Pet Dog Behavior Management & Training Tips
Hi Friends, the best thing you can give your dog is your time (not too much time) and finding the right amount is up to you and your dogs individual needs. As guardians, it is our responsibility to ensure our dogs' welfare is positive and enriching. Improving our pet companion's welfare is simple and takes only a few minutes of planning. Try setting up "stinky treasure hunts" using stuffed hollow toys, play nature sounds or soft music and make certain they have access to water and sunshine. By nature dogs love to forage. They are scavengers and olfaction (fancy word for the action or capacity of smelling, sense of smell) is THE most important inherent physical ability. You can spend a whole lot of money on ingenious products (Clever.pet) or hardly any at all making your own DIY toys (do it yourself games are all abound on Dr. Google) . The main point is to enrich their world by appealing to THEIR unique sensory perceptions. Keep in mind our dogs are a different species, who have evolved in such a way to adapt to their environment. They perceive the world very differently using supersonic noses, hearing and sight. Their experience of the world is different then ours. That said, we have genetically modified them to rely on us for everything. Our dogs do not have thumbs and rely on us to provide them with the basic necessities in life. It is our responsibility to provide them with a safe home, veterinary care, relief walks, water, food, social interactions, and love and attention. Please consider your dog to ensure their needs are met. Thank you! Vivian
Living with pets & Covid-19Pre-plan DIY Enrichment |
Animal Welfare & Enrichment.Product Review: Click n Lix |
Establish Communication Skills.Product Review: Clever Pet |
Attention is the most important skill to learn.
The most important skill (and functional cues) to teach your dog is attention on you. Without attention, we don't have a connection nor a relationship. Maintaining attention on us requires we learn to 1) be consistent with the words and their meanings 2) use a cue-mark-reward communication system 3) be good negotiators 4) more or equally motivating than the environment because we are always competing with environmental stimuli. Whether you prompt your dog to look your way (using their name or another word) or teaching them it pays off to check in with you rather than looking around while walking will help keep our dogs close to us. Reward based training rooted in current science and kindness helps manage expectation for both guardian and pet dog. Hire a qualified reward based dog trainer or, canine behavior consultant to help you and your dog build a trusting and life long relationship. For more information please call 617-464-1005 or email vivian@dogbehaviorandconsulting.com . -Vivian
Before & After: Teaching puppy to walk with us!
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The "Zen Zone" .... Teach our dogs to relax using Dr. Overall's "Relaxation Protocol".
Rest and sleep are important to our mental and physical health. Have you ever tried to rest your mind? Perhaps even meditate? The great thing about meditation is that it is low cost and highly beneficial to our mental health! It can be done anywhere really. All you need to do is close your eyes and be still for longer and longer duration of time. Typically 15 minutes works. Its so good to practice. Think of it like a quick nap. For those of you who've tried, its tough isn't it? Meditation has been studied and clinically proven to help repair and "grow" or reconnect the brain. It helps heal the brain from the damaging assault of external stress including city living. We are constantly bombarded and affected emotionally by external stress some of which may be easily overlooked because we've habituated (become used to the stress). The constant hum of a bustling city with sounds of construction, frenetic movement from cars and people walking by coffee in hand talking in their phones, hissing buses riding past us, skateboards rolling by or impatient drivers pressing the gas pedal rather than letting you walk by. All of this causes stress and anxiety within us. What does this have to dog with our dogs? Well, stress affects our dogs in very much the same way. Stress affects our minds and bodies. The way we can combat stress is through meditation and relaxing exercises. Below is an exercise designed to help improve fear, anxiety and stress in dogs. I give this to all of my clients as home work no matter puppy, adolescent, adult or senior dog with out without behavior issues. All it takes is 10 minutes of your time. Read the hand out provided to you below and watch a the video for a sample of the pace. As always, call with questions 617-464-1005.
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I am working the relaxation protocol with multiple adolescent dogs above. View it to get a feel for the pace of the exercise. Important guidelines
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The style of teaching/training you use is an ethical decision.
Training for me is a method of negotiations. Some humans use force, fear and intimidation to train dogs (+P/-R in the 4 quadrant operant conditioning graph designed by Lilly Chin) and while pain may work quickly, in the short and long term it creates deep mistrust and only serves to hurt the human animal bond. In the training world we use the terms “Positive” Punishment has been thought of as a good punishment however it is not. While +P “Punishment” results in “decreasing a behavior” as for example the dog pulls and you pop the choke/prong collar you are adding pressure and pain. There are always TWO opposing BEHAVIORS going on at the same time -one is being reinforced and one is being punished. Positive Reinforcement works with Negative Punishment (+R + -P) and Positive Punishment works with Negative Reinforcement (+P + -R ). There are only 2 types of training/teach methods we all use and they include 1) force, fear, indimidation, pain or 2) rewards. While adding force and pain (+P, -R) seems to the lay person to work quickly interrupting behavior, it does nothing to change the behavior and furthermore doesn't teach the animal an alternative choice (that will satisfy the individual). Worse using +P or -R breaks the human-dog bond of trust because the animal becomes confused and fearful of its teacher or guardian. Instead the teacher/trainer using (-P, +R) teaches alternatives. Yes it takes longer and requires patience but the individual uses its brain energy to problem solve, learning based on personal motivations. More important the human-dog bond is not broken. The dog trusts its person and humans in general.
4 Quadrants of Operant Conditioning:
4 Quadrants of Operant Conditioning:
- Positive Reinforcement: +R = Adding anything good that your dog will work for. Good =Treats, praise, toys, smelling. Goal to increase a behavior.
- Negative Punishment: -P= Removing or Delaying the good things. Goal to decrease a behavior. A“Time Out” is a great example we use with dogs where we remove something motivating to them.
- Positive Punishment: +P = Here something bad is added as for example a shock, leash pops, pinch/prong jerk, yelling, squirt bottle. Goal to decrease a behavior.
- Negative Reinforcement: -R: = Delaying or escaping something bad (shock, leash pop, scolding etc) to increase a behavior. Like a “Warning”
Other Tips
Exercise Physical & Mental (includes Worksheet):
Dogs are a lot like children in that if you don’t give them something fun to do, they will make their own fun and often get in trouble. Give your dog plenty of physical and mental exercise, and you get a happier, healthier, better-behaved dog. Well-exercised dogs bark less, chew less, sleep more, and rest easier if left home alone. Starting out right: tools and information to consider before bringing home your new family member. Building Motivation: Motivation answers the question "what's in it for the dog". If you control what motivates your dog, you give them good reason to pay attention to you, and other wanted behaviors. It’s the equivalent of saying to your dog, “I’ll tell you what: If you sit, I’ll throw your ball, give you a treat or a hug” Nothing for Free: A training strategy employed by many trainers and originally designed by Dr. Sophia Yin. It uses everyday situations to reward good manners without setting aside hours of special practice time. Time Out: a useful technique used to teach a dog to stop doing something we don’t like, just like you would do with a child however with dogs, we would say "time out" and leave the room for 15 mississippi seconds then return. Here we are removing ourselves, something/one they enjoy being around. |
A few of my fav training websites
A few of my fav rescue groups and public training programs www.nedtc.org www.mspca.org www.arlboston.org |
Buyer Beware: dog training is an unregulated profession. Before deciding on a trainer get informed! Your dogs life and yours may depend on it.
Tellington TTouch™…for a change
Does your dog behave in ways you wish were different or have habits you wish you could change??
TTouch consists of light, non-invasive massage movements and guided walking exercises designed to enhance the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of your dog, cat or other companion animal. TTouch exercises improve an animal’s confidence, balance and focus, relieve stress and fear, and allow thinking before reacting, thus breaking the cycle of repetitive behavior patterns. Developed more than 30 years ago by internationally renowned equestrian trainer, Linda Tellington-Jones, this work complements massage therapy, veterinary care, training, and behavior modification while creating a deeper rapport between humans and animals through increased understanding and more effective communication. Tellington TTouch Method consists of light, non-invasive massage movements and guided walking exercises that are easy to learn and use. These movements effect the body’s nervous system, resulting in increased awareness and range of motion, tension and pain reduction, and a re-patterning of habitual ways of holding the body which can have a profound effect on behavior.
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Why we love Dr. Dunbar? ...puppies puppies puppies!!
DogStarDaily.com Veterinarian, animal behaviorist, and dog trainer, Dr. Ian Dunbar received his veterinary degree and a Special Honors degree in Physiology & Biochemistry from the Royal Veterinary College (London University) plus a doctorate in animal behavior from the Psychology Department at UC Berkeley, where he researched the development of social hierarchies and aggression in domestic dogs. He has authored numerous books and DVDs about puppy/dog behavior and training, including AFTER You Get Your Puppy, How To Teach A New Dog Old Tricks and the SIRIUS® Puppy Training video. In 1982, Dr. Dunbar designed and taught the world's very first off-leash puppy socialization and training classes -- SIRIUS® Puppy Training. Subsequently, he created and developed the San Francisco SPCA's Animal Behavior Department, the American Kennel Club's Gazette "Behavior" column, which he wrote for seven years, and the K9 GAMES®, which were first held in San Francisco in 1993 and continue as annual events in Japan and France. He hosted the popular UK television series Dogs With Dunbar for five seasons and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including the Today Show (US) and Dash Village (Japan). Additionally, Dr. Dunbar has consulted on a variety of movies -- full-length features, documentaries and animation (including Pixar's UP) and he has twice spoken at the prestigious eg Conference. Over the past 35 years, Dr. Dunbar has given over 1000 seminars and workshops around the world for dog trainers and veterinarians in an effort to popularize off-leash puppy socialization classes, temperament modification, and owner-friendly and dog-friendly dog training. After he founded the Association of Pet Dog Trainers in 1993, Dr. Dunbar was inducted into the Dog Fancy Hall of Fame along with four of his heroes, James Herriot, Konrad Lorenz, Lassie, and Balto. Currently, Dr. Dunbar is President of the Assciation of Pet Dog Trainers Foundation, Top Dog of the Center for Applied Animal Behavior and Vice President of www.dogstardaily.com -- a free online, multi-media puppy raising and dog training website. |