This is Molly. She was my sister’s dog when we were kids. She joined our family as a tiny puppy when my sister turned 6. We were told she was a Chow and Golden Retriever mix. She was a lovely dog.
When we were kids, our dogs lived outside. We lived in the country and had lots of space and they always had access to the garage. My sister and I spent lots of free time outside playing with the animals and exploring our property. But back to Molly. She was a very laid back dog. Most of the time she just enjoyed laying in the yard or patrolling the perimeter. And as you can see from this photo, she had a LOT of hair. In the winter she grew out that Chow Chow coat. It was thick. We would brush that dog (well…my mom would…) all summer and just about the time she started looking more like a Golden Retriever it would start to get cold again.
Aside from chewing the front porch pillars as a puppy, the one struggle we had in sharing our lives with Molly was digging. She would uproot my mom’s shrubs and just dig and dig. And then she would rest in the “hole” she created. My mom realized that she was seeking a cool spot. We had a stock tank that functioned as a doggy pool that the other dogs enjoyed, but Molly was not a fan.
So, my mom started leaving the cellar door open that went to our basement. The house we lived in was very old and the cellar was closed off from the rest of the basement. It had a dirt floor and brick walls and it was always nice and cool in the summer. After that Molly started spending her summer afternoons dozing in the cellar. And no more digging.
When I stumbled upon this photo the other day this was the memory that came to mind. And I realized that this is a perfect example of antecedent arrangement. In other words, it is an example of making a change to the environmental set up in order to change a behavior. By offering another cool resting place, Molly no longer had to create her own via digging.
Antecedent arrangement is a really useful tool for changing behavior. It is usually low-stress for the animal. And it is usually less work for the teacher, too. In this example, my mom only had to open the cellar doors rather than train Molly to dig in another place or rest in another place.
Do you have any examples of times where you have changed the set up of an environment to change behavior?
Okay, maybe I should say the most important after my computer. Without my computer, I wouldn’t be sitting at my desk!
But this treat jar is key. It allows me to be ready to reinforce nice behavior on the fly.
The problem I needed to solve: Dan historically has barked (a lot! and loudly!) at delivery people and sometimes when the neighbors dog barks or if he sees deer outside. It’s stressful for both of us and really disruptive to my work flow, especially if I’m on the phone.
So, I’ve been consistently practicing: Hear a delivery truck, or dog = come to me for treat jar time. When I hear the truck or dog, I call him by saying “Dan!” in a calm, happy voice. He comes running! He still might woof once or twice and thats fine with me. A few weeks ago, he started to come when he heard the truck or dog, rather than waiting for me to call him. Even better! And the treat jar made this possible.
Here’s some keys to our success with the treat jar:
Special treats.
I use a kibble or dry treat that is different from his normal food. This makes it more interesting than his typical kibble, but will still last a long time at room temperature.
Experience with the jar.
I stumbled across this when I took Julie Daniels class, “Cookie Jar Games” through Fenzi Dog Sports Academy . You’ll notice my jar has a metal screw top. This is important. It makes a very specific sound when you open it. This sound can function as a “click” – a marker to tell your dog “that’s the behavior I like!”. So if I’m on the phone, I don’t have to talk to my dog in order to mark the behavior of checking in with me, I can just open the jar.
How you give the treats is part of the reinforcer (part of what makes the behavior worth doing).
For Dan, it has been important to toss a few treats into his bed that is next to my desk. It sort of functions as a makeshift snuffle mat, so he can sniff around for the treats. This does three things.
It makes the treats more valuable, because there is a fun sniffing around activity that goes with them.
It also stretches out the treat experience in time. So if a truck or dog makes several noises across a few minutes, the doesn’t eat the treat and immediately run to the window and bark. He sniffs around for the treats for 15-20 seconds and then I can either toss a few more in the bed, or wait to let him offer another check in, depending on what I am doing and how intense the truck noise/dog barking is.
It gives a predictable place for the treats to land. So now when he hears the jar he actually stands between me and the bed. Sometimes he comes in and starts looking in the bed before I’ve gotten the treats there.
This isn’t just for barking, you can use it to reinforce any behavior you like. For example, if your dog is calmly resting in your office space, you can open the jar and place a treat near her nose (calmly). Or if your dog has stolen your underwear out of your closet, you can open the treat jar and trade treats for the underwear. Maybe give one treat to your dog directly for the initial trade, and then playfully toss a few more to add some movement (read: “fun”) into the treat-getting activity.
Finally, you don’t have to stop at one jar. We actually have 4 treat jars in our house. One by each dog’s crate for “going to bed”. One in the kitchen for calling in from outside, or going to mat while we are cooking/cleaning. And one in my office for coming when dogs bark/trucks come.
So, dig through your cupboards, pull out that nice jar you saved for something, someday, load it up and introduce your pup (and yourself) to the joy of the treat jar.
Many of us are now home with our dogs, who prior to COVID-19, spent all day alone at home. I think this is fantastic for dogs to get so much more time with their people!
I’ve also seen tons of information about activities to do with your dog while you are all home. Enrichment activities, tricks, classes online, games, walks, and more walks. So much fun! This is all simply awesome. I love seeing people interact with their dogs more and use their creativity to come up with fun ways to enjoy each other more.
But I’ve had several questions about dogs who are struggling to adapt to this new, busy, stimulating lifestyle. For some dogs, who are used to 8 plus hours per day of quiet time, this is hard! While you’re at work, your dog is likely to be sleeping or at least resting. Now that the whole family is home, there’s more stimulation in the house and for some dogs this will prevent good rest and sleep.
Dogs sleep more than people! Most adult dogs sleep 12-14 hours per day (Becker, K. S., 2019). This is because dogs don’t accomplish REM sleep as easily as people do. They actually *need* more sleep. And just like for people, if your dog isn’t getting enough sleep or isn’t feeling rested, behavior problems could arise.
So, keep up the enrichment and play and walk times! But also consider offering your dog a nap time if your household is suddenly busier. Set up a comfy spot in a quiet room. Leave your dog with a stuffed kong or other special chewy item in case she decides not to sleep. Turn on some soothing music or white noise. Turn the lights down. And let your pup doze for an hour or two.
Sophie, Sleeping Photo Credit: Bethany P
Here are some studies and articles related to sleep in dogs:
Bódizs, R. Kis, A., Gácsi, M., & Topál, J. (2020). Sleep in the dog: comparative, behavioral and translational research. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 33, 25-33. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.12.006
Animal training and behavior is an exciting field to be a part of right now! It’s changing and growing so fast. Every day I am seeing new creative and thoughtful training procedures on social media. We are considering the preferences and emotions of our animals more than ever. This is wonderful!
But, its also a lot to keep up with! It is so easy to put tons of pressure on ourselves to keep up with it all. To fix it all and solve it all and train it all. But each goal takes time and even my eager-to-work border collies can only train so much in one day. For most of us, life is busy in general too. We have to balance pet care with caring for our homes, our relationships, our self-care, and our careers. It can be paralyzing. It can lead to getting “stuck”.
When I get overwhelmed and bogged down by all of this stuff, my mom will say “be gentle with yourself”.
I have been focusing on putting this at the top of the list. And in turn, it has meant I am able to be more clear-minded about the goals I have. I’ve been able to take more actionable steps towards reaching them and I have not been “stuck” as often.
Be gentle with yourself.
Treat yourself with the same empathy and compassion that you would show for your animal partner. Choose one or two main goals. Think about breaking your goals down in to small, easy to accomplish steps. Try not to focus on the things you haven’t done yet. Instead, focus on what you are accomplishing. Take a little data so you can see your progress over time. If you feel yourself becoming overwhelmed with your goals, take a break. Do something to allow yourself decompress before you circle back to working towards your goals again. Be gentle with yourself.
A decompression walk for me and Doug – he enjoys it but it is equally important for me too.
Here’s a little secret about dog training – your dog doesn’t know the difference between training and the rest of life.
Okay, he probably understands when you are intentionally training. You have treats, maybe a clicker, you are directly interacting with him in a certain way, specific to training sessions.
But he doesn’t stop learning when you stop your intentional training session. Every interaction with your dog teaches him something about the way the world works.
If he jumps and “just this once” you pet him while he does, he learns from that.
If he barks out of fear and the scary thing goes away, he learns from that.
If he pulls toward something on a walk and succeeds in getting to it, he learns from that.
If he snatches a treat from your hand and gets to inhale it, he learns from that.
So, what can you do about this? You can be Always Training, All the Time. Be thoughtful in every interaction with your dog. Think about what he might learn from each action and result. Is it something you want him to learn to do? If not, change the result or prevent the action from happening in the first place.
This is where the management of your dog’s time can really come in handy. Here are some things you can do to make it easier to be Always Training, All the Time:
Use a crate:
Teach your dog to be happy and comfortable in a crate. A crate (or x-pen) is an excellent tool for managing your dog. It allows him to be near you, but prevents him from making mistakes (like getting into the garbage) or from frustrating you when you cannot give him your attention (for example, if you have company over and Fido wants to visit by licking everyone, it can be easy to stray from your usual training techniques).
Note – a crate should never be used for punishment. It should be a resting place for your dog. I recommend giving him a special toy or chew when he is in his crate so he can be engaged in something if he wants to. Also, too much crate time can lead to a restless, hyper puppy! Use the crate as a tool, but balance it with attention, training time, and exercise.
Get your dog the right amount of exercise:
Speaking of exercise, it is important! Amount of exercise can contribute to your dog’s behavior just as much as amount of training. It is important for dogs in the same way it is important for us. It keeps them healthy, fit, and clear-minded. For most dogs, a walk or two daily is not enough. Find a way to let your dog really run whenever possible. Play fetch, go running on trails, let him play with other dogs, go swimming, or get involved in a dog sport like agility. Every dog is different; figure out what your dog needs and then incorporate it into your daily routine. Try to find activities that you both enjoy. For example, I love to go for long walks so I located a park where I can walk while my dogs can run off-leash through the fields, exploring and chasing each other. Usually I walk about 3 miles and I estimate they run 7 or 8!
Teach your dog to lay on his bed and rest/chew when asked:
When you are watching TV, eating dinner, or doing other quiet family activities ask your dog to lie on a bed or blanket in the same room. Encourage him to be calm by giving him a toy or bone that involves chewing rather than tug/fetch activities. This will take a lot of practice, but it pays off in the end!
Dan, chewing his ball on his bed in my office.
Okay, so now you have some tools for managing your dog when your life is hectic, but how do you incorporate Always Training, All the Time? Here are some examples of how we incorporate training into our dog’s daily lives in order to teach them house manners and to strengthen good behaviors:
Use play:
All play at our house involves training. In fact, the training is the play at our house! When we are playing tug or fetch with the dogs, we are also asking them to do some of the behaviors they know. A play session might look like this:
Dog brings toy
We tug, tug, tug, then say “drop it”
Dog drops toy. “Gooooood dooogggg!” (lots of petting and scratching)
“Dog sit”, dog sits, “goood!!!”, “okay, dog down”, dog downs, “good! Backup!”, dog leaps backward, “what a gooood doggg!!!” (toss toy, dog leaps after it, shakes it around, then eventually comes back)
This teaches your dog several things. First, that rules are still involved during play. If I ask for the toy, he needs to give it to me. If he brings it to me, I need to tug or throw it. Second, it teaches your dog that training is super fun! Third, it practices impulse control and teaches your dog to have an “on/off switch”. The play starts and stops all the time but that’s okay, it will start again soon if he is patient!
Create rules based on the room you are in:
Dogs are very dependent on context and will quickly learn whether or not a behavior is acceptable in a certain situation. At our house, we have general rules based on the environment and our dogs have learned where we play, where we rest, where we cuddle, and where we give a bath (lol!). Here’s what we do, although you should definitely do what fits for your household:
My Office – No play. I always give the dogs a treat when they come in and lay on their bed and then they are expected to chill out. Occasionally they come over for a pet or cuddle but when I say “okay all done” they go back to their bed.
Kitchen – Unfortunately, this is the “play room”. It can be chaotic. But what usually happens is one of us is cooking and the other is playing with the dogs while we talk about our day. It works out well most of the time.
Living room – The dogs are expected to lay down when asked, but we of course play here too sometimes. I encourage them to play on their own more here, but sometimes we play fetch. Not much tug, it gets to be too exciting.
Outside – All play goes! This is the dog’s space to “be a dog”, we discourage barking and digging but otherwise they get to run and play. (When I say discourage, I mean interrupt the behavior by calling them over to me or bringing them inside – calmly).
Dining Room – When we are eating they are supposed to lay down, but sometimes this isn’t perfect. Dan loves to herd the cat in this room for some reason. If they are really good and lay down through a whole meal, they get treats at the end.
Bathroom – This is where we give baths. The dogs avoid it at all costs, unless no one is home, then Dan helps himself to the garbage! We usually fix this by simply closing the door. Easy as pie.
Going on Walks:
Enforce the rules of walking at all times. This means if the dog pulls, you stop until he focuses on you, then you can continue on your way. Everyone has different criteria for leash manners. Decide what yours are and stick to it. Reward the good all the time and try to prevent rewards for the not-so-good. Walks should always be happy, fun, upbeat, and focused on the dog. If you cannot focus on the dog, leave him home and take him for his own walk later. He will prefer this, I promise. When a dog is new to walking on a leash, or is learning new rules, your walks may need to be shorter. Don’t view it as exercise unless your dog is already good at walking on a leash. Give him another chance to get his exercise in.
These are just examples, some of the most common times that we might not give our dogs the attention they need to learn the right behavior.
Cecil, resting on his blanket in my office
One more note – these concepts work for all species, not just dogs. Our cat has learned to sleep in his box on my desk when he is in my office. And he has learned to cuddle in the living room and meow for food in the kitchen. He also drives us crazy if he hasn’t had enough attention or activity in a day and loves to do training time, although we don’t do it as often as we should!
Remember, your pet is always learning, and you are always training. Whether you mean to be or not.
*Stay tuned for the next piece on Training Sessions Part 2 – Types of Training Sessions*
