Dog behaviourist Oxfordshire providing positive dog training and support with a range of canine behaviour issues in West-Oxfordshire and Oxon surrounds.
Why is puppy training and socialisation important?
Weeks 3-12 is often called the sensitive socialisation period and represents a crucial period for long term optimal socialisation effects to be realized. A pup makes rapid contact with a strange individual only within a short period from 3-5 weeks so puppy training and socialisation needs to include strangers. From week 5, pups start to become more cautious and hesitant about new social contacts due to their withdrawal/fear mechanism, the natural response of an animal in the wild to maintain distance for survival. This tendency will continue to increase and reach a peak in week 12 so active socialisation from weeks 3-14 is crucial. Dogs are great discriminators so when training dogs it is vital to give opportunities for a pup to meet people and others animals in their many forms and have positive associations with them! Socialisation should include verbal praise, handling, hand-feeding and play. The aim is for a pup to experience feeling fearful and then getting over this. This is called recovery or bounce-back and can make puppies more resilient and confident as adults.
Weeks 6-12 are a period of bonding and social conditioning. Operant conditioning, used in dog training, can encourage self-control and create engagement and a stronger bond between a dog and their carer. Daily dog obedience training from around 6 weeks is important and should include basic obedience training prompts such as sit, wait, leave, down, come, off, heel, settle and house-training. A young pup’s concentration span is tiny but positive dog training can be used to increase duration, strengthen and generalise behaviour as a puppy gets a little older. In operant conditioning a positive consequence (reward) will increase the probability of the behaviour occurring in future. Food bowl exercises, retrieve games, object exchanges, and placement cues will help prevent the development of resource guarding (Donaldson, 2005). Teaching a whistle/food association, using classical conditioning, will help with recall. Where you are a dog trainer or dog carer, it is important to focus primarily on the desired behaviour and on reinforcing this in a timely and consistent way with something that is rewarding to an individual dog.
Weeks 6-12 are a period of bonding and social conditioning. Operant conditioning, used in dog training, can encourage self-control and create engagement and a stronger bond between a dog and their carer. Daily dog obedience training from around 6 weeks is important and should include basic obedience training prompts such as sit, wait, leave, down, come, off, heel, settle and house-training. A young pup’s concentration span is tiny but positive dog training can be used to increase duration, strengthen and generalise behaviour as a puppy gets a little older. In operant conditioning a positive consequence (reward) will increase the probability of the behaviour occurring in future. Food bowl exercises, retrieve games, object exchanges, and placement cues will help prevent the development of resource guarding (Donaldson, 2005). Teaching a whistle/food association, using classical conditioning, will help with recall. Where you are a dog trainer or dog carer, it is important to focus primarily on the desired behaviour and on reinforcing this in a timely and consistent way with something that is rewarding to an individual dog.
How do I get my dog to come back to me?
As an experienced dog trainer, I have found that great recall depends on having a really good bond between dog and their carer as well as timely and consistent use of operant conditioning principles. Dog-human interaction on walks is key as is having a clear recall prompt (dog's name followed by 'Come'), and being fun to be with, using interactive games such as hide and seek, an upbeat tone of voice, and confident, relaxed body language. Being unpredictable can also help with recall training, changing the route for walks, walking in large zigzags and kneeling down, ending walks at different times and calling the dog back and releasing them so they do not associate coming back with the end of any fun. Dogs read expression and posture so when training dogs to return to a recall prompt, squatting down at a dog's eye level can really help in encouraging them to 'come' to their carers. Any eye contact, check -ins and recalls should be strongly rewarded at the time of the behaviour. Effective recall training involves giving a reward that the dog highly values. Dog training in general, and recall training in particular, should start in low distraction environments and gradually build up to higher distraction environments with the possible use of a long line. These strategies mean that the dog is set up for success rather than failure. It can really help to focus on your dog's natural instincts and motivations. Having a dog that naturally 'retrieves' will really help in the dog training process.
How do I stop my puppy whining in their crate overnight?
When training dogs it is important to remember that they learn through antecedents and consequences. In accordance with Thorndike's law of effect any canine behaviour that results in rewarding circumstances is likely to be repeated in future. If a puppy that does not want to be left alone at night learns that the consequence of whining is that a pet carer will come downstairs and give them attention then the puppy is going to whine more because it works. Pet carers should never open a crate door if a puppy is misbehaving. Whining in a crate can be treated with a principle called extinction. Extinction in dog training is where a dog behaviour that has previously been reinforced is no longer reinforced and therefore the dog behaviour no longer occurs. It is about withholding the reinforcers for a dog's behaviour. This approach requires consistency and perseverance. Carer response will mean changing dog carer behaviour by not responding to the whining. The dog's carers shouldn't go downstairs, open the door or give the puppy any kind of attention for this behaviour. The whining may continue for a variable length of time and it may get temporarily worse in duration, intensity and frequency. This is called an extinction burst. The dog's carers need to understand that alternative behaviours could appear (e.g. scratching) and the puppy may sound frustrated, agitated or angry but the overnight whining will stop if the dog's carers consistently ignore it.
How do I stop my dog guarding food, objects, or locations?
Guarding of scarce resources is highly adaptive and selected for and a large proportion of dogs will become food, object, location guarders if left to their own devices. Resource guarding, also known as possessive dog aggression, can occur when familiar or unfamiliar people or animals approach when a dog is somewhere or has something it values and is often negatively reinforced when a person withdraws from a growl or snap. If warning signs of aggression are ignored, the dog could start to bite without warning. If a dog is, say, guarding their carers' bed, they need to stop the dog getting on the bed in the first place so that the aggressive dog behaviour does not arise. It is also important that nobody gets hurt and to avoid further rehearsal of this canine behaviour. This could mean leaving the door closed or putting up a dog gate to prevent access. All highly valuable resources (e.g. bones) should be (temporarily) withheld. The dog also requires effective and positive dog training to minimize the occurrence of other resource guarding behaviour emerging in future. Dog behaviour training should teach the dog to respond positively to the ‘off’ prompt in the event this dog behaviour does reoccur. Encouraging and training a dog to sit for all interactions can help. Employing dog training as part of the dog's daily routine can help ensure overall compliance and give a dog carer kind and positive control. Food bowl exercises that encourage a dog to sit and wait, object exchanges for higher value items and placement cues can all help in obedience dog training with lots of positive reinforcement. It is crucial to use kind methods of behaviour modification as aversive methods can increase a dog’s arousal, reactivity and aggression as well as damaging the canine human bond. Modification of the resource guarding behaviour needs to happen when the dog is not in agitated and aroused state and carer response needs to be consistent. As resource guarding is underpinned by anxiety, counter-conditioning, a kind of classical conditioning, can be employed around valued resources. If levels of anxiety or fear are abnormal a veterinarian may prescribe medication.
How do I stop my dog jumping up?
If behaviour is being reinforced by attention then the process of extinction could form part of a dog behaviour and training plan. The idea behind extinction is that if we withhold the reinforcement for behaviour such as jumping up then this behaviour will diminish and eventually stop. However, expecting children, adults, visitors and strangers to consistently ignore jumping up is not realistic. Moreover, failing to stop jumping up and allowing the dog to potentially knock someone over would be irresponsible and in breach of our legal duty to keep dogs under control (Animal Welfare Act, 2006). A dog exhibiting strong and overly aroused jumping up behaviour may also mouth quite hard, even inadvertently bite a person, an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act (1991). Another complication is the extinction burst whereby, even in controlled situations, a dog owner may simply give up on using this method due to an initial increase in the intensity, duration or frequency of jumping up behaviour when they start to ignore this. Extinction requires that we have control over the reinforcers for behaviour. There is often limited control over the behaviour of others particularly when we are out and about. For a dog with a high energy drive or a dog with increased activity levels as a result of hormonal changes in puberty, or even for a dog that is receiving insufficient physical and mental stimulation, jumping up provides a means to ‘let off steam’, an outlet for natural drives. I would argue it can therefore be self reinforcing i.e. it doesn’t necessarily require the attention of people to be reinforced and repeated rehearsal can result in habitual and learnt behaviour. For all the above reasons this behaviour is unlikely to disappear with the use of extinction alone.
Strongly training an incompatible behaviour should form an essential part of any behaviour modification plan. Positive reinforcement of the desirable behaviour communicates to the dog what we want it to do, a real advantage of this method. As a dog trainer, I would recommend using operant conditioning to train and proof a ‘sit’ for all interactions since this is incompatible with jumping up. Positive dog training can be used to encourage a calm 'meet and greet’ with people using the sit and wait prompt. It is important to avoid overly enthusiastic greetings, to ensure a calm tone of voice, and to avoid eye contact and sudden movement. Dog obedience training can include not only the discriminatory stimulus of the ‘sit’ prompt but a release prompt such as “off you go”, gradually building up the time that the dog holds the sit prior to release and reinforcing the hold in sit with high value rewards given at variable intervals. Positive reinforcement should be with treats that are particularly motivating to the individual dog. It is also crucial to teach ‘sit’ at a distance so that this prompt can be used to prevent jumping up at strangers. Dog training should start in environments with minimal distraction and ensure timely and consistent positive reinforcement of the required dog behaviour to increase the probability of this behaviour occurring in future. As a dog trainer I can then support dog and carers to gradually generalize the desired behaviour to a wide variety of environments where jumping up can happen and eventually to those situations where the dog may be aroused and excited and/or where there are maximum distractions. Ultimately, I would aim to maintain the desirable greeting behaviour using intermittent reinforcement so that the dog’s desirable behaviour is not totally dependent on the reinforcer.
Eliminating the motivation for a behaviour focuses on assessing the wider picture, identifying causes and therefore motivations and developing a dog behaviour plan that is more effective than differential reinforcement alone since it takes these factors into account. This will include a functional analysis of the conditions under which the behaviour occurs and behavioural diagnostics. Contributory factors could include genetics (e.g. high energy working breeds), the operant variables at work (antecedents and consequences), self stimulation (expressing frustration), learning history (e.g. inadvertent reinforcement by others), medical/physiological causes (e.g. hormonal changes in puberty; hyperactivity resulting from stress) and environmental factors. One genetic factor that needs to be considered is the tendency for jumping up in all dogs. Jumping up and licking is a greeting ritual in dogs that often lasts into adulthood. Positive reinforcement is crucial but will not be sufficient on its own to address wider motivators for behaviour. Indeed, without providing the stimulation that a dog needs it is likely that the motivation for the jumping up (e.g. frustration) will simply be redirected into other undesirable behaviours. If a dog is a ‘high energy’ breed, perhaps of working stock, is being inadvertently rewarded with attention by its owners for jumping up and is receiving inadequate physical and mental stimulation these factors will all contribute to the problem. It is crucial that any dog behaviour plan provides an outlet to expend the dog’s natural drives and energy via regular exercise, play and mental challenges as well as carer education as to appropriate leadership in setting kind and consistent boundaries.
Strongly training an incompatible behaviour should form an essential part of any behaviour modification plan. Positive reinforcement of the desirable behaviour communicates to the dog what we want it to do, a real advantage of this method. As a dog trainer, I would recommend using operant conditioning to train and proof a ‘sit’ for all interactions since this is incompatible with jumping up. Positive dog training can be used to encourage a calm 'meet and greet’ with people using the sit and wait prompt. It is important to avoid overly enthusiastic greetings, to ensure a calm tone of voice, and to avoid eye contact and sudden movement. Dog obedience training can include not only the discriminatory stimulus of the ‘sit’ prompt but a release prompt such as “off you go”, gradually building up the time that the dog holds the sit prior to release and reinforcing the hold in sit with high value rewards given at variable intervals. Positive reinforcement should be with treats that are particularly motivating to the individual dog. It is also crucial to teach ‘sit’ at a distance so that this prompt can be used to prevent jumping up at strangers. Dog training should start in environments with minimal distraction and ensure timely and consistent positive reinforcement of the required dog behaviour to increase the probability of this behaviour occurring in future. As a dog trainer I can then support dog and carers to gradually generalize the desired behaviour to a wide variety of environments where jumping up can happen and eventually to those situations where the dog may be aroused and excited and/or where there are maximum distractions. Ultimately, I would aim to maintain the desirable greeting behaviour using intermittent reinforcement so that the dog’s desirable behaviour is not totally dependent on the reinforcer.
Eliminating the motivation for a behaviour focuses on assessing the wider picture, identifying causes and therefore motivations and developing a dog behaviour plan that is more effective than differential reinforcement alone since it takes these factors into account. This will include a functional analysis of the conditions under which the behaviour occurs and behavioural diagnostics. Contributory factors could include genetics (e.g. high energy working breeds), the operant variables at work (antecedents and consequences), self stimulation (expressing frustration), learning history (e.g. inadvertent reinforcement by others), medical/physiological causes (e.g. hormonal changes in puberty; hyperactivity resulting from stress) and environmental factors. One genetic factor that needs to be considered is the tendency for jumping up in all dogs. Jumping up and licking is a greeting ritual in dogs that often lasts into adulthood. Positive reinforcement is crucial but will not be sufficient on its own to address wider motivators for behaviour. Indeed, without providing the stimulation that a dog needs it is likely that the motivation for the jumping up (e.g. frustration) will simply be redirected into other undesirable behaviours. If a dog is a ‘high energy’ breed, perhaps of working stock, is being inadvertently rewarded with attention by its owners for jumping up and is receiving inadequate physical and mental stimulation these factors will all contribute to the problem. It is crucial that any dog behaviour plan provides an outlet to expend the dog’s natural drives and energy via regular exercise, play and mental challenges as well as carer education as to appropriate leadership in setting kind and consistent boundaries.
How do I stop my dog pulling on the lead?
Like people, dogs learn from antecedents and consequences to their behaviour, part of operant conditioning. By letting a dog walk on when it is pulling on the lead (the consequence) a dog is receiving unconditioned primary reinforcement for their behaviour. In short, the dog’s pulling is being reinforced by the their handler's forward movement. The dog’s behaviour is also indicative of the fact that most dogs tend to walk faster than most people and of the 'opposition reflex' i.e. when a dog feels pressure against their neck or chest they reflectively lean into it.
Using the red light / green light game may help in training a dog to walk on a loose lead. Tension on the lead represents a red light so it is important to stop dead when this happens whilst a slack lead represents a green light for dog and their handler to walk forward. Positive reinforcement is crucial, focusing on the desired behaviour and rewarding this with verbal praise and treats at the time of the behaviour. Consistency in dog training is also key. If a dog is allowed to pull forward at times it is receiving mixed messages and the process of dog learning will take longer. A halti-headcollar or forward fastening harness can help to manage pulling when dog training is not an option. This equipment is unlikely to generalise to heel walking without it. Training heel walking, with a dog’s head or shoulder parallel to their handler’s leg, needs to be taught in progressive steps and should start with minimum distractions to maximise the chance of success. Being expressive and upbeat and encouraging and rewarding engagement (e.g. eye contact), building on the bond between dog and owner, is key. The dog should initially be encouraged to follow a moving food target whilst maintaining the correct position for heel with treats in the handler's left hand. The target reward can then be 'faded' and the dog encouraged to sit automatically with a backwards hand signal when the handler stops. With fading, the food target is moved up and away, while still using verbal praise when the dog continues in heel position and gives eye contact. Challenge can be added with frequent changes in direction, in pace and in increasing external distractions. When the dog goes wrong it can be lured back into heel position. It is important not to reward at this point as the handler could inadvertently reinforce the undesirable behaviour in moving out of heel. When the dog has then done circa 6-8 steps in a heel the owner can reward with verbal praise and treats. A further step in dog training heel work involves removing the lure out of sight (e.g. in a pocket) and giving lots of verbal praise (a conditioned reinforcer) and frequent treats (an unconditioned reinforcer) for maintaining a heel position. It is important that the dog’s heel walking is not totally dependent on having treats but it is also important to maintain intermittent reward to ensure the behaviour is maintained and is not extinguished through lack of reinforcement.
Using the red light / green light game may help in training a dog to walk on a loose lead. Tension on the lead represents a red light so it is important to stop dead when this happens whilst a slack lead represents a green light for dog and their handler to walk forward. Positive reinforcement is crucial, focusing on the desired behaviour and rewarding this with verbal praise and treats at the time of the behaviour. Consistency in dog training is also key. If a dog is allowed to pull forward at times it is receiving mixed messages and the process of dog learning will take longer. A halti-headcollar or forward fastening harness can help to manage pulling when dog training is not an option. This equipment is unlikely to generalise to heel walking without it. Training heel walking, with a dog’s head or shoulder parallel to their handler’s leg, needs to be taught in progressive steps and should start with minimum distractions to maximise the chance of success. Being expressive and upbeat and encouraging and rewarding engagement (e.g. eye contact), building on the bond between dog and owner, is key. The dog should initially be encouraged to follow a moving food target whilst maintaining the correct position for heel with treats in the handler's left hand. The target reward can then be 'faded' and the dog encouraged to sit automatically with a backwards hand signal when the handler stops. With fading, the food target is moved up and away, while still using verbal praise when the dog continues in heel position and gives eye contact. Challenge can be added with frequent changes in direction, in pace and in increasing external distractions. When the dog goes wrong it can be lured back into heel position. It is important not to reward at this point as the handler could inadvertently reinforce the undesirable behaviour in moving out of heel. When the dog has then done circa 6-8 steps in a heel the owner can reward with verbal praise and treats. A further step in dog training heel work involves removing the lure out of sight (e.g. in a pocket) and giving lots of verbal praise (a conditioned reinforcer) and frequent treats (an unconditioned reinforcer) for maintaining a heel position. It is important that the dog’s heel walking is not totally dependent on having treats but it is also important to maintain intermittent reward to ensure the behaviour is maintained and is not extinguished through lack of reinforcement.
How do I help my dog to cope with spending time alone?
Dogs are naturally social so need our help to become confident and relaxed in their own company. Short periods of time alone need to form part of your pup's daily schedule. If a puppy has unrestricted access to their carer/s then they will become overly dependent on their presence. A dog with anxiety or, indeed, separation anxiety, is exhibiting an involuntary response to being alone and can therefore be treated using classical conditioning principles. The use of systematic desensitization and counter conditioning ensures that not only is there a step by step graduated exposure to what the dog fears but that the dog is given positive associations with being alone. Using these classical conditioning techniques gives the dog a chance to overcome their fears gradually. A pheromone diffuser may also have a calming effect. High quality treats/chews should only be used when the dog is left alone so that it builds up a positive association with this experience. The dog's carer could leave his dog for five minutes initially and gradually build this up to 20-30 minutes and eventually an hour or two. If the dog becomes anxious the owner should then go back a few stages and then build up the time again in steps. It is important that the owner is neutral in his behaviour when leaving and returning (e.g. no touching, talking or eye contact). Since the 'cues' for departure e.g. picking up keys, putting on a coat, can themselves become triggers for anxiety, engaging in these activities without leaving the house can help to neutralise their effect. The dog's carer should always wait until his dog is quiet (circa 5-10 seconds) before entering.