When you invite a guest into your home, there are some key pieces of information you share with them probably without even thinking about it: “Please remove your shoes,†or “I’ll take your coat,†“…bathroom’s down the hall,†“Beer can go in the fridge,†“Everyone else is out back, you can just head out through the kitchen…†It’s also important you provide your new dog with information upon his arrival that will help him make the adjustment and feel comfortable in your home.
The rules and expectations outlined below are designed to help you from first impression through the first few months as it usually takes around four to six weeks for a dog to really settle into his new home and for his “true colors†to show. Meaning, once he’s comfortable enough around you and your home, he may have the confidence to engage in some unwanted behavior. By implementing clear and consistent structure and sending the right message from the get-go, you’ll likely be able to avoid many problems from developing at all.
The key concepts for the first day and several weeks following are consistent and controlled structure, clear and calm communication, and predictability. Lack of structure (too much freedom), and unpredictable circumstances including confusing expectations or punishment, will result in your dog feeling anxious and unable to adjust to your home in a healthy way.
Day 1: Proper introduction to your neighborhood
When you arrive home, go immediately from the car to a walk (on-leash) around the neighborhood so he can check things out, walk off any nervous energy, and take a bathroom break. Keep the walk moving at a quick pace, but allow a few sniffing breaks. Use this time to observe your new dog’s body language and energy: is he anxious, excited, or uncertain? If he is, practice being a good leader during this time; promote calm behavior and confidence by modeling it for him with your body language and energy. You don’t need to go too far, maybe a few blocks.
Day 1: Proper introduction to your home
When you return home, leave the leash on and enter your home in a calm manner. Begin to set some basic rules about the indoor behavior expectations by having your dog wait at the door, not bolt in ahead of you. With the leash on, take him on a tour of the home. As an exercise to define the expectations for yourself as much as for your dog, when you go to each space, verbally name the space saying it out loud, then briefly describe and/or visualize the behavior that takes place in that area. For example, when you come to the living room, you might say, “This is the space where everyone relaxes and unwinds together at the end of the day.†Picture that scene for a moment in your mind. Show your dog his bed and encourage him to check it out (since he’ll need a designated place of his own if he’s to share this space with you in a relaxed manner), then move on.
If, when you go through this process of designating the spaces, you realize the space is not conducive for the dog to be able to successfully meet your behavior expectations there, make a note to address this problem. For example, if the dining room is where the family eats and the dog will be allowed to share that space during mealtimes, he’ll need his own place otherwise he’ll likely default to begging or cruising underneath the table for scraps. If that’s not behavior you want, set up the space so it invites the behavior you do want.
Day 1: Proper introduction to your yard
As part of the walk-through (still on leash), head outside (requiring a “wait†at the door first to teach the rule of not bolting out the door). Take him over to the area in the yard where you want him to do his business and encourage him to eliminate there now. Praise and reward any successful efforts and show him around the yard a bit. If there are any areas you want him to leave alone, such as a flower bed, allow him to briefly check it out then lead him away saying, “leave it,†as you go. For the first few weeks, it’s a good idea to bring your dog outside on leash every time to ensure he hits the right potty area and does not develop any bad habits right away.
When it’s time to go inside, immediately take your dog to his crate and crate him for a brief period of time (maybe 20 minutes to half an hour or until he’s in a calm state of mind). He will likely feel stressed and maybe overwhelmed by the car ride and introduction to her new home, so giving him a chance to relax and regroup at this point is a good idea. While your dog is crated, don’t fawn or fuss over him. Allow him his quiet time and some space of his own. If he dozes off for a few minutes, that’s just fine! When his time is up, calmly release him from the crate and take him outside on leash to his spot for a bathroom break immediately.
Day 1 to 120: Crates and supervision
Even if you’ve adopted an adult or senior dog, he’s still a new dog to your home. You may not know much about his history (including why he was given up in the first place) so treat him like a puppy and supervise his every move unless he’s safely crated or enclosed in an area where he cannot do damage to your property or himself. If you have a puppy (for our purposes, defined as birth to 6 months) it’s vitally important to follow this rule to successfully potty train your pup. Even if you’ve been told your dog is potty-trained, he may regress in a new environment (or he may not have really been potty-trained in the first place). Inappropriate chewing can also be a problem for both puppies and adult dogs—so crating when unsupervised ensures he doesn’t inadvertently get his teeth on something he shouldn’t!
Crate your dog when you’re unable to supervise directly so he doesn’t have an accident, and get him outdoors frequently using words like, “Let’s go outside and do business/go potty.†You should also crate your dog occasionally when you’re home and can listen for signs of distress at being confined, just like you did after the home tour. If he barks or whines, interrupt the behavior in a calm but assertive manner—do not reward the behavior by releasing him from the crate or giving him attention by trying to calm or soothe. Providing an object in her crate such as a towel or blanket that smells like his previous home, pack, or littermates may help ease the transition to your home.
Day 1 to 120: Sleeping arrangements
I know it’s tempting to allow your new dog into your bed (or your kids’ beds) to snuggle at night, especially if he seems fearful or uncertain about his new living arrangement. Please try to resist this urge! Trust me, it will be well worth it to maintain clear expectations and roles at this critical juncture when, later on, you have a calm, well-adjusted, trustworthy pet. Then he can be invited up to the bed. For the next few months, crate your dog at night in your bedroom.You may have a few nights of interrupted sleep initially as he adjusts, but it will be worth it to help him feel safe and comfortable in his crate so he can be left alone for periods of time without concern that he’ll have an accident or be destructive. Remember not to give in and let him out if he whines or barks.
Separation anxiety is a real issue and one that can be difficult to fix once it develops. It tends to be especially common among dogs purchased through rescue groups and animal shelters and understandably so as these dogs may have been abandoned or shuffled from home to home. Creating positive crate associations by crating your dog for brief periods while you’re at home and together at night while sleeping, providing him a safe chew toy, treats, or food/treat stuffed toy while he’s in the crate, and never using the crate for punishment, will help him view his crate as a positive, relaxing place rather than a lonely, scary place.
If after a few days, he’s still not accepting his crate more calmly or his behavior in the crate is extremely urgent or escalating (pawing, digging, excessive salivation or foaming, incessant barking or “crying†for long periods of time, or doing damage to the crate or himself) please contact a professional trainer experienced in dealing with separation anxiety immediately.
Day 1 to 120: Consistent routine
To help your new dog feel relaxed in your home, especially during the first few months, implement a very consistent, highly structured daily routine. This routine should include specific times for meals (no free feeding), walking/exercise, play, training and socialization, and rest/crate/separation. Everyone in the family needs to be clear on this routine, so write it down if you must! Until he’s proven to be trustworthy, there isn’t a moment of the day when he’s not participating in an activity with you, directly supervised, or crated.
Unsupervised time may provide an opportunity for him to learn to potty under your dining room table, steal food off the counter, or behave in an anxious manner. It’s far easier to closely supervise, interrupt unwanted behavior, and completely avoid behavior problems than to re-teach a dog that has taught himself unwanted behavior while left unsupervised.
Use baby gates to keep your dog contained in one area of the home or attach his leash to you to keep him nearby so you can interrupt unwanted behavior and reward good behavior in a well-timed manner.
Day 1 to 120: Consistent behavior expectations
Everyone in the family needs to be on the same page in terms of how the dog is being treated and what the dog’s rules are. If even one person decides to “fudge†the rules once in awhile, it will be much more challenging for your dog to learn your expectations and could create confusion, uncertainty, and frustration for your dog, which will likely lead to unwanted behavior. Consistent handling will help your new dog learn the rules faster and more reliably, which will ultimately help him feel more relaxed in your home. Have the entire family participate in creating the behavior expectations and write them down and post next to the daily routine.
Day 1: What to feed
You may wish to improve upon what your dog was previously eating. Good for you! Many dogs are on a poor quality, nutrient deficient diet. Often, dogs in shelter or rescue groups simply eat what has been donated to the organization. If you know what your dog previously ate, transition him to his new food gradually by mixing in a small amount of new food initially and gradually increasing the amount until you’re feeding all new food. Learn what a healthy weight is for your dog.
If your new dog is underweight, do not over-feed him in an effort to fatten him up as this will cause digestive upset. Feed the recommended daily amount splitting it up between two or three meals throughout the day and keep close track of his weight gain.
Day 1: Introducing your new dog to your other dogs
Ideally, you’ve already had a chance to see if your new dog gets along with your existing dog or pack prior to their arrival. Your goal on Day 1 is to make the introductions a “non-event,†or in text-speak, NBD.
When you bring your new dog home, take everyone out on that initial walk. Make it a pack walk and keep everyone moving forward together. Make sure you have enough people on hand to safely handle all dogs, and leashes should be loose. Dogs do not interact at first; everyone simply starts walking together. At some point during the walk, when it appears everyone has settled in and become focused on the walk, stop briefly to allow some sniffing of one another on loose leashes, then proceed on your walk. Don’t get excited or force any interactions that the dogs are not ready to have, just give them the opportunity.
This is a bonding experience for everyone. You’re looking for the dogs to be interested initially, but to quickly accept this new addition and not become fixated or overly excited. Remember, a new family member is a big change for everyone and any or all of the dogs could easily become overwhelmed and stressed, which can cause otherwise uncharacteristic behavior. Walking together helps to redirect excitement and energy to a useful task, but it’s also important to always be closely observing all the dogs’ body language and responding appropriately to keep excitement levels in check. If anyone is getting overly-excited or fixated, simply redirect their attention to the walk and keep moving. Don’t allow the excitement to stay fixated on another dog for more than a few seconds initially.
Once you’re home, assuming all went well on the walk, continue the “walk†in your yard and allow a couple of sniffing breaks. If a problem is going to arise, it’s most likely to either happen at the initial interaction on the walk or once you’re on your home turf so watch for stiff or fixated body language. If the dogs seem to be accepting one another, drop the leashes and continue to move through the yard. Keep moving and invite the dogs to move with you, but allow them to become distracted by scents or to naturally interact with one another at this point, only intervening if excitement levels are getting too high.
For the first few weeks, your dogs should only interact under direct supervision. Packs are constantly in flux, so it’s absolutely imperative during this time that you take the lead with all your dogs and reward and promote the dog that models the best behavior at any given moment, not the dog you perceive to be the “top dog.†All the dogs in your pack should be subject to the same rules and expectations (within reason for very old or very young dogs).
If during the introduction any of your dogs demonstrates any behavior that raises concern for you, seek professional help immediately before pursuing further interaction.
Day 1 to 120: Socialization to people, objects, places, and body handling
Socializing your dog to places, people, other dogs, objects, and handling will be an on-going effort for the rest of his life, but should be a primary focus during the first few weeks he’s with you as it will help you get to know him better. You want him to have positive associations and become comfortable with the people you commonly interact with (friends and family members), places you frequent (the vet, groomers), objects in your home such as the vacuum cleaner, and other dogs he will come in contact with regularly (follow the same process as introducing him to your own pack). He should also become comfortable having his body gently handled, including feet for nail trims, ears and mouth for cleaning, and tail. The key is the dog must not feel forced into a situation in which he’s uncomfortable as that will elicit a negative response (growling, trembling, urination, snapping) and a negative association.
Go slowly with these introductions and interactions, allow him to go at his own pace whenever possible and don’t physically force interactions that he’s clearly not comfortable with.
Day 15 and beyond: Socialization to other dogs
The impulse is to cart your dog over to the dog park immediately or show off your new pup to all your friends or invite them over with their pooches for a play date right away. Remember, your dog’s world has just been turned upside down and generally speaking we want to try to keep his work as calm, predictable, and relaxed as possible to ease his transition. While many dogs with outgoing personalities, especially puppies, will be happy to meet other dogs right away, some individuals are more sensitive. Listen to your gut and if there’s a hint of doubt, wait on the doggy play dates for a couple of weeks.
At that point, you’ll have established a level of trust with your new dog and he’ll look to you for help if he’s confused or concerned rather than feel like he has to “deal with†the situation on his own. Also, you’ll be familiar with your dog’s individual quirks and signals such as what he does when he has to go potty (don’t want him messing on Aunt Clarice’s new rug), and how he looks when he’s getting tired or impatient so you know when to intervene before a play date goes sour.
In addition, there can be a very real concern with some dogs as to their level of immunity and vaccination status. If your dog came from a shelter situation, it’s never a bad idea to keep your distance from other dogs for a couple of weeks to ensure your dog isn’t carrying any disease or worm that he could transmit to another dog.
One word of caution: dogs do not become socialized by proximity to a large group of dogs such as those found at a dog park or doggy daycare. In fact, for the wrong dog, these environments can be over-stimulating, scary, or downright dangerous. The best way to conduct dog socialization is to gradually introduce him to known, stable, friendly dogs one-on-one in a relaxed, supervised, neutral setting and allow the known commodity, the stable dog, to set the tone and lead by example as much as possible with proper intervention if the situation becomes overly-stimulating or tense for either dog.
Some “artificial†boosts
These are some additional supplemental therapies that may prove helpful in easing the transition to your home and reduce anxiety in general:
- A dog appeasing pheromone (DAP) diffuser
Pet Rescue Remedy (Bach flower remedies)- Calming lavender essential oil
Massage, Reiki, & Chiropractic- Classical music
If you’ve followed the advice included here and are experiencing problems with your new dog several weeks after bringing him home or new problems arise within the first few months, contact a professional dog trainer that will come to your home and conduct individualized private training.
Unwanted behavior does not improve on its own. In fact, most often it actually becomes worse over time if proactive steps aren’t taken to counter it. The best time to address unwanted behavior is as soon as it surfaces!
Additional reading to help before and during the transition, and beyond
“The Latchkey Dog†by Jodi Andersen
“A Member of the Family†by Cesar Millan
“My Smart Puppy†by Sarah Wilson and Brian Kilcommons
Your Newly Adopted Dog lesson
“Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know†by Alexandra Horowitz
“The Nature of Animal Healing†by Marty Goldstein
“The Whole Pet Diet†by Andi Brown
A dog trainer is teacher, coach, cheerleader, behaviorist, and family or marital counselor all in one. Actually, the dog training part is pretty straightforward—the dogs are usually ready and willing to learn better behavior and live happier, more well-balanced lives. It’s the people that are most often stuck in “bad†habits and resistant or fearful, either consciously or subconsciously, of change.
As a dog trainer that performs one-on-one in-home private lessons, I work with a client for one to two hours a week and cram as much into that time and into their brains as possible with the understanding that they put into practice what was learned in the intervening weeks between our lessons. I make myself available to answer questions or trouble-shoot, but it is ultimately up to the primary caretaker, with the support of the family, to implement the training.
Defining the Primary Caretaker
Defining the “primary caretaker†in a household requires having a frank discussion about family dynamics. If you are lucky enough to be part of a household where the domestic responsibilities (cleaning, cooking, maintenance, child and pet care) are evenly split, that’s fantastic. Clearly you and your partner have excellent communication and it will be a cinch to split the dog training duties as well. These families are few and far between. In most homes, even in our “modern†times, there is still very clear delineation about certain jobs and roles. Okay, I’ll just come out and say it: in my experience, much of the caretaking duties in the home often fall to the mom/wife (when there is one). Also, if there are dog behavior problems, they’re often more severe or prevalent with “Mom†than “Dad†as reported by my clients.
While it might seem illogical or downright cruel to ask a potentially overburdened primary caretaker to take on another responsibility, in order to obtain real-world, reliable behavior modification results this is exactly what must happen for three reasons:
1) The primary caretaker spends the most time exposed to/in proximity with the dog, although this doesn’t necessarily mean the primary caretaker is the most interactive family member with the dog.
2) The primary caretaker spends the most time with the kids if there are children.
3) The primary caretaker often spends more time at home than their partner. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are a homemaker or stay-at-home mom. In fact, many women that work 40+ hour work weeks still manage to be the primary caretaker in their homes (but that’s a whole different blog post!).
As you can see from the criteria above, by opportunity and proximity, the primary caretaker simply has the most opportunities to correct unwanted behavior and reinforce desired behavior when those instances arise.
A Story of Sabotage
The Johnson family is comprised of Mom, Dad, and two young children. They also have a 9-month old lab that doesn’t listen and pulls on walks. He also exhibits emotionally needy and sometimes pushy behavior when he wants attention. He’ll sit beside a person, lean against them, sit on their feet, stare at them, nudge them, throw his ball at them, lick, jump up, bark, maybe even “nibble†on them in an effort to get them to interact with him—to play or pet. On the surface, this seems benign enough, maybe even cute. In fact, he’s been doing it since he was a puppy. What’s really happening during these interactions is the dog is learning he can control his people with his behavior. He can get what he wants by behaving in a needy or pushy manner because it generates a response in the person. They either pet mindlessly or toss the ball, maybe even push him off in an attempt to correct the behavior, but they still engage. One of the family’s goals is to be able to walk the dog without being pulled.
In order to be able to teach the dog to walk where we want him to walk (not pulling at the end of the leash), he has to first believe that we are actually in charge of his behavior and setting the rules, not the other way around. So it becomes imperative that no one in the family (not just the person primarily responsible for the dog training) give the dog attention when he’s attempting to get it from them in the inappropriate ways mentioned above.
If Mom is the only one reinforcing the new rules and handling techniques the trainer recommended, and Dad continues to offer his attention and affection for “free†and/or on the dog’s insistence, it undermines the training process. It causes confusion for the dog about the behavior expectations and slows, derails, or totally sabotages the training.
Before You Call the Trainer
Before you call the trainer, the adults in the household need to sit down and come to consensus on some key points pertaining to the dog. Get out a pen and paper and write down your answers to these questions as you discuss them.
- What are our ultimate behavior goals and expectations for our dog?
Frame this in terms of what you want the dog to do, rather than what you do not want the dog to do. For example, instead of saying, “I don’t want him to pull on leash,†you might say, “I want him to walk at my left side on a loose-leash for our entire walk,†or “I want him to walk in a heel beside the stroller,†or “I want him to be able to walk with us off-leash so I don’t have to worry about tripping on a leash,†etc. Your picture of “good†behavior may be very different from your partner’s. You may even find that your partner doesn’t experience the same behavior problems that you do. If consensus cannot be reached on some point, favor goes to the primary caretaker for the three reasons outlined above.
- Based on our dog’s current behavior, what’s our “worst case scenarioâ€?Â
This may seem like a macabre question, but it is very helpful to consider an extreme scenario in order to appropriately frame the training conversation. It will help you determine how you’d like to train the dog (method, tools), the level to which the dog must be trained (precision and proficiency), and also the urgency or necessity for training in the first place.
If Mom’s worst case scenario is the dog becomes over-excited and bites one of the children on the face requiring a trip to urgent care and a few stitches, and Dad’s perceived worst-case scenario is that the dog steals food from the 3-year olds hand, the ability for both adults to consistently support the training over time (and not sabotage) will be compromised. Each person’s perceived consequence of not successfully training the dog are very different. The bite would be perceived as a major trauma to the child and dog, warranting any training tool or method to begin immediately. While food stealing may be a relatively minor infraction that necessitates a less urgent training timeline and could afford some room for error (read: sabotage).
[Insert “balanced†training plug here:] If you’re uncomfortable with a particular training tool or approach because of what you’ve read on the internet or been told by well-meaning family members and friends, even though you know or suspect the training would be effective in preventing your worst case scenario, it’s time to open your mind to new possibilities especially if your worst case scenario results in a person injured or traumatized, or a dog injured or euthanized.
- What will be everyone’s role in training new behavior?
You fall into one of three categories when it comes to training:
1) You’re proactively training the dog. This is the person with the leash or the remote in their hand. To get the best training results, all adults in the household (including adult children) that are of able mind and body should be able to effectively take on this role. However, the “primary caretaker†absolutely must take on this role because that’s the person that’s going to have the most opportunities to use the training, and is the person that will benefit the most from having a different relationship with the dog. If that person is Mom, even though she’s already got a lot on her plate, she needs to take on a central role in training the dog.
2) You’re neutral. These people aren’t actively rewarding or correcting the dog, they’re simply attempting to be non-factors in the process. In our story of sabotage above, being neutral might mean ignoring the behavior or getting up and walking away when the dog gets pushy with you. You are aware of the underlying issue of control playing out; you don’t actively correct, but you don’t accidentally reinforce either. Even if you participate as an active trainer in your household, there will be times when you’ll need to stand back and be neutral to allow someone else to practice asserting themselves and to not create confusion. Too many people rushing to correct the dog or reinforce expectations can be just as confusing for the dog as no one doing so.
3) You’re sabotaging the process. These people, usually unconsciously and not intentionally, do things to undermine your training. Sometimes it’s a child that doesn’t take direction well, a spouse that has difficulty changing their habits, or a parent or neighbor that doesn’t see how encouraging the dog to jump up on them a couple of times a year when they stop by for a visit is problematic. If you identify that you will likely have one or more saboteurs in your midst, you better set these people straight before you call the dog trainer. You will waste your time and money working with a professional only to have one or more family members sabotage your progress.
If the perceived saboteurs are adults (such as adult children or elderly parents that live with you), you must have a frank conversation with them. One possibility is to make them partly financially responsible for the training. It will literally make them more “invested†in the process and the outcome.
Saboteurs often come in small, cute packages. If your young children pose a potential obstacle to training the dog, you may need to set up some new routines within your household to manage the kids so they don’t have the chance to sabotage. For example, if teaching your dog to not pick things up off the ground unless he’s told is one of your goals (and this is a great expectation to set with your dog to keep him safe), you will need to manage your environment so you are able to supervise your dog when he’s around your children’s toys lying on the floor. You may need to implement a new rule that there is one designated play room so toys are contained in one area and not placed all over the home, thereby making it easier for you to supervise your dog and correct and reinforce as necessary when the opportunities arise. If toys are moved from one place to another, it is done in one designated special box. And if the toys aren’t placed back in that box (with lid) after they’re done being used, they magically disappear.
If a discussion of your family reveals more saboteurs in your ranks than trainers or neutral partners, address this before you call the professional. It is your dog trainer’s job to train the dog and teach the people. But try as they might, your trainer will most likely not be able to change your children’s or spouse’s behavior or habits in the limited amount of time they spend with you.
Additional Ideas for Motivation and Accountability
A good dog trainer should get you excited about training and keep you focused on your goals. But you may need to implement some other strategies to help keep everyone on track after the dog trainer leaves. Does your family thrive on structure, incentives, or discipline? Figuring out how to motivate and hold everyone accountable for their part in training the dog will be a challenge you may have to get creative to overcome. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:
- If you and your family thrive on structure, implement an in-home “board and train.†In this scenario, you’re always prepared to turn a mistake into a learning opportunity. The dog is managed on a strict schedule. He’s either kenneled, supervised by a proactive household trainer, or being trained. This also means the saboteurs in your midst won’t be able to do any damage. In fact, you’ve designed things so they’re actually assisting you in proofing because whenever they’re around the dog you’re prepared to reinforce the training and expectations.
- Write up some basic house rules that will promote good dog behavior. Examples of rules include: “no treats or petting unless the dog sits on command first,†“make the dog wait at the door before letting him outside,†“No talking to the dog unless you’re giving a command or the dog has done a command first.†Give everyone a rubber binder to wear on their wrist. They’re to snap the binder when they catch themselves breaking one of the rules to help them change their habits.
- Post your rules on the bathroom mirror so everyone gets a daily reminder when they wake up and when they go to sleep.
- Do a variation on a “swear†jar and make people put in a quarter every time you catch them breaking one of the “rules.†You could either incent them by redistributing the wealth when the money adds up or spend it on a fun family activity that includes the dog (or if the money adds up fast, you might want to spend it on more dog training!).
- Do you have a competitive family? Does bribery work in your household? Make it a competition. You can make this as complicated or simple as you’d like. One idea is to set up a jar for each family member and slips of paper in corresponding colors for the different rules. When you catch each other following a rule, add that slip to their jar. At the end of a week, tally everything up. The family member who’s been the most consistent in following the rules gets a special prize or treat. The color-coding is also a way to track what area each person needs to work on when it comes to handling the dog. If one person consistently does well making the dog wait to go outdoors as indicated by all the blue slips of paper, but talks to the dog incessantly as indicated by a decided lack of yellow slips, you know this is an area in which you could help this person improve.
- If you have a larger or extended family living together, this idea might be fun: secretly designate a different person each day as the “Sheriff.†That person watches out for people to be following the rules with the dog. Only one other person knows who the “Sheriff†is on any given day so no one else knows when their good behavior might be being observed and mentally recorded. At dinner that night, the “Sheriff†is revealed and one person is recognized for their exceptional efforts with the dog. Maybe there’s a small prize involved, a special privilege, or maybe that person gets to secretly choose the next Sheriff.
Please comment and share the successful strategies you’ve implemented for yourself, your family, or your children to generate motivation and accountability towards a goal (whether it’s training the dog or something else), and remember, dog training is a team sport. Go Team!
There is no single all-encompassing state or national license an individual must earn to become a dog trainer. Trainers possess a  wide range of formal education and hands-on experience, and implement a variety of handling methods and tools. It is ultimately up to you to deduce if a particular trainer is the right fit to help you and your dog. There are many ways to go about sussing out a dog trainer, but the particular credentials a trainer carries can be very informative if you know what it took to “earn†them and what they mean.
It should be noted that well-qualified trainers may opt to not carry any credentials at all, relying instead on experience or the obedience titles their dogs or clients’ dogs have earned. In addition to credentialing,  some other ways you can research a prospective trainer are to do a thorough review of a trainer’s website if they have one, including watching videos, and reading their blog and any client testimonials; sign up for a free consultation (if they offer one), observe a group class if they perform them, or at the very least ask a few well-crafted questions.
Quick Guidelines
Because I truly want you to have a successful training experience for the sake of your dog and your family, I’m going to provide the best general guidelines I can filtered for different criteria, one of which might describe your needs.
These recommendations are based on my research of the three primary optional trainer credentialing organizations (APDT, NADOI, and IACP) that are profiled in more detail below and may not accurately represent individual trainers in some cases. If you’re curious as to how I arrived at these general guidelines, please be sure to review the rest of the blog post!
If you need…
…A trainer of a certain experience level that has proven expertise and/or are more interested in getting training and behavior modification results regardless of specific training tool or technique:
Best: NADOI “Certified†or “Provisional†level member; IACP “Professional†level member with an additional CDT or CDTA credential
Okay: IACP “Associate†level member (additional credential CPT, CDT, or CDTA is even better); APDT “Professional†level member (CPDT-KA)Â
…A trainer particularly qualified in teaching people and/or instructing a group class:
Best: NADOI “Certified†or “Provisional†level member
Okay: APDT “Professional†level member (CPDT-KA)
*APDT does not receive the “best†rating because there is equal emphasis placed on Learning Theory and Instruction in the CCPDT test.Â
…A trainer that uses only Positive Reinforcement (rewarding “good†behavior) and Negative Punishment (ignoring unwanted behavior or removing a reward), and avoids the use of tools designed to be able to provide effective Positive Punishment  or a “correction†(e.g. choke chain, prong collar, head-halter, no-pull harness, or e-collar):
Best: APDT “Professional†level member (CPDT-KA)
Okay: APDT “Full†level member
…A trainer with the ability and willingness to use a wide variety of tools, including those used to provide a correction, and the full spectrum of feedback (all four Operant Conditioning quadrants) based on what obtains the best training or behavior results:
Best: NADOI “Certified†or “Provisional†level member or IACP “Professional†level member with the CPT, CDT, or CDTA credential
Okay: IACP “Associate†level member (ideally with the CPT, CDT, or CDTA credential)
…A trainer who is able to resolve tough behavior problems like anxiety and aggression:
Best: IACP “Professional†level member with the CDTA or CPT credentials
Okay: IACP “Professional†or “Associate†level member (ideally with the CDT or CPT credentials); NADOI “Certified†or “Provisional†level member
*APDT is excluded from this category because of their explicit and implied restrictions on training tools and handling approach. For serious behavior issues that could have life or death consequences for a dog, it’s imperative to be open to all tools and approaches.
…A trainer that has the potential to get a different or better training result than has previously been achieved with your dog:
Figure out what credentials your previous trainer, instructor, or behaviorist possessed and then look for a trainer or instructor that possesses credentials from a different organization.
…A trainer that will be effective in dealing with puppy-related issues (effective socialization, crate and potty-training, chewing in dogs up to 4 months of age)
Best: IACP “Professional†or “Associate†level member (ideally with the additional CDTA, CDT, or CPT credential), NADOI member
Okay: APDT “Professional†level member (CPDT-KA)
*Though trainers differ quite a bit when it comes to training adult dogs and dogs with behavior issues, most trainers agree on most issues pertaining to puppies. At this stage, it’s a matter of deciding what type of training you wish to progress to later on with your dog, one based in balance with many tools at your disposal, or one based in limited feedback and available tools, and start with a trainer that you can potentially continue to work with later on. Which direction you choose may relate to the breed or temperament of your puppy.
Disclaimers: The recommendations above are predicated on the idea that trainers are honestly meeting the organization’s Code of Conduct and membership qualifications. Trainer credentials should only be one aspect you consider among many as you research different dog trainers.
Dog Trainer Optional Membership Organizations & Credentialing
Following, is a brief summary and a few highlights of membership guidelines, position statements, and codes of conduct.
APDTÂ Â
- APDT (and by affiliation, the CCPDT) is closely tied and allied with animal behaviorists and animal behavior societies based on “behaviorist†credentials they’ll accept for automatic qualification as a Professional level member.
- APDT promotes what they call “dog friendly†training, a term which they have defined in a Position Statement to mean the use of positive reinforcement and negative punishment to effectively train dogs (presumably, absent positive punishment and negative reinforcement, the other two quadrants in the Operant Conditioning learning model). APDT mentions “numerous scientific studies†but does not specifically cite any in particular to support their position and definition.
- Interestingly (in light of their strong position about “dog friendly†training), the APDT does not state outright their support or opposition to e-collars, prong collars, or choke chains within their numerous position statements, although these tools would be used to administer positive punishment and negative reinforcement.  One might infer that they are opposed to these tools based on the position that an acceptable level of training can be attained with only positive reinforcement and negative punishment, which do not require the use of a corrective device.
- The certifying body for APDT Professional membership (CPDT-KA credential) is the CCPDT. Their 250-question multiple-choice test weighs subject matter as follows: Instruction Skills 32%, Learning Theory 32%, Ethology 20%, Equipment 7%, Animal Husbandry 6%, Business Practices and Ethics 3%. This gives good insight into the emphasis the CCPDT, and by extension the APDT, place on different  areas of the body of dog trainer knowledge. For example, we can see that demonstrating an understanding of  learning theory (32% of test questions) is far more important than demonstrating an understanding of how to effectively identify and use different pieces of training equipment (7% of test questions), further demonstrating how closely allied the APDT is with the field of animal behaviorism as opposed to animal training.
NADOI
- NADOI places an emphasis on dog obedience instructors, meaning the professional has shown to be able to teach people effectively, in addition to demonstrating proficiency as a dog trainer. (APDT also emphasizes “instruction†as evidenced per the CCPDT exam. However, NADOI’s standards are more stringent than APDT’s.)
- NADOI is the only organization that is exclusive to dog trainers/instructors, and that requires a minimum level of expertise for their lowest level membership (Provisional). The other organizations will take a person’s money without requiring proof of any expertise at their entry level membership option. NADOI is also the least-expensive group to be affiliated with.
- NADOI states that they endorse the expertise of the trainer based on their ability to achieve positive training results, regardless of tool or method. “NADOI is strongly opposed to cruel or unnecessarily harsh training methods. It is, however, the position of NADOI that the humaneness of equipment and training methods is dependent upon the skill and knowledge of individual trainers and that limitation or restriction regarding the use of certain equipment or training methods is detrimental to the purpose of and goal of NADOI.â€
IACP
- IACP generally positions themselves as a group that is open and accepting of all approaches and tools, stating “The IACP advocates the education of canine professionals and the public in the correct, humane use of all training tools.â€
- IACP and APDT mix up dog trainers with other dog professionals such as pet product suppliers, groomers, etc. However, IACP is the only organization that allows non dog-trainers to attain its highest membership level, which could be misleading to a consumer.
Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT)
Membership Qualifications Overview
| Level | Cost | Requirements |
| Professional | $ 150.00 | Part or full time dog trainer that has met the following: 300 + hours of class instruction, high school diploma, 3 letters of reference, passed the 250-question multiple choice test administered by the CCPDT ($ 385.00)** (which earns the credential “CPDT-KAâ€) or a behaviorist with one of these credentials: ACAAB, CAAB, CABC, CCAB, CDBC, DACVB. Sign and support the APDT Mission Statement and Code of Professional Conduct* |
| Full | $ 100 | Part or full time dog trainer, animal behaviorist, or dog training educational personnel. Sign and support the APDT Mission Statement and Code of Professional Conduct * |
| Associate | Open to anyone who has an interest in the field of dog training, e.g., suppliers of goods and services, and related professions. Sign and support the APDT Mission Statement and Code of Professional Conduct * |
*APDT “Code of Professional Conduct and Missionâ€
** Link to CPDT (Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers) test instructions
APDT Position Statements
Full member logo (Associate members use an “Associate†logo)  Note the designation “Full” to identify the individual’s membership level | Professional member logo  Note the designation “Professional” to identify the individual’s membership level. |
National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors (NADOI)
Membership Qualifications Overview
| Level | Cost | Requirements |
| Certified | $ 45 | 5+ years experience in dog obedience training, 2+ years as full-charge instructor, worked with minimum 100 dogs, group instructors minimum of 104 class hours taught, private trainers minimum of 288 hours taught, submission of entrance exam consisting of extensive written exam and DVD ($ 75)*Â and signed the Standards of Conduct and Code of Ethics** |
| Provisional | $ 45 | Provisional membership may be offered to instructors who lack the requisite instructing experience and are otherwise qualified as per the provisional entrance exam, 2+ years obedience training, submission of entrance exam consisting of extensive written exam ($ 75)* and signed the Standards of Conduct and Code of Ethics** |
* Link to the entrance exam
**NADOI Standards of Conduct and Code of Ethics
NADOI Position Statements
  | All members may use the NADOI logo, but provisional members must indicate they are “provisional†level. |
International Association of Canine Professionals (IACP)
Membership Qualifications Overview
| Level | Cost | Requirements |
| Professional | $ 100 | 5+ years experience as a “practicing canine professional,†two professional references, recent photo, copy of business card, sign code of conduct*. Member has the option to complete the “certified dog trainer†exam** to earn additional credentialing |
| Associate | $ 75 | Under 5 years experience as a “practicing canine professional,†two professional references, recent photo, copy of business card, sign code of conduct*, or graduate from National K9 School for Dog Trainers. Member has the option to complete the “certified dog trainer†exam** to earn additional credentialing |
| Affiliate | $ 50 | Individual has an active interest in making a career within the Canine Profession but does not yet have the experience to qualify for acceptance as an Associate or Professional Member. This category applies to apprentices, students, trainees, volunteers, and devotees of all canine-related occupations. |
* Link to “Code of Conductâ€
**Certified Dog Trainer requirements
IACP Position Statements
Associate Member Logo  Note the designation “Associate” to identify the individual’s membership level. | Professional Member Logo  Note the designation “Professional” to identify the individual’s member level. Â |
Dog Trainer Schools
Dog trainer schools are another form of optional credentialing.
National K-9 School for Dog Trainers (Columbus, OH) issues the credential “CPT†(Certified Professional Trainer): The National K-9 School for Dog Trainers is granted the authority to issue professional certification by the Ohio State Board of Career Colleges and Schools.
Triple Crown Academy (Austin, TX) issues the credentials “CTS†(Canine Training Specialist) or “CTBS†(Canine Training & Behavior Specialist) Triple Crown Academy for Professional Dog Trainers, Inc. is a licensed school, approved and regulated by the Texas Workforce Commission, Career Schools and Veterans Education Section, Austin, Texas.
Michael Ellis School for Dog Trainers (Fairfield, CA) does not issue certification.
That’s My Dog E-cademy (Dubuque, IA) does not issue certification.
Animal Behavior College (online correspondence course) issues the credential “ABC†(Animal Behavior College)
As you may know, a petition was introduced to parliament in Canada to consider enacting an e-collar ban in that country. As a result, renewed interest in promoting the benefits of the tool has begun in earnest both in Canada and the US. Right now, more than ever, it’s important to respond to charges that e-collars are (at best) ineffective and (at worst) abusive, and counter those charges with accurate information about e-collar use and case studies and stories depicting their effectiveness.
If you have such a story to share, or are even just of the same opinion that the ability to use this tool shouldn’t be taken away, please go to this Facebook page, like it, and share an account if you have one. The website that seems to be a driving force behind this ban is banshockcollars.ca. If you go to that last link, you’ll notice there’s a letter published from an anonymous source, “Ms. S.†from California. Please take a moment to read the content of her letter, followed by my open-letter response, below:
Alert to All Shock Collar Users
This is a very disturbing & sad report sent to us by a new supporter . She wants her story posted so no one else will ever have to experience a tragedy like this.
I hope this gets information out there that prevents the same tragedy for someone else with multiple dogs and gets these things banned. I have had complaints about barking from a previous neighbor and because I rent and foster dogs, I didn’t want to possibly lose my place to live or my dogs. I had tried several ways of deterring the barking but nothing seemed to work for long. The shock collar was the last resort to solving the problem and seemed to be working. I only put it on the one dog when I have to leave and take it off as soon as I get home. I haven’t seen any issues with the collar or her behavior so figured the problem was solved, as best as it could be.
Last week I was just finishing up at work when my neighbor called and said that she had heard a dog fight in my house and that I needed to get home as soon as possible. I was about 20 minutes away, so hurried home as fast as I could. When I pulled up, two of my neighbors said they heard a fight and screaming and the one neighbor said she went in the house and broke it up and covered up the one dog. Thank goodness I don’t lock my doors.
When I walked in three of the little dogs were outside and my dog wearing the collar was inside along with the injured dog and a foster I was caring for. Blood covered the whole floor and the bottom cupboard cabinets. There was a carpet askew and covered in blood and my injured dog was laying in a pool of blood on the doggie bed and whimpering. I tried to look at her injuries but she screamed, so I just covered her with another blanket and got her to the vet as soon as I could.
Without going into the grisly details, the vet said it was the worst injuries he’d ever seen. He did surgery and thought she was going to survive, but she succumbed to her injuries by the second night and passed away.
In assessing her injuries, I could tell it was the dog wearing the collar because she is the biggest one I have and she was covered in blood when I walked in. This is a dog that was best buddies with the dog she killed. After cleaning up the mess and assessing her slight injuries, I figure that the dog that was killed, my alpha Italian Greyhound, gave a warning to another dog and the bigger female that was wearing the collar, she is the peace keeper, probably tried to intervene and got shocked when she growled. This probably triggered her becoming aggressive toward her buddy and with the growling and barking only increased the shock and escalated the fight to having fatal consequences.
I work with dogs and am not a fan of pinch collars or ecollar training, but was desperate to get the barking issue under control. I have since started crating the dogs while I am gone. Had I known the risks to my babies, I never would have used the shock collar. Even when talking to the pet store employees about my options, the risk of a shock collar never came up. I went down there yesterday and talked to them and they never were told that during the recent training they had from the manufacturer.
Now I have lost my precious Ruka and Joy doesn’t understand what she did. The pack is hurting and my ability to foster dogs is under question. This was such a senseless tragedy. I hope somehow my story helps. Let me know if I can help in any other way.
Ms. S, California, USA
My response, an open letter to “Ms. S., California, USA†(7-01-11)
Dear Ms. S.,
Preemptively, let me say that I’m sorry for your loss, but I fervently disagree with your summary that (and I’m paraphrasing) “the shock collar did it.†I am going to be as kind and diplomatic as I can be, as I recognize you’ve endured a significant trauma and loss of a precious pet. However, in reading the anonymous letter that you wanted to be posted to the “banshockcollarsca†site, I see that a few other problems likely contributed to the tragedy you endured, and the hard truth is that you were directly in control of this outcome from start to finish and are solely responsible for what happened in your home on that day.
First of all, I need to respectfully point out that you weren’t there to see what actually happened first-hand. It seems that you’re guessing that the e-collar activated at some point and this was a catalyst for a fight.
Certainly you must be absolutely sure that this was the case in order to call on the sympathy of the general public and an outright ban on this product. How do you know for certain that the collar activated in the first place or what the circumstances surrounding the fight were? The fact is that you were 20 minutes away; you weren’t there. You’re making very serious allegations about a tool based on assumptions that have absolutely no way of being verified. Besides that, you’re presenting your story under the cloak of anonymity as you signed your letter with only an initial and a location in the United States. So how can anyone be sure that you experienced this incident as described? It wouldn’t be the first time a person working for an organization wrote a letter anonymously to attempt to promote a political agenda.
Why is your identity and the accuracy of your story important? Well, you’re using this story to support the elimination of the freedom and rights of a segment of the population, including dog owners, trainers, and electronic training device manufacturers. Taking away rights is not something to be treated lightly, and certainly not anonymously. Besides personal rights, we’re talking about an impact to the economy. According to Radio Systems Corporation industry research from 2007, US pet owners purchased more than 2 MILLION remote training devices, pet containment systems, and bark collars in 2006. And unit sales of electronic training devices are projected to reach 5 MILLION annually by 2014 according to the same research. The e-collars I typically use for training retail at $ 225 (and no, you can’t buy them at your local pet product store), with many devices being more expensive and some being less expensive. But let’s just use that number to calculate the impact if we banned electronic training devices. At 5 million units you’re looking at $ 1,125,000,000 impact to the economy. So if your letter has the potential to affect that kind of economic depression, I expect there to be a name attached.
Let’s assume you’re a real, live person and not someone working for an animal rights group, and take your story at face value. I need to get back to a very serious charge I made at the outset of this letter, that you, Ms. S, are solely responsible for the horrific events that took place at your home on that day. It’s a serious charge that I need to back up, but this is going to be difficult to hear. Based on the statement that you “only put it on the one dog when I have to leave and take it off as soon as I get home,â€Â I’m going to make an assumption of my own, that you didn’t do any actual training with the bark collar and your dog. That you didn’t introduce the collar to the dog when he was alone so he could experience the sensation of the stim and learn that it wasn’t associated with your other dogs. Based on what you wrote, I’m assuming you did NOT do your due-diligence as a responsible dog owner. Rather, it sounds like you simply went down to your local pet product store and took the training and product advice from a store clerk.
There’s more to understanding how to safely and effectively use an e-collar, including the risks associated with MIS-USE, than simply asking the kid at the pet product store. Respectfully I’d tell you, you did not do your due diligence. Do not blame your dog’s death on a tool that you had the responsibility to learn how to use properly first. How can I say that to Ms. S., an anonymous letter writer that we’re assuming is a real person in California, USA, who has just lost her pet dog and as a result of this tragedy is supporting an e-collar ban in Canada, which will have no direct impact on her unless she is planning to move there?
Well, the fact of the matter is that e-collars are used safely and effectively to proactively train and manage dog behavior problems of (according to the previously mentioned numbers) the dogs in somewhere between 2 million and 5 million households across the US every day—and that’s just the US. Let’s assume an extraordinarily and completely unrealistically high number of those users were dissatisfied with their electronic training devices and experienced something along the lines of Ms. S’s tragedy. For ease of mathematics, we’ll say half. That still leaves between 1 and 2.5 million happy electronic device using households across the US.
E-collar trainers such as myself can attest to these happy users. We work with them every day. In fact, e-collars have indeed SAVED lives…saved the lives of dogs that were otherwise condemned to die based on a difficult behavior problem that the owner, for whatever reason, had been unable to fix with other tools or methods. Many people use the e-collar as a “tool of last resort,†as Ms. S states she did, and when these owners are properly educated on the use of the tool, ideally instructed by a professional, their results are the polar opposite of what Ms. S experienced. They experience a better-behaved dog that is reliable at home and in public. In fact, you can go to I love my e-collar and so does my dog to read stories and testimonies from happy e-collar users.
Another reason I feel this tragedy rests squarely on Ms. S’s shoulders is that it would seem there were at least 6 dogs, at least three of whom were “small dogs†based on this passage of the letter: “When I walked in three of the little dogs were outside and my dog wearing the collar was inside along with the injured dog and a foster I was caring for.â€Â (The precise details regarding the number of dogs, sizes, breeds, and sexes involved in the story are a bit murky.) While I don’t know you or your pack, it’s concerning to me that you had 6 dogs in an unlocked home or apartment, all free-roaming and mingling without supervision.
Most professionals, and even the average dog owner, would agree this is a potential problem waiting to happen. I am going to step out on a limb and guess, if we’re being absolutely honest, that there had been some disagreements between dogs in your household in the past, possibly minor skirmishes that needed to be broken up. And maybe this didn’t seem like such a big deal to you at the time. I am not questioning your good intentions in fostering and attempting to care for dogs, but I am seriously questioning your judgment in allowing this many dogs all together unsupervised for what I assume to be an extended period of time (maybe between 4 and 8 hours since you were at work) behind unlocked doors, and throwing an e-collar into the mix without preemptive training with the dog to help him understand the sensation and how to turn off the collar.
This would be tantamount to me not taking driver’s education courses, purchasing a Toyota Camry without knowing how to safely operate it much less what the rules of the road were, driving it into a tree, then blaming Toyota for my accident and writing an anonymous letter calling for the ban of all dangerous Toyota Camrys! Sounds ridiculous, no?
While I place 100% responsibility on Ms. S from California for the death of her dog because of mismanagement of her pack and misuse of a powerful training device, I also acknowledge that it would have been better if she hadn’t been able to go down to her local pet supply store and purchase and use this tool on the advice of a sales clerk. Most people would recognize the potential to use the tool incorrectly with significant consequences, and that they might mitigate their risk by involving a professional in the process. But clearly this wasn’t Ms. S’s line of thinking—and there are a lot of Ms. S’s out there.
Unfortunately, trying to regulate an individual’s lack of common sense, accountability, or intelligence by banning a tool that has been shown time and time again to HELP dogs overcome behavior problems and become well-adjusted, obedient, and mannerly based on the case studies and results obtained by dog trainers that successfully utilize this tool is not a very good way to ensure that intelligence or common sense will rule the day.
These same people that we wish would have never gotten it into their head to try to use the tool without professional help in the first place will find another way to put their dogs at risk—perhaps by affixing a head halter to the dog and allowing it to run full-throttle to the end of s 20-foot flexi lead, hit the end at maximum velocity, and have its neck snapped back, thereby slipping a disk. Or maybe over-feeding the dog or allowing it to chew on a plastic water bottle until it’s broken into pieces, ingests the sharp pieces, and requires emergency surgery to have the pieces removed before they tear up the dog’s intestines. There are so many ways that a person who doesn’t know what they’re doing in training and managing their dog can either emotionally or physically damage a dog. To blame one tool and call for its complete ban simply doesn’t wash.
Every e-collar trainer I know will tell you that Ms. S missed out on an important training opportunity with her dog and could tell you how she could have done things differently to get a much different result. It would begin with advising the owner to purchase a higher quality collar that wasn’t activated by anything EXCEPT the sound of the wearer’s bark, proceed with the owner investing some time to teach the dog what the e-collar meant and how to turn it off by stopping barking, and would also involve managing the dogs’ whereabouts while the owner was away so as not to allow the potential for a fight to happen in the first place. And every e-collar trainer I know acknowledges that it’s people like Ms. S that besmirch the e-collar’s reputation and place it in jeopardy of being banned outright.
E-collar users would be open to talking about regulating the tool to some degree—but when you place the tool in the cross-hairs of an outright ban and use stories such as Ms. S’s to support such extreme action, it simply makes no logical sense and actually poses a risk to many dogs and their owners that have realized the benefits of the e-collar in the happy tail and wide grin of a dog running safely and freely off-leash, or being able to be calm and comfortable in a crate they initially found to be anxiety-inducing, or the relief in the voice of an owner that is now able to keep their companion when they had thought they might have to give her up due to a difficult behavior issue such as aggression.
How about instead of going right for the ban, we have an open dialogue about the e-collar as a training tool, both the negatives AND the positives, and try to come up with a way to promote the positive aspects of the tool and mitigate the negatives or consequences of improper use?
I do hope Ms. S. reads this response as I feel it’s important for her to be aware of how her actions directly impacted the events of that day, rather than being allowed to pass off blame on a training tool. That’s why I couldn’t let this account stand without responding–because at no point does she acknowledge that she had some responsibility in this matter, rather, she makes assumptions and guesses at what actually happened. Passing off blame is an epidemic in our society, especially where kids and pets are concerned–seems like it’s always someone ELSE’S fault when things go wrong, and there’s simply no place for it when it comes to responsible dog ownership. If Ms. S. is not made aware of how the consequences of HER actions impacted her dogs that day, I have very real concerns for the dogs that remain in her care.
–Sarah Smith
What makes a “good†dog go “bad?â€
Almost all dogs are born “good.†They’re blank slates, lumps of clay waiting to be formed. Behavior problems usually appear a little later in life. Behavior problems in dogs are symptomatic of some stress or instability within the dog, the home, the relationship between dog and family, possibly even a physical pain or discomfort the dog is experiencing. The dog is acting out that instability in the form of a behavior problem: barking at other dogs, fence-fighting, peeing in the house, separation anxiety, etc.
Conversely, a dog without an observed behavior problem is not necessarily a well-trained or even completely happy, well-balanced dog. It simply means he is not overly-sensitive to the stress in his life, or is not reacting to that stress in a way his owners recognize as a problem. For example, being bored in the backyard causes stress. Many dogs alleviate this stress by digging holes or chewing sticks while left unattended for long periods of time. Many owners may not recognize this is happening at all, or since they don’t view this behavior as problematic for them, they may not view it as problematic for the dog and intervene.
If left unaddressed, in some dogs the behavior escalates as the stress persists. The stress can go on to become fence fighting, territorial aggression, or the dog might just learn to hop the fence and run away. At that point, the behavior usually presents a problem for the owner or it’s severe enough that they recognize it and are prompted to take action.
The trained dog vs. the (incidentally) “good†dog
There’s a really big difference between a dog that’s trained to listen and respond to his owner and a dog that incidentally makes pretty good behavior choices when left to his own devices most of the time. The trained dog will do a behavior when told and be able to respond appropriately given new or stressful circumstances because he is looking to the owner for direction about what he should be doing. He’s reliable. He has given up control over making these decisions and in doing so, he’s also free of the responsibility of making decisions that he doesn’t have the mental capacity to make. He trusts his owner to provide the necessary guidance so he can do the right thing.
Conversely, when you’re relying on the untrained dog to make the correct decision and exercise his best judgment, you’re leaving a lot up to chance and in a confusing, stressful situation most dogs make the wrong decision. Instead of your dog relying on you, you’re relying on your dog and that’s a lot of responsibility to bear when you’re a dog with the mental capacity of a 2 to 3 year old human child (at best). When he makes the wrong decision, it doesn’t mean he’s a bad dog. He’s just an uninformed, untrained, potentially stressed dog.
You may find that when you do step in to help your dog make a better “decision†(the dog is barking out the window, peeing on the rug, or diving after a piece of food that your toddler dropped on the floor), to finally provide that necessary direction, he may not think it’s necessary for him to listen. After all, he’s been making the decisions on his own up until this point! Not a bad dog, just unclear about who’s running the show because no one bothered to teach him.
Example of stress and behavior problems: New baby
Many people report a change in their dog’s behavior when a new baby comes home. Often, the behavior change is negative. The uninformed, untrained, but incidentally “good†dog may act out his stress over the new baby by regressing in his potty training, becoming more “needy†of his owners’ attention, being more reactive to other situations that previously didn’t bother him like the mailman or thunderstorms, or possibly by reacting towards the child in a fearful or uncertain manner. Up until this point, the dog and owner have relied on good luck, management of the dog and environment, or denial and avoidance about the existence of a problem to keep any unwanted behavior in check.
Obviously it will be difficult for the owners to manage the situation with a new baby forever–this is when a lot of dogs suddenly find themselves spending more time in their kennel or the backyard. Often, the owner is surprised by a new behavior problem developing in their otherwise “good†dog. They may feel sorry for the dog and become more indulgent, which can exacerbate a behavior problem—positively reinforcing the unwanted behavior. Or they may get mad at the dog and feel resentful toward him—possibly thinking something is severely wrong since their previously well-behaved, good-natured dog suddenly went “bad.†They may punish him or banish him from the home altogether, but never really take the time to clearly communicate to him their expectations given this new set of circumstances that are causing him stress.
To train or not to train—there is no question!
Think of this as the choice between going to the doctor for a preventative cancer screening as opposed to going to the emergency room with severe physical symptoms of an advanced disease. Not much of a choice, really. Prevention is always easier and preferred, with a better success rate at treatment and cure.
The developing behavior problem is usually mild at first, and the mistake many owners make is not thinking it’s a big deal or that it will go away on its own, especially since the dog is normally such a “good†dog most of the time, so they turn a blind eye to something seemingly minor. However, the problem usually doesn’t go away (because usually whatever stress is causing the problem isn’t going away either), and the problem actually intensifies over time.
A few things to keep in mind especially when training your otherwise “good†dog:
- Your 2 + year old dog has been making his own decisions without your input for quite some time now. It will take some time and repetition to convince him the relationship dynamics are shifting and he will need to adopt a new way of life in which your input is critical to any decisions being made. It may not take as long to teach him the new dynamic as it did for him to learn the old one, but it will not happen overnight. A balanced obedience training approach helps accomplish this objective in a safe, controlled manner. It’s never a good idea to use intimidation to get your dog’s compliance–but he should also be motivated to work for YOU, and not just for the treat you have in your hand.
- Introduce new expectations gradually. If you were previously extremely lax, don’t suddenly become a drill sergeant over every little detail as he is likely to feel uncertain about drastically changing rules and expectations. A good place to start is something as basic as not pulling on the leash when walking together, or waiting to be invited through the back door instead of pushing his way out the moment the door is cracked.
- Most of these otherwise “good†dogs respond well to training initially, enjoying the novelty and interaction with the owner. But after awhile, when it becomes clear it isn’t just a game but an ongoing expectation, they will put on the brakes or try to solicit play in an effort to opt out. Do not back away from the training or your expectations at this critical time, but maintain consistency. Do not allow reactive, stubborn, distracting, or rebellious behavior to dissuade you.
- Some dogs may “act out†in other ways, engaging in behaviors they hadn’t previously—like digging in the backyard, possibly even “talking back†to you by barking or grumbling when you try to reinforce a rule or expectation. Assuming you are training in a consistent, responsible manner, they are most likely testing the new boundaries and attempting to regain control in a situation in which they feel like they’re losing it. Again, it’s important to stay the course and keep calmly reinforcing your expectations. If you back down at this point, the dog has learned that if they are pushy or persistent enough, you’ll cave and they can be in control again.
- As always, it’s extremely wise to get the help of a professional trainer. Beginning training with your dog and giving up part-way through the process may be more detrimental to your relationship with your dog than never embarking on the journey in the first place. If you’re going to train your dog, set several concrete behavior goals and make a commitment to see them through and finish the job. A good trainer will help you stay on course and motivated throughout the process!
I wanted to write on the topic of adopting or buying a dog because I’ve come across a few instances in my work where “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,†meaning there are some issues that owners experience with their dogs that may never really be “fixed†even with months or years of training because the owner and their dog are simply a mismatch. When I come across these situations, I wish I could turn back time and steer them in a different direction. Since I can’t do that, this is the next best thing…
Do you really need a puppy?
For one reason or another, some people place a lot of importance on raising a dog from a young age and automatically plan to get a puppy. I sort of understand it; however, there’s this tendency to romanticize the experience and not really consider all the extra work, stress, and frustration a puppy can create! If you find it rewarding and will happily take on the extra work of taking the puppy outside every two hours to potty, constantly supervising them so they aren’t getting into trouble, cleaning up messes, and possibly sacrificing a favorite pair of shoes, then a puppy is just your speed. If you’d like to skip this hassle and still enjoy the benefits of a young dog, get an adolescent dog (around 6 months to a year) that’s mostly past the puppy behaviors like chewing, play biting, and house-training. It will only take a few weeks for most dogs to learn your routine and rules.
It’s not necessary to raise a dog from puppyhood for them to form a deep bond with you and be a devoted lifelong companion. There are usually a lot of dogs available for adoption in this “adolescent†category. These are the dogs that were once owned by people who thought they needed a puppy, and dumped them once they lost their puppy looks and started to require more exercise and training.
Ban the Breed Books
Okay, look in the breed books if you really want, just don’t treat the breed book like a dog catalogue that’s trying to sell you a dog. While the breed books can help you identify a Boxer from a Bulldog, be wary of falling into the trap of personally identifying with a specific breed based on the description in a breed book. Just because a breed is described as “high energy and intelligent,†owning said dog does not necessarily validate that YOU are high energy or intelligent, nor does it increase the amount of energy or intelligence you possess. Now that sports car you’ve had your eye on is a whole different story!
If a trait is mentioned in the breed book, there may be no easy “off†button so you better be prepared to deal with it under the worst of circumstances, including when you’re tired, sick, busy, or when the weather is inclement.
You don’t need a purebred dog…really
Unless you’re planning to breed, want to seriously compete with your dog in AKC-sanctioned events, or are actually using the dog for the job for which it has been bred (e.g., you live on a farm and will use it to herd), there is no need to buy a purebred dog. Now don’t get me wrong—I’ve met many wonderful purebred dogs and their owners. I’m not anti-purebred. But I’ve seen a lot of people underestimate the intense drive of many purebred dogs. If you’ve never had a purebred dog, especially one with a working background, you may not have a clear understanding of what it means to have a dog with DRIVE. This is a dog that can go from 0 to 100 in a second, a dog that regularly needs a daily “job†to do to engage their mind and instincts, a dog that needs a way to drain their energy otherwise it will build up and make them feel anxious and uncomfortable, which can then be the cause of other behavior problems.
In mixed-breed dogs, both the physical breed traits (including potential health problems) and the drive and intensity of behaviors associated with the breed, are watered down. That means that while your Lab/Aussie may still have a lot of energy and intensity, her behavior can also be more easily redirected or simply turned “off†(via obedience training) if necessary, while your purebred Australian Shepherd may actually need to exercise his deeply ingrained instinct and engage his herding drive in order to relieve his energy.
But if you DO think you need a purebred dog…
If you are dead-set on a purebred dog, why do you want one? For most people, it often comes down to “appearances,†the way the dog looks and the perception other people will have of them if they have that type of dog. You prefer the feeling you get when you think about walking a German Shepherd down the street to the feeling you get when you think about a Pomeranian. I get it. One of the beautiful things about dogs is that they are so varied in appearance, and that is never more true than in mixed breed dogs.
If a purebred dog is what you need, find a reputable breeder you can visit and get some first-hand information about what it’s really like to live with that dog 24/7, including what the training and exercise commitment entails. Don’t rely on the recommendation of a buddy with that breed. Just because a Boxer is a great fit for your co-worker and she raves about her dog’s positive qualities, doesn’t mean it automatically translates into a great fit for you. An expert immersed in the breed will be able to help you realistically assess if this breed is a good fit for your personality and lifestyle.
You don’t need a dog for protection
Some people specifically purchase intimidating-looking dogs for the singular purpose of appearing to be tough or with the intention of using the dog for personal protection. Breeds targeted for such purposes usually include rottweilers, pit bulls, and mastiffs to name a few. The average person should never buy or adopt a dog for any other purpose and goal than to be a well socialized, reliable family pet. If you honestly believe you need a dog for personal protection or intimidation, please speak to an experienced trainer first. A trainer can explain how to responsibly train a dog for personal protection as opposed to simply creating a dangerous dog, in addition to explaining your liability. Wanting to own a dog for protection or intimidation is not a good enough reason to get a dog. If this is you, I’d encourage you to take a self defense class and install a home security system instead.
Consider the individual
All this talk about purebred or mixed breed dogs leaves the individual dog out in the cold. The reality is that while breed traits have some influence over the dog’s energy level and behavior tendencies, the individual dog’s genetics (passed on from the mother and father), the environment in which the dog was raised, and the dog’s early life experiences also play a big role. Within one litter you will find dogs with discernibly different personalities and energy levels.
While a dog’s breed can be informative on some generalities, it doesn’t tell the whole story about an individual dog. Whatever specific dog or puppy you’re considering has to be assessed primarily as the individual that he is. You’re not buying “Golden Retrievers,†you’re adopting “Rex†who happens to be a Golden Retriever, or a Beagle, or a Spaniel or whatever.
In most cases, you’ll be more successful at finding the right match for you if you list behavior and personality traits you desire: patient with children, likes to play fetch, tolerates cuddling, athletic, doesn’t require regular exercise, etc. and then go seek out the individual dog that matches those traits rather than starting by selecting a breed and working your way to the individual dog.
You don’t need a smart dog…really
Some of the sweetest, nicest, trainable dogs I’ve ever met have been the canine equivalent of a blockhead. In the dog world, when we talk about “intelligence†we’re often referring to the dog’s desire and ability to observe and manipulate a situation to their benefit. “Intelligent†dogs typically keep their owners’ on their toes, testing the limits. “Intelligence†does not necessarily translate into “easy to train.†If you’re planning to get a “smart†dog, plan to spend some serious time on obedience training; you will need to engage your dog frequently and consistently to keep them using their mind for “good†rather than “evil!†Otherwise, you may find your dog is so smart, they’re training you!
If you’re truly looking for a highly trainable dog, find one that wags his entire body when you smile at him. This is a dog that’s dialed in to humans, eager to please and is highly responsive to your attention and affection. This dog will be a dream to train.
It’s okay to be a couch potato
I applaud optimism. It’s a very positive trait. But when it comes to selecting a dog for you or your family, you’ve got to drop the “new years resolution†mentality and be realistic about three important factors: your activity levels, financial situation and time availability.
Don’t get a high energy dog with the intention that the dog will motivate you to get more exercise. When in doubt, err on the lower energy side of things. Most medium-energy dogs can be motivated to be active enough for what most people want or need. Meaning, while a Husky might be a more obvious distance running companion, a Golden Retriever will do just fine for what most normal people want, and will likely still be manageable on the off-chance that you can’t get out for a jog one day, while the Husky will require that physical release regularly.
Owning a dog comes with a price…literally
Don’t underestimate the expense of owning a dog. Assuming you’re buying a good quality food and are keeping up your dog’s veterinary care, you’re looking at a minimum of $ 500 to $ 800 per year for one lab-sized dog.
Additional expenses can start to mount if:
- You have a puppy
- Your dog develops any health problems such as allergies (becoming more common)
- Your dog experiences an unforeseen injury
- Your dog requires regular grooming (Poodles etc.)
- You have to board your dog while you’re out of town
- You plan to have multiple dogs
- You want or need to do obedience training (highly recommended!)
- Your dog (hopefully) lives to a ripe old age as they will likely require more veterinary care
Make sure you have enough wiggle room in your checking account to provide the basics for your dog, a quality food and veterinary care, and something in reserve in the event of an unforeseen expense.
Owning a dog comes with a price…figuratively
Your time is worth something and your dog needs some of it in a meaningful way everyday. Dogs are extremely social, interactive animals. Dropping some kibble in the dish twice a day just won’t cut it. If you simply can’t fit some quality time into your schedule every day to go for a walk, play in the backyard, or spend a little time teaching a command or trick, a dog may not be a good fit at the moment.
[Steps onto soapbox.] Ahem. What you cannot do is get a dog and close it up in a crate for 10 hours a day, or relegate it to the backyard all day/night, and expect it to be a socially well-adjusted or well-mannered family companion at your convenience. [Gets down off of soapbox.]
If you’re looking for a companion that is lower maintenance and less expensive, God’s solution for you is the domestic cat. I say that in all seriousness (that’s why I got down off of the soapbox first). Cats typically require less time and financial commitment from their owners. They can be great companions when we need them, and typically aren’t any worse for the wear if you feel like going out for happy hour after work one day or don’t have the energy to exercise them because you were up with a sick child all night.
In conclusion
My most successful training clients have been people who were already spending enough time with their dog each day and had very realistic expectations for their pet; they just had to learn how to make that time more meaningful by communicating effectively.
Unfortunately, I’ve also come across a few situations in which the owners were unable to provide the basic necessities, including spending the necessary time and being active with their dog. Or their expectations for their dog’s behavior were unrealistic; short of a brain transplant, no amount of training can make a Cattle Dog into a Lab. Exercising sound judgment and discipline while you’re going through the process of selecting a dog, including not allowing your emotions to override reason, can help you avoid difficult and frustrating problems down the line.
The most heart-breaking decision I’ve seen people struggle with is when they come to the conclusion that they just can’t make it work and they start to consider the prospect of giving up their dog. Deciding not to bring a dog into your life up front is easy compared to the feelings of defeat, guilt, and sadness of having to give up a dog that you’ve formed a bond with because you’ve finally come to the conclusion that you’re just not the right match for one another.
For me, 2011 is already turning into the year of purposely allowing magazine subscriptions to lapse (that and a resolution to finally use up all the fancy bar soap I’ve accumulated as gifts over several years of birthdays and Christmases). First it was Runner’s World when Rodale publishing tried to engage in some sneaky sales tactics by automatically signing me up (and charging me ) for “Women’s Health†magazine when I dutifully renewed my subscription to Runner’s World. Needless to say, after getting RW for upwards of 10 years now, I’ve pretty much seen every bit of conceivable advice about ITB syndrome, marathon training plans, the importance of protein etc. So I bid a fond adieu to RW and look forward to seeing that $ 19.95 remain in my bank account.
Now it’s time to drop my subscription to Whole Dog Journal. As I’ve gained experience as a dog trainer, I’ve become increasingly annoyed with the training information they publish, and even more so with the fact that they omit an enormous amount of valuable information because of personally-held beliefs and biases by the editor and carefully selected contributors. In each issue, they state, champion, and defend their specific beliefs about nutrition (raw feeding is best) and training (all-positive, no exceptions). They call their belief system “natural dog care and training,†(emphasis added). It’s not exactly unbiased journalism. I’d held onto the subscription because I try to be open-minded and I believe a lot of good information can be gleaned from people that do things differently than I do. But it becomes increasingly difficult when the folks I’m trying to be open-minded about aren’t being open-minded in return.
October’s issue bothered me enough that I actually wrote a letter to the editor (and no, I did not receive a response). The specific article I took issue with was “Five things to do when your dog starts losing his hearing.†My first impulse upon seeing the topic of the article was that an e-collar is a great tool to help deaf dogs, whether they are 100% deaf or losing their hearing as a consequence of old age. By teaching the dog to associate the stim or vibration with paying attention to the owner, you can get the dog’s attention in a very calm, quiet, and effective manner using the e-collar.
The first tip provided by all-positive trainer Pat Miller, CPDT-KA, CDBC, is to use a “disaster whistle.†Essentially, get the attention of your dog (and anyone else within a mile) with this whistle that’s “twice as loud as any other mouth-blown whistle in the world.†I can see this potentially working in a rural area, but in more densely populated areas there’s a very real chance you’ll incite the wrath of annoyed neighbors and even be held accountable to a noise ordinance. And what if your dog is 100% deaf and can’t hear the whistle at all?
Miller and I do agree on the importance of being able to use hand signals with your hard-of-hearing dog once you have their attention, assuming their eyesight is still intact (this was tip #2 in the article). Tips 3 – 5 really amount to “no duh†management techniques that most elementary school children could probably come up with if pressed:
Tip #3: No bullying, i.e., don’t allow your other (younger) dogs to bully your older dog.
Tip #4: Don’t play in the street, i.e., don’t allow your old, deaf dog to walk off-leash near high traffic areas (also it’s against the law to walk your dog off-leash in many cities, regardless of how well-behaved they are or how good their hearing is).
Tip #5: Don’t be a hard-ass, i.e., give your old, deaf dog the benefit of the doubt; she may have simply not heard you when you blew the storm whistle repeatedly in an attempt to get her attention.
If an owner isn’t willing or able to employ an eardrum-busting whistle, or their dog is completely deaf (either from old age or as a genetic defect), this article offers no real training help. In fact, it could create a sense of hopelessness or helplessness in a person that is searching for effective ways to communicate with their deaf dog.
I was willing to tolerate some of what I consider to be propaganda if I could glean some insights along the way that would make me a better trainer and dog owner. But I can’t even do that anymore with WDJ, and here’s why. When a dog loses their hearing and the owner thinks there’s nothing that can be done to improve the situation, they may start to seriously consider euthanasia as the only “option.†That may be a totally reasonable consideration given that older dogs often have other health problems, difficulty getting around, and a generally reduced quality of life, which inevitably take a toll on the owner. However, for the purposes of the WDJ article, and this response, we have to assume we’re talking about an otherwise healthy dog with some degree of hearing loss as a result of old age.
When it comes to life and death decisions as a result of a dog’s behavior, I have no tolerance for people with closed minds and personal or political agendas. As trainers and professionals, we have a responsibility and obligation to offer real solutions to people that are experiencing real problems. We have to give them all the information so they can make serious decisions that may have life or death consequences for their dog. Whether it’s dealing with an aging dog losing their hearing and their ability to listen and respond to commands as a result, a puppy that is born deaf, or a dog with aggression or anxiety issues, offering solutions such as keeping one’s dog out of traffic to the exclusion of other effective (and potentially life-saving) options because of personally held beliefs, does a major disservice to dog owners and their dogs. Instead of mentioning e-collar as a potential solution in the hands of a well-qualified, experienced trainer, and conscientious, individualized guidance through a training program, Miller and WDJ would rather advise you to keep your dog on leash when walking along the highway, and hey, for goodness sake, give that older dog the benefit of the doubt, would you?! (Sarah Palin accent implied here).
I can no longer support a publication by people that would prefer to filter the vast body of dog training information available and only provide that which they find to be personally palatable and agreeable, omitting information that they either don’t fully understand or support based on personal beliefs. Needless to say, I’ll be glad to see the $ 54 dollars remain in my bank account in 2011 (that’s the cost of 24 issues or a 2-year subscription to WDJ), or approximately what it will cost you for a one-hour session with a well-qualified e-collar trainer in your area to get hands-on assistance with the real and serious problems you may be experiencing with your dog.
Happy house cleaning and Happy New Year!
Dangerous Dog Laws updated
The City of Minneapolis updated their Dangerous Dog laws about two weeks ago. Some good progress seems to have been made and there are some things that the average Joe-Dog-Owner should be aware of. For example, it’s now easier for MACC (Minneapolis Animal Care and Control) to declare your dog “potentially dangerous,†and they now have the ability to restrict ownership on some individuals.
“…MACC now has the ability to restrict animal ownership if a person has had more than one dog declared potentially dangerous (on two separate occasions). Under the old ordinance, MACC did not have the ability to restrict animal ownership in cases like this.â€
Good. There’s not really any reasonable excuse I can see for a person to need to have had two dogs declared “potentially dangerous†by the City. Sure, there might be a situation where a responsible person has taken on “problem dogs†to give them homes–but one hopes that these people are knowledgeable and responsible enough that even if they have a potentially dangerous dog, they’re managing them in such a way that the City doesn’t need to intervene. Like how multiple drunk driving violations gets your license revoked, this rule is meant to keep dangerous people from owning dogs, mistreating them, and turning them into dangerous dogs. Seems like a good idea. The only thing I might change about it is to add in some sort of ability for a person to appeal their record after a period of time so it doesn’t follow them for the rest of their life. It’s conceivable that a formerly irresponsible person reforms later in life, and if they can demonstrate at some future point in time that they want to responsibly, safely, and humanely own a dog, they should maybe be given another chance to do that.
“Two other ordinance changes reflect MACC’s increased efforts to declare animals either potentially dangerous or dangerous at earlier stages in their aggression. By declaring animals after less serious bites, or for acts of aggression not resulting in a bite, owners have a greater ability to work with their dog to addresses the issues of aggression and have the declaration rescinded. The time period now for dangerous animals and potentially dangerous animals to receive a review of declaration is 12 months (previously 24) and 6 months (previously 12), respectively. Fees have also been reduced for responsible dog owners who have successfully completed an approved training program.â€
They’re sort of pulling two opposite ends of the same string here: on the one end, lowering the standard by which a dog is deemed potentially/dangerous (making it easier to label a dog as such) and on the other hand, making it a faster process to have the declaration removed if’/when the owner has demonstrated they’ve taken the necessary steps to address the behavior problem. I’m guessing that reducing the amount of time allowed to have the declaration removed is to provoke action on the part of the owner–to generate a sense of urgency. If they don’t already, it would seem to me (from a trainer’s standpoint), that the dog in question should then be reviewed every year or so to ensure that they are maintaining the training. It’s too easy for dogs and owners to slip into old habits, and when the behavior issue is aggression, getting lazy with the training could mean the dog inflicts damage at some point in the future, even if the initial declaration was rescinded.
“The changes to the ordinance clarify and strengthen Minneapolis Animal Care & Control’s (MACC) ability to declare an animal dangerous or potentially dangerous. In the previous ordinance, MACC could not declare an animal potentially dangerous for aggressive behavior unless a bite occurred on the property of the dog’s owner. The amendment will now allow MACC to declare an animal potentially dangerous if an individual who is legally allowed on the property (i.e. mail carriers) experiences aggressive behavior that requires a defensive action but is not bitten.â€
I question the value of restricting the definition of a potentially aggressive dog to a person legally allowed to be on the property (yard, as I am choosing to interpret it here since they give the example of the letter carrier). Whether or not a dog is aggressive has little to do with a person’s legal right to be in the yard. Dogs aren’t equipped to recognize whether a person is legally authorized to be there or not, and could display territorial aggression towards anything that enters the yard (or passes by) based on their own set of criteria (smell, sound, appearance, general level of suspicion, general level of activity in the neighborhood, etc.). While a dog has the ability to distinguish differences in different scenarios, we can’t be sure the dog is making the correct judgment call or reacting in a certain way for the “right†reasons. The same dog could display aggression one week and be hailed a hero for warding off a burglar (not legally allowed to be on property), but be demonized the next week for behaving in the exact same manner towards the letter carrier (legally allowed to be on property).
If the purpose of this law is to identify a potentially dangerous dog as opposed to liability, then the context of the aggression is relatively immaterial unless the dog was defending itself from a physical attack by a person or other animal. If I live next door to a dog that acts out aggressively, I want it deemed “aggressive†even if the person bitten was a criminal. I don’t want to risk that the dog makes the wrong judgment call about ME at some point in the future if, for example, I need to go next door to borrow that proverbial cup of sugar. If the primary reasons for this law are 1) accurately labeling a dog as aggressive, and 2) keeping the neighborhood safe, then it doesn’t make sense to distinguish between a person who should be allowed to be bitten and a person who is not legally allowed to be bitten. The dog displayed aggression and bit in either case.
The best way to “fix†aggression? Don’t ever let it start.
Aggression is a lot easier to avoid than try to fix later on. There seem to now be very real consequences for allowing barking and other “aggressive displays†to go unchecked, since the City Council eased the standards for declaring a dog potentially dangerous with these recent Dangerous Dog law updates. They are no longer going to wait until your dog PROVES he’s dangerous by biting someone, they’re going to be preemptively declaring more dogs as “potentially dangerous†for aggressive displays that don’t necessarily result in a bite. These “aggressive displays†would probably include things like growling/barking/snarling excessively, and lunging. Unfortunately, I see a lot of people in my own neighborhood inadvertently grooming their dog for aggression by placing unrealistic expectations on them and being lazy when it comes to interrupting unwanted behavior.
When walking in my neighborhood in Minneapolis, I commonly see dogs that are allowed to bark and act out for minutes or longer (I usually don’t stick around longer than a minute or so). These dogs get no acknowledgment or interruption from their owners and are simply allowed to carry on, escalating their barking and intensity as I approach on the sidewalk or if I stop. Sometimes they are tied out front and straining on the end of their lines, sometimes they’re behind a fence and running back and forth, sometimes they’re throwing a fit behind a large window from in the house. There are two possibilities here: the owners are home and aren’t bothering to check on the situation and take any steps to stop the barking, or they aren’t home and they’re putting their dog in a situation where the dog feels the need to guard. Both scenarios are irresponsible on the part of the owner. Both scenarios create a nervy, anxious, high strung dog–the type of dog that is most likely to lash out aggressively if it feels the need (read: makes the judgment call based on its own set of criteria) because no one is telling it otherwise.
In our modern society (in the city, not necessarily in remote areas where it’s not commonplace for people and other dogs to pass by the home) it is unnecessary and unfair to put a dog in a situation in which it feels the need to guard or protect because it feels threatened and alone. Alerting you to someone approaching your property when you’re home is realistic and fair, and in order to keep the “alert†bark from turning into an aggressive display of barking, pawing, pacing, and general anxiety, it requires that you acknowledge the dog and the situation every time.
The only way the dog is going to feel okay about stopping, is if you look out the window (or step out into the yard) acknowledge the commotion and tell (and make) the dog stop. The dog needs to know that you are there to handle the situation and it’s not his responsibility any longer–he’s done his job by alerting you and now he can stop. For us, it’s telling the dogs, “thank you, that’s enough.†The other reason you need to get up and check on the dog and acknowledge the situation EVERY TIME is that it’s legitimately a suspicious situation and your dog is doing his job well, not just carrying on for no apparent reason. If you’re not even going to get up and check when your dog is sounding the alarm, what’s the point? Thus, you must treat every barking situation as if your dog is alerting you to something legitimate.
By not creating this partnership with you dog and placing all the responsibility for alerting and “scaring away†the bad guys on him, you not only create a vocal, anxious dog that is more likely to act out aggressively if given the chance, but a neighborhood nuisance, and you may even be looking at a “potentially dangerous†declaration. If you’re going to teach this partnership dynamic to your dog (and everyone should), you also have to prevent barking episodes when you’re not home because you’re unable to acknowledge them when you’re not there, and you’re placing your dog in that uncomfortable situation again. You may need to shut the dog in a back room, crate them, or close the blinds when you’re not home so they don’t sound off when you’re not there to acknowledge them.
I know what you’re thinking, “but if my dog is closed up, how are they going to protect my home if someone breaks in?†To which I would say that this is backwards thinking. In our modern society, the more likely scenario is that if your dog isn’t secured, they may be injured or killed by a criminal who feels threatened by them, or your dog may get out of the house and run away. Secure your home by other means, by locking it, being friendly with your neighbors, and installing an electronic security system to keep your stuff and your dog safe. Teach your dog to be your crime fighting companion when you’re home by always taking his barking “seriously†and acknowledging him, then telling him (and making him) stop. Allow him to just be your pet the rest of the time. It’s really not his job to keep you or your property safe-in fact, in our modern society, it’s YOUR job to keep him safe.
Before I was a dog trainer, I had a short-lived and largely unfulfilling career as a technical writer. Before that I was a college English major (much more fulfilling!). My areas of study were technical communication, rhetoric, and creative writing, and it’s amazing to me how helpful all of these specialties have been in sorting through the available body of dog training literature.
Before I proceed, let me assure you I’m not here to force anyone to handle their dog in a way they’re uncomfortable with and I one hundred and ten percent respect a person’s individual decision to train their dog in the manner they choose. In fact, I completely support a person’s right to have a decision in the matter in the first place, a decision many trainers don’t believe you can be entrusted with if you’re given facts that aren’t twisted with bias. My hope is that people make their dog training decision based on correct information as opposed to rhetoric or propaganda. I take issue with misinformation, specifically opinion that is presented as statement of fact. Here is an example of such a statement taken from Victoria Stilwell’s website:
“Modern behavioral science has proven that forceful handling such as physical punishment, leash yanking, or making a dog submit by rolling it on its back is psychologically damaging for the dog and has potentially dangerous consequences for owners. Instead, the most successful modern training theories suggest that reinforcing good behavior with rewards while using constructive discipline is much more successful. Positive reinforcement (i.e., giving the dog a reward in the form of praise, play, food, toys, etc. when it responds and offers an action or a behavior that you like) has been shown to be the most effective way to train a dog because rewarding good behavior will increase the likelihood of that behavior being repeated.†http://positively.com/positive-reinforcement/why-positive-reinforcement/
The reader is being led to believe that the statements made in the paragraph are factual because of phrases like: Modern behavioral science has proven; and Positive reinforcement has been shown to be the most effective way to train a dog. Fear-inducing statements are included as well, again suggesting that statements such as: psychologically damaging for the dog and has potentially dangerous consequences have actually been derived from controlled scientific studies in which substantial quantitative data was collected that demonstrates that dogs indeed suffered psychological damage or became aggressive. Other words are carefully selected to evoke a specific emotional response from the reader. For example, the writer uses the words “leash yanking†instead of the more conventional, yet less emotive terminology, “leash correction.â€
Nowhere on the website where this excerpt appears do I see a citation to the scientific study that proves that these statements are facts, as they seem to purport by using words like “science has proven.†To my knowledge, systematically comparing and measuring the affects of different training approaches on dogs in a controlled study has not been done.
The claims made in this excerpt, and similar claims made in magazines, books, and on TV, are based on anecdotal evidence, one’s own personal experience or observations. If a trainer only uses one training approach and they get even a mild behavior improvement, they can basically make the claim that their training is effective, including me! The difference between Victoria Stilwell and me is that I’ve never claimed that the way I train dogs is the one and only acceptable method. I acknowledge that there is more than one effective and fair way to train a dog. And as a trainer I’ve had several clients who have completed all-positive training programs with other trainers and been unhappy with the results, even if they saw a mild behavior improvement. My personal anecdotal evidence shows me that using a leash to correct a dog can be effective and humane, as can using an e-collar (shock collar).
Ideology versus Reality
The difference in training approaches really comes down to two opposing concepts: ideology versus reality. “All-positive†training is really one group of people’s “ideal†vision for dog training, or an ideology presented as scientific fact, using a combination of anecdotal evidence and rhetoric to try to convince people to accept it. Touting the approach as “humane,†“safe,†and “dog-friendly†implies that other approaches are “inhumane,†“dangerous,†or “mean.†It doesn’t seem like such a big deal. After all, we’re a highly political, free speech, free market society. We’re constantly expected to sort through propaganda and rhetoric from advertisers, politicians, and religious institutions. So why not just let the all-positive propaganda run wild? Why this raining on the all-positive propaganda parade? Consider these potential consequences:
- The well-intentioned owner that truly believes the only appropriate training approach is an all-positive one that doesn’t use a leash correction, who’s made their best effort at all-positive training without success. Now this owner faces the decision to euthanize or give up her dog because the behavior problems weren’t able to be fixed by the one training option that she’s been told is “safe†and “humane.†In reality, an e-collar or a well-timed physical correction could very well have provided a solution to her problem.
- Extrapolate the above example to an entire animal shelter that has adopted an all-positive training curriculum. If all-positive training is not successful at rehabilitating dogs in the population, those dogs are euthanized because the shelter can’t in good conscience place them in homes. In addition, these dogs (most of whom have behavior problems through no fault of their own) are competing with other dogs with less severe problems or whose problems may be effectively addressed with all-positive training—the shelter’s single training approach. If they refuse to try all training avenues available to rehabilitate these dogs, they face certain death.
- In Wales (UK) e-collars have been banned from use. They are now illegal. This is a scary example where the all-positive rhetoric, the supposedly innocent ideology presented as fact, was successful in persuading a governing body to take away the freedom of choice and an effective training option for dog owners. Imagine the frustration for those dog owners that the e-collar fixed their behavior problem and allowed them to keep their dog.
The counterpoint to this training approach, which places primary emphasis on ideology, is training approaches that consider humanity and safety, but are also based in the realities of dogs and peoples’ day to day interactions with their dogs.  All-positive dog training was adapted from orca training—in which captive dolphins and killer whales are trained using positive reinforcement, earning food rewards when the right behavior is performed and losing out on the food when the behavior is not performed. The savvy observer distinguishes some subtle differences between orcas and dogs. For example, dogs are land mammals that are significantly smaller than killer whales. Dogs live with us in our homes and interact with the public-at-large, riding with us in our cars and accompanying us to the park, whereas dolphins are safely tucked away behind fiberglass. So how does a training approach primarily based on ideology and behavior theory developed for orcas, handle the real-world training needs of owning a canine? Quite frankly, there are many problems it doesn’t effectively address. Leash pulling is one of them.
We don’t walk our killer whales—in fact, they’re not allowed out of the aquarium. Not ironically, there isn’t a good all-positive and non-aversive exercise available to teach a dog to not pull (something most dogs are really good at and some dogs are bred for). All-positives typically rely on management tools like head halters and no-pull harnesses in addition to treats to manage the dog’s behavior. The reality is if the dog is attached to you via leash, there will be pulling at some point, regardless of whether the tension is on a collar, a harness, or a head halter. You have to show the dog where they’re supposed to walk and the most effective and efficient way to do that is to provide tension to show them where to position themselves. I’ve seen many all-positive trained dogs that actually resemble Sea World dolphins. They can spin, jump, flip, roll over, and beg while there’s a treat in sight or the promise of a food reward. They enthusiastically perform a whole program of tricks. But when it comes to necessary real-world behaviors like politely walking down the street or doing a command in the presence of the mildest distraction or when they don’t feel like it, the training falls apart, exemplifying how the ideological training approach ultimately breaks down in the reality of the world we live in with our dogs.
Compared to dolphins, dogs exist in a very different world, have a more intimate relationship with humans (physically and emotionally), and have different qualities that impact the way they learn. That’s the truth; that’s the reality. All-positive dog training derived from orcas and behavior and learning theory derived from studying rats in cages doesn’t acknowledge these important differences.
Like I said initially, it’s not my intention to try to convince you to train your dog using one particular, superior method. You may be better-suited to do all-positive training with your dog because of your personality, while your dog may be better-suited to an e-collar training program—in this case your results may be mixed, whereas if you and your dog are well-suited to the same training approach, you have a better chance to get maximum results. The real key is using factual information to determine an approach that is both comfortable for you and effective for the dog. I encourage you to question and think critically about the dog training information you come across. Once you’ve separated the fact from the opinion, make your own decision for what works for you and your dog in your life.
Cody, me, Eileen, Marley, and Lilly
Last week, I had the wonderful experience of spending a blisteringly hot week in Dubuque Iowa/Hazel Green Wisconsin attending a week of e-collar training at Robin MacFarlane’s training facility, That’s My Dog. The term “e-collar†stands for “electric†collar, sometimes also referred to as remote training collar, remote trainer, or shock collar. Now before you recoil in horror or start composing a nasty email, I’d like you to try to forget all the negative propaganda you’ve ever heard about these training devices and open your mind for a few minutes. Before I continue, you should know that I was an e-collar hater for a brief period before I became a trainer and understood the tool and how to use it. I’d read and believed a lot of the rhetoric and propaganda online, including the stuff espoused at this website. So if you are currently an e-hater, I understand where you’re coming from and I also know that with the right information, there may come a day that you might find this tool helpful in addressing your dog’s unwanted behavior.
Remember the enormous Zack Morris cell phone of the early 1990s? Urban Dictionary.com tells us these weighed approximately 8 pounds! Can you imagine carrying this “portable†phone around with you today? Compare that with the sleek, modern iPhone and you can see how far mobile phone technology has come in the last 30 years. The same is true for e-collars. The original shock collars lived up to their names and were often used to the same affect, to shock a dog. Keep in mind these collars were used with hunting and retrieving dogs in the field, primarily after the dog had flushed game and was in pursuit. Because the dog was fully engaged in an adrenaline pumping primal activity, hunting and chasing prey, the stimulation to the dog had to be pretty powerful to get its attention and call the dog off the chase so the game could be shot. No one disputes that these e-collars were not the picture of humane training. Modern collars have come a long way in the last 60 years and have been developed for more diverse training purposes than their predecessors, with nick and continuous stimulation settings, and a vibration pager option. While old collars had between one and six stimulation settings, modern collars have up to 127 settings so you can find the setting that’s just right for your dog in the current situation without overwhelming them. Regardless of all this advancement, public perception (with the help of a very vocal “all positive no exceptions†dog training minority) has not progressed along with the technology and lots of people and pet dogs are missing out on a great training tool that could help make their lives together more enjoyable, or even save the life of a dog with severe behavior problems for which other approaches have failed.
The key with modern e-collar training is to find the right stimulation level, in most situations just enough to gently get the dog’s attention so he can be directed to the appropriate behavior (quiet, come, lay down), but not so high that he’s anxious or fearful about the stimulation. The dog won’t automatically know what he’s supposed to do just because he received a stim, so it’s still necessary to complete a training process in which communication and expectations are established. The collar doesn’t communicate with the dog, YOU do. It’s also imperative that expectations be clear and consistent when using the e-collar. The dog learns that he has control over the collar and by paying attention and doing what is asked of him, he avoids further stimulation. However, if the stims are inconsistently delivered he won’t understand how to turn them off, and will become nervous, reactive, and anxious about the training. When the dog is handled consistently, he can progress very quickly through a training program because it is so much easier for the handler to reinforce the desired behavior and interrupt the unwanted behavior in a timely fashion.
Besides a solid recall, even from a distance, there are countless other applications for the e-collar in everyday life with your dog. One example is when walking the dogs in popular public places like at public parks or down a busy street. Philosophically, I don’t have a problem giving a leash correction, but practically, it’s sometimes hard to do so in a crowd of people. For the uninitiated that don’t understand a leash correction or the person that’s under the mistaken impression that dogs are just children in fur coats, it may appear that I’m brutalizing my dog. The dog can also have a significant reaction to the body language—anticipating the correction and reacting accordingly. This appears to people like my dog is afraid of me. The nice thing about the e-collar is you can very subtly maintain control over your dog in a high-distraction setting by tapping the e-collar if he strays from a predefined zone (i.e., “heelâ€). If you’re operating at the right level, the only reaction from the dog is to become attentive to your position and move back into position beside you.
I had a great time in Wisconsin, expanding my skill set with some really amazing trainers. We saw some really cool transformations while there that strongly refute claims that these tools create anxiety or behavior problems in dogs. The people that make these claims have never seen the training done correctly and/or are coming from an ideological perspective rather than a perspective based in reality or science. The reality of our modern, dog-crazy society is that we are busy, well-intentioned people that want the love and companionship of our dogs, but don’t have a lot of extra time or patience for long, drawn out training programs to address our four-leggeds’ behavioral problems. We’re also an instant gratification society. For better or for worse, that means our dog training methods need to keep up with our pace as individuals and as a society in order for us to fully realize the training benefits for ourselves and our dogs. It’s simply not realistic to expect the average person to drop everything to spend 6 to 12 months training the dog.
Cody, Marley, Diva, and Brody–Do these dogs look stressed or anxious in their e-collars?
To end this post, I’d like to share some of the aforementioned non-refutable evidence. There were two dogs at the training school that were there for a board and train program. This is the before and after video of their behavior. For a family at their wit’s end with two large, unruly dogs, what kind of positive impact do you imagine this training made in the lives of the people and the dogs?
Additional Resources and Links:
Ruth Crisler’s intelligent and witty training and e-collar blog
The Truth about Shock Collars blog
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