Zak George's Guide to a Well-Behaved Dog

by Zak George

  7. When your dog does have accidents in the house, remember you should never punish him. That’s like punishing a baby for going in his diaper! Yelling at your dog won’t teach him anything; all it does is hurt your bond. The best course of action is to up your game when it comes to controlling his environment and letting him out more often. If you do catch your dog in the act, quickly pick him up or escort him outside if you’re not too late. Also, be sure to thoroughly clean up any accidents that do occur. Dogs have extremely sensitive noses, and the smell of urine can stimulate their urge to repeat the behavior in the same area. Choose an enzyme-based cleaner that neutralizes the odor.

  8. If you want to use potty pads, follow the same steps I’ve outlined, but instead of walking your dog outside you’ll walk him directly to the potty pads. You’ll still need to control the environment and be consistent about taking your dog to the pads. Where you keep the pads is up to you: if you’d like to put them out just prior to your dog’s potty break, that’s fine. If you’d like to keep them out all the time, that’s fine, too. However, note that if your ultimate goal is to get your dog making outside, then I wouldn’t recommend using potty pads in the interim—it’s an unnecessary step and might confuse your dog. Only use potty pads if you always plan on using them.

  HANDLING SETBACKS

  I can’t tell you how many times people come to me saying things like, “My dog was perfectly potty trained, but now he’s having accidents in the house again. What should I do?” Well, the first thing I say is that they are certainly not alone. Potty-training setbacks—which is when your dog has demonstrated that he’s potty trained but then suddenly starts making in the house again—occur for all sorts of reasons. For instance, when it comes to potty training, it’s common for people to assume victory prematurely and let their guard down too soon. However, training is about extensive follow-through for months and months. Without it, your dog can quickly lose a lot of the progress he’s made. Here are some other reasons your dog might experience setbacks and what to do about them:

  • Certain medical issues, ranging from a urinary tract infection to diabetes, can suddenly make a dog have to go to the bathroom more frequently and with little notice. So, if your dog is having setbacks, first things first: schedule a vet visit.

  • If you have a new baby or roommate or you’ve changed your dog’s routine in any other way, he might experience setbacks. That’s because it doesn’t take much to throw some dogs off with potty training. In these cases, slow down and go back to the basics. Be patient—your dog will get back on track. He just needs some time to adjust to the new variable.

  • A change in environment can also cause a dog to have major setbacks. Most dogs do not generalize new places well—they might understand that they shouldn’t go potty in your home, but that doesn’t mean they understand that they shouldn’t go in other places. So, if you’ve moved recently, if you’re leaving your dog at a sitter’s home, or you’re just visiting a friend’s house for the day, your dog might want to investigate these new, fun places to relieve himself. In these cases, keep your dog on a leash or under very strict supervision no matter how well he was potty trained before. He’ll have to learn where he can and cannot go potty in this new environment. The good news is that it shouldn’t take long if he caught on before. In fact, a quick walk or two outside where you reward your dog for going on the grass can do the trick.

  HANDLING EXCITEMENT URINATION/SUBMISSIVE URINATION

  Excitement urination is when your dog is overcome with joy and just starts involuntarily peeing anywhere and everywhere. Submissive urination is when dogs, especially young ones and/or those who aren’t socialized, involuntarily pee when seeing a new person or dog or when someone becomes upset with them. These behaviors are both particularly common among dogs under eighteen months or so, and they often diminish over time as dogs mature. Socializing a dog at a young age and desensitizing him to people or situations likely to cause him to become excited or nervous should speed up your progress.

  If your dog has excitement urination, discourage guests from interacting with him until he settles down. When you come home, you should do the same! Don’t get your dog all riled up and start playing fetch. Instead, whisk him right outside.

  If your dog pees out of nervousness when in a new place such as a vet’s office or a friend’s house, this is your cue to do some environmental desensitizing. Make it a priority to set up time to slowly introduce your dog to these new places in positive ways. You might spend ten to thirty minutes in front of the vet’s office or your friend’s house just hanging out or doing some easy training. Use your dog’s favorite currency here! As your dog becomes more relaxed, you can consider going inside at that point.

  With both excitement and submissive urination, it always helps to take your dog outside right before guests come over or before any activity that might cause your dog to pee inside.

  CHAPTER 9

  LEASH PULLING

  We all have to walk our dogs several times every day. However, that’s often a lot easier said than done. I cover many behavioral issues in my YouTube videos on the top, but year after year, leash pulling remains one of the most popular topics. (Check out my leash walking playlist on YouTube to see my videos on the topic all in one place.)

  In this chapter, I’ll teach you how to walk your dog properly and how to get any lunging, pulling, leash biting, and other inappropriate leash behaviors under control.

  WHY DO DOGS PULL ON LEASHES?

  Dogs pull on leashes for lots of reasons. For one, they naturally walk significantly faster than we do. It’s not easy for a dog to slow her natural pace when doing something as basic as walking. In fact, this skill is more advanced than you might realize. Also, dogs have their own reasons for enjoying a walk that we often don’t consider. You might want your dog to do her business outside quickly, but she’d rather take her time to figure out where certain cool smells are coming from, to investigate something fascinating she sees in the grass, or to chase after the squirrel that just ran up the tree.

  WHAT TO DO ABOUT LEASH PULLING

  There are two main steps you need to take to resolve most types of leash pulling. Here’s an overview of both.

  Step #1

  First, your dog must have an outlet for all of her energy. It stands to reason that if your dog is lying around all day, bored out of her mind, with no way to exercise, then when you do take her out on a walk she is going to be bursting with energy. The key is to make sure she gets enough exercise during the day so that walks are much more manageable. As I’ve mentioned throughout this book, fetch is a perfect option.

  Exercise has an added bonus when it comes to training: one of the absolute best times to do a leash training session is instantly after a workout that tires your dog—the kind where she’s so wiped out that she couldn’t run if she wanted to. While you’re not exactly proactively training your dog to walk slowly next to you on leash since she’s too tired to walk fast anyway, she is experiencing what you would like the walk to be like: walking at a normal, enjoyable pace for both of you. It also allows her to take in the environment and everything it has to offer while she is too tired to go crazy over it. This goes so far toward desensitizing your dog to a stimulating outdoor environment. The more instances in which you can create good behavior, even if your dog is fatigued from a long workout, the more it helps her progress.

  However, I also know that this isn’t always practical. If you live in an urban environment, you might have to walk your dog to the park in order to play some fetch. Or maybe you’ve been trying for months to get your dog interested in fetch and other activities, but walking is the only reliable way you can currently get her energy out.

  So, you have another option: take her for a long enough walk that she expends enough energy to then focus on learning proper leash walking. For instance, your dog may need to walk briskly for up to twenty minutes before settling
down a bit. I understand this is somewhat counterintuitive to my other training advice. However, if you have a dog who pulls, and you are unable to exercise her before leash training, then you really just have to wait for her to tire a bit during the walk.

  Step #2

  So what’s the second step you need to take? You’ve got to normalize the exciting environment your dog encounters on walks. You do this through frequent exposure and desensitization drills so that the smells, sights, and sounds aren’t a special occasion anymore. And you do that by teaching proper leash walking! Here’s how:

  1. Throughout this training, use high-value rewards. Also, make sure that you train in an environment where your dog listens. For example, your first training lessons should take place inside your home where your dog is comfortable. You can gradually make the environment more challenging as long as you make sure your dog is always in a trainable mind-set. How do you do this? It’s essential that you measure her compliance often by asking for a “sit” and a “look at me.” If your dog does not reliably honor such requests, this is a great sign that the environment you’re teaching in is too distracting.

  2. Start by walking around inside with your dog on a leash. Take a few steps and ask your dog to sit. Generously reward when she does. Do you see what we’re doing here? You are breaking training down into small, manageable segments. At no point should any next step be hard for your dog. For many of you, this may be the first time you’ve ever seen your dog behave on leash!

  3. As you perfect these lessons in your house, practice those surprise primary lessons, too. Out of nowhere, put the leash on your dog and quickly jump into an indoor leash training session. By doing this, you are teaching your dog that even when she’s caught off guard, she still needs to comply.

  4. As your dog becomes proficient with these lessons, set up random, unpredictable distractions. Maybe you throw a treat or a toy in front of your dog, for example, and then request a “leave it/look at me.” The idea is to work up to being able to distract your dog as much as possible in this easy, indoor environment before moving on. See, if your dog cannot pay attention to you on leash while in your living room, then there’s no reason to believe that she’ll be able to handle a sudden surprise on a real walk, such as a group of kids whizzing by on bicycles. If at any point the training seems too daunting to your dog, immediately take a step back and make the exercises easier.

  5. Now, it’s time to do these identical lessons in your driveway or right in front of your front door. Follow the same drill that you did indoors. These walking lessons should cover a range of five to twenty yards in length back and forth, up and down, in figure eights and other random patterns. The only goal here is to make sure that your dog is keeping up with you as you suddenly change course frequently.

  6. Since you are outside now, you are also likelier to encounter more distractions. For example, there are lots of smells. Also, your dog might hear other dogs barking in the distance, or she might encounter a stray cat or a bird. If at any point you do encounter a distraction that causes your dog to pull on her leash and become too distracted to pay attention to you, promptly create distance between your dog and the distraction. Even go back inside if necessary. The farther away the distraction is, the more likely your dog is to listen to you. How do you know when you are far enough away? Again, measure! When you ask your dog for a “sit” and a “look at me,” and she complies and doesn’t pull, you’re at the right spot. As you get to know your dog throughout this training, you should have a good baseline for how far something needs to be from your dog before you have her attention.

  7. Once you’ve done this long enough for your dog to reliably focus on you, usually over a few dozen lessons, it’s time to do a training walk. However, this still isn’t a proper, leisurely walk as you should still be completely focused on your dog and any potential distractions. At this point, escort your dog up and down the street. As you cover more and more new territory in your neighborhood, your dog might lose focus at times. What is your course of action when your dog becomes distracted and starts pulling on her leash suddenly? Measure! Create enough distance until you can get a reliable “sit” and “look at me.”

  8. Assuming you go out of your way to do these training sessions, you and your dog will be much more prepared to handle distractions while on actual walks. Don’t become complacent, however. Leash training usually takes extensive follow-through for a solid year at least or you risk regression! Keep up with the indoor and outdoor training, and don’t forget to bring high-currency treats on walks so you can randomly reinforce good behavior for those unplanned secondary training sessions (training that occurs spontaneously in real life as opposed to training that you planned) that require quick action on your part.

  HANDLING LEASH REACTIVITY

  Let’s talk about those dogs who tend to react excessively to other dogs, people, or animals while walking. For instance, when your dog acts out and starts lunging and barking at another dog on a walk, it could be that she is so happy to see that dog that she can’t contain her excitement. Or it could be that she is suddenly thrown off by this dog, and she wants to engage the dog in a more dangerous or inappropriate way. You’ll need to do your best to identify the underlying cause.

  If you think it’s the latter cause, then you might ask why a dog would act aggressively while on leash. In a nutshell: Dogs feel trapped. “When dogs are off leash, they have the ability to create space when around other dogs as they first determine how their interactions will progress,” explains John Ciribassi, DVM, DACVB, past president of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior and coeditor of the book Decoding Your Dog.1 “In using nonverbal communications such as tail position, head position, and eye contact, dogs can get a good idea of each other’s intentions and make a decision regarding whether or not they want to interact with another dog. A leash prevents this type of communication and also prevents the dog’s ability to create space. This, in turn, makes her feel more vulnerable.”

  Of course, you need to walk your dog on a leash, so what do you do? When it comes to handling leash reactivity, there are two major issues you need to address: leash pulling and overreacting to something. So, you’ve got to work on both (after making sure your dog is getting enough exercise, of course!). If your dog is unpleasantly reactive to, say, other dogs when she encounters them on a walk, you’ll need to go do some extra desensitizing and counterconditioning along with the proper leash walking drills I outlined earlier in this chapter.

  For example, let’s say there’s one street that you avoid going down because there’s a loud dog who starts barking at you and your dog through a fence. And let’s say your dog starts barking and pulling like crazy as you get close to passing the dog. In this case, plan on doing a primary training session about five houses away from this dog—far enough away where you can still get a “sit” and a “look at me.” Your goal is to find that spot where your dog goes from not listening to you to likely to listen to you so that you’ll know what your workable distance is.

  Once you identify this distance, work on gradually being able to gain compliance at closer and closer distances. These counterconditioning exercises might simply be taking three steps in the direction of the barking dog and then giving a treat to your dog over and over again. You are attempting to change the way your dog reacts in this situation. Whereas before, she would bark, now she eagerly pays attention to you. It’s normal for this to take dozens of training sessions in this particular situation.

  What if your dog reacts excessively when she sees any other dog or person while on a walk? Again, you’ll need to take a step back and do some desensitization work. In other words, it’s not reasonable to expect results here until you’ve set up primary training sessions and surprise primary training sessions for your dog where you are in complete control of the variables. So, if your dog is highly reactive on neighborhood walks, then first know she’s not yet
ready for casual walks in the neighborhood. Set up training lessons in areas where your dog is more likely to be in a teachable mind-set—say, on a dead-end street where you know there are no dogs in the vicinity or maybe early in the morning before your neighbors take their dogs on walks. You could even sit on your driveway or front porch and practice “look at me” while the other dogs walk by.

  When it comes time to test to see if your dog willingly complies, you need to be prepared for a couple of scenarios. If your dog’s concentration is broken and she begins to react unfavorably, immediately escort her away from the other dog or person until her distraction level has subsided enough to sit and look at you. However, if your dog is showing more restraint than before, even if minimal, reward her with her favorite currency. See chapter 19 on listening with distractions for more information on how to help your dog react calmly no matter what she sees on a walk.

  HANDLING LEASH BITING

  Sometimes dogs are so excited and worked up about being on a walk that they start biting on the leash. Think about this from their perspective: they might be thinking, “There’s a dangling, skinny, wiggly, bitable thing very close to me!” This is most common with puppies, but lots of playful older dogs do this, too. I actually love this issue. It’s almost always about a dog screaming, “Let’s play! Let’s interact! Let’s do something fun!” See, to me this is the most ideal frame of mind for a dog to be in when it comes to teaching her because you can reward her with playtime. I know the behavior itself is obnoxious, but the mind-set is great!