Who's training who?

Hi everyone on the internet!

How are you?

I'm just super.

I finally taught my human the 'pull hard when asked' command. How did I do that, you ask?

Well, to get this right, you first need to teach them to hold on to, but not take away, whatever you're offering them. This is quite hard! For some reason, they feel the need to take so many things away, and then throw them once they have them. But don't despair! This is actually a great place to start - it's always easier when you can mold natural behaviour. Just keep bringing it back at first. Don't push your human too hard, they lose interest easily.

Once they're reliable in taking things from you, the really hard bit comes in. Your part in this is to hold on to it while they put their hand on it. If you start slowly, and hold on to it a little bit longer each time, soon your human will happily hold whatever you offer them. Remember to reward them appropriately. A lick to the nose, or if it suits you better, a good sit on their laps is a great way to tell them that they did well*.

The hard part done, the next bit is to teach them to pull back when you pull. If you're a big bang in a petite package, like me, or just need some handling finesse, those graspers of theirs can really help you get that niggling thing torn apart. If you've been keeping your human fit and mentally healthy (as you should, we are responsible dogs here!) you've been playing tug with them - this is excellent for this command. It means that when you pull back slightly, your human should recognise what's going on as a type of tug game, and pull back too.

Tugging with your human should look like this.
Don't mind the taking pictures, they can't help it.

If your human is not used to tug, you'll have to take a step back and teach them that first - it's not hard, honestly. The fastest way is to wait for them to be putting on socks. Grab one just before they can put it on, but be quite slow about it, so that they have time to grab it and try to get it back from you. Don't let go! As they pull, pull back. Give them brief pauses to rest, especially at first. Later, get a good rhythm going.

So, your human is happy to tug back at whatever you've offered to them - now we just need to put it on a cue. A vocal cue is not great here, since your mouth is full at point where you would like to cue. I use a quick nod. Nod, then jerk. Nod, then jerk. Even the slowest human catches on eventually, and will learn to not only expect pulling from you after a nod, but will hopefully pull back too!

This worked so well tonight! I finally got to tear off one whole ligament off my beef Achilles heel. All that remains is to settle down and chew to my heart's content.

Remember my friends, chew on their laps - that way they are rewarded without you having to do any extra effort. Great for paws with a busy schedule.

Yours furfully,

Talos

Adventure pug, Queen of all she surveys and Human tamer extraordinaire.

*I know how tempting it is to leave them a token of your appreciation on their favourite rug. I still cannot understand why this does not seem to please them. Perhaps my tokens are too small? An inconvenient limitation - let me know if you have a different experience. Regardless, I would not recommend this as a reward. ...deep sigh...

Leash walking

How on earth do you get your dog to not pull?

This question plagues many people, and keeps many, all too many dogs from being walked. There are techniques and tools that are very worth trying, but before we get to that, a note on dog training in general:

Behaviour has three parts. The thing that happens before, the behaviour itself, and what happens afterwards. So, looking at a pulling dog, often, what happens is the collar is applied, the dog begins to pull like a loon, and this leads to forward motion. This forward motion is something the dog likes a lot. Sometimes, the pleasure of pulling as an act in itself is what the dog likes a lot. Either way, if you want to decrease a behaviour, you can tackle it in two ways - change what happens before the behaviour, thus preventing the behaviour entirely (this would include not walking your dog, ever, but that's not what we're after here!).

The other way is to change what happens after the behaviour - if what comes after a behaviour is nice, odds are that behaviour will happen more frequently. If what happens after is not very nice, odds are it will decrease.

All training effectively works on this principle - either make the result you want super nice, so it will happen more, or make the result you don't want not very nice, so it will happen less. To make good training plans out of this you need to know a bit more about dogs than just that, but this is where it all starts.

Without further ado - on to techniques:

1. Wait it out. 
The leash or harness is on the dog, you're ready to set off, and Fido is pulling with all their might. Stand still. Dead still. Don't move at all. Let Fido pull, pull, pull. Eventually (sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes ten minutes or more) Fido will realise this is not working so well, and will calm down, stop pulling, maybe even sit. This is what you're waiting for. The moment you get no more pulling, take a step. Be ready, the pulling is likely to resume. Stand still again. Wait for no more pulling. Take a deep breath, keep calm. Repeat until your dog figures out that pulling gets it nowhere, but walking near you gets it in motion. This may well mean that you walk only ten steps for the first couple of walks, but it will get there. Depending on your dog (and how riled up praise gets it), it would be fantastic if you could praise, perhaps even feed a small treat, if your dog does not pull. 

Do not do this if your dog is too strong for you to control. Do not do this with a head halter, a prong collar or a choke chain, especially if the head halter/chain/prong does not change the amount your dog pulls at all - it's a good way to injure your dog. Do not do this if you cannot stay calm, patient and content during the initial part of training.

2. Enhance the mistake
Start walking. As soon as Fido pulls, head off in the opposite direction as quickly and as deliberately as you can. If Fido dashes ahead and pulls again, just turn once more. Is Fido pulling off to one side? Head off in the opposite direction. Praise, treat, sing, dance, whatever makes your dog happy when they're walking with you, not pulling. If Fido is walking too quickly for you, slow down massively. If Fido is too slow, speed up. This can be a great game if done happily and energetically. It is a good 'next step' if waiting it out did not work for you after a week of good, honest trying. It can be a good starting point if you don't have the patience for waiting it out.
Do not do this if you are using a head halter, choke chain or a prong collar. The jerking of the collar when you change direction can sometimes be rather violent, with a prong/choke chain you need a different approach.

3. Back to basics
If you have a puppy, or a large yard, it is also possible to learn leash walking by starting with getting the puppy/dog to follow you. Puppies are naturally inclined to follow, dogs are very likely to follow a potential treat. Call them to you as you go. If they run ahead, change direction. If they stay near you (for one step, then two steps, and so on, gradually increase), toss a treat on to the ground to reset the exercise, walk away calling them, and if they stay near you for x number of steps, treat and repeat. Keep sessions short - 5 minutes to 15 minutes is good. Increase slowly! Also, don't increase until your previous goal has been met. If your puppy/dog is failing, go a few steps shorter for a bit, then build up again.
Once the puppy/dog stays near you, and immediately comes to your side after a treat toss, add in a leash. Don't pick it up, let it drag (keep an eye on it for safety). Mentally remind yourself, nothing has changed, and keep at it. A few sessions after the leash has been introduced, pick it up. Again, nothing has changed. If you feel yourself getting tense, tie it to your pants. That way, no tension can do down the lead. Resume as before. If the previous steps were done right, the puppy/dog stayed right with you even with the dragging lead, and now stays with you even though you're holding the lead. It's time to hit the road! Pick a quiet time for the first walk or two, start in the yard like all the previous times, just head outside like it's all part of the session, and head right back in. Increase the distance gradually.

Then, in addition to these techniques, there are tools that you can use that can help:

1. Specialised collars
Choke chains and prong collars and perhaps even electric collars can help to teach your dog to walk, but I would strongly discourage you from using these without the guidance of a trainer. If used correctly, each can be humane, but it is all too easy to use them wrongly. Find a trainer that emphasises positive training techniques - these are learnt skills for which some guidance is very, very helpful!

2. No-pull harnesses
These harnesses have a back part made of rope. If your dog should pull, it will tighten around their chest giving an uncomfortable sensation. This very often stops them from pulling. This is a great option for brachycephalic dogs where collars and tension are a bad, bad mix. Remember that a tool is a means to an end - you still need to praise, treat, play or otherwise reward your dog when they're doing the right thing - the idea is that eventually, you'd be able to put your dog in anything, harness, collar, dainty diamante chain or even ribbon, and there won't be pulling.

3. Head halters
There are a selection of head halters out there. They look a bit like bridles, with the idea that if the dog should pull, the head will be turned towards the person. Since the body is likely to follow where the head goes, this stops pulling. Use with care, they can injure a dog's neck and spine if the dog still pulls. Again, see it as a means to an end. These also have the downside of looking a bit like muzzles, which may cause trouble should someone decide you have a dangerous dog.

4. The Suitcase leash
A DIY no-pull setup, you take your dog's leash along their back, once around their tummy, as close to their back legs as you can get it, and underneath itself. Here's a picture:

From http://www.pugvillage.com/forum/pug-training/108805-how-do-suitcase-leash-kind-way-correct-pulling-dog-pics.html, where a much better description of how to do it can be found as well.

Again, a temporary measure. Praise, play and/or treat when the dog is doing the right thing.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of techniques or tools to help with this. But, I hope this inspires you to get out there and get walking.

Barking mad

In the realm of dog behaviour, I know very little. I'm learning, but at this point it feels the more I learn the less I know. Most dog behaviour, especially when it comes to communication, is very nuanced. One turn of the head, shift of the ears, slight paw lift, arching of spine and dropping of tail, all in a millisecond, all so subtle that only the luckiest photo catches even half of it, is a whole conversation about access to resources, threat level, pack rank, mood and sociability that we, as a rule, miss almost completely.

So, let's set that aside and work on an easier one. Barking.

This is probably one of the most problematic things for dog-people interactions. For one thing, aside from toilet habits, this is perhaps the most vilified of harmless things that dogs do. This is downright weird, though.

If we accept that our dogs are domesticated wolves, it helps to contrast dogs and adult wolves to see what is 'nature' and what is selectively cultivated by humans. Adult wolves don't bark. Adolescent wolves bark - this is another wolf puppy trait, like attention seeking, playfulness and a greater dependency on others that we chose to keep in the formation of dogs.

We wanted barking. It's easy to see why. Sheep-herding dogs need to be very alert to small movements and change - and guess what? They're typically your worst barkers. Flock guards are pretty high on the list too, with a low tolerance for things being 'out of order'  -like a wolf bothering the sheep is out of order, or, in our more typical modern context, the garbage van collecting the garbage is out of order. It is because of this, on the one hand, the very sensible reasons for having dogs that bark, and on the other, the deliberate selection of puppies that will keep on barking their whole lives, that I get saddened by people punishing dogs for barking.

But let's take a step back. We now know why our dogs are capable of barking, but this tells us very little about why dogs bark.

It seems that barking comes when a current situation boils over a certain point. If you want to anthropomorphise, this is when a situation gets to a certain point of stressfulness - good or bad stress. When excitement becomes a lot of excitement, there is barking. When there is tension, and the tension does not alleviate, the dog begins barking. When there is something to be aware of, and turning your head, pricking your ears and generally calling attention to it in a normal way completely fails to alert your human (or the other dogs), barking is what happens. When there is fear, a moderate amount, many dogs will bark (a lot of fear often leads back to silence). Different breeds, and different individuals within breeds will have different tolerance levels, different points where they will start barking.

When you're yelling at your dog to stop barking, you're actually yelling at it to feel differently about a situation. This does not seem vary fair, honestly. It also explains why distraction often is the best way to end a barking session, and why bark collars only sometimes work.

With this in mind, I think barking is one of the less nuanced behaviours of a dog. This does not mean barking cannot, or does not convey a wealth of information, it simply means that it's more of a one sentence thing than most other dog communication. There seems to be five types of bark:

1. An informational one, "something is going on over there"
This most often sounds like the Hollywood bark. A clean, clear 'woof' that does not rise or fall in pitch.

2. An aggressive/threatening bark, "come closer and I'll do more than make noise"
This bark is often low in pitch, can be quite slow and is sometimes punctuated with growls. 'Grrrrruf!'

3. An excited one, "oh, my gosh, greatest thing ever!"
Here is often where you hear the high pitched 'yip-yip-yip'. Excitement has gotten so much that he doggy cannot hold it inside anymore, and it bubbles out in rapid, high pitched barks. Watch dogs doing agility, barking all the way - that is a typical excited bark.

4. A fearful one, "help! Scared!"
This bark goes up in tone at the end and is often half whine. It starts off as a bark but ends in an 'eee' sound, or an 'ooo' sound.

5. An attention seeking one "look at me, play with me!"
This is a bit trickier to describe, since it will differ from dog to dog, and I would argue that this is more common with companion breeds than others. It is a bark that starts or ends with a 'm' or an 'n' sound. It can be soft, but it can also be quite loud. Talos makes a soft, almost muffled "nuff".

 "Nuff" says little Talos, who is not impressed with me fiddling
with the camera in stead of playing. 

Of course, a list of types like this is idealised. The barks are often used in combination, or change halfway through from one to another. I'm also pretty sure this is not exhaustive - but, it does give me a starting point when listening to dogs going at it.

As my very last word - if your dog is barking too much for your liking, please, don't de-bark it, or use a shock collar, or a spray collar. If I (and other people who are actually dog behaviourists and scientists) are correct about why dogs bark, you need to address the underlying emotional state if you want less barking. Usually, a good distraction works (oh, you mean 'keep your dog busy with mentally and physically stimulating activities'? No way!). Also, we all need to let go of barking as a 'bad dog' behaviour. They're just letting their feelings be known - even if it sometimes makes us barking mad!