This is the basis for clicker training and the primary reason why I use it for dog training. We first teach the dog to positively associate the sound of the clicker with a positive experience (whatever motivates the dog). Clicks are especially good for this because they make exactly the same sound every time. Unlike the changes a voice will make when you are excited, angry, upset, or distracted.

We teach the dog the association; Click = Treat. We use treats because they are easy to deliver (unlike games or petting). Treats have the added benefit of being a primary reinforcer (food); one of five reinforcers that is involved in species survival and so is naturally reinforcing to all living things; food, air, water, sleep, and sex. For obvious reasons, food is the only primary reinforce that is useful for training.

Once the dog understands that click=treat, you can start teaching him to learn that HE can control when the click happens. Once the dog makes this cognitive leap (this takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes) then you can really get into training. Now you have a way to communicate.

The dog associates the click with getting a treat and he knows that he can get you to click by trying new things or responding to the cues you have taught him. Keep in mind that the whole experience needs to be fun for the dog to reach his full potential. If the learning game isn’t fun, like a kid in class who is scolded by teachers or teased by other students, a dog can also learn to dislike the “school” experience. When you keep the learning fun your dog will learn quickly and eagerly.

Large Carnivores all have something in common besides their majestic presence– something you can’t ever forget. They are dangerous. If you give them the chance they will kill you. Of the Big Cats I knew, many were friendly towards humans. Some would lay down in anticipation of a good scratch or cuddle. Others were not so friendly. If you walked into their den you wouldn’t be walking out again. These predators have never been domesticated. Even the friendliest Puma must be watched, in case her instincts kick in and she abruptly sees you as pray instead of a caregiver.

Dogs are predators. A fact many people conveniently forget. They have been evolving alongside humans for thousands of years. During that time they have become one of only a handful species that can coexist in our homes. They are unique in their ability to see us as members of their family. To them are we extremely strange dogs? We don’t do a lot of things that are natural behaviors for dogs. We don’t bite each other when we are angry. We don’t greet our elders by licking their mouths. Our idea of a good time is not a chance to pee on every vertical object in the neighborhood. No, I think dogs know we aren’t dogs. But they forgive us that and live with us anyway.

It isn’t common for dogs to just “snap” and become aggressive. Even the most frightening looking pit bull is still a dog, and dogs have evolved to live around and love humans. If we know that dogs don’t just snap, then what is the deal with dog aggression? Why do they do it?

Many of the behaviors we associate with dog aggression are very natural behaviors. Defense of territory, defense of self, defense of resources; these are the primary reasons why dogs show aggression. When territory, resources, or self, seem threatened then a dog’s reaction is to aggress. I stress here that dogs show aggressive behaviors but I would not call them aggressive dogs. Aggression is not a temperament, it is a behavior.

Aggression is a term used very loosely in the dog community but has a severely negative connotation; an implication which can result in the euthanasia of a perfectly normal and trainable dog.

Aggression in dogs will never go away. All dogs are capable of aggression and all dogs may resort to it when they feel threatened. Dogs learn to show aggression more often if they live in a state of anxiety or fear. If we can show them how to relax, how to feel safe, and how to control their environment, they will learn to live more easily with humans and our anxiety of about dog aggression can also disappear.

Clothier discussed the importance of using measurements like time and body length to describe a dog’s reactions. This allows the meaning of the reaction to be a more useful piece of knowledge that a subjective description like; “the dog, a Chihuahua, was startled by the noise and jumped back from the toy, went back to investigate the toy a short time later” , instead you can say; “The dog, a Chihuahua, increased his distance from the noise by 6 body lengths, then recovered from the reaction in 10 seconds.” This tells us that the startle reaction was significant, but that the Chihuahua gained confidence again relatively quickly.

Day two covered the core behaviors CARAT.  These Core behaviors start to build a profile for an animal that shows us who that animal is.  These core behaviors are Arousal- the physiological changes that occur in response to a stimulus, Resilience- how quickly the dog recovers from a reaction, and Energy level- the dog’s natural tempo of movement.

These three core traits, as well as many others introduced later in CARAT, are described on a shift scale. Where “0” is a functional behavior that is adaptive, -#s slide towards avoidant behaviors and +#s slide towards more reactive and active behaviors. The scale goes from -4-+4, with the 4’s representing the most extreme and maladaptive version of the trait.

Day Three, Clothier covered the other main behavior traits that the CARAT profile uses at in level 1. We discussed what each trait meant and how best to describe the behavior when you observe it. Then we all split up into groups; shelter/rescue workers, guide dog trainers, therapy dog trainers, and pet trainers to discuss what kind of profile was most significant to our work.

For shelter dogs we agreed that we could accept many behavior profiles that other groups might find prohibitive, since we adopt to many different types of owners and situations. This process allowed us to solidify what profiles and traits we could not accept; like a dog with a right shift in arousal that also had a right shift in social tolerance. Meaning that the dog was aroused very easily and when aroused he would likely become very intolerant of interaction.

I am so excited to get started using the CARAT tool that I have started to CARAT everyone around me. Yesterday on my way into work, I was CARATing myself!  I am a right shift human for sure no zeros for me.

The argument heats up further when in a contracted shelter scenario, these shelters are  contracted to always take in city strays. They can’t call themselves “no kill” although often their goals are the same as a no kill shelter, they are forced to make tragic decisions everyday to make space for new dogs overnight. When all other options are exhausted; foster families, crates in the hallway, pairing dogs in kennels,  even volunteers and staff taking home animals overnight—the list of animals being euthanized for mild behavior issues because of crowding can be an everyday occurrence.

In this scenario is it OK to use aversive equipment like shock collars, shaker cans, prong or choke chains? These items fall under the category of “potential harm aversives”. They may solve a problem in the short term, using pain and intimidation, but they also have a huge potential to be misused and create severe negative associations with handlers or other environmental cues, physical harm to the animal, or phobic reaction to noises? What if using these items means the dog is fixed in the short term? Never mind the fall out if the dog behaves in the shelter long enough to find a home?

What of the low income family with a new baby? They got their dog before the baby was born but now they have no time and less money. They won’t be able to invest in a private trainer and they don’t have the time for group classes or self education on dog training techniques. Is it better for this family to give up their dog to the local contract shelter that can’t turn them away? The outcome for the dog is only 50-50 in the shelter. Or is it ok for them to use a prong collar to get the leash pulling under control so the new mom can safely walk dog and baby stroller at the same time? Sure the dog is uncomfortably, but is the fall out risk worth the gamble? If the dog gets an uncomfortable pinch every time she sees another dog and eventually becomes dog reactive to the point where she doesn’t get walks at all or is still given up to the shelter? Now what?

Excessive alert barking though, is no fun for anyone. This is when the dog does not habituate to noises she hears regularly and decides to bark loudly and repeatedly for every tiny noise. It is important with these dogs not to antagonize the situation further by using a aversive punishment. That means no yelling, smacking, or electric collars; as these things can lead to aggression and even more excessive reactions.

I teach the dog habituation using a form of negative punishment. Negative punishment is when you take away a thing the dogs likes as a consequence for his behavior. The “trick” here is to make sure that the consequence is linked to the behavior. That means the timing of the consequence must coincide with the start of the barking.

1. Only under supervision. Attach a lightweight lead (I use a cat lead) to the dog’s collar.

2. As soon as the dog starts barking, say your dog’s name and cue for quiet (quiet, enough, shush, etc.…) use a normal volume and say it only once. Have a treat on hand in case he is immediately quite after your cue.

3. When he doesn’t immediately quiet. Stand up and walk over to him, pick up the lead and walk him over to where you were sitting. For many dogs this loss of freedom is enough to quiet them. Keep them attached to you for at least the next 20 minutes.

4. After 10-20 minutes of quiet, praise him and let go of the lead. If the dog continues to bark even when walked away from the window, I would also use a timeout protocol.

5. Instead of having the dog stay near you, walk the dog into another room and shut the door for 3 seconds or as soon as the barking has stopped. Open the door a crack, cue for a sit. When the dog can sit he comes back out and starts his 10-20 minute time with you. If at anytime he barks while attached to you, he gets another timeout in a room.  Remember time outs are learning experiences and a dog only needs a few seconds. If the time out is too long the dog will be bored or anxious and that is not the learning that you want!

Keep in mind that this will not stop your dog’s alert barking completely. He will still bark to loud or very startling noises or if a burglar comes in the house! These exercises will simply make him aware of the consequences of barking at ALL noises, so he will learn to ignore the obviously unimportant ones.

The first topic in this book I would like to bring up is commensalism.

Commensalism is when one species benefits from another species without “bringing anything to the table” so to speak. Coppinger suggests that dogs essentially domesticated themselves around the same time as humans became agricultural. They ate our waste, shared our security and offered little or no benefit to us (other than cleaning up our waste I suppose).

This idea does seem to fit with why dogs look like and act like they do. They were not domesticated by us for a specific purpose but they did evolve away from traditional wolves because their genetics allowed them to be les afraid of living near humans. While illustrating this Coppinger describes the behavior of village dogs in third world areas,

“Most of the Pemba dogs live alone or in small groups—at the most, three.  —Notice that the word is “group,” not “Pack.” Pemba dog group behavior does not mimic wild wolf pack behavior.” (pg 80)

Slowly humans allowed them more and more lee-way and eventually started breeding and culling them for specific purposes until we have the breeds we recognize today.

So after reading the first half of this book, what do you think? Does the idea of commensalism make sense to you? How about the idea that dogs domesticated themselves and we only started using them in return much later. Does that change how you feel about dogs and what our responsibilities are towards them? 

Of course I recommended that he see his vet about any sudden behavior change (which he had already done and blood work was on the way). My only other advice, over the phone, was do not under any circumstances use the citronella collar again.

I explained that aversive collars (shock, citronella, prong and choke chains) can all cause some very alarming aggressive reactions in some dogs for a couple of different reasons.

- The dog has associated the collar with a highly intense and negative experience. When this happens the dog may try to avoid that aversive (uncomfortable or painful) stimulus again by actively avoiding the association in the future. In this case the dog’s reaction was severe (multiple level 4 bites) and the collar hadn’t even been turned on in a few weeks.

-The intensity of the experience is also something to take into account. Because the dog was startled regularly by the spray, that intensely aversive experience left the dog with a boost of adrenaline and stress hormones in his system. High stress levels doesn’t go away immediately and his reactions during this period would be jumpy and easily aroused. So even though the collar was being removed at the time of the incident he over reacted to the stimulus associated with the collar/feeling threatened.

I might never find out if the aggression was brought on by the collar (only having been in use for a few weeks) or some underlying medical issue. But I have heard enough anecdotal  evidence that these types of collars should be avoided at all costs. Aversive collars are expensive. Save your money and use it on a certified behavior consultant instead.

The only research I have found was a two week testing period where the dogs only wore the collars for 3 days of the week and not long term– the way many pet owners use them. One very interesting item was that many dogs did not habituate to the collars even after a week of wearing them before the study. What this means is that as soon as the collars are removed the dogs continue to bark again. So in fact the collars do not train a dog not to bark. It was no surprise to me that the research was funded by Radio Systems Coorp. I applaud them for getting research on their product, (sadly at the expense of stray dogs at the shelter) I do wonder though if they have thought to do research on their products long term, and test for aggression changes or if they have done this and chose not to release the data?

In the mid 90’s a meme got started that playing tug with your dog would cause him to become aggressive and bite you. To let him win tug was even worse because he would then think that he was more powerful than you and hence, dominant to you in all other ways. Basically if your dog played and won a game of tug, he would be catapulted into a life of aggression that would eventually lead to euthanasia.

This meme started with the logical extension of the Wolf Pack Theory. The logic flow goes like this. Genetically dogs are wolves- if dog are wolves then we can look at wolf behaviour and deduce what dog behaviour means. We have seen wolves play tug with sticks etc… frequently the stronger and more dominant animal wins these games- If the stronger animal wins than if the weaker animal wins he becomes the stronger animal. The conclusion is if dogs play tug and win they will become the dominant animal in the house.

This logic process, while sounding rational does not actually stand up to testing or in fact what we actually know about dogs or wolves.

1. Dogs are genetically a lot like wolves, a little closer than humans are to chimps. Close enough that they can interbreed. They do not, however, follow the same behaviour patterns and even have some physiological differences to wolves. As romantic as it is to believe that our dog is the quintessential ‘ wolf in the parlour’ this is not actually the case.

2. When wolves play tug of war, typically the stronger more dominant member wins. This can be true. It is also true that canines will  ‘give up’ the game more readily if the other player seems to ‘want it more’. Essentially throwing the match. Canines, including wolves will share a ‘tug’ toy, carrying around both sides and walking or running together, which is thought to be a bonding ritual. Many canines while playing will self handicap. Giving up toys that they are playing with or laying on the ground if they are bigger, in order to encourage another dog/wolf to play with them.

3. Research has actually been done that showed how dogs reacted to playing tug. The conclusion was that dogs who won every game did not act more dominant or aggressive and were no more likely to bite as they had been before the games. The same was found with dogs that were allowed to win only half the games. Not surprisingly, dogs that were made to lose all the game they played did not want to play tug anymore.  The only other finding was that dogs with a propensity to become over aroused and lacked impulse control, had a tendency to grab the player’s arm or hand while playing the game. So tug is like any other game. Win or lose, there needs to be rules and until the dog learns impulse control, probably shouldn’t play this game with children (or people that think a game is a power play).

4. In reality many people, including very well known dog trainers, play tug with their dogs. It is a great way to exercise a dog when it is rainy outside. It is a very useful game for helping a young dog learn how to get excited  and then calm down on cue. I also use tug with come less confident dogs to help them build confidence. Tug is also a very reinforcing game to play as a reward for a job well done. Just ask your local agility dog people!

Now, here is a fun clip of agility dogs running a graduation class… notice how many of them play tug at the end!

So I want to update you all on what’s been going on with me and dancingdogs.

One month ago I left New Zealand and started a new chapter here in Maryland, USA. Why Maryland? Well, first of all, my partner Oliver, was offered a new position in his company that is DC based. Also my sister lives here in MD so we decided it would be a good place to start out while we stayed in temporary accommodation. Lastly, I have also been going through an interview process over the past few months for a position with a large shelter in DC. Namely, the Washington Humane Society. The position is Director of Animal Behavior and Training, or alternately, Director of Behavior and Learning. Title aside, the position will allow me to help more animals and more families who adopt those animals, more quickly and efficiently.

I was ultimately offered the job a couple weeks ago and I started last week. I am sure I will get to talk about this more in future blogs.

Oliver and I have now located the perfect house and will close on it mid-September, it’s a cute little house in a fantastic location in DC, so my commute won’t be horrible and we can be near the city! Best of all, the house has a yard! I haven’t had a yard in 5 years, and I know the dogs will love it!

I have a car now as well, but the traffic here really is amazingly scary. I have been in three near misses including a car’s side blowing out in front of me on the highway, and one person has rear ended me— all  in a month.

The dogs have found a day care they like that will probably end up also being their long-term kennels when we go on vacations. I am sure I will link pictures of this sometime soon, on their first day they were given report cards, and Ripley’s was ticked with”Hooray for Sprinklers!” So I am pretty sure they had a good time.

Well, that’s it for now, back to the regular programming. I am planning a Book Club blog series to come out every month so look out for that and I would love for you all to join me in reading and commenting on a book each month!

There is not only one right way to train a dog. There are many techniques, methods and ‘right’ ways. All the techniques that I recommend will be dog friendly,  relationship friendly, and conscientious. Many of the books I recommend reading will also demonstrate these ideals but have alternate paths of getting there. Many will even insist that their way is the best way;  and for what that particular trainer is trying to accomplish, they are probably right.

For instance:  Gerritson, Haak, and Prins , ‘K9 Behaviour Basics’ advises that you only use a few very basic and well understood words to communicate to your dog;  (besides a clicker as a bridge), good, no, OK, sit, and free. These words are each drilled regularly and consistently so the dog knows they mean the same thing every time. This is a fantastic way to train a working dog, they know exactly what is expected of them at any given time and exactly what they need to do to gain reinforcement. This really is a perfect method for training police dogs, disabilities dogs, and any working dog; while maintaining trust and a strong social bond.  When these dogs are ‘off-duty’ they play, chew, bark and are just as liable to demolish the house when left alone for 8 hours as any other dog.

On the other hand: you have Kotler, ‘A Small Furry Prayer’  who describes his experiences with rescue dogs. His dogs sleep on the bed with him, learn moral behaviour, and laugh together.  He treats his dog’s severe separation anxiety with LOVE (of all things!). He came home after work each day and SMOTHERED his dog with attention and love, and to the shock of many a dog trainer, this worked.

Now this guy is no professional dog trainer, he is a writer who was really flying by the seat of his pants, ears in the wind, and following his gut instinct to give attention and love where it is needed. Many of these dogs are so damaged that if he had tried to force , or punitive training techniques it would literally have killed or made the dogs impossible to place in new homes. So for him, his method of training (yes, I do consider it training) worked. It works so well that the relationship he has with his dogs was one I would aspire to.

When I live with and train my own dogs, I fall somewhere in between these two extremes. I set a lot more boundaries for my dogs that Kotler seems to, yet I am not nearly as formal with them as suggested in ‘K9 Behaviour Basics’. I always strive for better training as well as a better relationship with my own dogs.

So, as you go through your own reading list and you start to see many different suggestions and ideas, I recommend thinking about each one of them and deciding if it is something you would want to try, and what your dog will think about it as well. Will this technique foster trust between you? Will it clarify the communication you already have? If not, then don’t do it! If you think it will, then give it a try. Just don’t be worried when more than one suggestion is deemed the ‘right way’.  Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. You’ll figure it out.