by Zak George
3. Next, add, “look at me” to the mix (I teach “leave it/look at me” on this page, chapter 3). This combo is a fundamental training step for impulse control exercises. In short, it’s where you ask your dog to leave something alone that she wants and to look at you instead. When you have your dog’s eyes voluntarily, you can communicate amazingly well! Remember, these are still primary training sessions. You are not waiting for your dog to slip up. Rather, you are proactively preparing her for actual instances that are likely to occur in the future.
4. Need help visualizing this drill? Here’s an example: Maybe you’re in the kitchen and you have dinner in the oven. While you wait for your meal to cook, go ahead and place a temptation right on the counter or low table within your dog’s reach. Maybe you have a scrap of food nearby, like some vegetables or other snack. Choose something tempting and make sure your dog sees the food and where you put it. Perhaps even place it beneath her nose for a split second as if to say, “I want you to know what this is and where it is! But I want you to leave it alone.” Say, “Leave it.” Then, calmly ask for your dog’s attention by saying, “Look at me.” Do this to confirm that you have your dog’s willing compliance.
5. If your dog doesn’t steal the food, then reward her liberally with consecutive tiny treats. The rate of reinforcement is particularly key at first, so rapidly give three to five small treats every second for the first few successes here to help make the point to your dog that not stealing gets her lots of rewards. You can use a small piece of the actual food distraction (assuming it’s safe for your dog to eat). However, if you do so, pick it up and give it to your dog so that she associates the reward as coming directly from you. You may also use separate treats instead.
6. If at any time your dog goes for the food, just block access to it with your body or hand, place or lure her into a sit, and ask for a “look at me.” Reward your dog when she complies. This is inside-out training! Try to avoid pulling her away as that does not teach your dog to think and reason through her actions. If you pull her away, she’s learning nothing and the next time there’s food on the counter, she might think something like, “No one is here to pull me away from the food. I’ll bet I can get it before they get to me!” Dogs are excellent opportunists!
7. If your dog keeps going for the food during an exercise, then the next time make the session easier by either insisting that your dog leave the temptation alone for a shorter period of time or making the decoy something less interesting (i.e., probably not a pot roast). Once you gain some traction, pick up the pace a bit. Instead of dropping, say, one carrot on the floor, drop several. Or drop various objects. Or ask your dog to leave the food for longer. Remember, the more instances your dog listens to you in realistic practice, the more likely she is to listen in real life.
8. After you feel your dog is getting the concept of not stealing over several training sessions, it’s time to teach your dog how to leave things alone when you are not looking and even when you are out of the room. Start by turning your back and then repeat the exercise I just outlined. You are literally trying to make your dog think that you are no longer paying attention. However, be sure to watch her out of the corner of your eye. Every little change is likely to throw your dog off—and in this case, the changed variable is that you’re no longer obviously watching her. Therefore, assume she is likely to struggle at first. Go very slowly and reward generously for preliminary success. That could mean just a few seconds of your dog leaving something alone while your back is turned.
9. Over the next several training sessions, work on making sure that your dog honors your “leave it” training requests when you spontaneously ask her to do so from farther away and in all kinds of scenarios, such as while you’re sitting on the ground or while you’re opening and closing cabinets. This is harder than it sounds, so start slowly! It’s like you are saying, “I want you to leave everything I’ve placed on the counter or table alone no matter what I’m doing when I ask you to do it.” This attention to detail gets your dog rock solid on this skill.
10. Next your goal is to make the context of “leave it” even more challenging. The best teachers really get creative with this and practice this constantly in early training. Go as far as putting actual people food on a plate, set it on the ground, and request a “leave it/look at me.” You are doing two things with exercises like this. You are making it clear to your dog that no matter how accessible or tempting something is, she is to leave it alone (unless given permission to eat it, of course!). If your dog leaves a real plate of food alone while on the ground during a training session like this, then she is much more likely to understand this concept when you leave a plate of food on the table and walk away. Years ago, I used to appear on the local morning news pretty regularly to promote my dog training classes and to show off my dogs’ exciting tricks and stunts. However, nothing seemed to get the audience to say, “Wow!” like my setting down a plate of fried chicken on the ground and getting my dogs to leave it alone. This is a lofty accomplishment for a dog, but it really only takes a few weeks of consistent training and follow-through. Trust me, it’s nowhere near as difficult as you might expect!
11. Once you are certain that your dog is going to leave various things alone no matter what you’re doing in the room and no matter how close she is to the object, gradually start walking out of the room for a brief moment or two. Don’t push it! Work up to having your dog leave lots of different things alone while you step out of the room for, say, ten to thirty seconds at a time. Reward generously when she does. This may prove to be too much at first, so if your dog doesn’t pass the test, polish up your easier “leave it” training drills with you in person and then try leaving the room for a second or two.
12. Ideally, you should be practicing these set-up “leave it” training sessions at home, on walks, at the park, at your friends’ houses, or anywhere you take your dog. If you want your dog broadly generalizing this concept, these steps are necessary. What do you do if you notice at any time that your dog is stealing something even while supervised in a controlled setting outside of these primary lessons? Burst into a secondary training session as needed! Just as with your primary lessons, you do this by blocking access to the item, redirecting your dog’s attention to you, and rewarding her for compliance.
13. What if your dog has already devoured an object you left within her reach? First, remember you should never yell at your dog—she won’t have any idea why you’re angry. Plus, her slipup is a reflection of a lapse in your training. It’s not her fault. Instead, just take a step back in your training (or several steps back) and work on all the drills I’ve gone over in this chapter. Of course, if you think your dog has ingested something that might harm her, call your vet.
While this may seem like a lot of work, the payoffs are huge. By being relentlessly consistent, you teach your dog to generalize that she should leave everything alone unless given permission to engage it. If you do all of this impulse control training, it makes handling unwanted behaviors such as pulling on the leash and jumping way easier. See, you are not just teaching your dog to stop stealing. You are also teaching her how to override her most basic instincts, and that is extremely powerful. These are the things that give your dog a solid foundation of knowledge to build on, especially when working around distractions in all aspects of training.
CHAPTER 12
DIGGING
Digging is a natural behavior for dogs, a way for them to inspect and explore things they’re interested in. Unfortunately, they aren’t born knowing that we’d prefer that they not do it—especially when they leave lots of little craters in our yards! This chapter helps you determine why your dog might dig and how to put a stop to the behavior.
WHY DO DOGS DIG?
There are two main reasons dogs dig: they’re puppies or they’re bored. It’s common for puppies to scratch and dig at surfaces as they are just learning how to interact w
ith everything they can in their environment. So, they’ll try to use their paws as little hands. Eventually, most dogs discover that using their mouths is a more practical way to pick things up, especially if you’ve been showing your dog how to properly use his mouth along the way through games like tug-of-war. Even then, a dog might still use his paws from time to time.
For older dogs, digging most often occurs because they have nothing else to do. In other words, if dogs don’t get enough exercise, they might spend their pent-up energy digging their yards. Dogs may also dig because they are hot and want to reveal cooler ground or because they want protection from the cold, wind, rain, and other elements.1 They may also dig in order to attempt to break out of a contained environment, like a fenced-in yard, or because they are anxious.
Keep in mind that some digging behavior is natural and should even be allowed to an extent. For example, if a scent catches a dog’s attention, he might lightly dig to further investigate where the smell is coming from. Often this type of digging is relatively shallow in depth compared to more extreme digging. However, you can still help cut back on this kind of behavior if it ever gets out of control (say, your dog wants to stop every few feet and dig every time he’s out on a walk). Keep reading!
WHAT TO DO ABOUT DIGGING
Handling digging is actually pretty straightforward. In fact, I’ve found that making sure a dog gets regular, vigorous exercise early in the day along with controlling your dog’s environment are the two keys to dramatically reducing or stopping this habit. If your dog is digging because he is fearful or anxious for some reason, then see chapters 15 and 16 on handling those issues. Of course, if your dog is digging to find a cool, warm, or dry spot, then bring him inside. Here’s what else you need to know to deal with digging:
1. Dealing with “puppy digging” is very similar to resolving other unwanted behaviors. Remember that you must directly supervise your puppy when outside for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is digging. If your puppy starts to dig or seems like he might start digging—say, he begins smelling his favorite digging spot—redirect his attention first to you and then to an acceptable item, like a toy that he can play with. This may be tough at first as sometimes the scent and texture of the ground can be very interesting. However, you want your dog engaging with you instead of the ground, so using the toy, show him how much fun tug and fetch can be.
2. If your dog is uninterested in playing with you, using a great treat to first distract him can help. Use that treat as a bridge to pay attention to you. If need be, place the treat right at his nose, touching his nose if necessary. Next, bring that treat to your eyes to encourage a “look at me.” You can say, “Look at me” to get his attention. This is just a variation of the “leave it/look at me” combo. In this case, your dog is leaving the ground alone and looking at you instead. (I told you this was a handy skill!) You may need to do this for a few days or even weeks until you curb your dog’s digging habit.
3. For older dogs, you need to proactively make sure your dog doesn’t have the opportunity to dig. Let’s say your dog is digging moderate-sized holes in your backyard when you let him run around outside. Since the first step is actually taking a step back and regaining control of the environment, have your dog on a twenty-foot leash instead. This allows him to continue to roam, sniff, and explore, but you’re in total control of the situation as you’ve made it impossible for sustained digging to occur.
4. You know your dog and, as with puppies, you can likely detect when he is about to start digging. Again, when you sense that’s the case, get your dog’s attention on you with a treat or by playing as if to say, “Don’t do that. Do this instead. Trust me, it’s way more fun!” By interrupting the digging and replacing it with something that makes your dog happy, you’ll be well on your way to getting digging under control. Whenever you are trying to get your dog to be playful with you, remember to be extra-energetic and always genuine. Also, use a high-pitched voice—research out of the University of York found that using such a tone when talking directly to a dog is the best way to get a dog’s attention.2
5. If your dog is uninterested in playing and having treats during these moments (because he finds the ground that enticing), just escort him away from the immediate area and go to a different part of the yard. Try to reengage him there. If he’s still uninterested in playtime or treats, then this is a sign that you need to do much more work on desensitizing him to this type of environment. In other words, you have not yet built enough communication in these types of environments to stop this behavior long term. You can fix this by spending tons of time doing basic training with him or even playing fetch with him outdoors.
Over time, your dog will get the picture that you’ll interrupt his digging every time, and he’ll eventually cut back or even stop the behavior. But relying on interrupting exclusively is no way to resolve this. Rather, exercise and controlling the environment is critical. Like I said before, when you address those two things, the digging will almost certainly stop.
CHAPTER 13
EATING POOP
This definitely is the grossest of all the possible behavioral issues that dogs might have. I mean, seriously—they’ve got their food and they’ve got their treats. Why in the world would they ever want to eat something as disgusting as their own poop or the poop of another animal? Well, this issue—scientifically known as coprophagia—is a lot more common than you might think, especially among young dogs. In this chapter, I’ll help you bring this nasty habit to a stop.
WHY DO DOGS EAT POOP?
There are lots of reasons why dogs might eat their own feces or another animal’s feces, ranging from having a diet deficient in certain nutrients or calories, malabsorption syndromes, various illnesses such as thyroid disease, and intestinal parasites.1 Also, some experts say that puppies might learn the behavior from their mothers, who sometimes eat their offspring’s stool to keep the den clean.2
A study in Veterinary Medicine and Science points to another possible reason: researchers surveyed more than three thousand people with dogs and discovered that of the 16 percent of dogs who ate feces often, 80 percent preferred poop that was fresh (less than two days old).3 Coprophagia had nothing to do with the dog’s breed, gender, age, or even how well they were housetrained. Instead, the study authors hypothesized that the reason stems back to dogs’ wolf ancestors. Wolves would defecate away from their dens to protect against intestinal parasite eggs in the feces. However, if a sick or injured wolf did defecate near the den, they would eat the feces right away since parasite eggs don’t usually hatch into infectious larvae for a few days. In other words, wolves would eat the poop to keep their den free of dangerous parasites—and the idea is that dogs today are doing the same because it’s a natural instinct.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT EATING POOP
Regardless of why your dog is eating poop, getting her to stop this habit requires you to be very persistent. As with most things related to training dogs, you won’t get results if you’re passive about this issue. Here’s what you should do instead:
1. First, check with your vet to rule out any medical reason why your dog might be eating stool.
2. Controlling your dog’s environment is critical. While you’re working on this issue, your dog can’t just wander in the yard unattended. She should be on leash when outside so you can monitor her every move. It’s also very important to be meticulous about cleaning up after her. Obviously, if your dog doesn’t have access to her feces on the ground, then it’s impossible for her to eat it.
3. Give your dog a treat right after she poops. That way, you direct her attention back to you and to something appropriate to eat! Of course, giving your dog a reward after doing her business outside has an extra benefit: it helps with potty training and further ingrains the idea that outside (not on your carpet!) is the right place to go.
4. What if you catch your dog about to sneak he
rself a not-so-tasty snack? If you’ve really prioritized teaching and enforcing “leave it/look at me” as I explain on this page, chapter 3, then this is just another variation. In other words, when your dog begins to indicate that she is taking an interest in poop on the ground, you’ll need to promptly interrupt her and then get her attention on you by saying, “Leave it” and then “Look at me.” Acknowledge her good behavior by rewarding her with a treat. Continue doing this over the course of several months, rewarding intermittently (which I describe how to do on this page, chapter 22). However, don’t let your guard down too early on this one because it takes significant time to break any behavior that has become a habit. I realize that what I just described is actually a secondary training session—you are training in a real-life moment. With most training, I’d recommend that you do primary training sessions and surprise primary training sessions first. However, that’s difficult when it comes to a dog eating poop. Unlike other “leave it” training sessions that require you to practice with actual items that your dog might be interested in, that’s not very practical here for obvious reasons (unless you want to start roaming your neighborhood in the off chance of finding another dog’s poop that wasn’t picked up). That’s why it’s vital to teach your dog a reliable, generalized “leave it” with many dozens of items. You want your dog to be rock solid on this no matter what you’re asking her to leave alone.
5. As you continue working on this issue, you’ll notice that you might be able to interrupt your dog’s focus on poop even when she is at a distance in your yard. For example, you could supervise from your back deck while your dog takes a potty break because when you say, “Leave it,” she does. But other dogs may disregard your request. In those cases, you’ll need to continue having your dog on leash until she progresses further.