Canine Behaviour Foundation Course
Module 2 - Section - 2 - Adult Dogs - House Rules & Additional Theory
Module 2 - Section - 2 - Adult Dogs - House Rules & Additional Theory
1. Human/Canine Social Structure
2. Consistency
3. Extinction Burst
4. Spontaneous Recovery
5. House Rules
8. Fading
9. Exceptions to House Rules
2. Consistency
3. Extinction Burst
4. Spontaneous Recovery
5. House Rules
- Ignoring your dog on arriving home
- Attention on your terms or not at all
- Work to Earn – General
- Work to Earn - Specific
- NRM Non Reward Marker
- Furniture, Beds, Chairs
8. Fading
9. Exceptions to House Rules
1. Combined Human/Canine Social Structure
In a human/canine household it is imperative that the owner or ‘pack parent’ or 'head of the combined human/canine social structure' is the head of the social structure, in addition to every other member of the family. Dogs have an extremely well developed social system which results in order within the pack and leadership is of extreme importance. Therefore, the more their human family acts in a manner the dog understands, the calmer and better behaved the dog will tend to be - the dog will also be more likely to listen to it's human family as the dog knows who is in charge.
You may be thinking that there are so many examples of homes with dogs where this just seems unimportant - and you are correct! Many dogs and their owners get happily on with life and nobody gives diddly squat about hierarchy - however, it is when the relationships are not working - when behaviour problems are present - then we need to think differently.
In a dog pack, it is the leader/s who will determine where a pack will travel, playtime, when to rest and when to hunt. We, as humans, have at our fingertips all the resources a dogs requires - we determine where and when they eat, when they receive exercise, where they sleep, when they receive attention and how much, their access to different areas and even if or when they are allowed to mate. Many behavioural problems/concerns arise when the dog does not view the owner (and the rest of the family) as proper pack leaders. If we are not filling that position properly, then the dog will simply try to assume the position of head of the social structure itself often leading to behaviour problems and the owner not being listened too. It is not a case that there is a 'coup' and the dog is trying to take over - rather the position is not being correctly filled in the way a dog understands, so the dog tries to fill the vacant position.
Although our dogs have developed and changed enormously in appearance over the years, the dogs’ (Canis familiaris) ancient ancestor was the wolf (Canis lupus) and although there is still so much controversy over pack rules, there is one aspect that has to be recognized – somebody has to be in control and look after the welfare and well being of the pack, or as we refer to it now - the human/canine social structure when relating to both humans and dogs. We humans are not that much different – we have headmasters in schools, bosses at work, parents at home, and there has to be some sort of order involved otherwise chaos would ensue.
At the beginning of 2000 Scotty spent a year in Portugal. At that time she was studying Ethology in preparation for becoming a behaviourist on returning to SA. During this time she was asked to look after a sales office for apartments for a 3 month period. As very little was involved she could spend her spare time studying I readily agreed.
Well, what an education that turned out to be! The sales office was situation in a manner that all the new apartments were around it, but right in front of the office was a large area of open land, that had not yet been built on. She noticed that there were a large number of dogs that seemed to congregate in this area daily and this was not a random occurrence. As she observed, it became so obvious that within this casual pack of dogs, there was a definite hierarchy, even though it was a ‘casual’ pack, so to speak. There was the ‘main man’ or alpha dog who would tolerate no nonsense and spent most of the day just lying around and watching the others and interestingly enough, his favourite position was on top of a pile of old building sand where he could survey all and was higher up. All the dogs would defer to what he wanted to do and as they arrived throughout the day, they would approach him respectfully and only then go off and play and interact (ignoring dog when you come home and then being greeted with respect). The only dog that seemed undeterred by his attitude was a lovely little bitch, who she presumed was his mate or at least a member of the same family.
You could easily see the varied status of the dogs involved and Scotty says she learnt more about dog behaviour, calming and stress signals in that 3 month period than she did studying the books she was reading - the interactions were playing out right before her eyes! The majority of this casual pack appeared to have homes as most of them would start heading home just before 1.00p.m. which was the general lunch hour and when their people would be home for lunch. Many of them would again return in the afternoon just after 3.p.m. when their people went back to lunch. Some of them, such as the leader and his mate, were definitely feral/stray dogs of which there were a lot in the area she was staying in.
Is there a hierarchy among dogs? Most certainly yes, but not always in the way we imagine it to be. In a family situation with multiple dogs, it is seldom that there is a true pack leader as most people imagine. What happens is that one dog who is toy driven will be the so called ‘top dog’ or 'alpha' when it comes to toys, another that is food driven, will assume top dog when food is around, another may be more resourceful over it's human family, and when the people are around, it will become top dog. The general hierarchy is also never static – there are dogs entering their senior years, adolescents pushing for a higher position in the hierarchy. Adolescents are normally the dogs that are pushing their luck and perhaps being reactive to other members of the canine pack. There is the difference in hierarchy between males in the pack and the difference in hierarchy between females in the pack. It is moving and shifting all the time. Where the dogs in our families are concerned, there is seldom a true pack leader as you would find in nature with a pack of dogs – the times we have seen this it is more likely that there are at least four dogs and the gaps in ages is a lot more apparent, with the senior dogs often seeming to be the overall leaders – most of the dogs having been with the family for many years. Nowadays, it is more likely to find an average of two dogs per family, so the same sort of ‘pack’ situation does not occur.
The true Alpha in a pack is the dog that is the strongest, most intelligent and best fitted dog all round to lead the pack. The Alpha dog is not the dog that barks, fights (unless with a rival) and creates havoc – he is the dog that is calm, respected, looks after his pack, provides food, and ensures that his place is maintained by exhibiting these virtues. It is in the middle ranking of the pack that the ‘wannabees’ (I want to be the leader but have not learned how) are seen. These are the dogs that squabble among themselves, jump up, demand attention etc; they would never dare show this type of behaviour to the Alpha – it would simply not have been accepted. When one realizes what the alpha is meant to be like, we can see instantly the havoc that can be caused in our human/canine social structure when a dog endeavors to take over a position it considers to be vacant and this is often why behaviour problems occur.
Now in a family situation, every member of the family has to be higher in the combined social structure than the dog. There are several easy ways to achieve this and these need to be incorporated into your daily life. If the owner (and rest of the family) can get into the habit of acting as being the leaders in the social structure they will be creating a calm, consistent foundation which will result in a calm, happy and well behaved dog.
Where many owners make mistakes, is that they imagine that the wrong dog is the pack leader and this leads to confusion among the pack as the hierarchy that the dogs have among themselves is not being respected. Such simple examples of this are that the largest dog is presumed to be the pack leader – not true, often it is the smaller dogs, such as JR’s who will be more likely to be in charge. Other times owners will give the privilege of top dog to the male, when it is clear to somebody that knows dogs that the female is higher (on average this is always the case), and often owners will give the quietest most withdrawn member of the pack more attention, just because they feel sorry for it – this leads to problems within the pack. Other times they think that the dog that is showing reactive behaviour to other dogs is higher, when in actual fact we know that this dog is a ‘wannabee’, (I want to be in charge but have not yet figured out the correct manner to do so!)and by providing this dog with extra attention, they cause further problems. Then along comes a puppy, and because it is so cute, it gets more attention. See how easily problems can actually occur?
Our philosophy is that we should be the highest in the combined social order, then it is we that should determine who we give attention to first. On average it should be who we perceive to be the overall highest ranking member. That dog should be offered attention first, fed first, played with first, BUT, not all the time! As we are higher in the social structure, then it is up to us to decide who we award attention to first.
A great way to reinforce our own status is to perhaps offer attention two out of three times to the highest ranking member, and the third time to award to a lower member – mix it up a bit. That way we show that we recognize the canine hierarchy but at the same time reinforce our own status, by saying that as we are higher ranking, we can pretty much decide who we award attention too and who we don’t and how often etc.
One of the most important aspects of House Rules is that they are designed to be as similar as possible as dogs act between themselves, ‘tweaked’ of course to suit us humans as it would be rather difficult to ‘air snap’ or ‘growl’ at our dogs!
2. Consistency
"Definition - 'always acting or behaving in the same way"
We have mentioned before about being consistent as owners and I really cannot express how vital this is. It will make the difference as to whether or not the modifications are successful. As we talked about in the section on Fading, if we start to make use of Intermittent Reward schedules the dog will work harder as it never knows when the reward will be forthcoming. In exercises such as below, if the owner does reward the dog by awarding attention, giving in to demands etc, SOMETIMES, then they are inadvertently reinforcing the behaviour they don't want to continue - and not only continue, it will start to get worse!
Every single member of the household has to adhere to the rules, even visitors who come over. Not to do so is just totally confusing the dog and is like Mom says no, and Dad says yes, and the owner is setting themselves up for failure.
3. Extinction Bursts
Extinction bursts are the phenomena where behaviour that is being modified, such as the demanding behaviour described below, suddenly gets worse after getting better. It can be described in human terms a bit like a child throwing a tantrum. If an extinction burst does occur, then the owner to really concentrate on what the dog is doing well, and keep on ignoring the unacceptable behaviour and don’t try to teach anything new at all at this stage – a walk can help to reduce tension. What is actually occurring is that as the behaviour the dog was previously being reinforced for is no longer reinforced, the dog will increase the intensity and/or frequency of that behaviour in an attempt to get the attention the behaviour normally resulted in. Normally, the behaviour starts to improve again when the extinction burst is over.
An extinction burst normally happens a few days after the changes have come in, but this can vary as you will read in the section below. It rarely lasts more than a day, but I have known JR’s who have kept it up for up to a week! Additionally we have observed that when one adds in either TTouch or the Avalon Pure Sprays for Dogs, that extinction bursts are a lot less likely to occur and if they do, they are of a much lower intensity.
4. Spontaneous Recovery
Occasionally what does seem to occur with some dogs it that after the behaviour has been extinguished (has completely stopped), sometime later the behaviour will reappear again. There normally seems to be some sort of trigger associated with this and often this is an event that is seen as being stressful for the dog, such as an owner going away, a new addition to the family etc. Sometimes, depending on the dog, you can go through extinction and spontaneous recovery a few times until the behaviour seems to be completely extinguished. However, it can reoccur and if it does, the owner must just ignore the behaviour and try and become aware of what the trigger is that causes it, and change the circumstances connected with this. At the same time provide additional chew toys, increase the walking, more play time etc, to reduce the stress. We do suggest that this is mentioned in your reports.
One such case comes to mind where spontaneous recovery did occur. It was a grandmother that really had a Lab that was controlling her life. She did all the modifications and the demanding behaviour kept on coming back. In this case it was that the dog would suddenly lift a paw and really dig into her arm, scratching her badly and with thinner skin, being older, she bruised and bled easily. Speaking to her on the phone she could not for the life of her figure out what was causing it. I asked her to take special note as to what was happening in her environment when the behaviour occurred. She duly did and about two weeks later phoned me to say that the behaviour only ever happened when her grandchildren were visiting!
The manner in which we handled this was that the dog was taken for a walk before the kids came over and while they were there, the dog was allowed to interact with them as normal, but was given short bouts of Alone Time where he was allowed to get stuck into a large Femur bone which was kept and given only when the kids were there – problem solved. We also made sure that the owner was adhering to the Attention on Your Terms House Rule and not giving the dog too much attention. If there had been another person staying in the home, we would have had that person engaging more with the dog.
In a human/canine household it is imperative that the owner or ‘pack parent’ or 'head of the combined human/canine social structure' is the head of the social structure, in addition to every other member of the family. Dogs have an extremely well developed social system which results in order within the pack and leadership is of extreme importance. Therefore, the more their human family acts in a manner the dog understands, the calmer and better behaved the dog will tend to be - the dog will also be more likely to listen to it's human family as the dog knows who is in charge.
You may be thinking that there are so many examples of homes with dogs where this just seems unimportant - and you are correct! Many dogs and their owners get happily on with life and nobody gives diddly squat about hierarchy - however, it is when the relationships are not working - when behaviour problems are present - then we need to think differently.
In a dog pack, it is the leader/s who will determine where a pack will travel, playtime, when to rest and when to hunt. We, as humans, have at our fingertips all the resources a dogs requires - we determine where and when they eat, when they receive exercise, where they sleep, when they receive attention and how much, their access to different areas and even if or when they are allowed to mate. Many behavioural problems/concerns arise when the dog does not view the owner (and the rest of the family) as proper pack leaders. If we are not filling that position properly, then the dog will simply try to assume the position of head of the social structure itself often leading to behaviour problems and the owner not being listened too. It is not a case that there is a 'coup' and the dog is trying to take over - rather the position is not being correctly filled in the way a dog understands, so the dog tries to fill the vacant position.
Although our dogs have developed and changed enormously in appearance over the years, the dogs’ (Canis familiaris) ancient ancestor was the wolf (Canis lupus) and although there is still so much controversy over pack rules, there is one aspect that has to be recognized – somebody has to be in control and look after the welfare and well being of the pack, or as we refer to it now - the human/canine social structure when relating to both humans and dogs. We humans are not that much different – we have headmasters in schools, bosses at work, parents at home, and there has to be some sort of order involved otherwise chaos would ensue.
At the beginning of 2000 Scotty spent a year in Portugal. At that time she was studying Ethology in preparation for becoming a behaviourist on returning to SA. During this time she was asked to look after a sales office for apartments for a 3 month period. As very little was involved she could spend her spare time studying I readily agreed.
Well, what an education that turned out to be! The sales office was situation in a manner that all the new apartments were around it, but right in front of the office was a large area of open land, that had not yet been built on. She noticed that there were a large number of dogs that seemed to congregate in this area daily and this was not a random occurrence. As she observed, it became so obvious that within this casual pack of dogs, there was a definite hierarchy, even though it was a ‘casual’ pack, so to speak. There was the ‘main man’ or alpha dog who would tolerate no nonsense and spent most of the day just lying around and watching the others and interestingly enough, his favourite position was on top of a pile of old building sand where he could survey all and was higher up. All the dogs would defer to what he wanted to do and as they arrived throughout the day, they would approach him respectfully and only then go off and play and interact (ignoring dog when you come home and then being greeted with respect). The only dog that seemed undeterred by his attitude was a lovely little bitch, who she presumed was his mate or at least a member of the same family.
You could easily see the varied status of the dogs involved and Scotty says she learnt more about dog behaviour, calming and stress signals in that 3 month period than she did studying the books she was reading - the interactions were playing out right before her eyes! The majority of this casual pack appeared to have homes as most of them would start heading home just before 1.00p.m. which was the general lunch hour and when their people would be home for lunch. Many of them would again return in the afternoon just after 3.p.m. when their people went back to lunch. Some of them, such as the leader and his mate, were definitely feral/stray dogs of which there were a lot in the area she was staying in.
Is there a hierarchy among dogs? Most certainly yes, but not always in the way we imagine it to be. In a family situation with multiple dogs, it is seldom that there is a true pack leader as most people imagine. What happens is that one dog who is toy driven will be the so called ‘top dog’ or 'alpha' when it comes to toys, another that is food driven, will assume top dog when food is around, another may be more resourceful over it's human family, and when the people are around, it will become top dog. The general hierarchy is also never static – there are dogs entering their senior years, adolescents pushing for a higher position in the hierarchy. Adolescents are normally the dogs that are pushing their luck and perhaps being reactive to other members of the canine pack. There is the difference in hierarchy between males in the pack and the difference in hierarchy between females in the pack. It is moving and shifting all the time. Where the dogs in our families are concerned, there is seldom a true pack leader as you would find in nature with a pack of dogs – the times we have seen this it is more likely that there are at least four dogs and the gaps in ages is a lot more apparent, with the senior dogs often seeming to be the overall leaders – most of the dogs having been with the family for many years. Nowadays, it is more likely to find an average of two dogs per family, so the same sort of ‘pack’ situation does not occur.
The true Alpha in a pack is the dog that is the strongest, most intelligent and best fitted dog all round to lead the pack. The Alpha dog is not the dog that barks, fights (unless with a rival) and creates havoc – he is the dog that is calm, respected, looks after his pack, provides food, and ensures that his place is maintained by exhibiting these virtues. It is in the middle ranking of the pack that the ‘wannabees’ (I want to be the leader but have not learned how) are seen. These are the dogs that squabble among themselves, jump up, demand attention etc; they would never dare show this type of behaviour to the Alpha – it would simply not have been accepted. When one realizes what the alpha is meant to be like, we can see instantly the havoc that can be caused in our human/canine social structure when a dog endeavors to take over a position it considers to be vacant and this is often why behaviour problems occur.
Now in a family situation, every member of the family has to be higher in the combined social structure than the dog. There are several easy ways to achieve this and these need to be incorporated into your daily life. If the owner (and rest of the family) can get into the habit of acting as being the leaders in the social structure they will be creating a calm, consistent foundation which will result in a calm, happy and well behaved dog.
Where many owners make mistakes, is that they imagine that the wrong dog is the pack leader and this leads to confusion among the pack as the hierarchy that the dogs have among themselves is not being respected. Such simple examples of this are that the largest dog is presumed to be the pack leader – not true, often it is the smaller dogs, such as JR’s who will be more likely to be in charge. Other times owners will give the privilege of top dog to the male, when it is clear to somebody that knows dogs that the female is higher (on average this is always the case), and often owners will give the quietest most withdrawn member of the pack more attention, just because they feel sorry for it – this leads to problems within the pack. Other times they think that the dog that is showing reactive behaviour to other dogs is higher, when in actual fact we know that this dog is a ‘wannabee’, (I want to be in charge but have not yet figured out the correct manner to do so!)and by providing this dog with extra attention, they cause further problems. Then along comes a puppy, and because it is so cute, it gets more attention. See how easily problems can actually occur?
Our philosophy is that we should be the highest in the combined social order, then it is we that should determine who we give attention to first. On average it should be who we perceive to be the overall highest ranking member. That dog should be offered attention first, fed first, played with first, BUT, not all the time! As we are higher in the social structure, then it is up to us to decide who we award attention to first.
A great way to reinforce our own status is to perhaps offer attention two out of three times to the highest ranking member, and the third time to award to a lower member – mix it up a bit. That way we show that we recognize the canine hierarchy but at the same time reinforce our own status, by saying that as we are higher ranking, we can pretty much decide who we award attention too and who we don’t and how often etc.
One of the most important aspects of House Rules is that they are designed to be as similar as possible as dogs act between themselves, ‘tweaked’ of course to suit us humans as it would be rather difficult to ‘air snap’ or ‘growl’ at our dogs!
2. Consistency
"Definition - 'always acting or behaving in the same way"
We have mentioned before about being consistent as owners and I really cannot express how vital this is. It will make the difference as to whether or not the modifications are successful. As we talked about in the section on Fading, if we start to make use of Intermittent Reward schedules the dog will work harder as it never knows when the reward will be forthcoming. In exercises such as below, if the owner does reward the dog by awarding attention, giving in to demands etc, SOMETIMES, then they are inadvertently reinforcing the behaviour they don't want to continue - and not only continue, it will start to get worse!
Every single member of the household has to adhere to the rules, even visitors who come over. Not to do so is just totally confusing the dog and is like Mom says no, and Dad says yes, and the owner is setting themselves up for failure.
3. Extinction Bursts
Extinction bursts are the phenomena where behaviour that is being modified, such as the demanding behaviour described below, suddenly gets worse after getting better. It can be described in human terms a bit like a child throwing a tantrum. If an extinction burst does occur, then the owner to really concentrate on what the dog is doing well, and keep on ignoring the unacceptable behaviour and don’t try to teach anything new at all at this stage – a walk can help to reduce tension. What is actually occurring is that as the behaviour the dog was previously being reinforced for is no longer reinforced, the dog will increase the intensity and/or frequency of that behaviour in an attempt to get the attention the behaviour normally resulted in. Normally, the behaviour starts to improve again when the extinction burst is over.
An extinction burst normally happens a few days after the changes have come in, but this can vary as you will read in the section below. It rarely lasts more than a day, but I have known JR’s who have kept it up for up to a week! Additionally we have observed that when one adds in either TTouch or the Avalon Pure Sprays for Dogs, that extinction bursts are a lot less likely to occur and if they do, they are of a much lower intensity.
4. Spontaneous Recovery
Occasionally what does seem to occur with some dogs it that after the behaviour has been extinguished (has completely stopped), sometime later the behaviour will reappear again. There normally seems to be some sort of trigger associated with this and often this is an event that is seen as being stressful for the dog, such as an owner going away, a new addition to the family etc. Sometimes, depending on the dog, you can go through extinction and spontaneous recovery a few times until the behaviour seems to be completely extinguished. However, it can reoccur and if it does, the owner must just ignore the behaviour and try and become aware of what the trigger is that causes it, and change the circumstances connected with this. At the same time provide additional chew toys, increase the walking, more play time etc, to reduce the stress. We do suggest that this is mentioned in your reports.
One such case comes to mind where spontaneous recovery did occur. It was a grandmother that really had a Lab that was controlling her life. She did all the modifications and the demanding behaviour kept on coming back. In this case it was that the dog would suddenly lift a paw and really dig into her arm, scratching her badly and with thinner skin, being older, she bruised and bled easily. Speaking to her on the phone she could not for the life of her figure out what was causing it. I asked her to take special note as to what was happening in her environment when the behaviour occurred. She duly did and about two weeks later phoned me to say that the behaviour only ever happened when her grandchildren were visiting!
The manner in which we handled this was that the dog was taken for a walk before the kids came over and while they were there, the dog was allowed to interact with them as normal, but was given short bouts of Alone Time where he was allowed to get stuck into a large Femur bone which was kept and given only when the kids were there – problem solved. We also made sure that the owner was adhering to the Attention on Your Terms House Rule and not giving the dog too much attention. If there had been another person staying in the home, we would have had that person engaging more with the dog.
5. House Rules
You have already had some of the basic House Rules for pups and here they are again, in their entirety for adolescent and adult dogs, with some additions and variations and at the end of this section we bring in some common exceptions to House Rules. We really do believe that House Rules are the a,b,c of behaviour and for this reason we are covering them here again in a bit more depth.
Many behaviourists go in to modify a particular problem, jumping up, lead pulling etc, and will only concentrate on the problem being presented. However, over the years we have constantly observed that if only one section of the behaviour is worked on, the end result is not as good as when the whole interaction between dog and owner is addressed and in actual fact the modifications often fail. This is normally because there is a basic breakdown in the relationship and the dog does not see the owner as being the automatic person in charge. Look at this from the point of a dog with fear for example - the owner asks the dog to interact with people and the dog is fearful of people - is there going to be a better result if the dog trusts the owner and sees the owner as higher in the combined human/canine hierarchy? Of course there will be a better result and this is what we find that the House Rules achieve - they are the foundation for changing behaviour. As in building a house, if the foundations are not well built, left to dry, the end result will be cracks in the house - and much the same can be said for behaviour.
The House Rules are based on how dogs live and interact between themselves in a way that we humans can work with and they automatically result in raising the owner in the combined human/canine social structure in a manner that the dog understands. We have seen over and over that even half an hour into a consult, by bringing in the basic House Rules as you first interact with dogs and clients, an improvement in behaviour is normally seen. Interestingly more often than not the dogs in the family will be drawn to be with you and try to follow you if you leave the room and stay close to you - even dogs that are normally nervous about people - this is simply that you are acting in a manner a dog understands. Additionally as you are showing the owner the House Rules you may find a lot of Calming Signals being exhibited by the dogs - point these out to the owner and comment on why they are happening - changes are being brought in and the dogs are reassuring themselves.
On average, we will bring in House Rules (or parts thereof) at each and every behaviour consult. There are exceptions - depending on the behaviour being exhibited on ocassion only some of the House Rules would initially be brought in and we had added on a section at the end to cover these.
The incorporation of House Rules is not always done at all Puppy Schools or even Obedience Schools , more the pity, and in actual fact there are many behaviourists that do not bring them into play at all. Personally we believe that this should be the very first thing that new owners are taught. Can you imagine – putting down the dos and don’ts from day one – this will result in a dog that knows exactly what it can and cannot do – instant communication and understanding – the result of which will be a better behaved and much happier dog with a good bond and relationship with the members of the family, and a dog less likely to develop behaviour concerns.
You have already had some of the basic House Rules for pups and here they are again, in their entirety for adolescent and adult dogs, with some additions and variations and at the end of this section we bring in some common exceptions to House Rules. We really do believe that House Rules are the a,b,c of behaviour and for this reason we are covering them here again in a bit more depth.
Many behaviourists go in to modify a particular problem, jumping up, lead pulling etc, and will only concentrate on the problem being presented. However, over the years we have constantly observed that if only one section of the behaviour is worked on, the end result is not as good as when the whole interaction between dog and owner is addressed and in actual fact the modifications often fail. This is normally because there is a basic breakdown in the relationship and the dog does not see the owner as being the automatic person in charge. Look at this from the point of a dog with fear for example - the owner asks the dog to interact with people and the dog is fearful of people - is there going to be a better result if the dog trusts the owner and sees the owner as higher in the combined human/canine hierarchy? Of course there will be a better result and this is what we find that the House Rules achieve - they are the foundation for changing behaviour. As in building a house, if the foundations are not well built, left to dry, the end result will be cracks in the house - and much the same can be said for behaviour.
The House Rules are based on how dogs live and interact between themselves in a way that we humans can work with and they automatically result in raising the owner in the combined human/canine social structure in a manner that the dog understands. We have seen over and over that even half an hour into a consult, by bringing in the basic House Rules as you first interact with dogs and clients, an improvement in behaviour is normally seen. Interestingly more often than not the dogs in the family will be drawn to be with you and try to follow you if you leave the room and stay close to you - even dogs that are normally nervous about people - this is simply that you are acting in a manner a dog understands. Additionally as you are showing the owner the House Rules you may find a lot of Calming Signals being exhibited by the dogs - point these out to the owner and comment on why they are happening - changes are being brought in and the dogs are reassuring themselves.
On average, we will bring in House Rules (or parts thereof) at each and every behaviour consult. There are exceptions - depending on the behaviour being exhibited on ocassion only some of the House Rules would initially be brought in and we had added on a section at the end to cover these.
The incorporation of House Rules is not always done at all Puppy Schools or even Obedience Schools , more the pity, and in actual fact there are many behaviourists that do not bring them into play at all. Personally we believe that this should be the very first thing that new owners are taught. Can you imagine – putting down the dos and don’ts from day one – this will result in a dog that knows exactly what it can and cannot do – instant communication and understanding – the result of which will be a better behaved and much happier dog with a good bond and relationship with the members of the family, and a dog less likely to develop behaviour concerns.
A summary of the basic House Rules
- Ignoring your dog when arriving home
- Attention on your terms or not at all
- Work to Earn – Daily Practice
- Work to Earn – Specific
- NRM - Non Reward Marker
Wait for dogs to be calm and quiet before entering further
Ignoring your dog when you arrive home.
What is crucial is that this exercise is performed when the owner first comes into contact with the dog.
Often lateral thinking is required as owners have different ways of coming into the house and it will depend where the dogs are as to how you continue– some come in through the main door, some through a security gate, others the garage etc. Just apply the basics logically to whichever situation you have.
Note - If a dog runs out the gate when the owner opens it (which is often the case) a slightly different approach is needed. In this case if possible, the housekeeper would put the dogs away and the owner practices the new greeting exercise in a different location. If this was not possible, I would get owner to stop the car outside the gate, get out, do the ignoring here until dogs settle, then walk through the gate, repeating the exercise and then put the dogs in a safe area before driving in. We have found, over and over again, that if you get a dog engaged in doing something different to what it normally does – simply asking for a sit when walking through the gate – that this dramatically change the dogs behaviour and it seems to forget what its normal behaviour is when owner comes home – it keeps the dog engaged and remember you can never teach a dog to do nothing – rather bring in a completely alternative behaviour to what was being originally exhibited.
I would obliviously start the work on a good ‘wait’ and also the dogs going to ‘place’ when the gate opens. These are dealt with separately and are not part of the Ignoring your dog when arriving home program.
a. Entering directly into the house - the exercise must happen the second owner comes into contact with the dog.
This exercise to be carried out in silence until the dog has a total understanding of what you expect – I normally tell clients to do for about a week period. Thereafter, the use of the NRM can be used, if need be – personally I find that it is much better to keep the silent greeting procedure in place.
A dog would not bound up to the leader of the pack and jump all over him and demand attention, so why should your dog do this to you? Granted pups do have a certain time of ‘puppy license’ where the behaviour may be allowed but this is not behaviour that would be tolerated in the long term. After the puppy licence was up, the pup would be reprimanded by way of the older dog looking away, a snarl, a growl or snapping (seldom ever making contact).
If we relate this situation to human terms, would you allow your child to come up to you and say “I want it, give it to me now” – I hope not! – You would probably say something along the lines of “when you can ask me in the correct manner and say please, we will see what can be done’ or similar. We teach our children to be well behaved, well-mannered members of society, so why then do we not teach our dogs the same thing? Simple, we just haven’t thought about it that way and you did not have the skill to ‘speak dog’.
By walking into the house and totally ignoring the dog you are giving the message that you are in charge – attention is given on your terms, or not at all. On the same line, if the dog is jumping up and acting like a hooligan, you do not interact until they are calm. Interestinglywe find that this exercise is the hardest one for owners to adhere too and it is one of the most important one’s – if you do not carry this through correctly, you are immediately limiting your chances of success. The importance of human/canine interaction is to be consistent, otherwise you are reinforcing the behaviours you don’t want and totally confusing the dog.
The most important aspect of this exercise is that as you first come into contact with your dog as we had said before – stop and do not walk any further until this exercise has been completed. You don’t walk around the home ignoring – you stand perfectly still the second you make contact - repeated again as such an important aspect.
As you walk in and meet your dog, stand still, ignore your dog, do not look at it or speak to it, and if necessary utilize your own body language to get the message across – turn your head away and even fold your arms which shows that you do not want your own personal space violated. Critical space is very important to dogs. Your dog may initially think you have gone mad and the behaviour will worsen (a bit like a child throwing a tantrum) and it will try to jump up more or demand attention. Simply push the dog gently off you remembering not to look at (this signals either aggression or that we want something from the dog) or talk to it. After a time the dog will settle down, walk away or find something else to do. Allow it this time out to digest the change in circumstances for about 5 to 15 seconds, then in a happy cheerful voice, call the dog to you, and ask for a sit, praise quietly (we dont want the dog to start getting excited again) and offer a treat. It is impossible to tell a dog to do nothing, what we are doing instead, is showing the dog what behaviour we do expect i.e. sitting quietly and waiting to be greeted.
I do recommend that when teaching this new behaviour that praise and a treat is forthcoming when the dog does sit quietly– this will just reinforce the new behaviour as well as make it rewarding for the dog to perform this new behaviour. When teaching a new behaviour you should reward on a continuous schedule – 100% - once the dog has a firm understanding you can start to fade the reward.
In the case whereby the dog initially calms and then starts to bounce around again as soon as the greeting is over - request the client to take a step away from the dog - call it, request a sit, praise quietly and reward with a treat. This can be repeated a few times gradually moving further away from the door and is normally very successful.
Once the dog is quiet and calm, the owner can move to another area (so that the door is not associated with excitable behaviour) and give the dog all the love they want to. We do suggest that if the dog is a jumper, that the owner rather goes down to the dog to greet it and give further attention.
b. Entering via the garden gate or if dogs outside.
What do you do in the situation that the dogs are not inside the house when you arrive? They could initially meet you via the security gate or are in the back garden on the other side of a glass sliding door. In circumstances such as these you add in an additional step and then once the owner is with the dog the procedure is identical to above.
In the situation whereby an owner may arrive home and the dogs are behind a solid door but are barking, whining, scratching on the door a slight variation is required. Firstly to protect the door (owner may be stressing about the door being damaged and as such may not follow through correctly with the exercise) the owner uses some masking tape to cover the inside of the door with cardboard to the height of where a dog standing on its back legs would reach.
Owner then stands outside the door with hand on the door knob - reason for this is that initially when the scratching, barking stops it may only stop for a second, so the owner needs to be ready to quickly go through the door. This will improve as the dog understands the new procedure. The second the dog/s are quiet owner quickly goes through the door and then starts the rest of the exercise as above.
c. Arriving home in a car and stopping outside the gate.
Personally I would teach the dogs to go to their place, as in the Gate Enclosure in the Puppy Section which is the best way to dog it, then the exercise starts from outside the driveway gate. Normally what would happen is that the dogs go nuts when the car arrives. This time, your client does not get out the car until the dogs are quiet.
Next step is owner stands at the gate and repeat the exercises as above.
No matter what the circumstances are when coming home, the same principle as above applies, they will just be adding in additional steps.
d. When Visitors Arrive
If at all possible do not have visitors over until the family themselves have perfected this exercise by themselves and with members of the family first, but it is not always possible to achieve this. Depending on how bad the jumping up, going mad is, I would either ask the owner to just get visitors to repeat the ignoring exercise or if very bad, I would ask owner to have the dog on lead and then repeat it. The visitor does not take one more step into the home until the dog is fully under control. A few sit exercises can be done with the dog to help control the behaviour and calm the dog and have the owner in control, if need be.
Summary
Not all dogs demand our attention, some are much more laid back than others and if they do demand attention, it is not on a regular basis. However, as the owner is in charge of the combined human/canine social structure, it is vital that attention is given on the owners terms or not at all.
Pups, on average are not too bad unless the owner inadvertently encourages the behaviour, it is when the adolescent stage is reached that the demanding behaviour seems to rear its ugly head the most, and if it is not dealt with, the situation will just get worse. Very often owners are not even aware of how often their dog does demand attention, so mention the various ways that this can happen i.e. whining, barking to go outside, bringing a ball and putting on lap, standing in front of owner with happy eyes and a wagging tail looking at owner expectantly, sitting on owners feet, leaning on owner – and of course the more obvious such as the jumping up – be specific – mention things in your report that the dog does rather than just generalizing.
In a dog pack, demanding attention from the pack leaders, and indeed, any dog higher in the pack, would simply not be tolerated. If a higher ranking member wanted to play or interact, it would be that particular dog that would initiate the interaction.
Dogs demand attention from us in various ways and here are some ideas:-
Dogs that demand attention seem to:-
One of the best exhibitions seen of demanding attention was a Boerboel that really had extremes of behaviour. While owners and I were sitting in the lounge practicing the ignoring the demanding attention behaviour, the dog was getting more and more frustrated by being ignored. After about a half hour of all his attempts for attention being ignored, he suddenly dashed out of the lounge, went into the bathroom, grabbed the cat litter box, and with cat litter falling all over the place – put it down in front of the owner and proceeded to eat what was inside! It was all I could do to stop falling off the chair in laughter! What did we do – we continued to ignore the dog and he eventually went and lay on the far side of the wall as if in a huff. This was a very immediate ‘Extinction Burst and the dog repeated this twice more before it extinguished.
What do we do about demanding behaviour? We totally ignore it! It is important, as in the Ignoring Behaviour above, to let our bodies do the talking to show we will not accept this behaviour. No eye contact, no talking, make your body stiff, fold your arms, turn away, absolutely no talking, if dog persists etc. Initially when this exercise is done by your client, it is done in absolute silence for about a two week period or until the dog has stopped – thereafter, the NRM can be brought in if need be. Here are some examples:-
What this will result in:-
This does not mean that owners cannot give dogs any attention – of course they can – BUT – on their terms, not the dogs. The next very important step is that after the dog has given up and moved away, wait about 10 seconds and then call the dog back and give all the attention you want to. The reason for the 10 second gap is so that the dog figures out what behaviour works and what does not. Once the dog fully understands what is working and what is not, the time period before giving attention can be extended.
In the period above it is a good to vary the time period before attention is given for a week or two. Start off with a short period so that the dog associates the negative punishment it is receiving and then build it up accordingly remembering to stagger and shorten the period on a regular basis. Dogs figure out very quickly what works and then no need to stagger the time period.
Summary
As we all have to ‘work for our living’ so too does the dog from now on. If we relate this to pack behaviour, every single dog has a job/s jobs to perform – looking after the pups, guarding the pack, cleaning the den (faeces), hunting for food etc. So if you look at it that way, why not have your dog working for its living?
We then look at the various breeds and what they were bred for and if you think about it, nearly all dogs have some sort of work to do in this respect as well. The more you take control of all the resources, the more your dog will view you, and the rest of the family, as the pack leaders and will be more likely to relax knowing you are in charge and not try to take charge itself. The beauty of this simple system, is that is helps timid or fearful dogs to relax and realize there is nothing to worry about, the owner is in change, and at the same time, the dog that is trying to push it luck, finds out that the position of top dog is no longer available, it has been assumed by a caring and benevolent owner, so it no longer has to try and achieve this position - the end result of this will be that the dog will relax and behaviour concerns will start to diminish and the dog will be more attentive.
A point to bear in mind here especially with dogs that were very demanding dogs that are clever – from time to time they will keep on trying to push the boundaries to see what they can get away with – mention this to your clients and remind them to be consistent.
Bringing in the Work to Earn system will result in good behaviour and less likelihood of bad habits developing.
With our 10 fingers we supply all our dog’s needs – food, walks, play, petting, exercise etc and this together with our voices gives us excellent tools with which to work to control our dogs. At the risk of repeating myself for about the 3rd time, it is always important to be consistent when working with dogs.
From now on the dog gets absolutely nothing for free! Some examples and we suggest the use of the Sit exercise in general-
Work to earn – Specific
Only brought in if needed.
Wherever possible and especially if behaviour is extreme, we suggest using the dogs daily rations of food and over the period of a day/evening/morning, get the dog to engage in the different behaviours being worked on by asking for the particular behaviour, offering praise and one piece of kibble. If the dog is resource guarding the owner, or where dog is over dependent on one member of the family – then other members of the family would be asked to do this work and not the owner initially.
In the circumstances where owner does to work during the day, even if they only achieve 10 mins a day during the week it will help, and then they can take charge of the full resources during the weekend. We suggest that owners look at this initial period of bringing in the House Rules as 'dog work' and do as much as possible and adjust their schedules to bring in the changes if at all possible.
Some examples of where the daily ration of food could be used to improve or change behaviour:-
Remember to give your clients the Fading exercise for when the above is in place and that on occasion to reward to keep the behaviour in place.
We have already covered the NRM, but because it is such an important part of creating a language of understanding with dogs, here it is again.
By bringing in the NRM and RM as part of your daily training and interaction with your dog you will be able to immediately define what behaviour you do and do not accept - this will result in greatly improved communication with your dog and no need to use any physical punishment at all.
If our dog is engaged in an unacceptable behaviour such as about to jump on the table, the owner would immediately say UHUH! indicating to the dog that the behaviour was unacceptable while the dog was engaged in the unacceptable behaviour – followed immediately by ‘good dog’ in a totally non-committal tone of voice the second the dog stops the behaviour even by just putting its feet back down on the floor again.
We are then indicating to the dog what behaviour we don’t like as well as the behaviour we do like – in other words we are opening up excellent lines of communication and our dogs know exactly what is acceptable and what is not. If this method is used in your daily interactions with your dog, it always knows where it stands and in a way you are forming your own language between the two of you – this makes for a well behaved dogs who understands exactly what you want.
Why don’t we use the word ‘No’?
Very often, a dog has heard the word ‘no’ so many times that it becomes white noise and the cue is totally ignored and this is why we prefer the use of a word that is not used in our daily conversation such as ‘uhuh’, poofy etc. It does not matter what word you use as long as it is not part of your daily conversation.
What is crucial is that from now on every member of the family will use this word to indicate to the dog what is not wanted and you must be 100% consistent and use each and every time the dog is engaged in an unacceptable behaviour. Additionally, we as humans tend to use sentences involving the word No or UHUH, such as ‘UHUH, I told you not to jump on the bed’, from now it is just “UHUH!” – Less is often more where dogs are concerned.
Timing and Intensity.
What is crucial is that the NRM is used while the dog is engaged in the unacceptable behaviour – even a second after the behaviour has happened is too late.
It is always better to talk to a dog in a soft voice and use the loud voice for when the dog has really misbehaved, however, when you initially start using the NRM you want to go for maximum effect, so for the first few times we would suggest using a hard harsh tone of voice such as UHUH! with your face looking angry and stern . If you go in far too soft to start with, all that will happen is that you will have to start increasing the intensity as the odds are that your dog will not listen to a gentle Uhuh and will not stop the behaviour.
Having said that, if you do have a dog that does not like loud noises or raised voices, then of course you will adjust to suit your dog’s individual needs. We currently have a rescue that has been abused and my NRM is the ‘look’ combined with a very soft, but firm Uhuh – if I did more she would have run away in fear.
You will find that once the dog has understood after having done this a few times, that you will be able to moderate both the tone and volume of using the NRM. In time, you will find that you can just give the ‘look’ that the NRM itself is not always necessary, always remembering to bring in the RM of course!
Reward Marker
This is a crucial part of the exercise and cannot ever be left out – you have indicated to your dog what you don’t want, this is where you let it know what you do want . It is impossible to tell a dog to do nothing – you have to either teach a totally different and alternative behaviour such as teaching a dog that jumps up to sit in front of people, or, you have to indicate to the dog the behaviour you prefer – such as feet on the floor – and by saying ‘good dog’ you are telling the dog what you prefer.
What is also important here is the manner in which the RM is said – it is a casual ‘good dog’ – a bit like you pass somebody a glass of water and they say ‘thank you’. There is no need for a treat or going overboard with praise or even touching the dog. If we did either of these three things our dogs may very well engage in the unacceptable behaviour, just to get the praise/reward!
What is also critical is the Timing – the second the dog stops the unacceptable behaviour.
We have been using this system for years and have yet to find a situation where bringing it in did not result in an improvement in behaviour and increased understanding between owner and dog.
e.g.
Dog starts to put its feet on the table
UHUH!
Dog puts feet on floor (we are not waiting for a Sit, just the feet not being on the table any longer)
Good Dog (non committal)
6. Additions to House Rules
The above are the basic House Rules, however depending on your circumstances and the behaviour concern, other exercises can be added in to complement the basics. Some examples are as below.
Furniture
This is another of the House Rules that can be brought in – it will depend on the circumstances and if it is needed.
When it comes to whether or not a dog is allowed on furniture and beds, it is very much one of personal choice. For example, my own dogs are allowed on the couches and bed, but only by invitation! From time to time I will remind the dogs that I am in charge by allowing them to quietly go up by themselves, then telling them ‘off’. I will receive the ‘look’ but the dog will comply. After a few minutes I will invite the dog to go back up. Remember dogs are natural resource guarders, they have to be – by laying claim as above to my own resources, such as the chair, I am gently reminding the dog that it is mine and this is a lovely subtle way to reinforce this.
If you have a situation whereby you have a multi dog household and there is reactive behaviour between them, then I would recommend that dogs sleep on the floor, as this is an area whereby reactive behaviour can happen. When one dog is higher up than the other, it may well be reactive to the dog approaching it, plus the element of resource guarding can come about.
The one area that really causes me concern is when there are young children in the family, or visiting. If a dog is on a couch and a toddler approaches, its face may well be on the same level as the dog on the couch and a bite can occur. Up to your client, however, in the case of reactive behaviour I would insist that the dog gets off furniture completely.
The bed is another story altogether, and many owners are not happy about the idea of the dog not sleeping on the bed. In the case of reactive behaviour, it really is a necessity. However, owners have to do what works for them.
If there is no reactive behaviour or resource guarding of the bed, then I have no objection to the dog sleeping there. What I do suggest however, to raise the client more in the combined human/canine hierarchy, is that the dog is only allowed on the bed by invitation.
7. Ignoring Owner
What is a very common scenario, which tends to happen more with adolescent and adult dogs than with pups who just want to please - is that they will do the behaviour once or twice in a row and then totally ignore the owner. This is very typical of the dog that is given far too much attention from owner. Examine the interaction between dog and owner and you may find that the dog comes up to owner and owner is continually touching, stroking, loving the dog and they are not even aware they are doing it – many of us fall into this trap just because we love our dogs so very much! Let’s think about this from the dog’s point of view – why should they work for any attention when it is always freely available?
What you can do here is the following:-
You already have all your notes on Fading and it really is crucial to do this – the last thing anybody wants is a dog that will only work for food.
Here are some other reasons for fading food:
Where trying harder is concerned, if we offer rewards on an intermittent basis or stop giving them at all for a short period of time, this often results in a burst of effort from the dog as it tries to get the rewards to start again and be plentiful! So what we need to do is to be more selective in giving rewards, and only give for a better sit or down for example, or a straight sit for example – we can develop any areas of behaviour we want to. You are not going to explain all this to your client, this is just for you to gain a deeper understanding as to what Fading can achieve. Those of you doing clicker will already have a good comprehensive of this from putting together behaviour chains.
What is crucial is that this exercise is performed when the owner first comes into contact with the dog.
Often lateral thinking is required as owners have different ways of coming into the house and it will depend where the dogs are as to how you continue– some come in through the main door, some through a security gate, others the garage etc. Just apply the basics logically to whichever situation you have.
Note - If a dog runs out the gate when the owner opens it (which is often the case) a slightly different approach is needed. In this case if possible, the housekeeper would put the dogs away and the owner practices the new greeting exercise in a different location. If this was not possible, I would get owner to stop the car outside the gate, get out, do the ignoring here until dogs settle, then walk through the gate, repeating the exercise and then put the dogs in a safe area before driving in. We have found, over and over again, that if you get a dog engaged in doing something different to what it normally does – simply asking for a sit when walking through the gate – that this dramatically change the dogs behaviour and it seems to forget what its normal behaviour is when owner comes home – it keeps the dog engaged and remember you can never teach a dog to do nothing – rather bring in a completely alternative behaviour to what was being originally exhibited.
I would obliviously start the work on a good ‘wait’ and also the dogs going to ‘place’ when the gate opens. These are dealt with separately and are not part of the Ignoring your dog when arriving home program.
a. Entering directly into the house - the exercise must happen the second owner comes into contact with the dog.
This exercise to be carried out in silence until the dog has a total understanding of what you expect – I normally tell clients to do for about a week period. Thereafter, the use of the NRM can be used, if need be – personally I find that it is much better to keep the silent greeting procedure in place.
A dog would not bound up to the leader of the pack and jump all over him and demand attention, so why should your dog do this to you? Granted pups do have a certain time of ‘puppy license’ where the behaviour may be allowed but this is not behaviour that would be tolerated in the long term. After the puppy licence was up, the pup would be reprimanded by way of the older dog looking away, a snarl, a growl or snapping (seldom ever making contact).
If we relate this situation to human terms, would you allow your child to come up to you and say “I want it, give it to me now” – I hope not! – You would probably say something along the lines of “when you can ask me in the correct manner and say please, we will see what can be done’ or similar. We teach our children to be well behaved, well-mannered members of society, so why then do we not teach our dogs the same thing? Simple, we just haven’t thought about it that way and you did not have the skill to ‘speak dog’.
By walking into the house and totally ignoring the dog you are giving the message that you are in charge – attention is given on your terms, or not at all. On the same line, if the dog is jumping up and acting like a hooligan, you do not interact until they are calm. Interestinglywe find that this exercise is the hardest one for owners to adhere too and it is one of the most important one’s – if you do not carry this through correctly, you are immediately limiting your chances of success. The importance of human/canine interaction is to be consistent, otherwise you are reinforcing the behaviours you don’t want and totally confusing the dog.
The most important aspect of this exercise is that as you first come into contact with your dog as we had said before – stop and do not walk any further until this exercise has been completed. You don’t walk around the home ignoring – you stand perfectly still the second you make contact - repeated again as such an important aspect.
As you walk in and meet your dog, stand still, ignore your dog, do not look at it or speak to it, and if necessary utilize your own body language to get the message across – turn your head away and even fold your arms which shows that you do not want your own personal space violated. Critical space is very important to dogs. Your dog may initially think you have gone mad and the behaviour will worsen (a bit like a child throwing a tantrum) and it will try to jump up more or demand attention. Simply push the dog gently off you remembering not to look at (this signals either aggression or that we want something from the dog) or talk to it. After a time the dog will settle down, walk away or find something else to do. Allow it this time out to digest the change in circumstances for about 5 to 15 seconds, then in a happy cheerful voice, call the dog to you, and ask for a sit, praise quietly (we dont want the dog to start getting excited again) and offer a treat. It is impossible to tell a dog to do nothing, what we are doing instead, is showing the dog what behaviour we do expect i.e. sitting quietly and waiting to be greeted.
I do recommend that when teaching this new behaviour that praise and a treat is forthcoming when the dog does sit quietly– this will just reinforce the new behaviour as well as make it rewarding for the dog to perform this new behaviour. When teaching a new behaviour you should reward on a continuous schedule – 100% - once the dog has a firm understanding you can start to fade the reward.
In the case whereby the dog initially calms and then starts to bounce around again as soon as the greeting is over - request the client to take a step away from the dog - call it, request a sit, praise quietly and reward with a treat. This can be repeated a few times gradually moving further away from the door and is normally very successful.
Once the dog is quiet and calm, the owner can move to another area (so that the door is not associated with excitable behaviour) and give the dog all the love they want to. We do suggest that if the dog is a jumper, that the owner rather goes down to the dog to greet it and give further attention.
b. Entering via the garden gate or if dogs outside.
What do you do in the situation that the dogs are not inside the house when you arrive? They could initially meet you via the security gate or are in the back garden on the other side of a glass sliding door. In circumstances such as these you add in an additional step and then once the owner is with the dog the procedure is identical to above.
- If a security gate of glass door where the dogs can see the owner, then owner stands in front of this, neither looking at nor talking to the dogs, arms folded as above. If they do not calm down, wait a few minutes and then simply turn your back on them for a few seconds (this is only in the case of where the dogs can see you - not when you are with them as this could tempt a dog that jumps to start jumping up on your back) Then turn around to face them again. If the behaviour has still not quietened, then repeat the turning of your back and in some cases you may even need to ask the client to walk away completely first and then come back and try again – here leave for about 15 seconds. Remember the dog’s body language? Turning the body away is a calming signal! Repeat this until the dogs have quietened down.
- Next step when dogs are quiet is to go through either the security gate or glass door, stand still and repeat the ignoring procedure until the dogs are quiet and continue as above. If the dogs just won’t quieten down, then you do a reserve time out and go back through the door and start all over again.
- The long term goal in the above is that the dogs are taught to sit properly to be greeted and you will then find that as the owner arrives at the glass door, they can give the sit hand signal and the dog/s will all sit politely. This works a treat and brings about a very quick turnaround in behaviour. Remember to mention the fading once the dog gets the idea.
In the situation whereby an owner may arrive home and the dogs are behind a solid door but are barking, whining, scratching on the door a slight variation is required. Firstly to protect the door (owner may be stressing about the door being damaged and as such may not follow through correctly with the exercise) the owner uses some masking tape to cover the inside of the door with cardboard to the height of where a dog standing on its back legs would reach.
Owner then stands outside the door with hand on the door knob - reason for this is that initially when the scratching, barking stops it may only stop for a second, so the owner needs to be ready to quickly go through the door. This will improve as the dog understands the new procedure. The second the dog/s are quiet owner quickly goes through the door and then starts the rest of the exercise as above.
c. Arriving home in a car and stopping outside the gate.
Personally I would teach the dogs to go to their place, as in the Gate Enclosure in the Puppy Section which is the best way to dog it, then the exercise starts from outside the driveway gate. Normally what would happen is that the dogs go nuts when the car arrives. This time, your client does not get out the car until the dogs are quiet.
Next step is owner stands at the gate and repeat the exercises as above.
No matter what the circumstances are when coming home, the same principle as above applies, they will just be adding in additional steps.
d. When Visitors Arrive
If at all possible do not have visitors over until the family themselves have perfected this exercise by themselves and with members of the family first, but it is not always possible to achieve this. Depending on how bad the jumping up, going mad is, I would either ask the owner to just get visitors to repeat the ignoring exercise or if very bad, I would ask owner to have the dog on lead and then repeat it. The visitor does not take one more step into the home until the dog is fully under control. A few sit exercises can be done with the dog to help control the behaviour and calm the dog and have the owner in control, if need be.
Summary
- As soon as you come into contact with the dog when arriving home, stand still – do not look at, talk to, or interact with the dog at all.
- When dog has given up, walked away, sat down etc, wait 15 seconds then call the dog back, request a sit, praise and then give attention – in the case of a dog that is a jumper, rather do a few Sits in a row walking away from the door and greet in another location.
- Attention on your terms or not at all.
Not all dogs demand our attention, some are much more laid back than others and if they do demand attention, it is not on a regular basis. However, as the owner is in charge of the combined human/canine social structure, it is vital that attention is given on the owners terms or not at all.
Pups, on average are not too bad unless the owner inadvertently encourages the behaviour, it is when the adolescent stage is reached that the demanding behaviour seems to rear its ugly head the most, and if it is not dealt with, the situation will just get worse. Very often owners are not even aware of how often their dog does demand attention, so mention the various ways that this can happen i.e. whining, barking to go outside, bringing a ball and putting on lap, standing in front of owner with happy eyes and a wagging tail looking at owner expectantly, sitting on owners feet, leaning on owner – and of course the more obvious such as the jumping up – be specific – mention things in your report that the dog does rather than just generalizing.
In a dog pack, demanding attention from the pack leaders, and indeed, any dog higher in the pack, would simply not be tolerated. If a higher ranking member wanted to play or interact, it would be that particular dog that would initiate the interaction.
Dogs demand attention from us in various ways and here are some ideas:-
- Pestering us with a ball or toy to be thrown.
- Jumping up onto our laps.
- Laying a head or paw on our laps and looking at us beseechingly.
- Sitting on our foot.
- Nudging us.
- Mouthing us.
- Barking, whining for attention.
- Scratching at doors to be let in.
- Jumping up on doors and windows to be let in.
Dogs that demand attention seem to:-
- Ignore their owners when they feel like it.
- Will barge in front of owners to greet visitors at the door.
- Chooses the best chair to sit on, very often refusing to get off when told too.
- Some dogs will play with toys and refuse to relinquish them.
One of the best exhibitions seen of demanding attention was a Boerboel that really had extremes of behaviour. While owners and I were sitting in the lounge practicing the ignoring the demanding attention behaviour, the dog was getting more and more frustrated by being ignored. After about a half hour of all his attempts for attention being ignored, he suddenly dashed out of the lounge, went into the bathroom, grabbed the cat litter box, and with cat litter falling all over the place – put it down in front of the owner and proceeded to eat what was inside! It was all I could do to stop falling off the chair in laughter! What did we do – we continued to ignore the dog and he eventually went and lay on the far side of the wall as if in a huff. This was a very immediate ‘Extinction Burst and the dog repeated this twice more before it extinguished.
What do we do about demanding behaviour? We totally ignore it! It is important, as in the Ignoring Behaviour above, to let our bodies do the talking to show we will not accept this behaviour. No eye contact, no talking, make your body stiff, fold your arms, turn away, absolutely no talking, if dog persists etc. Initially when this exercise is done by your client, it is done in absolute silence for about a two week period or until the dog has stopped – thereafter, the NRM can be brought in if need be. Here are some examples:-
- If dog jumps up against you, move away.
- If dog jumps up onto couch without invitation, gently place on the floor. If it jumps back up, repeat.
- If dog sits on your foot, move your foot.
- If dog brings you toy or ball, refuse to accept it or hold it. With some dogs they become so persistent in trying to get you to take the object that just ignoring the behaviour does not work. In this extreme case, after a good amount of time, owner takes the ball away from the dog - looks very stern and says 'finished' and then gets up and puts the object where dog cannot get it. Owner ignores all dogs attempts to get object from new position if this does occur.
- If dog keeps on jumping onto your lap and won’t stop – stand up and move to another chair where will be difficult for dog to jump on lap.
- If the behaviour really gets extreme, you can perform a reverse time out and leave the room for the 30 second period as in the time out exercise. Remember that if this occurs, the owner always comes back to the same location, circumstances that caused the reverse time out in the first place. Information on Time Out and Reverse Time Out in future notes.
What this will result in:-
- Dog will perform the behaviour more – owner ignores the behaviour
- Dog will start to perform the behaviour less – owner continues to ignore behaviour.
- Behaviour will stop.
- There could be an extinction burst
- Chances of spontaneous recovery in the future especially if high stress levels
This does not mean that owners cannot give dogs any attention – of course they can – BUT – on their terms, not the dogs. The next very important step is that after the dog has given up and moved away, wait about 10 seconds and then call the dog back and give all the attention you want to. The reason for the 10 second gap is so that the dog figures out what behaviour works and what does not. Once the dog fully understands what is working and what is not, the time period before giving attention can be extended.
In the period above it is a good to vary the time period before attention is given for a week or two. Start off with a short period so that the dog associates the negative punishment it is receiving and then build it up accordingly remembering to stagger and shorten the period on a regular basis. Dogs figure out very quickly what works and then no need to stagger the time period.
Summary
- Ignore any attempts the dog makes to get attention.
- You can turn your head away, move your body etc.
- When dog gives up and walks away, wait 10 - 15 seconds – call dog back – request a Sit and then give all the attention you want to.
- Vary the time period once the dog understands and gradually build up the time period.
- Work to Earn - General
As we all have to ‘work for our living’ so too does the dog from now on. If we relate this to pack behaviour, every single dog has a job/s jobs to perform – looking after the pups, guarding the pack, cleaning the den (faeces), hunting for food etc. So if you look at it that way, why not have your dog working for its living?
We then look at the various breeds and what they were bred for and if you think about it, nearly all dogs have some sort of work to do in this respect as well. The more you take control of all the resources, the more your dog will view you, and the rest of the family, as the pack leaders and will be more likely to relax knowing you are in charge and not try to take charge itself. The beauty of this simple system, is that is helps timid or fearful dogs to relax and realize there is nothing to worry about, the owner is in change, and at the same time, the dog that is trying to push it luck, finds out that the position of top dog is no longer available, it has been assumed by a caring and benevolent owner, so it no longer has to try and achieve this position - the end result of this will be that the dog will relax and behaviour concerns will start to diminish and the dog will be more attentive.
A point to bear in mind here especially with dogs that were very demanding dogs that are clever – from time to time they will keep on trying to push the boundaries to see what they can get away with – mention this to your clients and remind them to be consistent.
Bringing in the Work to Earn system will result in good behaviour and less likelihood of bad habits developing.
With our 10 fingers we supply all our dog’s needs – food, walks, play, petting, exercise etc and this together with our voices gives us excellent tools with which to work to control our dogs. At the risk of repeating myself for about the 3rd time, it is always important to be consistent when working with dogs.
From now on the dog gets absolutely nothing for free! Some examples and we suggest the use of the Sit exercise in general-
- Sit when called back after attention is ignored
- Sit before being greeted
- Sit before attention is rewarded
- Sit before putting on the lead and collar
- Sit before getting toy thrown
- Sit before being played with
- Sit before getting in the car
- Sit before getting out of the car
- Sit before going out or in a door
Work to earn – Specific
Only brought in if needed.
Wherever possible and especially if behaviour is extreme, we suggest using the dogs daily rations of food and over the period of a day/evening/morning, get the dog to engage in the different behaviours being worked on by asking for the particular behaviour, offering praise and one piece of kibble. If the dog is resource guarding the owner, or where dog is over dependent on one member of the family – then other members of the family would be asked to do this work and not the owner initially.
In the circumstances where owner does to work during the day, even if they only achieve 10 mins a day during the week it will help, and then they can take charge of the full resources during the weekend. We suggest that owners look at this initial period of bringing in the House Rules as 'dog work' and do as much as possible and adjust their schedules to bring in the changes if at all possible.
Some examples of where the daily ration of food could be used to improve or change behaviour:-
- Recall - calling the dog for each and every piece of food.
- Down - as an additional means of practising this exercise
- Watch - if using to practice and proof the Watch exercise, do remember to do all over the home and garden and out for walks.
- Wait - not as easy to practice, but can be done
- Anything else you can think of.
Remember to give your clients the Fading exercise for when the above is in place and that on occasion to reward to keep the behaviour in place.
- NRM - Non Reward Marker
We have already covered the NRM, but because it is such an important part of creating a language of understanding with dogs, here it is again.
By bringing in the NRM and RM as part of your daily training and interaction with your dog you will be able to immediately define what behaviour you do and do not accept - this will result in greatly improved communication with your dog and no need to use any physical punishment at all.
If our dog is engaged in an unacceptable behaviour such as about to jump on the table, the owner would immediately say UHUH! indicating to the dog that the behaviour was unacceptable while the dog was engaged in the unacceptable behaviour – followed immediately by ‘good dog’ in a totally non-committal tone of voice the second the dog stops the behaviour even by just putting its feet back down on the floor again.
We are then indicating to the dog what behaviour we don’t like as well as the behaviour we do like – in other words we are opening up excellent lines of communication and our dogs know exactly what is acceptable and what is not. If this method is used in your daily interactions with your dog, it always knows where it stands and in a way you are forming your own language between the two of you – this makes for a well behaved dogs who understands exactly what you want.
Why don’t we use the word ‘No’?
Very often, a dog has heard the word ‘no’ so many times that it becomes white noise and the cue is totally ignored and this is why we prefer the use of a word that is not used in our daily conversation such as ‘uhuh’, poofy etc. It does not matter what word you use as long as it is not part of your daily conversation.
What is crucial is that from now on every member of the family will use this word to indicate to the dog what is not wanted and you must be 100% consistent and use each and every time the dog is engaged in an unacceptable behaviour. Additionally, we as humans tend to use sentences involving the word No or UHUH, such as ‘UHUH, I told you not to jump on the bed’, from now it is just “UHUH!” – Less is often more where dogs are concerned.
Timing and Intensity.
What is crucial is that the NRM is used while the dog is engaged in the unacceptable behaviour – even a second after the behaviour has happened is too late.
It is always better to talk to a dog in a soft voice and use the loud voice for when the dog has really misbehaved, however, when you initially start using the NRM you want to go for maximum effect, so for the first few times we would suggest using a hard harsh tone of voice such as UHUH! with your face looking angry and stern . If you go in far too soft to start with, all that will happen is that you will have to start increasing the intensity as the odds are that your dog will not listen to a gentle Uhuh and will not stop the behaviour.
Having said that, if you do have a dog that does not like loud noises or raised voices, then of course you will adjust to suit your dog’s individual needs. We currently have a rescue that has been abused and my NRM is the ‘look’ combined with a very soft, but firm Uhuh – if I did more she would have run away in fear.
You will find that once the dog has understood after having done this a few times, that you will be able to moderate both the tone and volume of using the NRM. In time, you will find that you can just give the ‘look’ that the NRM itself is not always necessary, always remembering to bring in the RM of course!
Reward Marker
This is a crucial part of the exercise and cannot ever be left out – you have indicated to your dog what you don’t want, this is where you let it know what you do want . It is impossible to tell a dog to do nothing – you have to either teach a totally different and alternative behaviour such as teaching a dog that jumps up to sit in front of people, or, you have to indicate to the dog the behaviour you prefer – such as feet on the floor – and by saying ‘good dog’ you are telling the dog what you prefer.
What is also important here is the manner in which the RM is said – it is a casual ‘good dog’ – a bit like you pass somebody a glass of water and they say ‘thank you’. There is no need for a treat or going overboard with praise or even touching the dog. If we did either of these three things our dogs may very well engage in the unacceptable behaviour, just to get the praise/reward!
What is also critical is the Timing – the second the dog stops the unacceptable behaviour.
We have been using this system for years and have yet to find a situation where bringing it in did not result in an improvement in behaviour and increased understanding between owner and dog.
e.g.
Dog starts to put its feet on the table
UHUH!
Dog puts feet on floor (we are not waiting for a Sit, just the feet not being on the table any longer)
Good Dog (non committal)
6. Additions to House Rules
The above are the basic House Rules, however depending on your circumstances and the behaviour concern, other exercises can be added in to complement the basics. Some examples are as below.
Furniture
This is another of the House Rules that can be brought in – it will depend on the circumstances and if it is needed.
When it comes to whether or not a dog is allowed on furniture and beds, it is very much one of personal choice. For example, my own dogs are allowed on the couches and bed, but only by invitation! From time to time I will remind the dogs that I am in charge by allowing them to quietly go up by themselves, then telling them ‘off’. I will receive the ‘look’ but the dog will comply. After a few minutes I will invite the dog to go back up. Remember dogs are natural resource guarders, they have to be – by laying claim as above to my own resources, such as the chair, I am gently reminding the dog that it is mine and this is a lovely subtle way to reinforce this.
If you have a situation whereby you have a multi dog household and there is reactive behaviour between them, then I would recommend that dogs sleep on the floor, as this is an area whereby reactive behaviour can happen. When one dog is higher up than the other, it may well be reactive to the dog approaching it, plus the element of resource guarding can come about.
The one area that really causes me concern is when there are young children in the family, or visiting. If a dog is on a couch and a toddler approaches, its face may well be on the same level as the dog on the couch and a bite can occur. Up to your client, however, in the case of reactive behaviour I would insist that the dog gets off furniture completely.
The bed is another story altogether, and many owners are not happy about the idea of the dog not sleeping on the bed. In the case of reactive behaviour, it really is a necessity. However, owners have to do what works for them.
If there is no reactive behaviour or resource guarding of the bed, then I have no objection to the dog sleeping there. What I do suggest however, to raise the client more in the combined human/canine hierarchy, is that the dog is only allowed on the bed by invitation.
7. Ignoring Owner
What is a very common scenario, which tends to happen more with adolescent and adult dogs than with pups who just want to please - is that they will do the behaviour once or twice in a row and then totally ignore the owner. This is very typical of the dog that is given far too much attention from owner. Examine the interaction between dog and owner and you may find that the dog comes up to owner and owner is continually touching, stroking, loving the dog and they are not even aware they are doing it – many of us fall into this trap just because we love our dogs so very much! Let’s think about this from the dog’s point of view – why should they work for any attention when it is always freely available?
What you can do here is the following:-
- Become aware if over attention from owner to dog is the case, and if so just stop touching, talking and interacting with the dog as much.
- Immediate Work to Earn – Specific using daily allowance of food
- Dog gets absolutely nothing for free – strict work to earn for every single thing
- If owner calls dog and dog ignores – owner does not repeat the cue, (Often owners will get into the habit of asking repeatedly for the behaviour and the dog still ignores) but waits about 15 seconds in total silence and just looks directly at the dog. If the dog still does not comply, owner says a very loud and harsh HUMPH!!!!! And turns and stomps a few steps away and stands still.
- Another option here if the dog does not comply the 2nd time, is owner waves the delicious piece of food under the dogs nose, says ‘FINISHED’ and then eats the treat themselves – very effective if biltong! Owner gives about a minute break and then starts again.
- A variation of this if 2nd request for behaviour ignored, is that if other dogs in home, the owner steps away and then offers to other dog for free! Dogs absolutely hate this.
You already have all your notes on Fading and it really is crucial to do this – the last thing anybody wants is a dog that will only work for food.
Here are some other reasons for fading food:
- In order to get the dog to try harder
- In order to put together behaviour chains as in clicker
- In order to make behaviour much more reliable.
Where trying harder is concerned, if we offer rewards on an intermittent basis or stop giving them at all for a short period of time, this often results in a burst of effort from the dog as it tries to get the rewards to start again and be plentiful! So what we need to do is to be more selective in giving rewards, and only give for a better sit or down for example, or a straight sit for example – we can develop any areas of behaviour we want to. You are not going to explain all this to your client, this is just for you to gain a deeper understanding as to what Fading can achieve. Those of you doing clicker will already have a good comprehensive of this from putting together behaviour chains.
|
|
