Dogs learn skills from different sources. They learn from their humans and they learn from each other, if they are part of a pack of dogs. For this episode’s purpose, I am going to focus on how dogs learn from their humans and how integral our part in their learning process is. Our energy, our confidence, and our body language, all play a part in their success or failure to learn. What Gary and I are really teaching is the humans, and how to communicate across a species, in a manner that is positive and effective. The dogs are usually the easy part!
One of the first things to keep in the forefront of your mind while working with dogs is that you have to be the most important thing to your dogs for the right reason. If you aren’t fun and positive, why would they want to work for you? If you are always using a stern voice and giving very little praise with low enthusiasm, the dog isn’t as apt to follow your commands. As Gary always says, “You can’t phone it in”, meaning, you can’t fake it. If you pretend to be be fun or happy for your dog, your dog will pick up on this and not be as willing to work for you. From a dog’s eye view, you are not authentic. This leaves some doubt in the dog’s mind that you are not the leader they need. They really want to work for someone who knows what they are doing and has a confident air about them. Otherwise, they will hesitate and possibly lose interest in you.
From what I have learned, the only way to get the confidence needed to communicate with a dog is through practice. With the coaching of a professional dog trainer, you will be taught to carry yourself in a way that displays confident and calm body language. For example, if you are hunched over when communicating to your dog, this is a more submissive position than if you are standing straight up. What comes natural to you as you are working with your dog may be sending a more submissive signal to your dog because of your posture. On top of that, if you are hesitant or not comfortable with communicating, your dog will pick up on this and may not respond. If you are too assertive, you are crossing over the threshold of assertiveness to frustration. Now, your dog really won’t listen to you!
You have to do your homework and work on this calm and assertive energy. It was something that definitely did not come natural to me. However, when a professional pointed out to me to act like I am talking to my children when it is imperative that they do something, I adapted that energy more easily. When you really think about it, communicating with a dog is a skill. The only way to get better at a skill is to practice. It’s like learning how to play the piano. You have to be disciplined enough to practice on a consistent basis, you have to learn to read the notes, and you have to be open to being taught by a professional. You don’t just wake up one day and know how to play Beethoven’s 5th Symphony!
I see transformations in most clients after several sessions working with them. There has to be a willingness to learn and change the way they may have been communicating with their dog, in order for this transformation to happen. I love to see this because I also see how the dog responds to them. The dog starts looking to them for direction and helping them to solve what’s next for them. It’s so rewarding as a trainer to see that and I never get tired of witnessing it.
Along side of being important to your dog is you must have a way to mark their behavior as the one you are looking for. There has to be a reward base. Gary actually prefers the word “stimulate” over “reward”. Rewards can lock people into one thing - treats. It’s the first thing that comes to most people’s minds. If you are using treats, I always recommend having a few different types while always making sure they are healthy treats. The treats that are 100% of that ingredient, like freeze dried chicken or salmon, are great. The treat only has to be the size of a pea for the dog to work for it. Dogs can get tired of the same taste, so change it up if needed.
Rewards or stimuli can take on different forms. There can be a verbal stimulus. We all say “Good boy!” or “ Good girl!” When we say this, our energy is very positive. When I am doing repetitions of a particular skill, such as the “Down” command, I will say “Yes!” as soon as the dog is in the down position. Then, I will repeat “Good down” to reiterate the command, especially if they are in the process of learning the down behavior. The “Yes!” is also confirmation to the dog that this is what you are asking them to do.
Another reward can be a toy or playing tug with a toy. It is equally important to remember that not every dog is motivated by the same stimulus. My dog, Ebi, is more motivated by treats than by toys. Treats work very well with her in shaping behaviors. She may be motivated by a toy for a little bit, but not for as long as I need her to be when doing repetitions of a new behavior.
Gary’s dog is more motivated by playing tug and working until she gets to play that tug with him. She still enjoys treats, but they have a different effect on her than a game of tug does and she is motivated to work towards that reward. When Gary finishes a dog, that means the dog no longer needs a leash or collar. Gary and the dog are a team because they have practiced and completed so many repetitions of the same behavior under so many different distractions, that the dog knows exactly what he wants. He discovered how that dog understands and learns that skill and what keeps the dog motivated to learn. It is important to add that Gary makes sure he gears his training according to each dog’s drives and motivations.
Knowing what motivates your dog is key to the learning process.
Recognizing breed traits is very important in finding the right reward to match the energy of the dog. If you are working with a terrier with a high prey drive, you will not be able to sustain successful repetitions if your reward is to play tug with your dog. Better yet, a squeaky toy will not be the best reward for this type of dog either. It can ignite that prey drive and you will not have any luck in your training session. Now, all your dog will care about is that squeaky toy. They have passed the threshold of being able to give you a calm sit to vibrating with instinctual energy that will make them possibly lunge for that reward.
If you create so much excitement in the dog while completing your repetitions, it will take quite some time to calm him down. Remember, even if the dog is siting or in a down position, his brain is on the verge of exploding and working so hard to hold that sit or down position, that he forgets what you even wanted to teach him. There is a time and place to apply this type of highly excited energy to good use when training a dog to be a protection dog, for example. This cannot be achieved without also teaching the dog an “Off” switch. Gary will explain this more in detail in a different episode when we discuss training security, protection, police, and search and rescue dogs.
I will admit that after Ebi learned all her behaviors, I got pretty lax at being excited when she did what I asked her to do. I took it for granted that she would do these commands. At the same time, I had pretty much abandoned the treats, I didn’t feel they were necessary anymore. It took me working with Gary to point that out to me. Gary always says, “You like getting a paycheck from your employer, right? Well, so does your dog!” You may not need a paycheck immediately after completing a task. Once a week or bi weekly is suitable to keep you motivated to do your job. Getting a bonus every now and then or a pat on the back, definitely keeps us humans motivated. It’s the same for dogs. After learning a particular skill, they don’t need a treat every time they do it, but every now and then, will keep them motivated.
When working with your dog, you are also building an association that learning equates to fun. Dogs learn best when they know there is something in it for them and it’s fun. If you aren’t having a good day and you’re pretending to be in a good mood, your dog will pick up on this and not want to work for you. This is when we tend to get frustrated and think it’s the dog’s inadequacies, not our own. My advice when this occurs is to pick up the training session again when you can give your dog 100% of yourself. Your dog deserves it!
Dogs learn in pictures, not movies. As you stimulate the behaviors over and over again, it’s the association and repetition that takes the picture in the dog's head. Dogs learn through association repetition.
“The behaviors we stimulate are the behaviors we accelerate”.
If you stimulate a behavior, right, wrong, or different, you get more of it. Everything in a dog’s eyes is seen as the singular. So, there's one and more ones and some ones and no ones. They'll never understand that five and two are seven. They'll just know that more ones plus more ones is more ones. It’s as if they take a picture of what your body language was at the time that the stimulus was given. You can even see the wheels turning in your dog’s head when they are learning a new behavior. They are trying to figure out what you and the environment looked like when they got that reward. Then, it’s like magic. Suddenly, they make the connection of what they had to do in order to get that reward. Again, I get so excited when I see this magic happen that I want to shout for joy. I have to refrain from doing so, because I can interrupt the learning process!
“Find the picture you want, stimulate that behavior, and do it in a manner that doesn't interrupt.”
When talking about shaping the “Sit” behavior, Gary will get a sit, and he wants to reward the sit. He’s not going to start off by stimulating the sit in a manner that disturbs the sit. He is going to try to shape it and be very precise at how he wants it to look. If the dog decides to sit but lifts his paw up, and is wagging his tail really hard, the dog does not get rewarded. You repeat this action after withholding the treat, wait for the dog to be calm and all 4 paws are on the floor. Then, reward the dog within 2 seconds. Rinse and repeat. Dogs need hundreds of repetitions until it becomes part of their vocabulary.
Gary will use a lure first in the form of a treat. Then, he will change to a tug as a reward as he is escalating the dog through his drives. Now, he is adding more distractions, maybe even more excitement to teach the dog to stay calm through this excitement. He is matching the reward to the level of escalation that he is handling the dog in.
The “Three D’s” in dog training to always keep in mind when working with your dog are Distance, Duration, and Distraction. When a dog is first learning a new behavior, the distance between you and the dog should be very close, the duration of holding that behavior should be very short (2 seconds) and the distractions should be very few. A mistake but very common thing that people do, is they will work their dog when things around them are always calm. As soon as there's any escalation or distraction, the dog loses his mind. They haven't shaped those behaviors yet in that type of environment. They haven't given the dog a place to operate in that escalated state of mind.
There have to be different stages of teaching a dog how to complete behaviors amongst distractions in the environment. You won’t have much success if you try to teach a dog a new behavior when they are in the middle of a dog park full of dogs. You must start out in a place that is quiet, like a room in your house, and complete hundreds of repetitions there before you move to a different room. After the dog is able to do that behavior consistently in every room of the house, now it’s time to try it outside. Always keeping in mind what is in the environment that could be too distracting for your pup to learn. After so many repetitions, now you are actually looking for different distractions and teaching your pup to do this behavior and hold that behavior no matter what is going on in their environment. Group work like obedience classes is an excellent way to practice this level of training. You have the opportunity to build on each dog’s drives and escalate those drives under the supervision of a professional trainer.
Another way dogs will have success in learning is by being well rested and ready to work. A common mistake people make is they don't spend enough time allowing their dog to self settle and soothe. This is where a kennel, or crate, is very important. If you are how your dog calms down, if you being around is how your dog relaxes, then that's what you have shaped. Your dog can’t soothe himself on his own. Of course your dog will have separation anxiety. You're not there. It’s all they know. So many people fall into the trap of trying to do the right thing by the dog and putting him in his kennel, but then they get the dog out because he is crying. The puppy learns that if they make a big enough fuss, they will get let out.
What I have found with countless clients, is that some puppies or dogs will cry at night for 3 nights in a row, and then, will finally surrender to the process. It’s those 3 nights that can be very rough, but essential, if you want to keep your sanity and not create a dog that is dependent on you for falling asleep. This can develop into anxiety when you leave the house. Now you really don’t have a life! I know so many people who have felt like they are prisoners in their own home because their dog never was properly introduced to the kennel in the right way.
There can be some dogs that are predisposed to a higher level of anxiety, but typically it is because of how the kennel was introduced. I must add that you don’t want the puppy working themselves into a tizzy that they try to claw and bite their way out. You can create a very negative association with the crate. Most puppies and dogs will bark or whine for a few minutes and then settle. That’s ok. They are learning to self soothe. I equate this with weaning a baby off the bottle, or not running right away to the baby every time he cries in the middle of the night.
One huge tip when introducing the kennel to your dog is to get him tired after a nice play session. Lure him in to the kennel with a yummy treat (try to refrain from picking up and placing him in there), and leave something yummy he can lick, until he eventually falls asleep. Frozen Kong’s filled with almond butter and pumpkin are great for this. You are also shaping that this is the place where you want your dog to take a nap and not play with a bunch of toys you put in there for him. It will also avoid him waking up and wanting to follow you around the house. Again, this is healthy separation.
Two other benefits of using a crate as a teaching tool is for potty training and reducing and preventing separation anxiety. The crate cannot be underrated for aiding in the process of housebreaking your dog. If you use a kennel to housebreak your dog, it happens faster. It happens more reliably. You should use your kennel like an extra person in the house to watch the dog. Designate a small enough area where there is enough space to interact and play with your dog, while you are also watching for signs that they may have to go out to go potty. If instead you give the dog free rein of the house, it is only sending a message that they can go potty anywhere in the house and that you are less important in their daily schedule. Now they are making dog decisions and getting off into things that don’t include you, mainly because you won’t typically engage with your dog.
Another benefit of using the crate is to prevent separation anxiety. This is very important to Gary and I. We don’t want to see your dog re-homed because he is destroying the walls, the floor, the carpeting, the furniture, and the doors, just because you left the house. Gary and I have seen dogs eat through walls just to get out of the house so they can look for you. They will also damage their teeth and paws to claw out of their crate. They are in “flight” mode of the “fight or flight” response. In one incident, Gary had a client whose dog put holes in 3 different walls to get to the garage. He couldn’t get back in the house through one of those holes. So, he clawed through a new hole, and proceeded to remodel the rest of the house. This is a worst case scenario of not properly taking the time to habituate the dog to the crate. Ultimately, you are keeping your dog safe by crating him.
Used correctly, the crate can also be a powerful motivator in training professional dogs. When Gary has crated a dog for a period of time, the dog is so motivated to work for him, because he hasn’t done anything else for awhile. This way, he will have 100 percent of that dog’s attention and effort. When the training session is finished, he puts a tired dog back in the crate. The dog can’t fathom 5 seconds from that point, but he can definitely remember the last hour of working!
Gary may get some pushback about using the crate as a motivator used in the example above. People will say that you have to keep training purely positive. However, we aren’t training Orcas or dolphins where the only chance of training them is to build a routine, like in the shows at Sea World. We can work with dogs in a manner unlike a lot of other species and make sure that we “pay” them for the time they spent in the crate by playing a good game of tug or fetch.
One of the first things Gary asks every client is what breed their dog is. When Gary discovers the client has a mixed breed, like many of the varied doodles out there, it will explain why the dog acts the way they do. Standard poodles are impressive hunting dogs. So, when a doodle is showing predatory behavior, this is the standard poodle coming out. Poodles also over think their situations, are very quick on their feet, and have the athletics of a ninja! This is contrary to the impression most people have of them - beautifully coiffed prancers that are seen in the show arena. In Gary’s opinion, breed traits are real. He wants to know what behaviors he can reliably expect from that dog. Then, when he meets that dog, where do those behaviors fall. What is he really observing?
Meeting genetic fulfillment for the dog is also very important to keep your dog motivated to learn. You need to have things for your dog to positively engage in that meet that genetic fulfillment. For example, Huskies are known to have boundless energy and can run for miles upon miles. If they are confined to the house and their yard, sooner or later they will climb over any wall to get out and just run. If there are more than one Husky, they will all escape. Gary has known Huskies to be gone for weeks, but they all have come back, thank goodness. If you are able to rig them up to pull a sled, what a wonderful thing you are doing for your Husky. You are fulfilling their instinct to pull and run.
Dogs pick up on the subtlest of clues. If you make a conscious effort to work with them and not be too overwhelming, you will get a dog that you can live harmoniously with. You are communicating across the species. Take your time, be patient. Try not to hyper explain things, repeat, or stutter what you want. We aren’t dealing with an animal that has a learning disability. Be very clear.
“Don’t forget that clarity doesn’t depend on how you see it. Clarity depends on how the dog sees it.”
Most dogs want to bond with their human and want to please them too. This makes them stand out from other species. There is a built in drive that makes them want to cooperate with us. It is up to us humans to discover that and make them thrive. If all you are doing is using adversives and correctives, then you are not teaching your dog to do anything. You are just putting him in a position to keep picking a different dog behavior until he stops getting in trouble.
Dogs are smart and cooperative. There are plenty of dog owners out there that do just fine without needing to contact a professional. That being said, there are also plenty who really should contact us! It’s amazing what people will tolerate! For the most part, dogs will figure out how to operate their human and their family. If there are any issues, they don’t get in the way of daily living, and everything is fine. Gary and I may not handle things in the same manner, but that’s ok. Dogs are very smart. If we gain a better understanding of how they learn, we are more apt to be more patient and more available to them through this whole process.
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