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Missing Border Collie! San Diego, Californina Area!

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BARKING DOGS...

Barking - WHY do dogs Bark?  HOW do I train a dog not to bark?

Barking is a perfectly natural dog behavior.  Humans talk, cry, yell, and whisper; Birds tweet, sing, and screech; and dogs bark, whine, and howl.  If you have a dog you should expect some barking.   It is unrealistic and simply not fair to think you can train your dog to stop barking altogether.  However, you, your neighbors, and your dog will all be happier if the barking is under control.

Did you know that dogs use different types of sound to communicate?  These sounds range from whimpering to barking to growling.  Dogs various sounds have different meanings.  For example, a dog can use one bark if it is being defensive, and a slightly different bark when he is afraid of something.  Dogs communicate vocally by whining, grunting, screaming, yelping, howling, growling, barking, and so much more.  Dogs are great at barking and enjoy barking, just like some humans enjoy talking.  However, dogs do bark for a variety of reasons.  

Dogs bark at people or things passing a window, fence, etc…

• Barking seems to scare them away or so the dog thinks.  
• If you “Yell” the dog thinks you are barking too and you both scared them away.
• Barking will continue under those circumstances, in addition will add more stress to the dog and the family.

• Teach an alternate behavior – Down, go to crate, or come and find you.
• Praise, pet, and or give a treat to the dog for not barking or before he is able to bark.
• Have strangers, “mail carriers” come and give the dog a cookie when he is quiet.
• Most of the time if a dog is barking and the person stops to talk to the dog’s owner, the dog will eventually stop barking, and at that moment click and treat the dog, praise the dog, or simply toss the dog a treat.  As the dog is still quiet, randomly reward that quiet behavior.  
• I have a theory that if a person walks past the house of a barking dog and happens to know the dogs name but does not really know the dog, saying the dogs name and acting like you know the dog, will help the dog to stop barking.  I have been experimenting with this theory, but of course it is just a theory.  
• Make the triggers less easy to see – blocking views or moving the dog to another room to limit access to the window or fence can help manage the barking.  Please keep in mind that this is a management technique and will not magically cure your dog from barking.  Using management will prevent the dog from being able to practice the undesired behavior and keep the barking from becoming a learned habit.  A self-reinforcing habit.  

Dogs bark for attention…

• Bark; let me out, Bark; let me in, Bark; give me a treat, Bark; I want to meet that dog or person, etc.  The dog barks to get attention.

• Don’t YELL!  Just get up, walk away and ignore or turn your back and ignore.  (To a dog, negative attention is better than none at all.)  Yelling or saying, “knock it off” is negative attention.  It is not any different than the kid in the classroom that taps his pencil on the desk to get attention from the teacher.  So, if you ignore, eventually your dog will learn that barking is not worth it and does not get him what he wants, which is attention from you.
• Remove the item that he wants or remove him from the environment if you have to.
• As soon as he is quiet – PRAISE and REWARD.  
• Praise for a few seconds of quietness and increase the time slowly.
• You are now giving the dog the attention he needs, but on your terms and for the acceptable behavior of being quiet.

Dogs bark when they are stressed…

• Do not YELL, this will only make the dog more stressed.  When you are stressed at work, it will make you more stressed if your supervisor or co-worker yells at you.  Too much stress can impact the immune system and cause illnesses.
• Offer calming signals to relax your dog by yawning, lip licking, turning your head away, and using soft eye blinks.
• Divert the dog’s attention if possible.
• Train your dog to be calm, go to a mat or settle when distracting things are present.
• Teach your dog to “check things out” and allow him to explore the “scary or weird” things in the environment.  If he is barking due to an object that is causing him stress.  

Dogs bark when bored…

• Dogs that spend most of their time outside or alone and away from their human pack.

• Frustrated and lonely – Dogs are pack animals and need to be around you for a good portion of their day.  This does not mean just in the house with you.  Your dog should receive individual attention and play a minimum of an hour a day with you.  
• Bring your dog in when you are home and leave your dog in when you are not home. This way he can feel like part of the family. Do not leave your dog outside!  He is your dog, your best friend, and deserves to live in your home.  After all you would not leave your child outside all day, would you?
• Provide daily social EXERCISE by walking in the neighborhood, 45-minute walk is great for most breeds. A properly exercised dog will sleep most of the day when you are not home. Allow your dog to sniff from time to time, which will give your dog some mental stimulation.
• Having a large yard does not mean the dog is getting enough exercise – if your dog is dashing madly around the yard it is the equivalent of pacing, fidgeting, or other forms of nervous activity.
• Dogs are social and need friends – schedule play dates with friend’s that have dogs.  
• Dogs left alone bark to rid pent up energy and take up barking as a hobby.
• Provide your dog with fun things to do – digging pit, chew toys (stuffed or not), treat balls, things to find, and calming music.
• Engage your dogs BRAIN by TRAINING him.

• Tricks
• Basic obedience behaviors (sit, down, stand, stay, come, are just a few examples.)
• Train your dog to do a dog sport (Agility, Canine Freestyle, Rally-O, Tracking, and so much more).

Dogs bark when they are afraid… 

• There are various levels of fear, which range from unsure, worried, startled, extremely afraid, to panic attacks.
• What are dogs afraid of?

• Left alone (in home, car, crate, new place, or tied up) Such dogs are attempting to call their owners back home, but because the owner does eventually come back, the dog thinks that his barking was effective – so he may bark with more determination the next time.  This causes anxiety because the dog cannot cope without the owner. Videotape your dog during the day to see what is triggering his barking.  The more information you have the more success you will have at helping and training your dog.  
• Sounds and startling noises
• Threatening behaviors of other dogs and humans (arguments, aggression, anger, coming directly at a dog, and raised voices).
• Exposure to new items or “scary things”  
• Being held tightly in arms or on a leash, and loss of ability to escape if needed.  

It is hard to say what will trigger a dog to be fearful of something or what the dog will associate that fear with.  If you jerk on the leash when the dog barks at something he is afraid of then you are basically telling the dog that he should be afraid of that particular thing. When he looks at it, he gets a correction and that thing causes him pain.  He will also now associate you with that “scary thing” he is afraid of and now he will become afraid of you as well.  Chances are the dog will not think, “oh, it is because I barked that I got corrected” and even if he did, that is not a chance worth taking.  You could be creating a fearful dog by giving leash or verbal corrections and now your dog could associate those corrections with whatever he was afraid of, to begin with (dogs, people, cats, kids, you, and the list goes on and on).

So, how do you start teaching your dog “NOT” to bark?  In order to train your dog not to bark, you must first figure out WHY he is barking.  What is triggering the barking and then go from there? 

• Many will say that teaching a dog to “Bark” on cue will decrease barking because the dog will only bark when given the cue to bark.  I have taught all my dogs to “Speak” on cue and to be honest, it does not prevent barking altogether but it does seem to decrease.  My dogs love being given the cue “Speak” which tells me that they really love to bark.  It is their favorite trick!
• Reward is the best motivator!  Reward when the dog is not barking, and reward before the dog can bark, if something happens that he might normally bark at.  For example, if another dog barks, give your dog a treat for NOT barking back.  
• When your dog is lying quietly and allowing you to visit with neighbors or talk on the phone you can praise and reward him, which will encourage the dog to remain quiet the next time.

I wish I could tell you the magic word and you would have all your barking problems go away, but that is simply not possible.  Dogs bark!  The key is to manage the barking and work on rewarding your dog the times he is quiet.  We tend to ignore our dogs when they are being “good”, but give them attention when the are being “bad”.  Why not just reward and give them attention when they are doing the things you like? 

Building A Bank of Reinforcers!

Building a bank of reinforcers 

Conditioning a large variety of reinforcers will create variety in training sessions.  You want as much variety in training sessions as possible to prevent boredom and to give you an edge when faced with high level distractions.  

Toys- Tugs, squeakies, balls, Frisbees, balloons, water squirts, food inside a thrown toy… Can you think of more?  

Activities-  getting to skateboard, getting to chase you, getting to go in the car to go for a ride, agility, and tricks.

Real Life rewards- getting to chase bunnies/birds, getting to play with a dog, going outside, sniffing bushes on walks, and being given the opportunity to run free.  

Food-  switch your food rewards CONSTANTLY!  Reinforcement EQUALS behavior! If your dog is acting bored and slow, its YOUR FAULT!  You are not giving the dog the reinforcement required for offering the behavior.  Be unpredictable with your reinforcement choice!  Hide food toys under your clothes and in your pockets.  Have an unpredictable reinforcement hidden somewhere, to surprise your dog with.  EVERY behavior your dog does has the possibility of a jackpot! He never knows when it will happen. 

Conditioned Secondary Reinforcers/Markers- Clapping, Touching your dog, Jumping, A vocalization- “yay!”, “good girl”, “yipee” and waving your arms can be conditioned as secondary reinforcers.  For competition where you are not allowed to talk, you could use a quick loud breath of air to tell your dog that they are doing “so far so good!”.  These conditioned reinforcers can be used to mark behavior that is on a variable schedule instead of using a clicker.  This is called a keep going signal and lets your dog know that he is on the right track, to keep going, and the reinforcement is coming.

How to use behaviors reinforcing in themselves- Using a behavior that is a conditioned reinforcer to reinforce a behavior chain.  Example- teach dog jump into arms as a reward at the end of a routine, or to fetch the leash.  Mix behaviors your dog likes to do naturally with the behavior you want your dog to do.  

Building a toy as a reward – creating new conditioned reinforcers 

• If you have a dog that really likes food as their reinforcement and you would like them to play with a toy instead, here is what you can do.

• Get the toy that you want the dog to play with.  Let’s use a tug toy as the example.
• Build the dogs interest in the toy by starting off easy, dog looks at the toy, click and give the food reward.  
• Now start asking for more interaction with the toy before the click and treat.  So, perhaps the dog will touch it with his nose.  Click and treat.
• Then click for the dog taking the toy in his mouth.
• Click for the dog holding it as you pull on the toy.
• Play a small game of tug with it, click and treat.
• You will be building value in the toy by using classical conditioning with the food reward.  Soon, the dog will want to play with the toy.  However, being that I have done this with my dog Isabelle, she still prefers the food over the toy, but her play drive has improved.  The same holds true to Bandit my border collie as I did the opposite with a toy.  I have been working on building his food drive by using the same method.  But the process is switched, so I give him food, he eats it and I click and reward with the ball, tug or Frisbee.  

Pamela Johnson, CPDT-KA

www.pamsdogacademy.com 

Clicker Training BASICS

Clicker Training BASICS

1.  The Clicker is NOT a TOY and should ONLY be used as a training tool!  

2.  The clicker takes the focus off the reward so your dog can concentrate on what he was doing at the particular moment in time that he did the correct behavior.  

    -  The click is like a camera taking a picture of the exact behavior that you like or that you want repeated.  

    -   A good example is training a dolphin at Sea World to jump over a pole.  As the animal jumps over the pole the trainer clicks (whistles) to tell the dolphin he was correct, and then swims back to the trainer to receive his fish reward for the behavior.  If the trainer just gave him the fish with no click, then the dolphin might think that having his head out of the water with his mouth open is what earned him the fish and not the jump. 

3.  1 Click = 1 Reward (or more rewards if the dog does something amazing; JACKPOT)  

4.  What types of rewards?  

     -  Small smelly pea sized treats that are soft and easily swallowed so you don’t have to wait until your dog finishes chewing.  Be unpredictable by using at least four different kinds of treats, toys, and make use of environmental rewards (playing with dogs, sniffing bushes, etc.) when training new tricks or behaviors. 

5.  NEVER click the clicker next to your dogs ear, unless you have a quiet muffled clicker.

6.  If you click and you did not mean to click, you still OWE your dog a reward.  If you do not want that behavior to happen again, then make sure you do not click that behavior again. Practice your timing!  

7.  If your dog knows the behavior, they don’t need to be clicked, they already know what they are doing. 

     -  Clicking your dog is only reserved for training new behaviors or adding new criteria!   

8.  Clicking vs. “Good Boy” 

The clicker is consistent and always sounds exactly the same.  It has been tested scientifically that neurons in the brain can connect faster and more easily to a tone that sounds exactly the same rather than ones voice.  If you are using a clicker you are actually conditioning the dog to find the behaviors reinforcing.  Also, voice carries the trainer’s emotion.  People are talking all the time to their dog’s, so it is hard to make a novel sound used only for training sessions with one’s voice.  It is important to condition a word that means the same thing as a click for times that you do not have a clicker, when it is too difficult to hold the clicker, or if the dog is afraid of the clickers sound.  I use the word “YES” to mark behaviors and condition the word “YES”, so that the dog understands it.

9.  Keep your training sessions SHORT.  2-3 minutes!  Play to celebrate successes.  If you spread out short sessions throughout the day, a dog will learn much faster than a long session once a day.  Train during commercial breaks when watching TV.

10.  Start all training in a place with few to no distractions.  

Different rooms in your house with no other dogs, or animals.  Eventually progress to the yard, the street, and distracting places with other dogs and people as your dog is successful.  If at anytime your dog does seem distracted, do not try to work through it.  Move away from the distraction until your dog is able to listen and then go back to training the behavior.  Set your dog up for success and increase the level of difficulty slowly.  Kids start school in kindergarten and as they learn they move up in grades.  We would never expect a kid to go from kindergarten to college right away, so don’t expect your dog to either.  

Have fun with your dog!  A dog’s life is just too short!

Give your DOG a JOB!

Give your dog a job!

Many think that you have to do dog sports that stimulate a dogs instinct to be able to give your dog a job.  The truth is that it does not matter if you live in a house, on a farm, or in an apartment.  You can find a job for your dog!  Trust me, if you do not give your dog a job; he will create his own.  Chances are you will not like your dogs job ideas, which usually consist of barking at people or things passing by, chewing up your furniture, going through your laundry basket of dirty clothes, getting on the counter tops, digging in the trash, or destroying your favorite pair of shoes.  These “behavior problems” could simply be avoided if the owners gave their dog acceptable jobs to do.  You might be thinking, what kind of job could I possibly give my dog? Well the answer is simple!

When you are out of the house and your dog is home alone...

Try feeding your dog his breakfast by taking the kibble and hiding it around the house.  Dogs love to find things and this is a great way to stimulate your dogs mind.  

If you do not usually feed your dog breakfast, then you could hide a few of his favorite toys or acceptable chew bones around the house.  

There are some amazing food dispensing toys out on the market right now that allow you to put dog food or treats inside the toy and the dog has to knock the toy around with his nose or paws to get the treats out.  This is a challenge for the dog, stimulates their mind, and helps them work off some energy they might have stored up.

Hiding stuffed Kongs is another fun thing to do for your dog.  You can make it more interesting for your dog by stuffing the Kong with different things.  Maybe one day the Kong is stuffed with peanut butter and the next day it is stuffed with cream cheese.  This will make it more interesting to your dog when he is sniffing around trying to find the Kong.  Get creative with the hiding spots, don’t hide the items in the same spot, and challenge the dog by hiding the item in difficult places.  

Hide toy's, then encourage your dog to go find the toy's and give them a treat for every toy they find.  At first you might need to start with easy hiding places (maybe even in plain view) and then as your dog gets better at finding the toy's start hiding them in more challenging places.  We play find the tennis balls at our house and I try to get really creative as to where I hide the balls (on counters, under dog beds, inside boxes, and in every room of the house and yard.  Make sure to count the toys that you hide, because they might try to pretend not to find the toys so that they can play with them later.  LOL!  My Border Collie Bandit loves to pretend that he can't find the last toy and when we are watching TV he will come running in the living room with a ball in his mouth.  He is one clever pup!  Here is a youtube video that I did to show how to train a dog to find an item.  Treasure Hunt

When you are home and you want to give your dog something to do...

Train your dog to do a trick.  This is a fun job and it is a win win for the human and dog.  The dog gets to earn yummy treats or toy rewards and what an sense of accomplishment for the human.

Take your dog to class to learn a dog sport.  Dog sports are a fun way for humans and canines to bond and enjoy each others company.  In addition, your dog will be tired from all that learning.  

Play recall games with your dog.  My favorite one is hide-n-seek recalls, where I hide and then call my dogs to me.  They have to run around and find me.  Once they find me they all get a treat or to play tug with me.  

If you are busy and want your dog to just chill out, you can give him a yummy chew bone.  I love to use antlers, bully sticks, and stuffed frozen Kongs, but there are literally a ton of different types of chew bones.  

Take your dog for an exploration walk to sniff bushes and check out the environment.  Sometimes I will hide things (tennis balls or treats) as my dog is distracted and then get excited when they find the items I hid.  Sometimes my dogs find cool sticks, pinecones, and balls that were dropped by other dogs (Woo Hoo, Score).  

Go on a hike!  If you have a really energetic dog, you can get a backpack for him and make it his job to carry the water bottles.  I would only put one on each side to even out the weight.  

Teach your dog to find, fetch, and bring you things; such as the TV remote, your keys, slippers, get the clicker, and anything you might want.

If your dog loves people, consider training him to become a Therapy Dog and take him to hospitals, rest homes, and to visit children at schools.  

The ideas are endless as to what jobs you can give your dog.  The more you teach them the less they have time to create their own work.  The bottom line is to stimulate your dogs mind to prevent boredom.  

By Pamela Johnson

Go Slow to Go FAST!

I am a teacher and we have been reading a book called, “Secrets of the Teenage Brain”, by Sheryl G. Feinstein .    As I read this book I would think about how much it also relates to dogs and dog training.  When teaching kids it is important that they have good foundation skills in order to learn more difficult information.  It is not any different for training dogs.  You have to build a solid foundation of skills, behaviors, and develop a great bond with your dog before you can move onto training more difficult tricks, dog sports, or behaviors.

This made me think about what is it that I feel is important to train a dog to do in order to build a solid foundation.  

Learning games: Teach your dog to think by playing clicker games, 101 things to do with a box, recall games, attention games, and impulse control games.  It has been proven that when a species learns, they are increasing the synapses in the brain, and basically means the dog is getting smarter.

Socialization:  Socialize your dog to dogs, people, other animals, things, environments, and surfaces.  It is important to provide your dog with positive life experiences.

Communication: Develop clear communication with your dog through positive reinforcement or clicker training by having good timing, being consistent, setting an acceptable criteria or expectations, and 

Teach dogs to do what you want them to do, ignore what you do not want, and manage to prevent unwanted behaviors from being practiced.

Be NOVEL!!  Be FUN!!  Humans and dogs alike find novelty to be interesting and engaging.  The other day in my PE class a student taught me this new dance move called a shuffle and they do this move in the song "Party Rock Anthem".  Well after learning it, I used that move to get their attention at roll call and to tell them what they were doing for the day.  Every student's eyes were on me and listening.  It was fun and novel that their PE teacher was doing the same dance move that they love.  We need to be like this with our dogs!  Make training fun, be your dogs favorite playmate, and your dog will WANT to LEARN!

Playtime:  Teaching a dog how to play with you, with toys, and with other dogs is a really valuable foundation skill.  You want to train your dog the rules involved during playtime.  Maybe those rules include: dropping the toy when asked, fetching the toy, not putting his mouth on the human, and playing appropriately with other dogs.  Building a dogs play drive can strengthen the human canine relationship! 

Teach BASIC skills:  Teach a dog their NAME, Sit, Down, Stay, Come, hand targeting, loose leash walking, and to pay attention to you.  Teach basic skills without force, intimidation, and physical punishment to help you build a positive strong bond with your dog. 

Before a child can form sentences they must first learn their ABC’s. First a kid crawls, then walks, and finally runs.  The same goes for our dogs.  Before we can teach them to walk on a loose leash, we must first teach them how to accept having a collar and leash on.  Before we can teach a dog to stay around distractions, we must first teach them how to stay in one spot for duration.  In the beginning that stay might be one second, but we build on that behavior until they can stay for a minute.  Then we add, distance, and eventually we add distractions and put it all together.  It is not fair to ask a child to write a paragraph when they just learned how to formulate a simple sentence.  So, it is not fair to ask something of our dogs that we have not really taught and practiced.  

By, Pamela Johnson

www.pamsdogacademy.com

www.pamsdogtraining.com