do so quickly. They’ll stop showing us that they’re scared. But changing their behaviour isn’t enough: these dogs will remain scared. Instead of growling or barking, they’ll be quietly terrified, and stay quiet right up until the moment they bite, fight, or escape. In other words, hurting or scaring fearful dogs turns a scared loud dog into a scared, and potentially dangerous, quiet dog.
For non-fearful dogs who are aggressive (leash displays or dogs with play problems), there are wonderful and well-established ways to help these dogs using standard training plans. Since a non-scary and non-painful approach exists, it is inappropriate to turn to anything scary or painful.
And finally, it is inappropriate to remove play from the lives of playful dogs if they happen to play a bit wrong. For a social animal like a dog, taking them away from play for such a minor infraction is a travesty. We don’t say “no more play for you” to kids who make silly, kid-like mistakes at the playground, do we? No, we help them to become better at being a kid. Play is physically exhausting, mentally enriching, and immensely enjoyable. We have the ability to allow normal play to proliferate in these dogs’ repertoires by the application of non-violent consequences like the doggy version of a speeding ticket. To not do so (and instead sequester dogs away from their canine friends) when there are resources available to help is doing a disservice to our dogs.

The Final Picture

Timber was firmly in the “scared” and “guarding” categories, so we both conditioned him to enjoy other dogs in proximity (thanks, Pavlov’s dog!) and trained him to do something else instead (a nice sit-stay at the door or gate, instead of scrappy scrapping). We changed up our routines around guests and how we let dogs in and out the door, which prevented most fights while we were actively training. We’re four or five years out now, and we rarely have scraps. I still ask Timber to sit and give him a cookie at the doorway during any particularly active scrums, and will likely continue to do this for his whole life. It’s a small price to pay for a happy Timber and a more peaceable home.
Dog-dog aggression is a tricky problem for owners to work on without professional assistance, but luckily modern dog professionals are qualified and ready to help with dog-aggressive dogs. If your dog is snarling and snapping on leash, try a reactive rover dog class taught by a force-free, positive reinforcement trainer. If your dog is scared or tips over into squabbles at the dog park, call the trainer for some one-on-one help.  If you have a lot of dog training under your belt and feel ready to tackle your scrapping dog on your own, pick up a copy of the book FIGHT! by Jean Donaldson.
But most of all, don’t give up. Don’t fret. Non-injurious aggression is really just normal dog stuff. Hitch up your pants, push up your sleeves, and if it’s warranted, get ready to train.

This article was originally published on Dog, International.

See below for a disclaimer—this article is about separating dog fights, after all!

Whether you have multiple dogs of your own or your dogs play with glorious abandon at the dog park or at play dates, squabbles can be a real concern. However, most dogs’ great ability to ‘pull their punches’ and bite without maiming force means that occasional tiffs, while needing to be humanely and rapidly stopped, are not a welfare issue and are not a reason to avoid supervised loose play time. Separating dog fights humanely and quickly is possible, and good technique can protect both you and your dogs.   

When a fight breaks out, the first thing to try is a quick yell or if you have it, citronella spray or water. Sometimes that is enough to end the fight, and many fights fizzle out with no intervention at all after a brief exchange of blows. But if the fight is still ongoing by the time you arrive running, and a quick shout has not worked, it is time to get more serious. Do not delay – move quickly and calmly through the steps.  

Step one: if there are other loose dogs who seem drawn to the action, nab them quickly and secure them, if you can. This may seem counter-intuitive…it does feel like the most pressing matter is the two dogs squabbling. However, a fight with multiple dogs involved is more likely to turn into a serious, injurious fight. Two dogs fighting are less likely to do much damage.

A handstand pull-apart to stop dog fights.

Step two: quickly choose the dog that seems to be the aggressor, or the one less likely to be called off with your voice. In a smooth motion, grab the dog by grasping his hips or his hind legs near the hips and pull his back end straight up into the air, into a handstand position, so only his front feet are on the ground. Back him rapidly away from the fight. This is called a handstand pull-apart, and the dog you are holding will be unable to redirect a bite to you from this position. If there is another person available to help, you should each grab a dog and do a handstand pull-apart. Do not grab the dog by the back feet and pull them apart in a wheel-barrow move as this is less safe for the dog—aim for the hips.

Step three: assess.  Are there injuries beyond small dings on the face, legs, or ears? If not, walk the dogs away from each other, distract them for a few minutes, and let them loose. If they immediately squabble again, they should be separated for now. Multiple fights over a few days is a flag that you may need to do some detective work and hire a pro.

Wait. Didn’t you say “Keeping your cool during dog fights”?

Like many professional dog trainers, I have worked with all sorts of dogs, including those who sometimes show aggression to other dogs. I have a secret weapon, I think: I have lived with oodles and oodles of sled dogs. Sled dogs are fantastic and lovely and interesting, but heck yeah they can squabble with the best of them! I have separated hundreds of fights over my life. Due to my essentially forced habituation, I can keep my cool if a dog fight breaks out, even with multiple dogs involved. This is an important skill and one worth cultivating–so the next time a dog fight breaks out, try to keep calm. I like to coach people to practice the technique above in your imagination. It’s not as good as real practice, but it can help! Remember just how frenetic and scary dog fights feel, and imagine yourself doing a successful handstand pull apart and ending it safely.

What if that’s not enough?

For most dog squabbles, a handstand pull-apart ends the fight. However, there are some cases when it is just not enough. You may have to deal with latch-ons, and if you are breaking up a fight alone, occasionally the dogs will keep fighting despite the handstand. Everything is not lost: there are other ways to end a fight.

Rarely, a dog fight will end with what’s called a latch-on, where one dog grabs and holds the other dog with his teeth. If the dog being held is calm and not in dire straits (i.e. doesn’t have his airway cut off) then this is actually an opportunity for you to take a deep breath before you handle it. We have had latch-ons and they are generally around the head in our dogs. Grab something that is strong but will not break the dog’s teeth and is somewhat flat – an official break-stick or parting stick is a wooden stick the size of a broom handle with a flat end, made for this purpose (there are legal concerns in some areas to do with break-sticks, so please check your local laws). Straddle the latched-on dog, firmly grasp his collar in one hand, insert the break-stick into his mouth near the back and rotate it using the same motion you would if you were revving a motorcycle. This mechanically opens the dog’s jaws.  Once you have opened his jaws, haul the dog off and move him away quickly, and then assess for injury on all dogs. Unlike handstand pull-aparts, you are at risk for a redirected bite here. Although we have found that other ways of separating latched-on dogs are not effective or safe, nor hygienic, I do know that some dog pros also successfully use a choking method to get latched dogs to release—if you are around a breed that regularly latches, you may want to explore and train yourself on this method as well. 

Caution! Attempting to pull latched-on dogs off each other without first causing the latched dog to release their bite can gravely exacerbate the latch-on and actually cause injuries. 

After you have secured the dogs and checked for injuries, then and only then can you reach for the whisky…for yourself! Also, if your dog was the latcher, plan to call a qualified positive reinforcement dog trainer to talk about training, risk, and muzzles.

If you are separating a dog fight by yourself and the handstand does not end the squabble, try using the handstand on the other dog. If you have citronella spray or a hose and haven’t tried them yet, try those as well. If these do not work, you may need to get something between the dogs. Grab the most manoeuvrable dog into a handstand, and back the fight up to a door. Yes, this will feel absolutely like a horror show, but it can work. Pull the dogs into the door opening and close the door between the dogs’ faces, without hitting them. They will separate when the door comes between them.

Other measures for breaking up dog squabbles can have unintended and negative effects. Yelling, kicking, or hitting dogs often ramps the fight up and makes it more injurious or intense–not what we want at all! There is also the very real issue of human injury. Getting your hands into a dog fight is asking for a redirected bite, so avoid reaching for the collar even thought it feels like the safest thing to do.

If your dog injures another dog beyond a small ding or injures a human during a dog fight, reach out to a qualified, positive reinforcement dog pro asap.

Standard non-injurious dog fights are extremely upsetting to us humans (I’ve written about this here), because they look and feel like the dogs are trying to kill or main each other. But…they aren’t. Non-injurious dog squabbles are simply the way that many dogs settle minor disputes, the same as when we fight with our siblings or spouses over normal domestic stuff. Most dog fights end with only minor injuries if any at all, and learning how to safely intervene can help us become more confident around our dogs when they are living their best lives: playing, romping, sniffing, saying hello!

A version of this article was originally published for dog mushers in the publication “The Sled Dogger”.

Disclaimer:  This article is designed for educational purposes only.  The services of a competent professional trainer or applied behaviourist should be sought regarding its applicability with respect to your own dog(s). Interacting with dogs is not without risk.  The author shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this article.

A guest blog by Jane Wolff of Good Wolff Dog Training

Scratches on the floor, extra sharp greetings when you get home and the tell-tale click clack as they walk around the house — these are all frequent reminders that your dog’s nails are getting too long. You know they need to be cut, but you know your dog hates it. Even so, you to feel the pressure to “get it done” even if it is a struggle. You’ve seen a whole slew of tempting gadgets and hacks that promise to make it easy and quick but you’re still struggling with basic nail care. And your dogs still hates it.

If your dog struggles to tolerate nail trims, you are certainly not alone! Many dog people struggle to keep their dog’s nails short — including people who specifically worked on it while their dogs were puppies! The combination of physical restraint plus having things done to them they don’t understand is often what sends a dog running when you get out the clippers. It is in an animal’s best interest to avoid being restrained and to feel stress when handled, when you consider the dog from an evolutionary or biological perspective.

Imagine for a moment that a family member or spouse sat on your legs and began to clip your toe nails without saying a word to you. It’s a hilarious thing to think about but if my wife did that to me I’d probably freak out. I might get upset with her and I’d absolutely try and make it stop/get away. And I have the privilege of understanding the concept that nails need to be clipped and that it likely won’t hurt!

Training dogs to be comfortable with nail trims consists of two fairly straight forward parts: getting them comfortable with the implement you’ll use (clippers, Dremel or nail file) and getting them comfortable with foot handling. Work on those things separately, then put the two together! That can sometimes be easier said than done when you’re overwhelmed — without a good solid plan and understanding of when to move to the next step, it’s hard to make significant progress.

In my online course: Fresh and Fearless, you’ll find a step by step nail trim plan with instructions and video demonstrations that you can follow along with. There is also space to ask questions and get some extra support if you get stuck. In addition to teaching the basics, I also like to teach dogs to do something that makes nail trims easier. My favorite is teaching them to lay on their side for easy access to their nails. That way you can take your time and can feel confident that you won’t cut them too short. 

Rushing things is where people often get off track and have to step back. Because convincing a dog that something they find scary is actually safe can often be a slow process, it can be extremely temping to push it “just this once.” I really like to have some management ideas in place to keep nails shorter while you’re training to avoid the temptation to push it. Here are some of my favorites:   

• Walks or runs on cement

• Playing tug or flirt pole in the driveway or other paved area (keep a close eye on their foot pads or hot pavement!)

• Digging

• Teaching them to use a scratch board (we’ll cover that more below!)

• Calling the vet to ask for a sedated nail visit

 A scratchboard is one of my favorite management solutions because it’s fun and easy to train and can keep the front nails short. I’ve used it for years at a time with my very handling wary dog, Indy. I’ve created a fun and easy to follow instructions and training plan that is free for anyone who wants it. You can check out the course and sign up to receive the plan and video here.

So, whether your dog is an adult who has a long history of disliking nail trims or you have a puppy who has never had their nails trimmed you CAN teach them that it’s fun, safe and easy. The key to success in any case is patience. Going slower always goes faster in the end so resist the urge to push it! Get yourself the free scratchboard course to help you out with that and have fun training!

Cover photo: Brown Short Coated Dog Lying on Wooden Floor by Karolina Grabowska

It’s so easy to pay attention to just the things that we dislike about our dogs, isn’t it? The problem behaviour, or in many cases, the problem behaviours. The whining, the barking, the dreaded jumping up… the snarling, the embarrassing cue-ignoring at the dog park, the urinating inside during that last holiday meal. Problem behaviours such as these are often first and foremost on the “let’s talk about it” list with my dog training clients, and for good reason: problem behaviours are almost always what brings a dog trainer into their lives, so of course they want to talk about it!

Problems are salient, and it’s natural for us humans to pay attention to salient things. We also, I think, try to isolate them and fix them. “I want my dog to stop barking at my neighbour.” Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to open up our dog’s operating system, delete that app, and carry on, no extra effort required?

Note: in some dog training cases, we can essentially do just that: some issues do have a simple fix. But those aren’t the majority of dog training cases, sadly. Life, in all it’s ecosystem-ish complexity, intervenes again.

One of the things I appreciate about living on a small mixed farm is the attendance to our ecosystem. Food production is complex and involves extractive processes, no matter who or where or when. There are inputs which we bring in (mostly from farms as close by as possible, but the globalised economy is inescapable even with pretty colossal efforts), and there are outputs: the food which feeds the farm’s customers up and down the street. But there is also a ton of materials and processes that remain wholly on the farm…nutrients are concentrated in manure and used to revitalize the soil, pest and weed growth is interrupted with strategic crop cycling, and the weather is seen, as much as possible, as an ally, instead of something to be overcome. Instead of looking at the different problems farmers usually face as a stand-alone problem and coming up with chemical or mechanical solutions, a mixed farm can embrace a much more ecosystem-centric approach: how can the farm work with and within natural processes? And how can the farm supply what the land needs, in order to help the farm produce?

Dog training isn’t always about just “fixing” the issue that the client contacts us about. And even when it is, dog trainers are often looking at a bigger picture of the dog’s life: Exercise? Enrichment? Skills? Environment? Family interactions? Punishment history? We’ll also want to learn more about the dog’s inner environment: Breed? Joys and fears? Health? This is for two reasons. One reason is that we dog trainers really do care that our client’s dogs are living their best lives, as much as is possible. The other reason is that we can often use what we learn about the dog’s ecosystem to help with the problem behaviour.

For example, the dog who is barking at the neighbour. We’ll want to know in what context the dog barks at the neighbour (at the fence? When the neighbour comes over for a visit? During walks?). We’ll also want to know how the dog responds to other strangers, if he spends a lot of time alone in the back yard, and so on. We will want, perhaps, to ferret out how the neighbour responds to the dog. We’ll suss out the dog’s favourite treats and rewards—usually some type of delicious food, but for some dogs tug and fetch games might help to top out the list too. We’ll want to know if the dog might be feeling ill, pained, scared, or under-whelmed. It all adds up to a better solution, and hopefully, if needed, a better life for the dog.

As a dog trainer, I will want to find solutions that work within the rhythms and systems that already exist in my clients’ homes if possible, and I’ll want to use the natural behaviours and inclinations the dogs (and people!) have, to come up with a reasonable plan. If there are pieces of a typical dog’s ecosystem that aren’t present, and if they would improve the life of this dog, I’ll do my best to introduce them. Neither dogs nor their “problem” behaviours exist separately from their whole, and likely complex, ecosystems. Attending to this can only make our training—and our dogs’ lives—that much better.

Cover photo: Redtc | © Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images
Second photo: Jackryan89 | © Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

Training your dog to touch their nose to your hand is...well, handy. It's also easy. Read on.

Steps one and two

Hide a bit of cheese or another dog treat under your thumb, with your hand otherwise flat. Put your hand about two inches from your dog's nose. Your dog will almost certainly investigate and touch her nose to your palm. As soon as her nose makes contact, say "yes!" and open your thumb to allow her to eat the treat.

After doing this ten times, you'll fake your dog out a bit. Put your hand out in the same way, but with no treat hiding under your thumb. When your dog makes contact this time, say "Yes!" and feed from your other hand. Do this ten more times.

Steps three and four

Now, present your hand in a standard hand target position, thumb to the side. Your dog should touch her nose to it, on faith. If she does, say "Yes!" and reward her with a treat. If she doesn't, head back to step one and do the whole thing over.

Repeat this ten times, and then make it a bit harder for the next step. Put your hand out a foot from your dog's nose. Do ten like that, then try a set of ten with your hand off to one side. Then another ten from across the room.

Adding the cue

When your dog is trotting across the room to touch your palm, it's time to add the cue.

Say "touch!" (or whatever, really...just pick a word that you want to use as a name for this behaviour) and then put your hand out to the side. Always say the word first, and then put your hand out second. Over time, your dog will learn to anticipate the hand coming out when they hear "touch!" and they'll head in your direction.

Always reinforce this behaviour with a treat, until the dog has been doing it successfully for six months. After that, you may reinforce every second or third one. You must continue to reinforce some of these forever, or your dog will simply stop doing it.

I recently took an “introduction to roller derby” class (non-euphemistically called “fresh meat”), wherein I learned to somehow stay reasonably vertical whilst wearing no fewer than eight tiny wheels on my feet and engaging in a full-contact sport with some mildly terrifying athletes. It was, as you can well imagine, hilarious fun. On my first rumble-tastic day, I wore a t-shirt that shows a dog wearing a cone with the text “It’s all fun and games until someone ends up in a cone” beside it. When I posted a video on my social media, a dog trainer friend of mine pointed out how that shirt’s message was a great fit for the activity in hand. It made me laugh, but it also made me think about dogs (of course).

I loved each of my two-hour roller derby sessions. It was intensely hard work: learning a whole new skill (I had never been on roller skates before), learning a whole new set of rules, socializing with a whole new set of people…it was challenging and satisfying. There were a lot of directions I had to follow, for safety and fairness: certain equipment was de rigeur, such as a helmet, pads, and mouth guard. I also was supposed to refrain from certain types of grabbing and holding, as only other types of grabbing, holding, body checking, mowing people down with abandon, etc., etc., etc. were allowed. But despite all my protective gear; despite learning how to stop and slow myself down; despite gaining a modicum of capability in the whole “staying upright whilst being body-checked” department…I regularly fell, sometimes pretty hard, and I often came home with a few really impressive bruises.

You know where I’m going with this, right? Here’s the non-news: I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

I wouldn’t have changed a thing, because the arbiter of what’s reasonable in my life isn’t a law stating “absolutely no harm shall come to thine person”. No, nope, nay. Instead, I can weigh the risks and rewards, and chose to do the fun thing anyways.

And guess what? We can grant our dogs the very same leeway. There are many things our dogs like to do, things which carry a risk of injury. Dog play for starters…dogs can get injuries from even the most delightful-looking play, but they can also get into scraps when they play, which carry their own risks for injuries. This absolutely doesn’t mean that we can or should prevent dog-social dogs from playing, though…life, lived joyfully and fully, always carries some risks. (In fact, I’d argue that preventing dog-social dogs from playing risks much greater harm to their welfare.)

Other activities that can carry risks (but activities that we could and should consider for our dogs anyways) include stuffed food toys, dog sports and games, and hiking with our dogs, among many others—you know your dog best. For most of these activities, the risks can be mitigated, of course, and it’s our job to do so in a reasonable way. Just like I needed rules about safe play and just like I needed protective equipment (and thank goodness for those elbow pads is all I’m saying) we need to be cognizant of, and mitigate, risks. But we don’t need to reduce our dogs’ lives to small, bored, or warehoused versions of what our dogs really want: freedom, fun, and fantastic.

Cover photo: By Earl McGehee - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16476055

I know next to nothing about hockey (I’m considering writing a book called “Everything I Know About Hockey I Learned From Letterkenny”, but…ok, the title is essentially the entire book, and I believe that is frowned upon by the literati), but I do know what chirping is. Chirps are the insults that hockey players sling at each other, to try and undermine the emotional state—and therefore physical performance—of their opponents.

Today, for absolutely no good reason at all, I was thinking about chirping. More specifically, I was thinking about what my dogs might chirp at me, during a training session. This is not to imply that we are on a different team, because when we’re training, I have food and my dogs want it, so we’re pretty much in perfect harmony on all things big picture. But…let’s face it, everyone. I’ll bet good money that there is at least the occasional chirp coming at me from the dogs in my care. I’m not perfect. So when I’m training hard, and trying to keep my rate of reinforcement up, keep my training mechanics smooth, and following a training plan whilst working in sets of five…yeah. A thing may go wrong, here and there.

So I hereby present to you chirps, from my dogs, as I train them. (We’ll avoid the dirty misogyny of many hockey chirps, because ^%@# the patriarchy, right?)

I’ve seen drunk chipmunks with better timing than you.

I guess that’s one way to increase your lousy rate [upon eating the food I inadvertently dropped on the floor].

What good are opposable thumbs if you can’t hit the clicker on time, primate?

Even parrots can count to five [when I murmur “4” for the third time in a row].

Ant brains are a hundred-thousandth of most humans’ and they manage to bring enough food to a session.

I’d like to say that I’ve met sparrows who chirp better than my dogs…but the truth is, it burns.

Cover photo credit: Andronov | © Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images