She flies through the air with the greatest of ease.

Sitka likes to “dispatch” mice in our pasture. She’s a perfect and perfectly sleek greyhound/husky cross, fast and joyful. She’ll carry the mouse around for a while after the deed is done, the whole thing hidden in her long and delicate mouth (sometimes the tail will be sticking out…how delightfully macabre). Then she’ll put the mouse down, sigh, and take a break, stretched languorously on her side with the spoils of her hunt just inches from her snout. Often, one or more of my other dogs can be found waiting nearby, their blinkingly innocent faces full of hope. They’re not as successful in the fields as Sitka is (she’s all speed and lithe vulpine grace, that one), but they seem to want Sitka to know that they, too, like mice. If a dog manages to get too close—a Sitka with a mouth full of mouse has a rather large ‘personal space’ bubble, I’ll have you know—she’ll react. A rumbling growl and the slightest twitch of her lip into a snarl, pearly white enamel clearly visible.

Yes, it’s true. Sitka guards her booty from one and all.

Do your dogs guard stuff from each other? Bones, chew toys, food, beds…dogs can guard a stunning array of stuff. I’ve had clients whose dogs guard their owners; I’ve had clients whose dogs guard scents on the ground. My own dogs guard stolen Kleenexes and farm-related…“matter” which shall remain, mercifully, unnamed. Sometimes when dogs guard against each other, the guarding is lackadaisical: a halfhearted growl as another dog sneaks in and absconds with the goods. Sometimes the guarding is ferocious: a snaking run across the room and an explosive dog-dog brawl at even the slightest suggestion of a “hey, want to share?”

Sitkas are queen bees when it comes to lolling.

It can seem inappropriate when our dogs guard from each other, and it’s tempting to try and stop guarding from happening. Sharing is caring, right? I mean us humans don’t guard stuff from each other, we don’t show our teeth and vocalize when a dinner companion reaches across the table to snatch a fry from our plate, do we? [Editor’s note: not sure this example proves the point.] This feeling of “hey, dog, don’t do that” is especially the case if it seems somehow unfair from our human perspective. Once, my beautiful all-white sled dog Sugar snagged a mouse from (literally) right under Sitka’s nose. After this outrageous bit of canine thievery, Sugar then proceeded to guard the mouse from Sitka herself. It was, to say the least, nervy.

Luckily for those of us with Dogs Who Guard Stuff, this behaviour is beautifully normal. If no-one is getting hurt and no-one is getting scared, you can just sit back and watch it happen. I will never tire of watching the wordless conversations between Sitka and my other dogs when she’s staking her claim. Recently, our very fearful dog Walter started guarding slobbered, ripped, and chewed up dog toys from other dogs, and we (quietly) celebrated! How exhilarating, to see him comfortable enough to be a dog!

If it’s time to change your dog’s guarding behaviour, because it really gets on your nerves or one of your dogs is getting hurt or scared, there are a few ways of handling it. The easiest thing is to separate your dogs when they have “hot” items. If you’re handing out chewies, do it with your dogs in their own crates or in separate rooms. This simply prevents the problem behaviour from occurring. You can also prompt the guardee away from the situation. Happy talk, trill, or use your recall cue, and then reward them with a cookie (have a canister of biscuits nearby for ease) to encourage an ‘it pays to walk away’ behaviour in the future. I use both of these techniques frequently, since not all my guarding dogs are as blasé as Sitka (I’m looking at you, Timber). It might be tempting to yell at the guarding dog to share, goldarnit, but this is unlikely to help, and may actually make the guarding worse.

Side note: when I say “all my guarding dogs”, I mean all my dogs. They all guard. Every single one.

If these easy fix-its aren’t enough, I would encourage you to call in a credentialled, force-free dog trainer. We can help you set your dogs up for success, and we can help reduce guarding by using one or more of a few standard techniques: we can get right to the root of the issue by changing the guarding dog’s underlying emotional state (a la “Oh, I actually like it when another dog approaches me when I have a mouth full of mouse!”), and we can change the behaviour of the guarded-against dog (a la “I used to accidentally walk by my canine sister when she had mouse breath. Now I head to my own bed and get a treat”).

No reputable trainer nearby? Feel free to get in touch with me and we’ll figure something out. In the meantime, I’ll just be over here with some popcorn, watching my dogs be hilarious and wonderful. You’re absolutely welcome to join me…but you’ll have to get your own popcorn, my friend. No sharesies.

This post is a part of the "Train For Rewards Blog Party 2019", with Companion Animal Psychology.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Demand Barking”, and if you happen to have a dog, or have been within twenty meters of a dog, you’ve probably heard the real thing, too. Demand barking occurs when dogs have learned that barking serves to get them what they want. It’s not the same as the other types of barking that dogs use to communicate: alarm, fear, play, and so on.

Trainer Jackie Johnston knows what I’m talking about.

This type of barking is truly a product of (generally mistaken) human intervention. It starts out this way: our dogs bark, for whatever reason or motivation, and we, without thinking, reinforce it. And by reinforce, I mean that we provide attention, we provide a chew toy, we provide door-opening services…anything that the dog happens to want in that moment in time. The dog, like all creatures great and small, notices reinforcement. They notice that their behaviour got them what they wanted. In the future, when they want patting, door opening services, and so on, they’ll be more likely to try barking again, for this reason. And when they bark, well, we notice. Barking is annoying to us humans, so we pay attention to it lickety-split. The dog gets another dose of reinforcement, and the learning process continues unabashed. Although the barking is the important part to us, the patting or door-opening is the important bit to the dog: it’s the very reason they bark.

If you have a demand-barking dog and this is sounding all too familiar, try to set aside your feelings about how very truly personal it feels. It feels like they’re trying to bark up a migraine on purpose, but…they’re not, I promise. Demand barking is simply an example of dogs learning and working. To wit: when we train a dog to sit, we use the exact same teaching system. The dog sits, either by happenstance or through us luring, and then we reinforce. We repeat the operation, always providing reinforcement after the sit. The dog, like all creatures great and small, notices the reinforcement. In the future, the dog is more likely to sit to get that treat. The treat is the important bit to the dog: it’s the very reason they sit.

Random aside: Have you ever asked your dog to sit and then when they do sit, called it demand sitting?

Humans learn to perform various tasks for essentially the same reasons as dogs, which won’t surprise you at all. We go to work for the reinforcement of a paycheque, for example. We walk to the fridge for the reinforcement of cheesecake. We’re more complex than dogs (except maybe Timber, he’s a very complex dude), but the same principles apply. We work in order to get the stuff we want in the world.

Random aside: Have you ever referred to what you do at the office as demand working?

Request barking

Since demand barking is a beastie we create by reinforcing it, it doesn’t seem appropriate to call it “demand barking”, does it? “Demand” seems to imply that the dog doesn’t have a right to ask for the patting, door-opening, or whatnot. But we’ve just trained them that barking is how we want them to ask. Some trainers use the much less value-laden term “request barking” for this reason, and I do appreciate this term. But I have to admit, it also misses the mark a bit, doesn’t it? When you go to the office and work your tail off, are you request working? No, you’re just working. You’re putting in an honest day in order to earn an honest dollar. And when dogs sit in order to get a treat, or bark in order to get a door opened, they’re putting in an honest day to earn their very honest dog dollar.

So what can we call demand barking? I hang my head in shame here, because I’m pretty sure I’ll probably continue to refer to it as demand barking. It’s just easy, and it’s not that bad of a term (is it? I don’t need much convincing, here…the language we use to talk about our dogs matters). But among my dog training friends, I like to use the phrase “operant barking”. Operant behaviour is simply behaviour that animals learn to do, then choose to do, based on what consequences it produces: sit is an operant behaviour that usually results in treats, affection, and so on. A dog learns to push on the dog door, and this operant behaviour results in access to the outside. And so on. The word operant is used because the dog is operating on their environment to get the things they need to survive and thrive.

So the next time your dog barks in order to earn some reinforcement, nod your head sagely and say “ah ha! That’s operant barking, I’ll have you know!” in a very scholastic tone. Then call in a dog trainer, because that’s the most piercing thing ever in the history of migraine-inducing sounds, and dog trainers are supremely good at reducing that particular operant behaviour. We trained our dogs to do it, after all. We can certainly train them to do something else, instead.

Update: five minutes after I went live with this blog, I thought of the term “On Demand Barking”. This shifts the meaning to be “getting what I paid for” instead of “my dog is demanding”. I may use this phrase from now on with my clients!

Do you want help with your barking dog? Check out my online course just for you: it’s chock-full of great tips, training plans, videos, and more! In just a few days or weeks you’ll be well on your way to a much more quiet and peaceful existence with your dog. Check it out (including a few free lessons) and enrol now: Peace and Quiet—A new normal for “Demand Barking” dogs.

First photo: Andronov | © Dreamstime Stock Photos & Stock Free Images

Although modern dog training techniques and methods are sophisticated and efficient, there are certainly some limits to what we can do. For many dog owners, a training journey is about acceptance as much as it is about action.

Don’t get me wrong: we can often make huge gains in a bunch of ways. We can get even the most cue-deaf dog to do a ‘come when called’ behaviour. We can get a dog to sit instead of jumping on guests, we can get a fearful dog comfortable at the vet’s office, and we can offer comfort and peace to a dog who is worried about strangers. We can switch up your snarling, food-guarding dog to be one who enjoys and even joyfully anticipates having their bowl of food touched. And we can help your dog who, upon seeing another dog across the street on a walk, becomes a barking and lunging Tasmanian devil.

But all that said, we can’t always meet the expectations that our clients have about their dogs. In these cases, we, as the pet professional in the room, work to educate and find solutions that are both achievable for the dog in question, and work-able for the humans involved.

Some of the things that typically involve compromise rather than a behaviour-change resolution include:

• Predatory behaviour.

• Profound fearfulness.

• Bite pressure: a dog who bites with maiming force.

• Energy level or “calmness”.

• Scrapping, if our clients want “never again”.

Let’s unpack each of these a bit more.

Predatory behaviour

Dogs are domesticated social carnivores and some of them have behavioural remnants of their wolf ancestors: they try (and sometimes succeed) to hunt for their dinners. Predatory behaviour in dogs has many manifestations and can be both playful or “for real”. It ranges from gentle play to intense play to chasing cars to herding sheep to the full meal deal: finding, chasing, killing, and consuming. Predatory behaviour is not aggression, it is simply dogs getting something to eat.

If this describes your dog, what can you expect from your trainer? If your dog rips apart stuffed toys with gleeful abandon, we’ll counsel you to simply provide more stuffed toys. We won’t generally train a dog to stop committing stufficide, because it’s harmless, enriching, and…well, hilarious fun. Trainers want dogs to get more of what they love, not less of it. For the same reasons, we’ll counsel you to sit back and enjoy the stalking, chasing, and biting games your dogs play with each other. Nature made play to be enjoyable and enjoyed, and it’s not our place to police our dogs’ preferences if no-one is getting hurt.

If your dog chases bikes, we’ll probably recommend a training protocol to reduce this behaviour: we’ll train your dog to ignore bikes or do a recall instead of chasing, for example. And we’ll probably counsel you to use a fence or leash to make sure everyone is safe if and when the situation demands it. This is because behaviour change is, just like my grade in high school biology, never 100%. Good trainers won’t offer guarantees: we can only alter the likelihood of x, y, z happening in situations a, b, and c. So for a dog who might get injured on the street or scare some innocent cyclist, a leash will provide safety and security.

Further to the “no behaviour change is 100%” thing, those dogs who are truly predatory must generally be prevented from carrying out these normal, but unacceptable, behaviours. A dog who kills cats isn’t evil, but shouldn’t be allowed to kill cats: prevention is key, and leashes and fences are usually the solution. This is a question of ethics too, of course. My dogs kill and consume mice, for which I neither train nor restrict access to inside my house…or outside my house, all of which is prime mouse habitat. And in other cases, 99% is good enough. My dogs have been trained, through habituation, reinforcement, and time-outs, to refrain from chasing cattle. They still occasionally get a bit too interested in a cow and I have to actively call them away, but this is a level of predatory behaviour I am OK with.

Profound fearfulness

We can often make great strides in a profoundly fearful dog’s quality of life by preventing them from experiencing whatever it is they’re scared of. We can also usually chip away at their fears, to make them less scared. When a client and their veterinarian find a good fit for the dog, medically, this can really help. But a dog who is abjectly fearful will likely never become a social butterfly or truly comfortable in situations that naturally confident dogs take in stride, like crowded, noisy public settings. Abject fearfulness generally stems from poor breeding choices, lack of socialization, or sometimes from fear-evoking events in a dog’s life, including confrontational training.

If you have an abjectly fearful dog, your dog trainer should be a supportive ally on your dog’s care team, and should help you feel capable and understanding when it comes to keeping your dog feeling safe.

Bite pressure: a dog who bites with maiming force

Although the specific practical science is slim, the best thinkers in our field suggest that dogs’ ability to bite in social situations (fights, guarding, or out of fear) is a part of the suite of behaviours ethologists call ritualized violence. The vast, vast, vast majority of the time when a dog bites in a social situation, she does so with much less force than when she bites a prey item (i.e., her food). Dogs who bite outside of food-acquisition situations really are communicating, not killing.

And again, although the science is slim, it appears that dogs have a bite pressure, or confined range of bite pressures, that is stable in healthy adult dogs. In other words, a dog who bites and causes a small bruise will likely continue to bite and cause small bruises in the same context in the future.

The other side of this coin is that if dogs bite with maiming force in a social situation, this is not something that qualified dog professionals can “train out”. By maiming force, I mean the removal of flesh, broken bones, or deep punctures causing extensive bruising. Luckily, dogs who bite with maiming force are rare…no matter what the news reports imply (some experts believe that some dogs with good bite pressure might bite with increased force in real “panic” situations as well…we could use some good science on this topic).

If your dog bites with maiming force in very particular situations, your dog trainer will talk to you about prevention. If your trainer suggests they can change your dog’s bite pressure, be wary: in my opinion, the suggestion that this is a possibility is dangerously incorrect, in the absence of science supporting any behaviour modification success. But prevention can work: muzzling dogs is a wonderful way to simply, and wholly, prevent bites. Dogs can be trained to enjoy wearing muzzles, giving everyone breathing room. If a dog bites with maiming force during dog-dog altercations, then it is often easiest to have the dog avoid contact with other dogs, and have their sociability needs met in other ways.

Energy level

Trainers like to think of ourselves as behaviour-change machines, but the truth of the matter is that if you have an enthusiastic and energetic dog, you’ll need to provide more exercise and enrichment (on top of any short-term training to be done). We can absolutely help identify exercise and enrichment opportunities that will work in our clients’ busy lives, but we won’t be able to wave a magic wand that will turn a young field-line retriever into a lazy couch potato. Happy, contented tiredness is a state earned every day through brain and body work-outs, not a trained trick.

“No More Scraps Ever”

Dogs are animals, and animals fight. For clients who have scrappy dogs, there are a few training options (depending on when and where the fights happen) that can reduce the frequency of fighting. But for infrequent, non-injurious fights? Your friendly neighbourhood dog trainer may recommend simply accepting that this natural, normal, and non-worrisome behaviour may happen here and there. In fact, your friendly neighbourhood dog trainer may push back a bit if you feel very firmly about “no more scraps ever”, since the only way to achieve 100% would be to remove all dog play from your dog’s life. For a friendly and social dog (i.e. most dogs), being jailed away from dogs forever because they occasionally show non-injurious and species-typical conflict resolution behaviour isn’t a good training protocol, it’s a welfare issue.

Expectation vs. reality

Dog training isn’t always about getting a dog to do (or not do) a certain behaviour, although training on that level tends to be the fun stuff for us trainers. Frequently, dog training is about finding peace and compromises that allow a dog to fit in more smoothly with her human family members, so that everyone—canine and primate—can live a life of comfort and joy.

Are your cues just empty promises?

A few days ago, Yoenne said something really profound. She said “I don’t want to be making any empty promises”. She was talking about calling in our cows, who were out in a back pasture lounging in the warm rays of the early spring-time sun. She has trained our cows to come when called, using the same techniques that I use when I’m training my dogs or my clients’ dogs to come when called: we pair the cue with a delicious reward; add in a dollop of practice practice practice in increasingly difficult scenarios; et voila: we get a trained dog (or a trained cow). The animals—dog, cow, it matters not—learn to the do work of the recall for the paycheque of the food, as reinforcement. Yoenne had been considering calling the cows to her to check on them, but she didn’t have any food (the usual paycheque for cow recalls is either grain or hay cubes, both of which cows adore). So instead of calling them in, she walked out to see them.

Shouldn’t they just do it?

Us humans (myself included) have a set of very natural, but plum wrong, feelings about dogs doing stuff for us. When we ask our dogs to do something, it feels like they should just do it because they love us and they’re part of our family. This is a bit of transference of human stuff to dogs, though…when we ask members of our human family to do stuff for us, it’s often reasonable to expect that they will. Human families are complex and our evolutionary history has made it wise and reasonable for us to do stuff for each other for free. But dogs, like cows, are their own animals. They have their own motivations and must meet their own needs, in their own way. Humans understand, and benefit from, “should”. Dogs? Not so much.

A cue is a promise

A cue, to an animal, is a sort of promise. It’s a promise that if they do x, y, or z; something is going to happen. Once a cue is delivered, it’s up to the animal to decide if doing x, y, or z is worth their while at this particular moment in time. It’s our job, as the humans in the equation, to make sure the promise isn’t an empty one: we don’t ask for our dogs (or cows) to do something over and over without ever signing a paycheque. It’s also our job as the humans in the equation to make sure the promise isn’t a threat: do this or else. When we make a promise with our dogs (and if we want our dogs do the work of that recall, or down-stay, or standing still for the leash to be snapped on…) we better hold up our end of the bargain. No one likes an empty promise—not a cow, not a person, and not a dog.

Recently, I was working with a lovely dog. A dog who is, and I will state this for the record, perfection. Sweet, cute, and dear, with a black button nose and an ever-hopeful gaze. The kind of dog who ambles up to guests to say hello and snoozes on dog beds in Instagram-worthy poses. He’s sheer perfection. Sheer perfection, that is, until some unsuspecting human puts him on on leash and walks him by another dog. At that point…sweet gourd of holy ablutions does that dog go bananas. He’s like the Tasmanian devil of cartoon fame: a blur of fur and teeth, with feet sticking out here and there. After one of our training sessions (during which the doe-eyed Tasmanian devil is learning to walk much more sedately past other dogs), his owner looked at me and sighed. “I wish we could just let dogs live a natural life.” She shifted her treat bag on her waist and looked wistfully out across the street. “You know, allow dogs to be dogs. None of this training, none of this making them fit into our lives.”

I understand why she feels this way, of course. When you’re training a dog using a good plan and good treats, the dog is so keen to work it feels almost criminal. But although I understand, I don’t actually agree. I don’t agree that there is anything unnatural about training (and I also don’t agree that there is anything unnatural about dogs cohabiting with humans, but that’s a conversation for another day). Humans didn’t invent training to coerce dogs into living one way or the other. As long as there is no coercion involved, dogs aren’t being forced to learn. They’re simply doing what they’d be doing in a magical human-free dog world: changing their behaviour to make good things happen for dogs.

Learning (and the resulting behaviour change) isn’t something that happens solely when the humans are around, treats in one hand and leash in the other. All animals, from snails to dogs to hippos, are learning all the time. In fact, the ability to learn—to change one’s behaviour based on information received in real time from the environment, and based on how things went in previous, similar experiences—is as natural as breathing. And what’s more, and I do not say this lightly, learning is just as vital to staying alive as is breathing.

It’s pretty easy to see examples of dogs learning all around us. They learn to lay on the couch in the mid-morning to catch the sun’s rays, they learn to lay on the floor by the back door to stay cool, they learn that the fire hydrant on 3rd Street always has the most interesting smells, they learn what it means when you pick up the leash, and they learn that when the TV gets turned off it’s time to head to bed. None of these were training protocols created by humans to change dog’s behaviour, and most don’t involve reinforcement or punishment from humans, either. Instead, it’s just dogs, working their environments. I repeat: it’s dogs, working their environments to get the best deal for dogs.

Dogs also learn to avoid things, and we can see this happening in real time, too. They learn to avoid the cranky cat, they learn to stay away from the couch mid-afternoon when it’s blisteringly hot, and they learn that the best place to get away from the vacuum cleaner sound is by hiding in the basement. They learn that if they play-bite too hard with their canine brethren, there won’t be any more play for a few hours.

Humans didn’t invent learning. Animals evolved with the ability to learn so they could make the most of their lives (and of course go on to make a bunch more baby animals). If an animal didn’t learn to avoid risk, or didn’t learn to obtain the things they enjoy and need to survive, they wouldn’t last long individually or as a species. All this is to say that if we look at training from the dog’s perspective, they’re working us for food, affection, access to spaces they enjoy, and so on…just like they’d work the environment food and all the good stuff. It’s all the same to dogs.

So, not only did humans not invent learning…it’s a bit of human hubris to suggest that we are doing something different to dogs than the kind of “learning” that dogs do to fit in with the other aspects of their environments. We just saw, then codified, and now use the way that dogs happen to learn, so that both ourselves and our dogs can share a peaceable, fun, cross-species lifestyle. And if you’ve spent much time watching nature shows, you’ve probably seen how the environment “trains” animals: it ain’t always pretty. If you’re committed to training in such a way that avoids painful and scary consequences, you’re a kinder trainer than nature, and by spades.

In the words of my mentor, Jean Donaldson, when we’re training dogs we’re just surfing a system that evolution created. Training, from our dogs’ perspective, is just learning. They like it, we like it, it’s enriching, and if done well and thoughtfully, it makes our dogs’ lives better…to say nothing of our own lives. A truly sad situation is a dog who isn’t getting the feedback they need (environmental or human-orchestrated, they don’t care) to live the most fulfilled and comfortable life they can. This is what happens to many dogs who don’t get training to change their house-training habits or their recalls or their jumping up.

Training, that is, learning, isn’t unnatural. A life without learning, without challenge, and without change would be the truly unnatural thing.

Recently, one of the many wonderful rescues I work with posted a picture of a gorgeous dog, who was en route to her new home. As I skimmed the post, I read about this dog’s backstory, which was a bit sad: she had come from a life without a lot of enrichment or human contact, living outside without adequate shelter, and so on. But things were looking up for this particular dog, and of course I had to smile. She’d scored big with a wonderful home in another city; a family waiting eagerly for their new canine addition. But then I got to the end of the post: she’d needed some vet care and was being boarded with a dog trainer for a few days before travelling on to her final destination.

When I saw that another trainer was involved, I will admit my smile cracked a bit. As you may be aware, dog training is a wholly unregulated industry. That is, anyone can open shop, take your money, and do whatever they want to your dog. Hitting, shocking, and yelling are just the start of some of the negative and wholly unnecessary experiences that dogs may receive while being trained by a subset of dog trainers (and that is to say nothing of the trainers who are motivated by a desire to help dogs but lack formal education, skills, and experience, so end up taking handfuls of dollars from unsuspecting clients and failing to make a difference). The problem is so pervasive that my mentor, Jean Donaldson of the Academy for Dog Trainers, has created a video to raise awareness.

I went to the dog trainer’s website to see if I could find out more about their educational credentials and philosophy. Neither were listed, leaving me wondering what might happen to this dog in the few days she would be staying there. Educational credentials are important, obviously (imagine if you found out that your child’s math teacher had no training other than reading Dr. Spock). But philosophy matters too, and here’s why.

The consequence of consequences

One of the important ways that dog trainers help dogs is by changing dogs’ behaviour. This seems self-evident, but the truth of the matter is that we do a bunch of other stuff, too…changing the dog’s environment, mitigating owner expectations, and so on. But changing behaviour is often a key component of our work. In order to change a dog’s behaviour, we must teach the dog new skills: dogs learn to do x, y, and z, in situations a, b, and c. We can tell that our clients’ dogs are learning because we see the evidence right before our eyes: there is behaviour change. Often (but not always), dog trainers use a type of learning known as ‘operant conditioning’ to change a dog’s behaviour. The dogs learn that “If I do x, I get y”. In real life, the end product of this training looks like:

• If I stay sitting when the vet draws blood, I get some cheese.

• If I come when my owner calls my name instead of dancing away, I get a biscuit.

• If I sit at the door instead of jumping up, I get a cookie and I also get to lick my owner’s face, which I love.

Using consequences—something that comes after the behaviour happens, like the paycheque of a cheese treat—to change a dog’s behaviour is a powerful training technique. But there is more than one type of consequence that will change behaviour: there is the proverbial carrot, but there is also the proverbial stick. The following statements may also be true, for a dog trained by a trainer who uses consequences that I’m uncomfortable with.

• If I stay sitting when the vet draws blood, the chain around my neck won’t tighten and cut off my air.

• If I come when my owner calls my name instead of dancing away, she stops the continuous electric shock on my neck.

• If I sit at the door instead of jumping up, I don’t get a blow to the chest.

Painful and scary consequences like electric shock, yelling, swatting, penny cans, and so on absolutely work to change a dog’s behaviour. The science is in: just as much as the carrot works to change behaviour, so does the stick. It works, and that’s why so many trainers continue to use it. All mammals will change their behaviour to avoid scary and painful experiences. However, the science is also in: scary and painful consequences are unnecessary—we can get the job done without them—and they also carry side-effects: fearfulness and even aggression. There is ever-increasing evidence of welfare and public safety risks associated with these techniques.

Philosophy matters

So if both the “getting cheese” and the “getting shocked” type of consequences work to change behaviour, and both are sadly still legal, how is a dog owner (or a dog rescue) to tell if a dog trainer uses one style or the other, or both? This is where training philosophy comes into play.

When you’re looking a dog trainer’s website, look for language about the trainer’s philosophy (see mine here, and read more about choosing a dog trainer here). Look for information that clearly states the trainer will not use shock collars, prong collars, or painful/scary techniques on your dog, or that they will use exclusively positive reinforcement and other force-free training. If there is nothing on the website about this, simply ask. Ask the three questions from the video included above. If the trainer’s reply is not clear, ask if they use tools like shock collars or prong collars. Ask if they use alpha-rolling or rely on techniques that focus on establishing leadership, which is usually code for using scary or painful consequences. If they say anything other than a resounding “no way”, keep looking.

One of the many things that makes me jealous when I look at pictures of some European cities is the acceptance of dogs, everywhere! Cafe dogs, restaurant dogs, patio dogs, and pub dogs. How nice would it be to have such access to the world with one’s pet? Happy (and envious) sigh. Some places do allow pet dogs here in Canada, of course…not restaurants but certainly patios and other kinds of stores. However, they usually come with some (quite reasonable) rules and conditions. Are you looking for a dog that can come along with you? Or perhaps you’re wondering if your own dog might both enjoy and be suitable as an out-and-about dog? Read on.

Considering a new dog?

I loved how the dogs from Unidos Para Los Animales were so happy to be out-and-about! Photo: Linda Green

If you’re ready to open your heart and home to a dog you want to bring everywhere, you might be madly googling “best breeds for x, y, z”. And of course, breed does matter! Different breeds have different needs, different hair coats, different exercise requirements, and so on. But breed isn’t everything, so there’s a caveat: every dog is an individual, and there is considerable variation even within each breed (in fact, the variation between individuals in a breed is bigger than the variation between breeds!).

That said, out-and-about dogs share a couple of characteristics: the first (and by far most important) thing is that they are friendly to people, and more specifically, they’re friendly to new people. They are comfortable with people of all sorts and types, and ideally they actually enjoy meeting new people. This comfort and enjoyment of meeting new people means that out-and-about dogs won’t find their sojourns to the local cafe to be fear-inducing. We want our dogs to get more of what they love and less of what they fear, after all!

Friendly towards people and friendly or neutral towards other dogs are useful characteristics of an out-and-about dog. Photo Linda Green.

Many breeds are friendly towards people, and within each breed there are individual lines which are more, or less, friendly. Generally, breeds who have been historically bred to be fearful of people they don’t know, and to act upon their fear with aggression, are not good candidates. This includes but is not limited to guarding breeds. In addition, many “working” dogs can be a bit anxious around people they don’t know, such as herding dogs. In Canada, both the Labrador and Golden retrievers are very popular, and they are often friendly with strangers. Depending on the quality and orientation of the breeder, these dogs can be a great choice for someone looking for a go-anywhere type of dog. Pit bull-type dogs can also be very friendly to people, and some smaller breeds are perfectly content to lap-hop.

The second consideration is that the dog shouldn’t have the kind of boundless, frenetic energy that makes them less likely to want to chill-out near a table and watch the world go by. Although some breeds are known to be generally high-energy (herders again come to mind), this is also very much a “line” question: some lines within many otherwise easy-going breeds are very energetic. So if you’re looking for a chill-out dog, take a second look. Does the breeder participate in dog shows? These dogs tend to be more relaxed. Or do they participate in sports or other competitions? Be wary! This leads up to another good point: if you’re buying a purebred puppy, make sure you have good contact with the breeder, and let them know what you’re looking for. A good breeder will screen you to make sure you’ll be a good fit, and will allow you to meet the parents. Spend some time reading about the flags for puppy mill dogs before you make the purchase, and do not go ahead if you’re concerned. Puppy mill dogs tend to have more behavioural issues, so are less likely to be good out-and-about dogs without more intensive training.

Puppy training: it matters

If you’ve carefully selected a suitable breed, found a quality breeder, and are getting ready to do things right, start looking for puppy classes and socialization opportunities. Socializing a puppy when they are very young (under 12-16 weeks) is absolutely helpful, and in fact is the most important training task you will do with your dog, ever. Socialization-age puppies are learning what is safe in their worlds. Puppies should get comfortable with different sorts and types of people, traffic, people walking by, the busy sounds of a kitchen, car trips, thunder, strollers and walkers and canes and…the list is endless! The more stuff your puppy safely meets as a puppy, the less they’ll be scared of, as an adult. So put your puppy in a puppy stroller, grab some delicious treats, and head out the door. Socializing is one extremely important way to invest in a social, friendly dog as an adult. It’s so important, in fact, that modern dog trainers urge that a lot of other training can wait! An adult dog can easily learn to sit, come when called, lay down, leave-it, and stay. Deficits in socialization are much harder to overcome, and sometimes they simply can’t be.

Puppies may not be the best choice

The best way to guarantee that you’re getting a go-anywhere kind of dog is, and this may surprise you, to simple head out and get a go-anywhere kind of dog! I’m not being facetious, I promise. Puppies are adorable, but are always a bit of a gamble. Young dogs often change dramatically when they hit social maturity at about 1-3 years of age, so there is always an element of chance with a puppy. If you want as close to a guarantee as possible (although of course there are no guarantees when we’re talking about living, thinking creatures) for a chill, friendly, adult dog, head to the pound or your local rescue and find one. A three-year old dog of any breed or mix who is relaxed, friendly to strange people, and either friendly or non-interested in other dogs is just the ticket. Once a dog is about three, what you see is really what you get. Adult dogs don’t hide who they are, especially those who are being fostered so are living in a home. (Side note: If you’re worried about adopting a dog from a kennelling situation, ask about foster-to-adopt and returns.) Unlike puppies, who can change drastically, an adult dog’s energy level and sociability…well, it is what it is. They are showing you their true colours. And as much as we’d like to feel like we can shape and mould our puppies into the perfect family member, we’ll always be working with the genetics, and socialization history, we’ve been given.

Considering a bit of polish on your current dog?

There are many great classes taught using positive reinforcement that can help prepare your dog to be out and about. Important skills will include “leave it”, which means to not advance towards some exciting thing, and instead turn to the owner for a reward. Another important skill is a “stay”, often a down-stay. A nice mat brought along to the patio will make for a comfy surface for your dog to do a down-stay on. Both leave-it and down stay are simply skills that must be taught to dogs, using a good, incremental plan, and many repetitions. They aren’t innate! And if your dog is a jumper, you’ll want to tame that beast, too. Having trained up your out-and-about dog, you’ll need to bring rewards for their good behaviour when you hit the town.

The best classes to prepare your dog to interact with the public will include general information about meeting your dog’s needs. A dog who is enriched from working on food puzzles and taking a fun scent-filled walk, and who is exercised from a long session of fetch or some dog-dog play, will be much more likely to be chill while hanging out under a table in the local café. A dog whose needs aren’t being met is much more likely to be rambunctious, and we can’t really blame them.

If you’re an out-and-about type yourself, having an out-and-about dog can be a real blessing. Patio time can be enriching and entertaining for a social dog, so it’s worth doing the training if your otherwise friendly dog is a bit bouncy. And if your dog enjoys chilling with you on the patio by whatever their combination of training and personality, I’d love to see some pictures. Nothing makes a dog trainer happier than seeing delighted dogs doing their thing.

Cover photo: Dimitar Atanasov via flickr, CC by 2.0

We used to have a “no fabric dog toys” rule in our home. It made sense when it was enacted: we had a couple of dogs who enjoyed fabric with too much gusto. Instead of stopping at chewing and ripping and spitting it out, they actually consumed the fabric with glee and abandon. And since fabric is not a natural foodstuff for dogs (no matter what the dogs themselves may say about it) we had a couple of scary, vet-involved incidences. Fabric toys were consigned to the “nope” list for our house, and we carried on.

Fast forward five years, and both those dogs are sadly gone. Without much thought, though, we just carried on as before, skipping the stuffie aisle at the pet store.

But recently, things changed. We got a puppy. A gorgeous, sweet, hilarious, magical puppy. Along with all her puppy magic, we got puppy smiles, puppy barks, puppy skin (how can there be so much?), puppy feet, puppy eyes, puppy breath, and of course, puppy teeth.

Those teeth.

They’re so small! How is it possible? It seems anatomically unlikely, like a mouse tooth in a carnivore’s body. But there they are, those perfect tiny, toothy, teeth. And man do puppies use their teeth with abandon. Everything must go into that mouth. I have long told my dog training clients that “puppies experience their worlds through their mouths!” and this knowledge has a new, fresh, experiential edge to it now.

To keep our clothing, shoes, cords, and furniture safe, we had to meet our puppy’s chewing needs in other ways. And we had to do it quick: she needed chew toys. Lots, and of all shapes and sizes. She showed a preference for fabric (and winter boots, but that’s another story). So we backtracked on our embargo of fabric toys and signed up for a monthly box service. Lo and behold, a bevvy of new of fabric toys now lands in our post office box every four weeks. Deciding to go ahead and buy fabric toys was a decision made out of desperation more than thoughtful personal growth, but the end point was the same: fabric toys and the detritus thereof now litters our home.

With relief we found that the puppy does indeed love the fabric toys. They function as we`d hoped: keeping puppy teeth off cords, clothes, and shoes. But we were (I’m a bit ashamed to admit) surprised and of course delighted to see that all our dogs are playing with them, not just the puppy. They rip the stuffies up, they pull out the stuffing, they get the squeakers out and kill them dead, and then they gambol and shake the tattered remains as a final stufficidal act. The toys last a few weeks, so the dogs are at the ready for the new batch, when it arrives. Where possible, we stick the stuffing back in so they can kill it again and again.

Allaying my own fears

How did I make sure it was safe for our dogs? We simply supervised the first few hours of chewing, for each dog. We watched for evidence of consumption, which is the worrisome aspect of allowing dogs to play with stuffed toys. But none of our current dogs ate the fabric or innards, so as the days ticked by without incident, we relaxed our supervision. (There are always trade-offs with allowing dogs to do pretty much anything, of course).

Lessons learned

Due to obsolete and unexamined fears of intestinal blockage, we had allowed an antiquated rule to stay active in the rule book. We were preventing our dogs from expressing normal behaviour, preventing them from having fun, and preventing them from a great and easy source of enrichment.

So, dear reader. Here’s my request. When you look at your New Year’s Resolution list, pencil in “re-examine old rules” at the bottom of the list. There are some old rules that may still be in effect at your home, and they may be no longer needed. They may, in fact, be harming your dog’s quality of life in the same way that our anti-stuffie stance was. Perhaps they were enacted due to a previous dog, or perhaps they were enacted due to outdated information provided to you from a dog training source. Here are some rules that I’d love to see more people let go of:

• Rule: No dogs on the couch
  Why strike this rule? Dogs on the couch aren’t worrisomely height-seeking, they’re adorably comfort-seeking.

• Rule: Dog must walk in heel.
  Why strike this rule? Dogs allowed to wander around and be dogs on walks will find walks more enriching and pleasant, and more tiring. They are not being bad, they are being the normal, interesting, and information-seeking adult organisms that we’ve bred them to be.

• Rule: No chew toys of __________ kind.
  Why strike this rule? Learn from my mistake, here.

• Rule: No dog play.
  Why strike this rule? If your dog has had a couple of non-injurious fights and you’re worried about mayhem, contact a dog trainer for more information. If they’re scared of other dogs, continue to protect them from other dogs.

• Rule: No dogs through door first.
  Why strike this rule? This rule is another misinterpretation of normal dog behaviour. They aren’t being dominant, they just like going fast through doors.

• Rule: Dog must spend hours in the backyard.
  Why strike this rule? Yet another one that is based misinformation. The truth is that most dogs prefer spending the day inside! If your dog chews or messes when left inside, get in touch with a trainer. Those issues, and a raft of others, can usually be resolved.

• Rule: No dogs on the bed
  Why strike this rule? If you don’t want your dog on the bed, that’s absolutely fine. But if you’re worried they’ll think they’re a human or other social/status issue, that’s been debunked!

• Rule: No sniffing on walks
  Why strike this rule? Stopping to sniff is enriching and species-appropriate. Let them sniff! Their walks will be more tiring and joyful.

• Rule: No dog play in the house.
  Why strike this rule? If it’s safe for them to do it, you can sit back and enjoy watching their intricate communications, open-mouthed hilarity, and of course, couch zoomies. It’s the best of the best on the Dog Play Channel.

What’s on your list?

This dog loves you, this Santa hat, snow, Christmas, and has a fairly romantic relationship with the camera, all things told. This is my holiday photo goal.

Closed mouth, a bit of squint in the slightly hard eyes. Get ready for a lump of coal, kids. Santa ain’t happy.

Alright, we’ve all seen the holiday dog photos that make us cringe a bit. The dog might be wearing a Santa hat or one of those costumes that turns them into an elf, with those extra arms...the cute factor and hilarity factor are high, right? But although some of the photos bring smiles and honest joy...some? Some, not so much. And I am not talking about the lighting, although inside pictures are so tricky. And I am not talking about the framing (although why are Uncle Josh’s red longjohns hanging on the Christmas tree in the background? Please tell me there is not a ginch who stole Christmas theme going on here [oh my god I am so sorry I just wrote that I obviously need to ease up on the nog]). I’m talking about the dog.

The costume is pure cute and hilarious perfection.

Closed mouth, ears back, this dog seems to be saying “get it off me, Sheila”.

The dog looks miserable.

Note: please hover or click on the photos in this blog to see my comments and thoughts on them!

You know what I’m talking about, right? The ears are down or back, or both. The mouth is closed, or open in that long-lipped way dogs use when they’re worried. Sometimes the tongue is visible, licking the nose in way ethologists call a “tongue flick” which can mean the dog is worried. The eyes (or the whole head) are staring away, glancing, awkward, or the dog may even be showing the whites of their eyes. The head may be a bit down, the body curved or hunkered, it’s all a bit—or a lot—hang-dog. This dog isn’t feeling particularly festive. The sense of “get it off me get it off me get it off me” is palpable.

This dog’s “long lip” tells me she has feels about the Mrs. Santa get up. .

So what happened? What happened to make this photo session so awkward and (from the dog’s perspective), so unpleasant? Generally, we’re looking at dogs who are uncomfortable with having stuff put on their bodies. Many dogs do indeed wear collars, harnesses, and even coats without issue. And some dogs wear costumes with absolute glee and enjoyment. But for some dogs, costumes—stuff on their heads, costumes with weird extensions, or even just anything on them other than their collar—causes discomfort or distress. And you don’t need to wait for the photos to develop to tell if your dog is in this category. When the costume comes out, do they put their ears back and head down? Do they back away? Do they paw the costume off frantically? There’s your answer.

Imagine if your roommate put something you didn’t like on your head. Maybe it smelled bad, maybe it pinched uncomfortably, or maybe you just weren’t in the mood. Then imagine they insisted you stand in their room in front of their gaming station and took a bunch of pictures. How happy would you look?

I’m perky! I’m also looking at your treats, mom.

So taking terrible holiday photos is pretty easy. The real question is…how can we take those great holiday photos? The ones where your dog looks delighted? If your dog does love dressing up, then simply have at it. You can tell by their perky eyes and ears, loose and waggy bodies, and open-mouth glee. The wagging tails and the resulting tail blur in the photos...pure Christmassy joy.

n.b.: not every picture where the dog looks hang-dog means the dog was feeling unhappy. Photos can catch even joyful dogs looking alarmed or alarming. So take a bunch of pictures and delete the ones that didn’t capture the real mood.

If your dog is one of the types who just doesn’t like having stuff put on them, don’t worry. There’s help. Your holiday photos are not a lost cause. Here are some easy ideas. For each of these scenarios, if you want your dog to look happy and engaged, make sure the photography session includes things they love, like food treats, ball games, or belly rubs.

Lovely use of a holiday-themed background to make the picture beautiful and holiday-esque. The dog’s face is soft and if I had to guess, something she likes is being help up and to the left.

Smiling mouth, soft eyes, neutral ears… this dog enjoys dress-up. We should give our dogs ever more of what they enjoy, right?

1. Give your dog a holiday-themed toy. Then snap to your heart’s desire as they play. You can play tug with them for a while (some hilarious “giant nose” shots can come from tug games).

2. Make a holiday themed spot and have your dog lay, ever-so-charmingly, in it. (Don’t know how to get your dog to lay in a spot? Try this course, which will get you there in very short order). Tartan throws, wrapped presents, a tree, Rudolph and the seven dwarves, a little red sled, let your imagination run wild.

3. Bake some holiday-themed dog cookies, then snap some pictures of your dog doing a lovely “leave-it” (this is also quick to train!). Imagine the possibilities - the dog gazing hopefully upon the entire tray of cookies! Then the empty tray, your dog laying dozing and reposing and very pleased with himself beside it. Add in some crumbs for effect.

4. Use an app to add a Santa hat and as many other seasonal accoutrements as you see fit. You can pick the best picture on your phone and simply dress it up.

5. If they’re comfy in a coat but not in headgear, well, it may just be time to shop for some lovely holiday-themed clothing items. Or add a nice bow to their collar!

6. You wear the costume. Dress up like an elf, or Santa, or...I mean, don’t let me constrain you. Then hang out with your dog! Ask a helper to take the pictures, and give them some dog treats or a dog toy to attract your dog’s attention towards them and the camera.

7. If your dog isn’t miserable but simply neutral, try treats. Lots of them. Pull out the costume and show it to your dog, then load them up with treats. Wait an hour. Then do it again. Tomorrow, try putting it on, and then giving your dog treats or even a short ball game. If this mini-protocol changes their mind, then presto! You have happy dog photos. Keep up with the treats throughout the session to keep them feeling the love—it will shine through the photos, I promise.

Tartan coat? Check. Christmas cheer? Check. Find things your dog already loves and dazzle them up.

Thanks for photos: Jodi Beedell, Jackie Johnston, Emily Heitzmann, and Jean Donaldson.