Behavior and Emotions are Connected...

Behavior and emotions are connected

The relationship between behavior and emotions can be very interesting. If you’re happy (emotion), you smile (behavior). More interesting, however, is the fact that if you can only manage to smile (no matter how upset you are), your mood will improve as well.

That doesn’t mean I am going to suggest that we teach angry dogs to wag their tails on cue when they really don’t like something, but there are actually other examples of how we can use this principle to our advantage in dog training.  However, I do believe that you could capture a tail wag when your dog is actually happy, put it on cue, and when you ask for a tail wag as a trick, chances are your dog would really be happy when doing the trick.

I have recently started working on heelwork with my puppy Twix.  Well he is not really a puppy anymore as he is 19 months, but to me he is still my little pupper do.  I noticed that if I worked with Twix on heelwork, he would get so anxious and either bark at me or run ahead of me.  For some reason heelwork was frustrating to him.  Could it be me?  Was I doing something different in my training that was causing him frustration?  Was it that he hated heelwork and would rather be chasing a frisbee or running circles around me?  It really could be all of the above...  If I changed and worked on tricks (fast tricks, jumping tricks, stationary tricks), he would focus back and become the dog that I know.  So, I decided that I needed to make some changes.  I needed to change his emotional outlook on heelwork, because he was completely out of control and clearly not in a thinking state of mind.  

Here is what I did to help my little Twix...

I implemented the following training plan:

1. Take him for some play/trick time with some running and frisbee play to get him a little tired before working on heelwork.
2. Since he already knew how to find the heel position due to working on rear end awareness on the box.  He was ready to work on finding the heel position as I was walking and moving.  I turned this into a fun game but clicking him every time he got to my left side and then I would move away again.  At first I did not care that he was straight or perfect.  I just wanted him to really enjoy finding the heel position.
3. Next, I started moving with him in the heel position.  I started with one step, if he moved with me, I clicked and rewarded him with a high value food or toy.  I made sure to reinforce slightly behind me, since he liked to forge ahead when we worked on this in the past.  I wanted that reward to happen behind me and prevent him from wanting to drive forward after the click.
4. Once he got really good at moving with me, I noticed that he thought that touching my leg and just about pushing me over was what he thought he was supposed to do.  So, I had him touch my hand out and away from my body as we moved and as he was still moving with me, I clicked and treated him for not pushing me over.
5. Now it was time to get him to straighten out.  I used a wall for this...  I positioned Twix in between me and the wall.   I did a few games of him standing still next to me, finding the position and then standing still in a calm manner before getting a click and a treat.  The heel position was a place of calmness and not a place to bark, jump, run ahead, and be frustrated or anxious in.  
6. I also started using a variety of rewards.  I took a ziplock bag and put cheese, dry kibble dog food, freeze dried raw “Stella and Chewy’s”, and some baked chicken in it.  This way he never knew what food reward he would get.  I also would sometimes give him food or sometimes reinforce with a toy.  I had to be very careful when reinforcing with a toy as that could get him too over aroused, which defeated the purpose.  So, if I noticed him getting too excited, then I would just go back to reinforcing with food and possibly even putting the food on the ground when rewarding him.  The more I was unpredictable the more he paid attention to me.  It was quite a change from how he started out.  i.e. before this training plan.  
7. As he was focused and calm, I would then start to move.  When he moved with me calmly, I would click and either feed to his mouth to keep his head up or drop the food on the ground.  I eventually want a nice prance and keeping his head up will also get his feet to come up into a prance.  However at this time it is more important to me that he remains calm.
8. Eventually I would move forward, backward, have him turn toward me and face me as I walked backward he walked forward.  Having him next to the wall really helped him learn to be straight.  He loved the randomness of my movement.  I think it kept him thinking and wondering what I was going to do next.  
9. Now I am at the point where we are increasing our criteria by adding more duration before clicks and reinforcement.  

A few Training Tips:

• I always quit training while he was still wanting to work and was still having fun.
• If he forged ahead, got over excited, barked, or did anything that was not acceptable, then I would wait for him to calm down and I would click and treat him for calmly finding the heel position.  The last thing that I wanted to do was to build in the over aroused, stressed or anxious behavior into the heelwork. 
• If I got frustrated for any reason, then I had Twix do something fun that he loved, rewarded him for that behavior and ended the training session.  There is no sense in trying to work through frustration.  Just take a break and try again later.

Explanation of my training plan

The reason might be obvious, but in case it is not.  The reason I felt it was important to only reinforce calm heelwork was to condition a new emotional response to that particular behavior.  A response that allowed him to be able to think and not just react.

Why did I chose to place treats on the ground at times? Well emotions and behavior are connected.  So, sniffing the ground (for the treat) and being stressed are incompatible (just like being upset and smiling don’t go together). Therefore, by getting Twix to sniff the ground (which is also a calming signal) I was also helping him becoming calmer.

By the way, it’s also great to reward by tossing treats on the ground when you are rewarding the dog for behaving nicely around other dogs, people or things. Then the other dog will think that your dog is giving out calming signals, and so both of them will become calmer. I recommend watching my video “The Surprise Party Game” to help reactive dogs, if that is something you are interested in.  

So Far it is working and Twix’s heelwork is really coming along nicely.  

Pamela Johnson

New Year's Resolutions for Dogs

New Year's Resolutions for Dogs

1. I will not play tug-of-war with Dad's underwear when he's on the toilet.
2. I'll remember that the garbage collector is NOT stealing our stuff.
3. I do not need to suddenly stand straight up when I'm lying under the coffee table.
4. I will not roll my toys behind the fridge.
5. I must shake the rainwater out of my fur BEFORE entering the house.
6. I will not eat the cats' food, before or after they eat it.
7. I will stop trying to find the few remaining pieces of clean carpet in the house when I am about to throw up.
8. I will not throw up in the car.
9. I will not roll on dead seagulls, fish, crabs, etc.
10. I will not lick my human's face after eating animal poop.
11. "Kitty box crunchies" are not food.
12. I will not eat any more socks and then redeposit them in the backyard after processing.
13. The diaper pail is not a cookie jar.
14. I will not wake Mommy up by sticking my cold, wet nose up her bottom end.
15. I will not chew my human's toothbrush and not tell them.
16. I will not chew crayons or pens, especially not the red ones, or my people will think I am hemorrhaging.
17. When in the car, I will not insist on having the window rolled down when it's raining outside.
18. We do not have a doorbell. I will not bark each time I hear one on TV.
19. I will not steal my Mom's underwear and dance all over the back yard with it.
20. The sofa is not a face towel. Neither are Mom and Dad's laps.
21. My head does not belong in the refrigerator.
22. I will not bite the officer's hand when he reaches in for Mom's driver's license and car registration.

Author: Unknown

Capturing your DOG's Attention

Capturing Attention: 

Without attention you have nothing… How to build attention and interest. How to maintain interest with distractions.  

Attention:  How do you get your dogs attention when he/she off sniffing a bush or doing something that you really wish he were not doing?  How about using a positive interrupter to get your dog’s attention instead of saying “NO”, “EEEhh EEEhh”, “Knock it off”, or jerking him away from the thing that is so interesting to him.  

• If you use the word “No”, jerk him, or yell his name, it is not telling the dog what to do, it is only suppressing the behavior.  Using these words or actions will cause the dog to associate you with punishment and your dog will be less likely to want to work and interact with you.  Your dog will also not learn what you DO what him to do, so he might go through his entire list of annoying dog behaviors before he thinks of the behavior you had hoped him to do from the beginning.   
• Instead using physical or psychological intimidation to stop your dog from doing an undesirable behavior, use a positive interrupter.  Why would you want to use a positive interrupter?  Well, it teaches the dog what you want them to do, to stop what they are doing and look at you, as well as building your dogs desire to do what you want him to do.  

How to train the positive interrupter:

• Make the noise that you want the animal to respond to such as a kissy noise or whistle and then feed a treat. Make the noise, pause for a second and then give a treat.  Repeat this until the animal is expectant of a treat after the noise.  You could use a word, but a noise that you can make that always sounds the same works best.
• Next make the noise while the dog is looking away from you and as he turns to look at you (for the treat) mark that behavior with either a click (using a clicker) or by saying “yes”.  Once you have repeated this step you can then add distractions.  Have the dog on a leash so he cannot reach the distraction, (perhaps a low value piece of food on the ground) make the attention noise, and click or say “yes” and then feed a treat if the dog turns towards you after hearing the noise. If the dog does not turn towards you, do not click or say “yes”.  However, the dog should not be allowed to reach the distraction that he is interested in.  You can take a step backwards from the distraction to make it easier so the dog can succeed.  You can condition this attention noise to muscle memory in the same way a driver responds to a green light traffic signal (green light means go!).  Once you have created many different scenarios where your dog can disengage in what he is interested in to come towards you and look at you, you can start using the sound to interrupt behaviors that you find undesirable. 

Keep in mind that if you ignore the dog and only pay attention to him when he is doing undesirable behavior, you will be training him to do the things you do not want by providing your attention whenever the behavior occurs.  So the GOAL is to reward the dogs alternate responses in conjunction with interrupting and preventing the undesirable behaviors.  

Example: If your dog steals your underwear and runs around the house with them to get your attention, you have got to reinforce your dog with your attention when he is calm and doing NOTHING.  When your dog is lying at your feet quietly, that is when you will reinforce him with MORE attention than when he runs off with your underwear. 

Teaching a dog to focus on you:

Attention Exercise:  As the dog looks at you click and toss a treat and tell them to get it.  When the dog re-orientates to you and looks at you again, click and toss a treat.  Soon you will have the dog rushing to look at you again.  

• Now do this exercise in different positions:  Standing, sitting, lying on the ground, walking, running, with your back turned to the dog (can they find your eyes?), and be creative.  
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHLvt6TQzqA 

GREAT NEWS! BLUE was found! Thank you all for your prayers and positive thoughts!

Missing Border Collie! San Diego, Californina Area!

PLEASE Call 1-888-466-3242 if you have ANY information!  THANK YOU! Pam

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