Training Troubleshooting Series, Part 1: Consistency

Saying that dog training is complex is like saying life is unpredictable. It’s a massive understatement that is of little use to anyone in the midst of teaching a dog a “sit” from a “down.” Training involves communicating with a different species that speaks a different language. Training involves teaching dogs how to behave – not always according to rules that make sense in our dogs’ minds, but according to rules that make sense in our minds. Often, despite research and consultation with others, training hits obstacles – and this is often when clients call my colleagues and I for help.

Although it can be incredibly frustrating when training techniques fail to change behavior, it doesn’t mean the training is a failure. Tweaks in timing, mechanics, and procedure are sometimes all that’s needed for a successful outcome.

Over the next several blog posts, I will focus on ways to make your training more effective and how to troubleshoot the difficult spots. This week’s post will focus on a topic that is critical to any type of behavior modification program: Consistency.

Pat Miller, a noted positive dog trainer, summarized the importance of consistency in the Whole Dog Journal, writing, “…consistent responses to a dog’s behaviors, both desirable and undesirable, are predictable for the dog, which helps him make sense of his world and feel safe. A dog whose world is orderly and safe is usually calmer, more relaxed, predictable, and better-behaved than one whose world is chaotic and intimidating. Dogs and owners who perceive each other as safe, predictable, and well-behaved, tend to enjoy a better mutual relationship.”

When teaching a dog any new behavior, be it a simple obedience command or reverting a deeply entrenched phobia, repetition and consistent communication are key.

Thresholds: When dogs reach their emotional edge

Originally posted on Mutt About Town.

Until recently, I never thought I’d utter the phrase “Dog training is just like yoga.” However, in researching fear in dogs and the best practices for treating it, I’ve found a distinct parallel.

After countless yoga sessions of stretching and twisting, I’ve encountered the term “edge” quite frequently. In yoga, you are encouraged to work toward your physical edge in a pose – the moment when your muscles and joints tell you, “That’s it, this is as far as I’m going to go.” If you move into your edge too quickly, you’ll definitely experience discomfort. You might even experience injury in the form of a strained or pulled muscle, which will impede your overall progress. But if you acknowledge your edge, concentrate on it, and move into it gradually with proper breathing and alignment, you end up going deeper into a pose and opening tightened muscles.

Edges in yoga are similar to a concept in dog training known as the “threshold,” and you’ll encounter it often in training publications and this blog. When dealing with fearful and anxious dogs, the threshold is similar to the physical edge in yoga. Once a dog goes over his threshold, learning shuts down, the emotion takes over, and harm occurs. However, by knowing a dog’s threshold, working through it gradually, and ensuring a dog never crosses it, dogs overcome their fears and anxieties, much like conquering a difficult yoga posture.

Why we don’t need to fear muzzles

Originally posted on Mutt About Town.

Our world is full of safety measures. Seat belts, bicycle helmets, life vests, airbags, to name a few. Many of these pieces of equipment are cumbersome and annoying at times, but we wear them all the same because of the benefits they provide: peace of mind, safety, and protection.

The reason I bring up these examples is because in the world of dog behavior, one of the most essential pieces of safety equipment we have is the muzzle. Unfortunately,  their appearance and the judgments associated with them prevent their usage, sometimes with tragic consequences.

It’s not unreasonable that we should be wary of muzzles. After all, their main usage is to prevent dog bites, something we’ve been conditioned to fear. But what scenario is more unsettling: Encountering a dog whose owner has taken the protective measure of using a muzzle, or encountering a dog whose owner is aware of the potential for aggressive behavior but refrains from using one? While the second dog may not look as scary, the lack of muzzle presents a much more dangerous situation. 

Scientifically Speaking

Originally posted on Mutt About Town.

What’s really behind your dog’s behavior?

Imagine going to your doctor complaining of chest pains. The doctor determines you have a heart condition that requires surgery, and refers you to a surgeon. The surgeon, after a superficial examination, weaves you a story of what he thinks is going on. He doesn’t have a plan for your operation, but intends to muck about once you’re on the operating table and will figure out what to do on the fly. Think you’re going to sign on the dotted line for that surgeon? Of course not – you’ll be running away from the office with rapid speed!

The scenario above is ludicrous. When it comes to our health, we require science, evidence and research because our lives are too important to entrust them in the hands of hunches, whims and egos.

Time for another scenario. This time, you’re at the dog park, watching a group of dogs interact. You hear a slew of comments, all variations on the same themes: “This dog is thinking this,” “I heard that dogs do this because,” and “I know dogs think this way because I’m a dog person.”

This scenario doesn’t seem quite as ludicrous. In fact, it’s one that plays out countless times each day. Maybe you’re guilty, as I am, of uttering a variation of one of the comments above. (It’s okay, we all do it and the world won’t end.) Dogs constantly encounter interventions based on hunches, whims and egos – the same things we abhor when it comes to hiring doctors, lawyers, and many other professionals. While some of these whims and hunches are harmless, others lead to misinformation about how dogs think and learn and, even worse, can cause them harm. 

At what point?

I recently had to euthanize my 5 and a half year old dog because I was no longer able to manage his aggression issues. I reached my breaking point when he attacked and almost killed our cat, a cat he had lived with for over 4 years. It was one of the most difficult and heart breaking decisions of my life. In between waves of grief, I find myself struggling to make some sense of it all and keep asking myself, “At what point should I have known I was incapable of “fixing” my dog?” Here is my story. I hope that by sharing it, it might help someone else.

Prior to adopting my dog, I had experienced the heart ache of having to euthanize 2 foster dogs because of aggression. I have to admit, I always suspected there was something in their pasts that made them aggressive. I didn’t believe every dog with issues was abused, but did believe they were under socialized, neglected or subjected to aversive methods of training. And, I held their previous owners responsible for either causing or at least, not having worked on, their dog’s issues. I was fairly certain, it was the aggression issues that must have driven them to surrender their dog to a shelter, not the excuses written on the surrender form (had to move, didn’t have time, etc.). I believe it was because of the pain I felt in euthanizing these dogs and my beliefs about aggression in dogs that made me so determined to keep my dog from this terrible fate.

I adopted my boy when he was 4 and ½ months old from a local shelter. He had shown severe food resource guarding in his behavioral exam at 3 months old when he was surrendered. He was responding to the “trade up/exchange” exercises, so the staff felt, that in experienced hands, he was adoptable. As a volunteer at the shelter, with a quiet adult home, I seemed like a good candidate. He was an extraordinarily smart little puppy, food motivated and eager to please. The 6 weeks in the shelter had limited his social development, but he seemed to have held up reasonably well, and I had worked with him at the shelter with good results, so my husband and I took him home.

The first month was quite a shock. Prior to bringing our new puppy home, we had lost our 15 year old dog to illness. It had been a long time since we had a puppy and the energy level of our new guy was something we had never experienced before. Our best guess was that he was a mix of Border collie and field lab. If he could have reached the ceiling he would have been tap dancing on it. He was tap dancing on everything else. After a few weeks of multiple daily walks, training practice and play sessions, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with him so I enrolled him in a reputable daycare. This was in addition to formal training classes, daily walks, play sessions, and play dates with my daughter’s 3 year old dog.

The exercises from the “Mine” booklet were going well. I had also discovered that he had body handling issues with his feet, ears and mouth, so I was working on that, in addition to the resource guarding. I took him with me to pet store outings and everywhere dogs were welcome. Things seemed to be going well until about the age of 7 months when he lunged at a woman in a pet store as she walked by. I was stunned, but dismissed it. Then, it happened again in the lobby of the dog day care, then again while on a walk through our neighborhood and again, at the vet’s office when the receptionist made eye contact with him. It seemed random though because he was all wiggles and happy with most people and the daycare owners dismissed it too. I never identified a predictable pattern or cause.

At about the same time, he had started barking and urinating when people he didn’t know came into our house. I decided to bring in a professional at that point to work on what appeared to me to be fear aggression. I learned several new techniques utilizing desensitization, counter conditioning and incompatible behaviors. I was able to find an introduction process that worked well in the house, but it was the beginning of a life of management that became more and more limiting for all of us. He was kicked out of daycare when he was about a year old because he was “tipping” (his play was turning into fights) and he was showing a lot of barrier frustration at fence lines. He was also becoming very leash reactive on our walks.

After he was kicked out of daycare, I found myself needing to find new ways to meet my dog’s high energy needs. With his issues with strangers in our home, and the extreme leash reactivity, I tried to do it on my own, but became exhausted after a few months. I enrolled us in a reactive rover class. I was still taking other classes in dog sports and obedience, including tracking to work his mind as well as his body. We were never able to take the walls down in the reactive rover class, and I spent a lot of the other class time behind a barrier, but I did learn some techniques to better manage him. More importantly, I met a training assistant who lived in my neighborhood, who was willing to walk my dog at noon a few days a week, and pet sit for us so we could go on vacation. He continued to have regular play dates with his best friend, my daughter’s dog.

We had always had cats in the home and I was fostering kittens as well. The kittens were kept in separate rooms, but a foster failure joined our animal family when our dog was about a year and a half old. There were always other animals in the house; cats, foster dogs, my daughter’s dog. Our dog generally ignored the other animals, but every now and then our most social cat would approach him when he was eating or chewing on a nylon bone and he would curl his lip. I kept up with the resource guarding exercises, and he did not have issues with his food bowl, toys, beds, etc. with people, but he did go after the cat once when it approached him while he was eating. So, I started working on that too, but generally gave him space to eat and supervised time with his nylon chew bones. Over time, the cat could walk through the room while he ate and nylon bones could be left unattended on the floor. Beyond the one time he went after the cat, he had never shown aggression to our other animals.

And, so it went. I would take a class; engage a professional for help as new issues arose, including a specialist in dog aggression issues when our grandchildren entered the picture. Our dog would seem to get better about one issue or I would figure out how to manage it, but then a new issue would arise, like barking hysterically at animals on the TV, eventually even cartoon animals, or an old behavior would emerge, like lunging and barking at a random person walking down the street. He would get used to a dog and walk by peacefully, but then get hysterical at any new dog. I was never successful with counter conditioning/desensitization in a general way. To add to his fearful view of the world, he was attacked by loose dogs on a few occasions, which set us back for several months at a time. At about 3 years old, he turned the tables on these encounters and would grab the approaching dog by the top of the head and not release until the other dog was in the hands of his owner. I was concerned, but felt his behavior was reasonable as he had never injured the other dogs or redirected at me.

At some point, I just started walking him very early in the morning because it was less stressful. The protocol for introducing people who came to the home worked, but had to be repeated every visit unless it was a very frequent visitor and we invited fewer and fewer people into our house as the years went by. We kept windows shuttered closed so he wouldn’t bark at dogs and people walking by. We stopped watching TV shows with animals and kept the remote close so we could pause or fast forward in the event an animal appeared in a commercial. My husband and I would both jump when we went to the movies whenever there were animals on the screen; we had been so conditioned to our dog’s reactivity. Our lives kept getting more and more limited.

I never used aversive methods or equipment. I kept up on his training and I literally *never* went a day without taking him for a long walk and play session, even when I was sick. I took every precaution I could think of to protect him from negative experiences and to protect others from him. He had taken more training classes than any dog we had ever had. He lived and slept in our house with us and was never unsupervised outdoors. He was never left alone for more than a 6 or 7 hour stretch, and that was rare. He was a beautiful, smart, devoted dog and all I could see when I looked at him was that adorable puppy face. I made regular mental lists of all his good qualities and convinced myself he was getting better despite the growing list of limitations. It was devastating and traumatic the evening I turned around to see him growling and snarling like a wild animal with our beloved cat’s head in his mouth. I am happy to say our cat survived but he suffered serious injuries including deep puncture wounds near his eyes that almost blinded him.

I don’t know if someone else could have achieved a better result with my dog. I just knew as I looked into my cat’s and dog’s faces, I wasn’t capable of doing more than I had done and it still wasn’t enough. I don’t know if dogs suffer from mental illnesses or genetic defects that drive them to behave in unpredictable ways or at least, in ways that are incompatible with a household like ours. I am not trying to offer excuses to people who aren’t willing to try to work through issues with their companion animals. There are techniques that work. But, like me, as a society we are quick to judge people who have dogs with aggression issues and blame them.

I am not trying to indict the shelter, the trainers, the consultants or anyone else who tried to help me. I blame myself for not protecting my cat. I am not suggesting that shelter or rescue dogs are any more likely to have issues than dogs from breeders. I do wonder if some of us who are involved in rescue work don’t become blind to systemic limitations either in the dog or the people trying to help the dog. I don’t have an answer, because as I look back, I still can’t answer the question for myself; at what point should I have known I was over my head, faced the reality of who my dog was and acknowledged that he was a ticking time bomb in my home.

I offer my story in the hopes that it will result in more compassion for the people who find themselves in a situation like mine and compassion for the animals that can’t help how they see the world. I offer it to people who work at shelters, rescue groups, trainers and breeders, and ask that they try to be objective and honest at the most difficult times. In a strange way, I consider myself lucky. My cat survived and I was able to be there, with love, and hold my dog in his last moments. It could have been much worse.

 

Written by our guest blogger Cynthia Hiatt. Longtime shelter volunteer, foster and animal rescuer who has worked on the rehabilitation of many dogs, including her own dogs.

Dogs: The different species in your living room

Originally posted on MuttAboutTown.com.

When owning a dog, it almost goes without saying that he or she becomes part of the family unit. Dogs sleep in our beds, join us at the dining table (whether they’re supposed to or not), and accompany us on all variety of errands and outings. Sometimes this assimilation into our lives becomes so seamless that we forget we are sharing our home with an entirely different species from our own.

So much of dog training gets misconstrued as a battle of control. Phrases like the dog “should do this” and “should know this” permeate the language, as does hypothesizing about what a dog is thinking without any scientific basis. The fact is, dogs don’t know what we’re thinking and they certainly don’t inherently know all the rules and regulations that come with living in our homes. What we perceive as the meaning of dog behavior, and what dogs are really communicating to us, are two very different things.

Richard Yahner, a professor of wildlife conservation at Penn State, explains this concept in this book Wildlife and Conservation  writing, “As humans, we consistently judge the behavior of animals (e.g., that pet is cute) or fellow humans (e.g., that new neighbor is friendly, etc.) based on their appearance and how they act from our perspective. In other words, we seldom look at the ecology of a pet or human or, for that matter, of an animal in the wild” (1).

He goes on to list four questions that are integral to those studying wildlife behavior, writing, “…1) what are the mechanisms that cause a certain behavior? (e.g., hormonal, genetic, learning, etc.), 2) how does a given behavior develop? (e.g. ontogeny, cultural transmission, etc.) 3) what is the survival value of a given behavior? and 4) how does a given behavior evolve?” (4).

Although Yahner was discussing wildlife, his statements are incredibly relevant to dog training. If we ask these four questions when it comes to communicating with our own dogs, we will be well on the path to actually understanding them – not just understanding what we think their behavior means from our human perspective.

In this post, I will explore the first of the four questions: What mechanisms cause a certain behavior?

Consequences: Does the punishment fit the crime?

Originally posted on muttabouttown.com. 

Photo provided by cdk under Flickr creative commons license.

Last week, I discussed the role antecedents play in dog training, specifically when it comes to working with fearful dogs. The week before, I discussed the foundations of fear in dogs, and what happens to a dog when fear takes hold. Today, I’ll bring the topic full-circle by discussing what happens immediately after a behavior or event:  the consequence.

Technically speaking, the ABCs in dog training (antecedents-behaviors-consequences) are called the “three-term contigency.” In dog training terms, a consequence is an event that happens immediately after a specific behavior. We give our dogs consequences all the time, sometimes unintentionally. Common punishment consequences include time-outs, and withholding of treats or playtime until the dog performs a specific behavior. Common reward consequences include treats for sits, down-stays and tricks.

As discussed the first article in this series, dealing with emotions in dogs requires a different methodology than what we typically use in obedience training. When a dog experiences a powerful emotion like fear, everything else goes by the wayside. Nothing else matters. This doesn’t mean that consequences aren’t relevant. On the contrary, consequences are intricately linked to whether a dog’s fear strengthens over time.

Dogs are excellent at telling time. Animal behaviorist Pamela J. Reid explains this topic brilliantly in her book Excel-erated Learning writing, “The delay between the response and the punisher greatly influences the degree of learning …The ‘wait until your father gets home’ approach to punishment is not effective.” In this example, Reid is referring to the delivery of punishers in obedience training. However, the same concept can be applied to treating fear in dogs. Think about how you felt as a child when you were afraid. Would someone saying, “Wait till your father comes home, and we’ll give you a hug” work? Probably not.

Similarly, comforting a dog minutes, even seconds after the onset of the fear stimulus (science-speak for the scary thing) is less effective. Why? Because the dog will not necessarily connect the consequence with the scary thing.  With poor timing, the dog will experience a scary thing and then experience a treat as separate events. What we want the dog to think is: A scary thing occurred but immediately led to a good thing, and over time, each time that I encounter that scary thing a good thing happens. If done correctly, the scary thing starts to feel less ominous for the dog.  

Antecedents: Cracking the behavior puzzle

Originally posted on muttabouttown.com. 

In my last post, I introduced the topic of fear in dogs, explaining how a dog’s emotions can override her ability to cope or adhere to previously learned training. Continuing my series on fear in dogs, this post will focus on the events that immediately precede the fear reaction in dogs, known as antecedents. My next post will focus on the events that immediately follow the fear reaction in dogs, known as consequences.

Studying antecedents can help us understand our dogs’ behavior

Think of the last time your dog misbehaved. I mean really misbehaved. The time Fido embarrassed you when chatting with the new neighbors by incessantly barking. The time your docile girl turned into a big ball of bared teeth and raised hackles. Or maybe, the time you came home to what looked like the remnants of a natural disaster in your living room. We’ve all been there, and we’re all familiar with that feeling you get when you have no idea why your dog is behaving a certain way.

What are you focusing on when recalling this incident? Most likely, you’re remembering your dog’s behavior: the damage done in the living room, the barking, the bared teeth. As the most visceral stage in the chain of events that comprise a dog’s behavior, it makes sense that this would remain foremost in the mind. However, when it comes to behavior change, the behavior is just one of many factors that dog owners and trainers must consider.

This is even more critical when dealing with that most powerful of dog emotions: fear.  In fact, when it comes to dealing with “problem” behaviors in dogs, in particular fearful ones, I feel that too much emphasis is placed on a dog’s behavior without considering a critical factor in behavior assessment: antecedents.

Are dog parks great places for dogs?

Dog Parks are often considered a great place for dogs but is that really true? Recent studies have shown that dog parks are actually not such a safe environment for your dog. Sue Sternberg, well known author and dog behaviorist, who has spent the last few years filming and observing dog interactions recently revealed that she identified 5 behaviors in dog parks throughout the United States:

• bullying
• targeting
• group chasing
• mobbing (ganging up)
• hunting

These behaviors have been identified among groups of unfamiliar dogs such as dogs that happen to meet in dog parks. Dogs are often no different then unsupervised children on a playground and tend to engage in mentally, emotionally and sometimes physically abusive behavior.

Is a dog park a risky place? Generally a dog park is a very risky and unsafe place for you to take your dog. There are always exceptions of course. Those exceptions are dog parks that provide more than just a hang out place for humans. Dog parks such as Fort Funston, Carmel Beach and Point Isabel just to name a few in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. What makes these places a better place for your dog? Dog owners usually tend to be on the move, are more likely to engage with their dog and beaches are simply hard to beat when it comes to wearing out your dog. Water and sand will provide what a small and enclosed area in a city cannot.

When visiting places like these ensure you respect local laws. Do not let your dog off-leash when leash laws are in place. You are not only setting yourself up to fail. Respect fellow visitors with or without a dog. It is not a right but a privilege to have your dog out and about.

 Sue Sternberg has some great off-leash park rules:

1. Recognize that your dog may not get along with ALL other dogs, and that some combinations simply don’t work. It is fine to leave the dog run and come back another time, or take a personal, one-on-one walk with your dog in the neighborhood and come back in a few minutes to see if the run has emptied out a bit.
2. Consider leaving your cell phone off, or not taking calls, unless it’s an emergency, during your dog’s time at the dog run. The more attention you give your dog, and the more you participate, the better the relationship. This is a good time for you and your dog to be together, and doesn’t your dog deserve your undivided attention?
3. Make sure your dog’s play partner(s) are playing fair, and that your own dog is playing fair, too. This means that each dog takes turn pushing and initiating physical contact (being on top) and that neither dog is pushing another dog relentlessly. There should be frequent role reversals in healthy play.
4. Make sure your own dog is actually playing with another dog, and not just responding in a defensive, deflective way based on fear. Call your dog to you, and when you release him to go back to “play,” see if he indeed does return to engage with the same dog(s). If not, he may not have felt that what he was previously experiencing was really playful or fun for him.
5. Watch your own dog, and make sure he is not targeting ONE other dog exclusively and going after that particular dog relentlessly – even if you think your dog is “just playing.” Playing is a balance between the dogs, a give and take – not one dog pushing and jumping and mouthing the other dog over and over and over again. If your dog is doing this to another dog, go and get him, or call him to you and get him under control. The same holds true if your dog is the target of another dog’s obsession. Go and rescue your dog from the situation.
6. Watch out for “ganging” up; when two or more dogs “gang up” and relentlessly chase or surround another dog. Have all the owners call their dogs, and probably one or more of the gang members should leave the run for that time, as they’ll usually start back up again.
7. Toy dogs should play with other toy or smallish dogs, and should absolutely not be in the run with the big dogs. A predatory attack can happen instantly and without warning. The risk to toy dogs is too great.
8. Beware of high-speed games of chase. Alone, two dogs playing chase is probably fine, but if other dogs join in, then a high-speed game of chase can arouse other dogs, and in an instant this can turn into a predatory attack. It’s hard to get control once dogs begin this high-speed chase, which is why you want to catch it early, and why you want to spend a lot of time training your dog in the run. You want control when your dog starts to get out of control. But you can’t wait until he is out of control to train your dog to listen to you. Train him while he is relatively calm.
9. Participate in your dog’s playtime. Interrupt every few minutes by calling your dog to you, rewarding with at least one treat every two seconds, and keep your dog with you for at least 10 seconds. For this entire 10 seconds, praise, pet and reward your dog often enough so that he doesn’t have a chance to look away from you. This encourages attention, and allows your dog to calm down and focus on a human in between aroused playtimes.
10. Playing with other dogs is very, very fun for your dog, sometimes more fun than being with people, and sometimes more fun than being with YOU. This puts you at a disadvantage in every other situation with your dog. It is important to include yourself in your dog’s play activities. Watch your dog, encourage your dog, interrupt your dog, play with your dog.
11. Call your dog to come to you frequently, not just when it’s time to leave. By calling him over to you frequently, rewarding him with something valuable, and then releasing him back to play, you can avoid the difficulty many dog park frequenters experience: the dog who can’t be caught when it’s time to leave. Make sure that calling your dog to come to you doesn’t just signal the time to leave. By calling him and having him sit by your side, receive your praise and petting for a brief time before releasing him with permission to go back and play teaches your dog that coming to you is merely a pleasant interruption, and not an end to his fun. (Info from: Sue Sternberg’s book, Out and About With Your Dog available from www.greatdogproductions.com.)

– Nathalie is the owner of The Dog Hikers and K9 Consultant and a student of the Academy for Dog Trainers. TheDogHikers.com/K9Consultant.org. Article was published on her blog: http://k9consultant.blogspot.com/

Your dog isn’t plotting a coup, he is just being a dog.

I find the current fad of reducing dogs to scheming, power hungry, authority usurping creatures that must be kept in check, troubling, and well, very sad. Humans and dogs have evolved their symbiotic relationship over thousands of years. By definition, there is no power struggle in a symbiotic relationship. The concept is that two very different species, can offer unique benefits to each other, i.e. they are better living together than separate.
With the rise in popularity of the dog as a companion animal, we keep integrating dogs further and further into the human social structure. While there are benefits for the dog, the expectations of the dog’s behavior are frequently unrealistic and unfair to the dog. We often forget that they are in fact a separate species, not furry humans. They are social creatures who suffer when left alone for extended periods of time, day after day, aren’t allowed frequent potty breaks or daily mental and physical exercise. They have no inherent understanding of leashes, human houses, possessions, doors, restaurants, fences or the multitude of human created social rules. In our desire to understand and “control” them, we project all kinds of human concepts on them, doing them a great disservice. The idea of an alpha/dominant/pack leader is a human creation that seriously distorts the interpretation of the dog’s behavior.

Dogs are smart, and very clear about who provides the food, water, toys, treats and access to outdoors/indoors. They have no grand vision of taking over this provider role, and in fact, do everything they can to “fit in” and fulfill their part of the symbiotic relationship. So, instead of applying a lens that looks at everything a dog does as being designed to manipulate and challenge your authority, what if you assumed instead, that they are behaving in a way that is consistent with their species – i.e. just acting like a dog. When they do something you don’t want or don’t do something you do want, even if you think you have been very clear, assume the mismatch of behavior to your expectations is because they really don’t understand, or in their excitement, their natural instincts have prevailed. It is probably that simple. When your dog charges ahead, pulls on the leash, bolts through the door ahead of you, guards his food, rips up your stuff, jumps up to lick your face, stops to sniff the pee mail, barks hysterically at other dogs or people, or takes offense to being handled by a groomer, vet, child or even you, she isn’t being disrespectful or executing some systematic plot to displace you. They just have a different view of the situation, what is appropriate, and yes, they have their own needs, likes and dislikes. They didn’t ask to be brought into a human environment; we have chosen to put them there. We have no right to assign malevolent intentions to their actions to justify punishing them when they don’t magically understand or forget “our” rules. Our job is to find a way to help our dogs understand what we want from them while acknowledging their fundamental right to be the unique creature they are, a dog.
If you are open to taking a new look at the dynamic of your relationship with your dog, there are several wonderful trainers and behaviorist who provide insight and techniques that strengthen the bond and communication between dog and human through positive reinforcement, clicker training and modern behavioral modification techniques if/when problems arise. You do not have to sleep with an eye open, wondering what your dog is plotting, or question every interaction to make sure you are telling your dog whose boss. I encourage you to stop trying to be your dog’s boss; or pack leader, and try being a partner in a wonderful, ancient, symbiotic relationship.

Written by our guest blogger Cynthia Hiatt. Longtime shelter volunteer, foster and animal rescuer who has worked on the rehabilitation of many dogs, including her own dogs.

Recommended Reading: “Culture Class” by Jean Donaldson, “The Other End of the Leash” by Patricia McConnell, “Don’t Shoot the Dog” by Karen Pryor, and anything by Ian Dunbar.