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Image of a Golden Retriever looking half asleep on a bed

Is this “good” for my dog?

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There’s quite a lot of areas of training and behaviour we get involved in that we believe we know are “good” for dogs. Like scentwork (in its various forms) for example. The oft cited figure that a dog needs “10 hours” of sleep is another.

And we could be right – without any science to say so. Experience and expertise are important and not to be ignored. Take this video of a dog searching – tracking in her own “wild tracking” style – you don’t need academic evidence to tell you this dog is happy doing it! (Assuming we “know” – are correct – that what we are seeing signs of happiness of course!) and if we care about our dogs, we will look to do things with, or for, them to help them be happy, won’t we?


But…when someone says “it’s good for dogs” it’s not always that obvious is it? It’s also not obvious what a “happy” dog is. Is being content good enough? Is happiness as a contrast to UNhappiness really the happiness we would want for our dogs? That relief a dog might show because he has managed to avoid something unpleasant or something bad has stopped happening – is that “happy”? Is it “good” for our dogs to experience that?


So when someone says to me firmly “a dog needs 10 hours sleep a day” to be happy I want to know – 1) how do they KNOW that? What is their evidence? 2) is that all through the day, or just nighttime? 3) what sort of sleep? Is dozing for 10 hours out of boredom, with lack of anything else to do, quality sleep?

Image of a Golden Retriever looking half asleep on a bed

We probably will never know all the answers to questions we ask – in the meantime practical, practised and experienced trainers sharing their knowledge and skills through courses and training are invaluable and essential. Their experience of living and working with dogs first hand is invaluable and important. Of course, not everything they (we!) do will be benefitting the dogs in the way we fondly hope – we change our opinions and techniques as we evolve, learn and make mistakes.  But forming theories – asking the questions – finding evidence to inform us is also important and is just another part of how we can learn to help our dogs to be happy and learn what is “good” for them. The two aren’t always as joined up as they could be perhaps – but that is a subject for another day.

Asking the right question

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Recently I had pause to think about how I use verbal language around breeds and types of dogs. A trainer was verbally describing the behaviour of a number of dogs I didn’t know, including important information about their bite history, how they responded to other dogs, and the name of both the dog and handler. To help me remember and be able to use that information when we met the dogs later, I asked what their breed or type they were. I was looked at askance by several people. I think I was being suspected of <Shock! Horror!> wanting to breed stereotype. So what was wrong with my question if I didn’t want to be so judged?

I assumed the receivers of my words understood how I intended them to be received, and understood the meaning behind them. I’m not sure they were.

So why did I ask that question? It was because I knew that shortly I would need to observe these dogs from a distance and observe how a number of people (who also didn’t know the dogs) would be moving around them and engaging with them. I wasn’t going to be in a position to go closer to ask “Are you Mary?” or “is this Fido?” I needed to be able to recognise them from afar when knowing their bite history, and how they had behaved in other environments, although important to assess the risk, didn’t help me know which dog that information applied to.

What could I have asked to get the information I wanted? Easy. “What does Fido look like?” and the answer would have been ‘he’s the small black and tan dog’. Or ‘he’s the huge white long haired dog’. But a breed name can be useful. It’s a shorthand. If someone says to me a dog is an <insert name of any well known breed>, with a single word I can immediately match the verbal information I’ve been given with the dogs I am about to observe. I can visualise them. I wouldn’t need to go closer to ask the handler their or their dog’s name or need to see the behaviour that had been described (which we might not see anyway) to know which dog I was observing. Could using a breed name led to me making assumptions about the dogs? Possibly. I like to think not, but unconscious bias is always a possibility.

But it was a salutary reminder of how careful we need to be in how we use words, and the shorthand phrases we use, if we want the listener to receive them in the way we intend and not feel judged. 🙂

A Dog is For Life?

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I wonder if the famous and deservedly respected charity that first coined that mantra have ever regretted it? It was a phrase an owner quoted at me as she grappled with the impossible situation she found herself in with the dog she had taken on. It was an early case I took on some 40+ years ago, but I’ve never forgotten it as it was probably the first time I realised I was going to fail to reach that expected conclusion of happy owner and happy dog living happily ever after.

Barney

Barney (not his real name) was an adolescent male Border Collie from a local rescue. His owner had called me in as he had been snapping at her, but as our initial meeting revealed, that was far from the only problem.
Where to start?
Her garden wasn’t secure – her fence was broken. The prospects of getting it fixed were slim due to financial constraints. So Barney could only go outside on a lead. So he was getting zero access to any secure space where he could freely explore, eliminate and mooch about in, or run about in.

His Mum – Mary – had given up trying to to walk him becasue he pulled on the lead – and he was a young, strong dog, quite big for a collie. Mary was a tiny, birdlike 80 year old. She was physically vulnerable should she have fallen over, and she lacked the physical strength to just hold him and prevent him pulling her over. OK – management solutions like using a headcollar, long lines etc., and training, could have dealt with those things, but in the meantime she was at risk and onlead walks were a non-starter in the immediate short term. Mary had been using a check chain with Barney, but to no good effect.

We explored options for his exercise. She couldn’t let him off lead in the local park, as he had no recall and even getting him there was a challenge since he was tearing up the inside of her car, and became hysterical any time a person came close, having been taunted by kids one day when she had left him in the car ouside her house in order to give herself some respite from him.

He was also chasing lights and reflections in the house. A sure sign (if the snapping wasn’t enough) poor Barney wasn’t coping any better than Mary was.

She had opened our first meeting with “I can’t give up on him. A dog is for life isn’t it?” She had a steely determination to make things work out. She had experience. She had taken her previous dogs to training classes. She wasn’t – as I found with many owners – just looking for someone to tell her it would be OK to take him back to the rescue or rehome him. To validate a decision already made. She really wanted to make it possible for her and Barney to live together happily. And of course she loved this dog, despite the challenges.

Save A Paw rescue

The dog world was shocked recently by the revelation of an Essex based rescue having killed many of the dogs in their care. It was an appalling situation. People who had given up their dogs for adoption wanted to know what had happened to their much loved pets. They had assumed the dogs would be loved and cared for.

But on social media I was also shocked (although not very surprised) by the number of comments from people attacking the people who had given their dogs up for adoption. People like Mary were villified by the virtuous. How could a person ever give up their family pet? If they cared why would they? Steadfastly righteous in their belief a dog is for life. That they would never, ever give up a dog to be adopted or rehomed whatever the circumstances.

But the sad reality is not all situations can be resolved. The determination to keep a dog when all the indications are that the dog is very unhappy, or the children or other pets are at serious risk of being (potentially lethally) harmed can lead to very difficult conversations. Trainers and behaviourists can only do so much to help, whatever their ilk. Some situations are quite simply that the dog is not in the home that can meet his or her needs, and when that happens, behaviours such that Barney was showing will be the consequence. It’s just not a situation the dog can flourish in. It’s not only down to money. It’s not down to a lack of commitment or love for the dog. Love really isn’t enough. 

Back to Barney

The list of training and management options I could have some up with would have been enormous. It was before the days we had secure fields or professional dog walkers, but it’s unlikely Mary would have had the money to pay for those things, even if they had been available. She couldn’t get the fence fixed. She couldn’t exercise him safely. Activities in her own home and garden were constrained by the lack of a fence. Some dogs could perhaps live in those conditions quite happily – but not a young, active Border Collie. They need to run. They need a ‘job’ to do. The light chasing behaviour could only be sorted if he was able to get more exercise and stimulation. We barely addressed the snapping. Mary’s more traditional approach to training involved physical corrections, but she had realised already this was going to make things worse if she persisted with them. Using treats in grooming him had very quickly resolved the most pressing situation he was snapping in.

But unless there was a way to give Barney a place he could access regularly during the day to potter about in, exercise off lead safely every day and be given an active job to do, even training options or what we would call “enrichment opportunities” nowadays, were likely to have a limited success in terms of meeting Barney’s needs. There seemed to be no way to make Mary’s home and situation work for him, and she just wasn’t able to change her home and situation. Indeed, at 80, her physical strength wasn’t going to improve.

What persuaded her in the end to rehome him was realising Barney needed a different home to flourish in and be happy. And that making the decision to find him a different home was OK. She wouldn’t be judged (well, at least by me, anyway) as a “bad” dog owner if she was able to give him a better life by making the decision to let him go.

For various reasons, not least because they were clearly not great at matching dogs with suitable homes, we were in agreement that taking him back to the rescue was not in Barney’s best interests. There were other question marks over the rescue inasmuch as there was a lot of anecdotal evidence they were only too happy to take back dogs in order to get another adoption fee from yet another unwary, well-meaning dog lover. Dog welfare was not high on their list of priorities.

Happy ending

The upshot? We found Barney a home with a couple who wanted a young dog to add to their household of resident collies. They were dog savvy, had a secure and safe large garden, were able to exercise Barney, and they competed in agility. Barney thrived and had a great life. Mary? She took on a small, doddery old terrier some weeks later. He stayed and, as far as I know, thrived. For life.

Are you a mugger or a bank manager?

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I don’t know many owners who haven’t been faced with the loss of a sock to a “naughty” puppy, or watched in despair as a cushion or a pair of knickers have disappeared at speed up the garden, or collected in the pup’s bed.  But it’s never just socks and knickers – its Barbie dolls, tea towels, flower pots, slippers…all can fall prey to the quick eye of an opportunistic pup! The first time a puppy “steals” something is when they find out if you are a mugger…or a bank manager.

Muggers

Muggers come up to you, assert themselves, and take what you have. Without a by your leave. No warning. Sometimes they threaten you first. They put on an ugly face. “Give me your phone!” “Give me your money!” They might even physically attack you. So the next time you are out and carrying your bag or your phone, you are going to be on your guard. Ready to protect yourself should anyone try to do the same thing again.  Depending on your temperament, your state of stress or just because there’s an R in the month, you might become very aggressive if anyone should try to steal anything off you another time.  That some muggers are more subtle – they might even smile and try to engage you in conversation, lull you into a false sense of security before taking your money – just makes you more suspicious of the mugger looking like a Greek bearing gifts. That he is just trying to trick you, rather than assault you, as he takes what you have is not always a great comfort.

Poppy believes there are muggers about!! Think how we tuck bags under our arms or put our hands protectively around our possessions if we believe someone might want to ‘steal’ them. Poppy used to show extreme aggression towards anyone approaching her when she had any article.

Bank Managers

But there are some people who we go looking for to give our money to. It used to be bank managers. I guess the world has changed since I first came up with this analogy. Who sees bank managers any more? Their image isn’t all that great either nowadays, but back in the day they loved giving you interest on the money you deposited with them. The principle remains the same. IF it’s in our interests to give away our money, we will give it up willingly and happily. These days we go online to find people to take it from us. If we learn to believe the person saying ‘Give me your money!’ is not only going to keep it safe, they will give you interest, and then give back your original investment, we will willingly hand it over. We actively go looking for them. Once we’ve learned to trust the person we are very unlikely to bite them, or run away from them, when they approach us asking for our money.

The main difference between those 2 scenarios is a very basic one. In the first you had no choice. Someone else was literally forcing a decision on you. And were clearly planning on permanently depriving you of your property. They were probably scary as well. The latter – giving your money to someone willingly, was entirely your choice. The bank – in order to manipulate you into making that choice freely and willingly, understands it has to make the transaction both appealing and non-threatening. 

So which would you rather be with your dog when he has something he shouldn’t? A mugger or a bank manager? It’s too late to stop him taking the things you value if he already has it (that’s a different training issue entirely) so there’s no point telling him off for that, so if you want to come out well from the situation you created (by leaving things lying around), then you need to consider how important it is that your dog views you as a bank manager rather than a mugger.  

Future proofing

  • Don’t get aggressive with your pup or adult dog over articles he has picked up just because they are ‘yours’ not his – don’t be a mugger sometimes, and bank manager at others. Guess which articles he is less likely to want to give up in the future? He already has the article; he cannot understand how he came by it in the first place matters to you, however cross you get. In a dog’s world, if he has something, it’s his.  He can’t understand that you are angry because it’s fluffy loveliness cost you £100 from John Lewis rather than a fiver from Pets At Home.
  • Once you have hold of the article – even if it’s just a hand holding it at the same time as the pup  –  give your dog ‘interest’ (in the form of at least one treat, maybe more) while you hold it before giving it back
  • 99% of the time you give back the article once the pup has eaten the treat –you need to do this with ALL articles – his toys, chews, unimportant articles of yours (e.g. socks). The only ones you don’t give back are the ones that are dangerous for him or things that REALLY matter to you (e.g. £50 notes!).  If you really want to be clever about it, you can give higher rates of interest for giving you things he shoudn’t have so he is more likely to give them up than want to keep them. Imagine how fast you would want to put your £500 into a bank account that offered 10% interest, instead of the usual £1.3%. Just be careful that he isn’t so clever that he learns to ‘find’ that £500 in order to trade it in!

In effect you want to teach your pup to want to bring things to you. That some things earn even more interest (like Barbie or £50 notes) and you are always up for trading things in for something better. That it can mean your dog randomly finds objects to bring to you in order to get something from you is a bonus IMO. If it matters to you that your dog doesn’t put his teeth on some things, don’t let him have access to them. Manage things better. But if from the first day his little paw crosses your threshold he learns that you are a lovely, generous bank manager wanting to give him interest and not a nasty, thieving mugger wanting to permanently deprive him of his treasured possessions, the chances of him being an aggressive ‘resource guarder’ as he matures are dramatically reduced. . So which are you going to choose to be for your pup? A bank manager or a mugger?

 “Please sir, can I have some more? “ An optimistic dog who believes it pays off to take even really difficult articles to mum in order to earn ‘interest’!

Stimulus control

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One of the most interesting ‘rules’ I heard about when I started clicker training, and started to look at the science behind learning, was the concept of stimulus control. i.e. you give significance to a cue by ONLY reinforcing that particular version of a behaviour when you present the cue. You also DIDN’T reward it in the absence of that cue. I learned from experience the environmental cues mattered too, but the principles remain the same.


Don’t want your dog to randomly jump up and grab things – e,g, the lead – in your hand? Teach a cue which means ‘grab what is in my hand’ and put it under stimulus control. No need to tell the dog off or stop playing tuggie with the lead, or tuggie toys that look like leads, just don’t reward him for jumping up grabbing without that ‘permission’ cue.

From a competitive obedience point of view that was highly desirable and what we really did – and do -need.

Domestically…did it matter so much? I thought then that it probably did, and still do. Its just so much harder to use effectively in the ‘real world’. It teaches the dog the cues you present to them – i.e. your ‘commands’ – ARE important, worth listening to and are opportunities to earn reinforcement. Those cues don’t have to be verbal. They can be gestures, but verbal cues are usual far simpler and more black and white to teach. There was a great video of one trainer showing how he taught it ….cue, behaviour, good consequence. No cue – behaviour? No positive consequence. i.e. no reward. Just repeated and repeated in a random way, until the penny drops.

For behaviours that aren’t reinforced by other people, or intrinsically rewarding (a great example usually being barking) , it is a great way to reduce the dog randomly annoying us with things we’ve only half trained them to do or things we want them to do sometimes, but not at others. It also explains why once a dog understands a ‘cue’ and it’s been taught the concept of stimulus control (dogs do get it!), they will steadfastly appear to “refuse” to do it when you use even a slightly different cue by mistake.

Want a more comprehensive, but very readable, explanation? Look at chapter 3 in Karen Pryor’s Don’t Shoort the Dog.

Jigsaw

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Jigsaw training

When clicker training came on the British dog training scene some 20+ years ago it refined and informed a lot of training people already did, but more importantly brought a whole new orderly, science based approach to it. One technique we learned about was ‘chaining’, especially back chaining. Where the dog learned it needed to carry out linked behaviours in order to get the reward. It was – and is – a very linear process. jigsaw-pieces

But rather than seeing the process as linear it is often more useful to view the end result you want as making a jigsaw. The final picture not made up of a chain, but a more complex composition of individual pieces perfectly formed, ready to just slot together to make the final picture. The more perfectly formed each piece is, the better the end result will look.

When you break down an exercise, you are working on individual pieces of the jigsaw. Once you’ve formed a piece perfectly, you can just put it on one side to take out and dust off later on, maybe polishing off any rough edges, when you’re ready to put the whole picture together.

Take the retrieve for example.  One piece of the ‘retrieve’ picture is the ‘pick up’. In most competitive activities HOW the dog picks up the article is important. Clicking for just the pick-up – clean and fast – may be one piece of the jigsaw. The ‘hold’ – well, that can be broken down too. Where the article is held in the dog’s mouth, how much pressure is exerted – those may be 2 different pieces. You will have a load more criteria to add to your particular ‘jigsaw’ depending on what purpose you are teaching it for and what you want your particular jigsaw to look like at the end. Moving with the article towards the handler – how the dog returns may be important. Does it need to be fast? Do you need to work on the ‘recall’ as a separate piece of the jigsaw?
Sitting holding the article – that may be another piece. The action of sitting – another.wysscent

Once you’ve formed all the individual pieces, how you put them together – well that’s another lesson entirely – but there’s little point in trying to do a jigsaw where the pieces aren’t the right shape or size. It just won’t turn out right.

 

Fostering nervous dogs

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I know how distressing it is to lose a dog – but there are some absolute things you do and don’t do – and I thought it might be helpful to know how I have handled and fostered rescue dogs over the years. The do’s and don’ts I put in place-

I usually use a slip lead, or half check AND a normal collar (ensuring its snug and that the dog can’t slip it) and lead if a dog has to moved from one vehicle to another and from one place to another. Perhaps 2 different attachments in case the dog is adept at slipping harnesses or collars (many are) or one should break.

IF a dog is so nervous it can’t have a collar on, getting a collar on it to me would be a pretty high priority because otherwise you have no way of attaching a houseline.

I have a house line attached to a dog for a MINIMUM of 3 days – indoors and out. The dog is only taken out in a garden on that line and it is not released at all while the dog is still avoiding me, or still looking for exits. I let it appear to have freedom – its allowed to go wherever it wants and I am looking for it starting to climb or squeeze through anything. If there look like there are any weakness at all I repair them or block them immediately. I have learned never to assume that because the previous 20 dogs have never got out of the garden, this one won’t!
Then it is allowed, carefully and actively supervised (after maybe a week or so) – on a trailing long line – a bit more freedom so I can check out if its still thnking of escaping…that may be the case for WEEKS. I always assume a dog can will try to get over a fence and that height is relative.

Dogs like this are also usually quick to spot when people look like they are going to open a door and may be just be waiting for the oportunity to make a bid for freedom. Until you have had dogs like that you cannot believe just how fast they can move – they won’t warn you.

I always have 2 layers of security – so we have an ‘air lock’. One door or gate shuts before the other is opened.

I wouldn’t release a nervous dog loose *anywhere* (including the back garden) until it was obvious it was beginning to feel safe. e,g looking to me for food and treats, settling in a crate or bed and begining to take itself there and look relaxed, beginning to move around with my other dogs and even then I’d be very very cautious until the dog was was beginning to respond positively to some kind of recall/attention getting cue.

So if you take in foster or rescue dogs…NEVER assume they want to stay with you. They won’t and don’t usually Not for ages.

My DogBlog

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I get asked a lot of questions about dog training and behaviour, but I’d be lying if I said the main purpose of this blog would be motivated be some egotistical need to satisfy the need in other people to learn from me.

No, in writing and exploring gripping dog training and behaviour topics, like ‘why does Snowy continue to howl at the Coronation Street theme music?’ or ‘how can I teach a perfect left turn?’ i have to examine and question my own experience, knowledge and thoughts and in turn provoke questions and responses from others.
But this first blog is just a trial run – the first toddler steps in a new venture.

I hope you will enjoy it.

Paddy