I’m not saying “ignore the dog” is bad advice.  It’s actually just fine advice.  My concern is that it’s not done right.  Part of the problem is the “ignore” isn’t clearly defined.  When you ignore a dog, you’re trying to not offer any reinforcement at all.  You’re withholding attention.

And I still see people look right at their pet, say a quick “no,” push them away, etc, etc, etc…  The key is to pretend your dog doesn’t even exist.  You can’t see him, hear him, feel him, or even notice he is in the same room no matter what he’s doing! It only takes one little eye contact for the dog to learn he’s getting somewhere.  And the second the dog is given eye contact (or whatever else that tells him you notice he’s there), he’s rewarded.  So think about it.  If you have a dog who’s barking, and you “ignore him.”  He keeps barking, and barking, maybe gets a little louder, or barks with more gusto, or just barks more BPM (barks per minute), and THEN we reward him.  Oops.  Now we’ve created a behavior of barking with duration that will increase in intensity.

What happens is now the dog has learned to just give it his all, and bark like he’s never barked before for two minutes straight.  For some reason I always think of a small child tugging on his mom’s shirt saying, “Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom.Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom.Mom. Mom.Mom. Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” until the mom turns around and says, “WHAT?!?!!”  Which has now taught the kid this works.

If part of the behavior plan is going to be “ignore the dog” you need to make sure that no reinforcement happens at all.  The other part to this training (which is unfortunately often left out), is you need to reward what you want the dog to do! Trust me when I say dogs are smart and will figure out exactly what works to get what they want.  And it might just be another obnoxious behavior.  Dogs aren’t given Human Handbooks, just like when you have a baby they don’t come with manuals either.  Just remember, the outcome isn’t changing.  The reward isn’t different.  The way the dog gets what he wants is.  So if your dog is barking at you for attention, you’re not changing the reward.  Think of it more like taking the desired outcome the dog wants and putting it on hold.  You don’t want to just withhold attention until the end of time, or think giving him a completely different reward will work.  That’s nonsense.  (And can actually cause a doggie road rage frustration.  It’s like, if I’m hungry I want food, not a hug — if I’m sad I want a hug, not food, etc.)  The whole reason the dog will be motivated to change his behavior is to get the desired outcome he’s been striving for in the first place, so you don’t change that.  Instead you would give him attention by doing a different behavior.  And in order for the dog to learn this quickly, you have to heavily reward a desired behavior, like sit for example.  So only when the dog sits he gets attention.  You have to be really black & white about it.  No grey area.  It’s vital to remember to reinforce the desired behavior.  Otherwise we’re basically taking away the car keys without any information on how to earn them back.  A trick before doing this is to have about a week of heavily rewarding for sit (or whatever behavior you want to replace the no-no bad behavior with), because then the dog will likely try this behavior first when he learns what he was doing (barking) just doesn’t work anymore.

The light bulb moment goes something like this:

• I want attention!  I’m going to bark.
• Hum… maybe I’m not barking enough! (ie: an extinction burst, which is where we usually fail at the ignoring part and say, “WHAT?!?!!!”)
• Gee… this worked before, now I’m confused.
• I think I’ll try sit.  That was just working a few days ago for other stuff.  Might work for this too.
• <dog sits> (AND WE NOTICE & REWARD)

Believe it or not, sometimes we human beings are so focused on the part we can’t stand that drives us crazy we forget to notice the behavior we actually want.  Sort of like when a puppy chews on his toys we don’t do anything.  But when he has our $500 cell phone, we dish out all kinds of attention & sometimes even teach a fantastic catch me if you can game.  So, make sure you pay attention and teach your dog what does work.  That’s the way to replace behavior.

A little bit ago I had to move my cats into my parent’s house. And instead of trying to train them to stay on the second floor, we put up a gate with a curtain.  This way, they couldn’t jump over it and it was easy to manage.  Sure I could have done some training but why?  Why in the world put that much time and energy into something temporary? It reminds me of when we get calls around the holidays to train the family pet to stay away from the Christmas tree.

Another popular training request is to stop the dog from getting into the trash can.  Why when you can just get a trash can with a lid?  Again, there are loads of training things to do, but why?  I remember when I opened a small doggie day care, I didn’t feel like training each and every dog that came into it.  So I spent the money on a mac-daddy, butterfly lidded trash can that was about $75.  And I can tell you, this bad boy was Husky proof.  We actually had a Husky jump on it, and knock it over, and vola!…  nothing happened.  And after that, never tried again.

I think my favorite things are the simple things though. “My dog eats my shoes and chews my dirty socks.” And again, prevention and management is easier than training.  I’ll bet money that every single puppy class out there will tell you to pick up your shoes and put away your clothes.  When I had my puppy, there was nothing, and I mean nothing left out of any value that he could chew.   I really didn’t want him to learn how great it was to chew up my flip flops.  It doesn’t take much to learn a self rewarding behavior like chewing.

Even if you plan on doing behavior modification and are going to actually train your dog to do “THING X” one of the first steps is behavior management.  How many times have you heard, “The first step is to prevent the dog from doing ‘THING Z’ so we can retrain him to do ‘THING X’ instead.”  So, even if you’re going to train a different behavior, typically managing the environment is the first step anyway.  Why?  Because you need to prevent the dog from reinforcing himself over and over again and practicing the unwanted behavior over and over again.  Quite often you can change behavior just by changing the environment.

So remember, not everything is realistically solved by training.  And in fact, there is some stuff not worth training.  And there is nothing wrong with management.

MORE EXAMPLES:

• Using a crate so your shiny new puppy doesn’t chew up the electrical cords.
• Using a front clip harness (like an Easy Walk) to walk your dog without him pulling, because you own 20 acres and have back problems and just never practice walking your dog.
• Put up a baby gate so your dog just can’t help himself to the Christmas chocolate under the tree.
• Close the door to the laundry room so you don’t have to buy new underwear every week.
• Shut the lid if your dog drinks out of the toilet so he doesn’t ingest the pretty blue chemicals.
• Clean off the counter so your Great Dane just can’t help himself to the butter stick.
• Put the cat litter box somewhere inaccessible so the dog can’t eat the “kitty cookies.”
• Use a car barrier so your St Bernard puppy doesn’t learn your lap is where he should be on a car ride.

Hello: This is the Magic Wand Dog Training Center, we are unable to come to the phone but please press or enter the number for your request, we will return your call as soon as possible.

Press 01 to tell me your dog has been asked to leave the local obedience club because he won’t sit, wait, down or come when called (even when on lead) so you thought you would try agility.

Press 02 if your Labrador is morbidly obese and you thought you would try agility.

Press 03 if you want 30 minutes of advice and have no intention of paying for it.

Press 04 if you describe your dog as ‘a little bit naughty’ when what you really mean is that the b*st*rd bites … hard.

Press 05 if you want puppy training classes but your Boxer is already 12 months old.

Press 06 if you believe that just by turning up to one puppy training class and doing no work whatsoever at home, your puppy will grow up to be a well adjusted companion.

Press 07 if your nervous, aggressive GSD has bitten and hospitalized Aunt Maude, the vet, and your child and you want me to re-home it.

Press 08 if you have three children under school age, an invalid parent living at your home, a partner who works away, are pregnant with twins and want your 8 month old Dalmatian that never gets a walk to stop chewing every thing in sight.

Press 09 if you want to tell me my advice has not worked even though you have not tried it yet.

Press 10 if you want to be dog trainer and behaviorist because you like animals better than people.

Press 11 if you are 15 years old and want to do work experience with me but would faint if I asked you to pick up dog poop.

Press 12 if your dog is aggressive with other dogs but you want to join one of my groups because it will be nice for him to have some friends.

Press 13 if you cannot afford my private rates and want a discount because you only have one BMW.

Press 14 if you are cancelling your lesson that is due to start in 30 minutes and have no intention of paying the cancellation fee.

Press 15 if you do not believe in rewarding a dog and know that clicker training does not work because your friend Beryl said so.

Press 16 if you think your dog knows he has done wrong when you tell him off and that he obeys you because he respects you and acknowledges you are a superior being.

Press 17 if you want me to wave my magic wand over your contacts/weaves/start line waits in just one session and will then tell me it did not work when you go to a show just two days later with no training in the meantime.

Press 18 if you have eleven Jack Russell bitches in a small flat and you want me to teach them not to fight each other.

Press 19 if you already know everything about your breed because this is the fourth one you have had and I cannot tell you anything new.

Press 20 if you want me to pick up your dear departed dog’s ashes from the vets and keep them at my house because you are too upset to have them in your home (true!).

Press 21 if you could not use a Gentle Leader, indoor crate, or harness because they are cruel.

Press 22 if you will not put a muzzle on your deadly aggressive dog because you do not want people to think he is nasty.

Press 23 if you want to leave an increasingly angry message for the third time this week demanding an urgent call back and yet again forget to give your name or number.

Press 24 if, having ascertained I am out, you wish ask my engineer husband for behavioral advice about your pet.

Press 25 if you wish to fill up my answering machine tape with an incoherent rambling message.

Press 26 if want your intact male adolescent dog to spend its days lying patiently on your front step on your unfenced property because dogs shouldn’t want to run away, should they.

Press 27 if you want me to teach your untrained border collie to play with sheep because you think he will like it.

Press 28 if your dog thinks its name is “NO”.

Press 29 if it is before 8am or after 10pm and you want to ask how to stop your 13 week old puppy from biting your 5, 7 and 9 year old boys when they play fight with it.

Press 30 if you have taken trouble to socialize and train your pet and want to make an appointment to learn even more fun stuff. No need to hold, I’ll put you right through!

What I noticed was he learns the coldest place in the house, friend’s house, hotel, etc. without any instructions from anyone. He figures this out on his own because he is motivated by his desire for the cold.  (And I call this spot his “happy place.”)

What’s interesting to a behavior dork like myself is seeing the training / learning process.

1. Dog wants to be colder. — This is the reason an animal (including people) will get off their butt and do something. It’s called “desire” and not all desires are created equal. Ever heard the saying, “how bad do you want it?” Meaning: is this a burning desire or just a “it’d be nice” desire. For my dog Koos, coldness is a hard wired, hard core kind of desire. Therefore he’s motivated to learn faster.

2. Then it is doing whatever possible to achieve the desire. Whatever works first generally wins. It isn’t common to figure out something works then think, “I should keep trying.” That’s like thinking you should keep looking for your keys after you already found them. It’s usually only if the previously learned behavior stops working, is when animals try and find “Plan B” solution.

3. Even if the A/C is off and the house fan is on, Koos will by default go and lie in his Happy Place. There is no cool air coming out of the vent, but believe it or not, this randomized cold air delivery actually makes this behavior stick more. Why? Because a random schedule of reinforcement makes behaviors hard to extinguish.

4. At this point, this place in the house has been associated with pleasant emotions. I notice that on his own, without any prompting, it is his first place to lay on the first floor. When he’s back from a walk, he goes there. When we are making dinner, he goes there. The cold air was the beginning motivation, and now he just likes the spot. Honestly, it reminded me of crate training.

I love watching my dog do stuff. Then my trainer brain picks apart the why & how of it. Yeah, I’m a behavior dork. But I’m ok with that.

• This casual Q&A is free and open to anyone.
• Bring your friendly dog, or come stag.
• Event is from 1:00pm to 3:00pm
• There’s no “question cap” so bring as many questions as you’ve got!
• Local animal professionals are welcome to stop by and meet & greet or catch up.
• Receive a $10 off training coupon for participating.

I’m talking about the always happy to see you, lay next to the bed when you’re not feeling well, actively listen to you (even though he can’t understand you) when you tell him how your day went, kind of dog.  The dog who exercises with you on your schedule and never nags you about an extra helping of birthday cake.  The dog who goes through four houses and never once complains about moving.

This post goes out to you.

The dog who you are always happy to see. The dog you love through thick & thin, rich or poor, sickness & health, better & worse. The dog you get and keep for life, no matter what. The dog you take on vacation with you because he’s part of the family. The dog who thinks the world about the world.

This post goes out to you.

So, I did everything I knew to do.

Step #1 — Observe ALL behavior.  This is how I noticed he was straining and preferred to pee on flat surfaces. Also, like I mentioned before, he’s a BIG kitty. So, normal litter boxes were too small for his liking. You see it was uncomfortable to turn around.

Step #2 — Change ONE thing at a time. After noticing the “Joe normal” boxes were too small and hard to get into (high sides), I decided to use the bottom of a plastic dog crate. (Who says you can’t use other things?) He began to walk into the box entrance and pee, then back out.  And by doing this he was now going to the box, sticking at least half of himself inside it, and peeing on the floor right at the entrance.

Step #3 — Keep changing ONE thing at a time, and reinforcing behavior you want. Even when he was only going halfway in the box (the last step), when I saw him pee on the floor I didn’t react. No yelling, no punishments, in fact when he finished I pet him. Why? Because that was improvement from peeing on the bedroom carpet. I tried moving the box, I added a box, changed litter type, and baited it with cat nip. None of that worked. Then I realized I was thinking of “cat” solutions instead of “Spartacus” solutions. Bingo! Flat surfaces! Puppy pee pads instead of litter!

Step #4 — Reward and maintain progress. Besides the obvious medical help I gave my cat throughout this process, retraining behavior was vital. In my mind, why the #?@% was my cat not acting like a cat and using the litter box? Well, because in Spartacus’s mind going in the #?@%ing litter box was painful, uncomfortable, and represented kitty hell.

Sometimes we get stuck in a rut. We think what the animal is supposed to do, and not what he is actually doing. Sometimes we think the only solutions are marketed for that particular pet and sold in the closest pet store. Sometimes we don’t walk a mile in their paws. And sometimes we are blinded by progress just because it’s not the final result.

Remember there’s always something to change, to change behavior. And if ANY behavior changes it’s progress.

Dogs don’t go out of their way to please us.  Dogs go out of their way to get something they want or avoid something they don’t want. So ask yourself, what happens to the dog?  What happens when you say “Come?”  Does he go into a crate for 8 hours?  Get a bath?  Leave the dog park?  Now think about what happens when we say “Sit?”  Does he get a treat?  Get a tummy rub?  Get his leash on and go for a walk?  Get dinner?  For whatever reason, most people reward sit, AND use random rewards (aka, make rewards interesting by changing them up), BUT for whatever reason, most people  don’t randomly reward other behaviors the same way. This makes sit a super strong behavior with little chance for extinction, while everything else is “meeh.”

Me? Sure I want a dog who “wants to work for me.”  I want a dog who is “on the payroll” with random rewards.  I want a dog who can’t wait for me to give the next cue so he can comply as fast as possible.  And this is done through positive training and practice to make your dog a gambler, to see what the next goodie is in store for him.

So put your dog on the payroll.  He doesn’t have to work full time, but should at least have a part time gig.  That’s how you get a dog who “wants to please you.”  When you think about it, he’s only working to get something to please himself, by doing things that we want. But hey, we’re no different! And I for one, would like a dog who doesn’t want to call out for a personal day.

The main trick in a group dog training class is to train the dog.  The other part of the job many people don’t realize is to train the clients (the people) how to train their dog.  Therefore one of the first things we would teach people to do was about barking.  If they heard another dog bark in class, no matter what their dog was doing, they were to click and treat their dog, each and every time they heard a bark. What started to happen was the dogs in class actually learned to focus on their owners when another dog barked.  Because when the dog heard a bark, a reinforcement would come from their owner, so they learned to pay attention to their owners.  And sooner than later, the owner could train through hearing a barking dog.

We didn’t get a lot of practice though, because we also would instruct the client who had the barker.  The owners of the barking dog were instructed to completely ignore the barking dog until he paid some kind of attention to them, and then completely try and engage him by easy cues (sit, paw, target, etc) and click and treat for working.  The barker learned no rewards happened from his owners, nor the other clients, nor the other dogs.  After testing out the barking a few times the dog would learn there was no reward.  And with the lack of reinforcement, the barking behavior extinguished.