What Not to Teach Your Dog
Learn 3 things we accidentally teach our dogs and how to fix them.
Jolanta Benal, CPDT-KA, CBCC-KA
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What Not to Teach Your Dog
Children go to school, adults go to college or continuing ed, puppies and dogs go to manners class. That’s where we all learn – in class. Right? Except that in reality, we learn all the time, not only in school (as many parents discover when Little Tiffany suddenly develops a potty mouth). And though we can’t teach our dogs to swear, we can easily teach them things we wish we hadn’t. This week, 3 common accidental doggy lessons, and how to avoid them.
Accidental Lesson #1: Stopping Dead on Walks
So easy! You’re walking Puppalini, and he’s trotting along with you, glancing up at you sometimes, and in general behaving very politely on leash. You, meanwhile, are lost in thought, or eyeing the cute girl across the street, or texting. Puppalini stops to sniff, or stops and sits and looks at you, or stops in place and bounces. Sure enough, you stop too. “What, Puppalini?” you ask. Then you either coax him up, or lure him up with a treat, and get him moving again.
With Puppalini walking quietly next to you, you go back to what you were doing. A minute later, the leash suddenly tightens, and you look up to see Puppalini sitting, or sniffing, or bouncing in place. So you coax him up, or lure him up with a treat, and get him moving again, and go back to what you were doing, and a minute later … You see where this goes. The lesson for Puppalini is that walking next to you gets him nothing, but stopping dead gets him attention and treats.
The Fix
Play Reverse-a-Thon. Pay lots of attention to Puppalini, and deliver tiny, tasty treats, while he’s walking next to you. (Polite leash-walking is probably the hardest manners behavior to teach, so deliver those rewards randomly and often.) If he stops dead, pay him no mind until he gets up of his own accord and has taken a few steps with you again. Remember, the better a job you’ve done of teaching him to stop dead, the more patient you’ll need to be in reversing the lesson.
Accidental Lesson #2: Coming When Called Ends the Fun
Dogalini’s playing merrily off leash. You call her. She comes. You silently clip on her leash and silently trudge home. Oh, my, could the contrast be any clearer? All the good times are Out There, and being with you on leash is a big fat drag. Soon, Dogalini is coming to you reluctantly, or not at all.
The Fix
Make yourself fun to be around. Play with your dog when she’s off leash – fetch and tug are great, but you can also play food-finding games and action games where you throw a treat and run away from your dog, encouraging her to chase you. Sometimes reward your dog for coming when called by releasing her to go play some more. When you leash up to go home, lose the frowny face! Act happy to see your dog. Deliver some treats to her, since she’s delivered herself to you. Ask her to do a couple of tricks on leash, and give her a treat for them. Talk to her happily as you walk home. Let her carry her ball or a stick if she wants to.
You’ll still need to practice, of course – coming when called is a skill like any other, built up slowly till it’s reliable. But at least you won’t be digging yourself into a hole by teaching your dog that enjoyable things only happen at a distance from you.
Accidental Lesson #3: Stealing Shoes Is a Great Way to Liven Things Up at Home
Scenario: the family, Zippy included, is hanging around quietly of an evening. The humans have their e-readers and Androids, or they’re cleaning up after dinner, or doing their homework, and Zippy has … he’s got … let me see … absolutely nothing to do. And tons of energy with which to do it. Lying on his bed is getting old fast, no matter how comfy it is.
Zippy gets up and starts poking around, and sure enough here’s a really good-smelling (animal skin!) roughly oval object with a hole at one end. Smells even better inside the hole. Awesome mouth feel, as Zippy discovers when he picks it up. Chewy texture. So much here for a dog to love. And, bonus! Zippy’s only been chewing for a minute when suddenly all the people are moving and making lots of noise! They’re running at him! It’s time to play chase! Okay, when they catch Zippy they grab the shoe and yell at him, but all in all, the smelling and chewing and chase game and attention were worth it.
Shoe stealing (or remote stealing, or sock stealing) annoys people. It also has a big potential downside. Maybe Zippy gives up the shoe cheerfully, but his cousin Nippy is a little spookier; when a human moves to grab the shoe, Nippy gets scared and growls. The human backs off, thus teaching Nippy that he can make scary things go away, and also hang on to his stuff, by aggressing a bit. If the human retaliates, Nippy may experiment with aggressing more intensely. And, depending on his predispositions and his humans’ response, his behavior can deteriorate rapidly from there.
The Fix
Many young (and middle-aged!) dogs seem to hit a regular evening time when pent-up energy and boredom lead them to make their own fun. Recognizing this, you find ways to burn off extra steam and keep your Zippy’s brain busy. Schedule a 15-minute play session or some reward-based training before the witching hour hits, and end play or training time by giving him an interactive food-dispensing toy.
If Zippy’s already done a snatch-and-grab, distract him by inviting him for a walk, or offer to play with a toy he loves, or trade him his prize for a tasty treat. And if matters have gone downhill to the point where he’s guarding his finds from you, get professional help to defuse the situation.
What do all these situations have in common? In each case, the human took good behavior for granted. She ignored her politely walking puppy, instead of rewarding him; he expected his dog to come when called, even though the dog got nothing out of it; the family offered their dog nothing to keep him busy and quiet. And now that you know this, you won’t make the same mistakes. You’ll praise your dog for not barking, you’ll show him extra love when he greets you with all four feet on the floor, and when he lies on his bed instead of pestering you while you cook, you’ll slip him a little something delicious. Have fun!
I welcome your comments and questions, and I may use them as the basis for future articles – email dogtrainer@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email. You can talk to me on Facebook, and Dogalini is me on Twitter. Thanks for reading.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Jolanta holds professional certifications in both training and behavior counseling and belongs to the Association of Professional Dog Trainers and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She also volunteered with Pet Help Partners, a program of the Humane Society of the United States that works to prevent pet relinquishment. Her approach is generally behaviorist (Pavlovian, Skinnerian and post-Skinnerian learning theory) with a big helping of ethology (animal behavior as observed in non-experimental settings).