Theories aside, the more that professional dog trainers used the reward system, the more they discovered that it worked, that it worked long-term, and that it didn’t pose dangers to owners—as punishment-based training often does. Performing the much-publicized alpha role, for example, is a good way to provoke a dog into biting your face off.
Positive training is not a simple, one-size-fits-all approach. Its specifics vary, depending on the individual practitioner—and on the individual dog. Frankie, for example, won’t eat when he’s in an unfamiliar situation such as a training class—a reaction to stress he certainly didn’t get from emulating me—but responds enthusiastically to praise and chest scratches. So rewards for good behavior don’t have to involve food and/or an accompanying clicker sound.
Methods of discouraging undesired behaviors vary, too. They range from the redundant sounding “negative punishment”—which simply means withholding positive cues—to distracting your dog with a command when he’s doing something off-topic. The bottom line: although it’s based on sound scientific principles, effective positive training is also an art honed through a knowledge of dogs in general and yours in particular.
64. CAN TRAINING BE LEARNED ENTIRELY THROUGH BOOKS AND DVDS?
Only if you plan never to take your dog out of the house and introduce her to new people and situations. If you’ve got a puppy, it’s especially crucial that she work with a professional who can quickly assess her temperament—strengths as well as weaknesses—to help her get the most out of a training class.
Your temperament needs to be assessed by a professional, too. Even the most ambitious autodidact54 won’t succeed with books and tapes without getting somebody knowledgeable—and neutral—to evaluate the follow-through. You may think you’re being consistent, but while your mouth is praising “Good dog,” your body language may be bellowing “That’s the last liver treat you’ll see unless you shape up, bud.”
That said, getting a background in reward-based training techniques and watching them performed effectively will positively reinforce your decision to give your dog confidence and make him revel in your presence rather than playing on his insecurities and making him fear you. A prime place to get started is www.dogstardaily.com, which posts an array of excellent free demonstrations and downloads, including books and videos by the always entertaining Ian Dunbar, veterinarian, certified dog trainer, and site cocreator. The site’s blogs, written by such top behavioral experts as Nicolas Dodman and Patricia McConnell, are very informative, and the recommended products section can lead you to other star talent in the field (including Suzanne Clothier, Jean Donald-son, and Karen Pryor, among my favorites).
65. HOW CAN I FIND A GOOD TRAINER?
Dog trainers can hang out a shingle without any qualifications—and a lot of them do. Some ways to separate the mystery meat from the filet mignon include:
SEE IF THEY’RE JOINERS
Membership in the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT; www.apdt.com), devoted to continuing education and “dog friendly” techniques, is a good sign. A search by zip code will lead you to APDT members in your area who have been accredited by the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT; www.ccpdt.org)—which means they’ve performed at least 300 hours of training within the last five years and have undergone a lengthy standardized exam in everything from equipment to ethology.
Listed next, uncertified members of APDT who have established themselves as dog trainers may or may not be highly qualified—you just have to pay an entry fee to join the organization—but, at minimum, membership indicates an awareness that training is a profession, not a hobby, and suggests at least a cursory interest in networking and knowing the state of the training art.
CHECK WEBSITES
The fact that a trainer has bothered to create one is a good start. Other things to look for include the following.
Currency
I know, not everyone updates their websites regularly (guilty!) but if you’re referred to an address that says “We’re looking forward to getting this site up in early 2007” you’ve got to worry about the trainer’s seriousness and organizational skills.
Attitude
One website of an APDT member I came across disses everything from “university veterinary behavioral programs” to “food-bribery trainers” and group classes. I wouldn’t want to put my dog in the hands of someone so insecure that he needs to disparage the methods of others instead of just explaining the virtues of his own approach. In my experience, such humans often exhibit fear-based aggression.
Unwarranted claims
Be wary of anyone who guarantees results within a certain period of time—or guarantees results, full stop. All you can expect is that a trainer do her best, using tried and true methods, for your dog. These methods may not succeed as a result of factors completely unrelated to a trainer’s skill—breed temperament or illness, to name just a couple.
CHECK OUT A CLASS (WITHOUT YOUR DOG)
If you ask to observe a class and the trainer refuses to let you, that’s a red flag right away. But even when you’re allowed to sit in, you might not have a context for what you’re seeing. Laughter, excited squirming (on the part of the dogs), and tail wagging (ditto) are all good signs; raised tones, sharp commands, and long silences are not. Whatever your impressions, be sure to follow up at the end by asking class members what they think. Few will be shy about sharing.
BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR GOALS
Unless you know what you want, it’s impossible to determine whether a particular trainer can give it to you. For puppies, it’s pretty much everything—i.e., life preparation—but for older dogs you need to be a lot more specific than “I want her to behave.” A good trainer should be able to help you focus if you don’t have a sense of your options, and let you know if you’re being unrealistic about an objective—say, getting your dog to put a roller in his mouth and paint your house.
TRUST YOUR GUT
Assuming your gut is connected to your heart rather than to your machismo or machisma lobe. When I first got Frankie, I took him to S., a trainer highly recommended by two dog-loving friends. She was nice, smart, and clearly fond of dogs, but the first purchase S. required in preparation for the small dog class was a choke chain. The Frankie-size version was teeny, a wisp of a metal string, but it made me queasy.55 I ventured a few questions about the more positive techniques I’d heard about, but S. pooh-poohed them. And, after all, I was paying—and paying well—for her expertise. I figured I should defer to it.
In the end, waste of money notwithstanding, I was lucky. Frankie was too stressed out by the presence of the other small dogs—a snooty clique of Yorkies and Dachshunds—to learn much of anything, but neither did he learn to fear me.
And although I failed Chain Jerking 101,56 I discovered that my instincts about how to treat my new friend were sound.
66. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF GROUP VERSUS INDIVIDUAL LESSONS—AND WHAT CAN I EXPECT TO PAY FOR EACH?
For puppies, group classes are the key to learning how to play well with others and how to inhibit biting instincts. It’s more complicated for older dogs, some of whom will benefit from peer pressure more than others (as my experience with Frankie can attest). Only dogs without major aggression or fear issues are good candidates for the group experience—at least if they haven’t had some advance individual training.
As with every service, rates vary depending on where you live, but $150 to $300 for a series of six group classes is a good ballpark figure. Individual sessions can range from $50 to $150 for an hour but you can expect progress fairly quickly (although completion may take longer). If you don’t see the slightest difference in your dog’s behavior after two or three sessions, look for someone else.
67. CAN I LEARN TO SPEAK “DOG” AS WELL AS A DOG TRAINER?
Sure—and you’ll doubtless be better at the local dialect spoken in your house. All you have to do is keep your eyes and ears open and avoid shutting down the lines
of communication. A dog that growls, for example, is trying to tell you something, whether it’s a fear-based, “Leave me alone,” or a possessive, “Hey, that’s mine.” It’s in your best interest to investigate what’s behind the growl rather than attempt to suppress it. If you discourage self-expression, next time your dog might go straight to bite, do not pass snarl.
But it’s a two-way street. You not only need to decode your dog’s signals, but to be aware of what you’re telling him, whether deliberately or inadvertently.
The good news is that dogs can learn hundreds of words in our language, including ones we don’t intend to teach them—thus the common phenomenon of people in doggy households spelling to each other, “I’m just going out to the c-a-r.” They can even get past our ineptitude. We tend to treat our canine charges as we do foreign exchange students, repeating words, adding more of them, and speaking louder when we’re not immediately understood. But if we take the time to understand what our dogs are saying and to transmit our wishes more effectively, a surprising amount of information can be exchanged.
Books such as Patricia McConnell’s For the Love of a Dog and The Other End of the Leash, and Stanley Coren’s How to Speak Dog go into the topic in great and fascinating detail, and Sarah Kalnajs’s DVD The Language of Dogs adds visuals. The following is just a quick sketch of some of the basics.
WHAT YOUR DOG IS TELLING YOU
When you spend time with a dog, his barks are pretty easy to read, whether low and mean, high-pitched and excited, or persistent, almost rhythmic, demands for attention. Frankie recognizes my ability to tune out this last kind, so he occasionally fakes the more urgent variety.
Body language, on the other hand, may be more difficult to decode. Some moods and their indicators include the following.
I’m stressed and afraid
Some signs of high anxiety will be obvious even to dognoramuses: a tail between the legs, ears pinned back, cringing, shaking, and pacing. Others may be less familiar, such as the out-of-the-corner gaze that leaves the whites of the eyes showing, known as whale eye. And some cues are ambiguous. Yawning might mean sleepiness, for example, lip licking and drooling could be food-related, and lying on the back could indicate a desire for a belly rub. Put a few of these mixed signals together, however, and add a bit of submissive peeing to the back flip, and you can bet your dog is scared and/or upset.
I’m ready to rumble
Along with the obvious snarling, teeth baring, and growling, a dog that’s on edge is likely to give a hard, cold stare (not dissimilar to the one you might get if you’re caught checking out someone other than the person you’re with); stand stiffly; raise her ears (if you have a breed that can do that); and hold her tail rigid (ditto). She might also raise herself up on her toes to look bigger and tougher, unless she’s Great Dane-size, in which case, why bother?
Play with me, please!
Anyone who’s ever taken yoga will recognize the play bow as the downward-facing dog position (far easier for Frankie to assume and maintain than it is for me). Dogs who feel frisky and eager to engage will look relaxed, tail wagging lazily, maybe even a full body wiggle. If you think your dog is smiling, you’re probably not imagining it; loose lips and an open mouth are part of the picture. Finally, gentle nose nudging and pawing—or dropping a favorite toy at your feet—are clear signs of playfulness.
WHAT YOU’RE TELLING YOUR DOG
Dogs are far better at reading our body language than we are at reading theirs—thus their successful adaptation to our world over the millennia and our (not unwarranted) belief that they can intuit our moods—but the gap between canid and primate is often difficult for them to bridge nevertheless. And because we primates don’t often bother to learn canid, the results include the following.
Unintended rudeness
Approaching a dog directly and staring straight at him, for example, is considered an act of aggression; so is leaning down and patting him on the head. Hugging? Sudden movements? Sticking your hands in his face? All are intrusions into canine personal space, and they may cross over from annoying to downright scary. That’s why kids, with their sudden, impulsive movements, so often frighten dogs—and why dogs bite them.
Confusion
Sometimes dogs believe they’re speaking the same language as we are and don’t understand why they’re not getting their point across. Say your dog is barking and you yell at her to shut up. She’s thinking, “Oh, you’re making a loud noise, too. Good—let’s keep it going,” but is puzzled by your rigid posture and the tension around your mouth.
This is where Dogspeak 101 comes in handy. You’d be amazed at how quickly even simple attempts to communicate—ignoring the barking and rewarding a brief bout of silence, for example, or blinking and yawning to calm a stressed dog—can yield results.
68. I’VE HEARD TRAINERS CAN HELP WITH SOCIALIZING AND DESENSITIZING. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
Socializing is the process of introducing dogs to the scary, complex world they’re going to be sharing with us, and showing them how they’re expected to behave in it. Ideally, puppies should be exposed to lots of different people, dogs, noises, and sights in their first 12 weeks so that nothing will faze them later on. One way to accomplish this—in addition to taking them to training classes—is to arrange for small groups of friends to come over and handle your pup57 while watching loud action movies and/or listening to heavy metal. If you can get your pals to put on hats and carry umbrellas, you get bonus points. It’s fun, plus any outlay for beer and pizza (or whatever inspires your particular group) will be more than compensated for by having a friendly, well-balanced dog.
Desensitizing performs mop-up duty for dogs who have not been properly socialized, helping to ease their fears. (These fears can also be breed-based or spurred by a single frightening episode.) Methods vary, depending on the source of the fear and its intensity,58 but they don’t include “flooding,” or full-on immersion—the canine equivalent of shoving an arachnophobe into a room full of spiders. Nor do they include babying. If you try to soothe a fearful dog, it only confirms her view that there’s actually something to be afraid of.
Typically, the dog’s desensitizer remains calm and confident while carefully exposing the pup to the source of her anxiety—whether it is shiny shoes, pugs, or men in black—and creating new, positive associations with it. Here again, professional guidance and the help of a few friends are essential. It shouldn’t be hard to find people willing to role-play—wearing shiny shoes, say, or dressing in black—and toss treats around. Who doesn’t love a chance to be silly for a good cause? Borrowing a pug might be more difficult but by no means impossible, and most pugs are happy to cooperate; they’re a helpful, fun-loving lot.
69. ARE THERE DOG SHRINKS—AND, IF SO, HOW DO I KNOW IF MY DOG NEEDS ONE?
Specialists who treat dogs for mental health issues—as opposed to dogs who earn advanced degrees in psychology59—are called behaviorists. This is a vague, blanket term; it would be like teachers, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists all going by the same title. One way to distinguish between the different people who call themselves behaviorists is by fee structure: the highest rates go to those who have the credentials to wield a prescription pad.
But that’s relative. Dog trainers may give themselves the behaviorist label so they can charge more than instructors who don’t know enough to claim it. Consultants with an M.S. or Ph.D. in a field of animal behavior have a far more legitimate claim to the behaviorist name, especially Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists (CAABs; www.certifiedanimalbehaviorist. com); in addition to an advanced degree, CAABs are required to have five years of field experience. These experts don’t all do training—they haven’t necessarily majored in dog—but can usually provide knowledgeable referrals.
The top dogs in the canine mental health hierarchy are veterinarians who are board certified in the specialty of behavior. This is a relatively new discipline; in 2008, there were fewer than 50 members of t
his elite group in the United States. Check the website of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (www.dacvb.org) to see if there’s one near you. Renowned among their ranks is Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a best-selling author who founded the Tufts University Animal Behavior Clinic and pioneered the field of animal behavioral pharmacology.
Reading Dodman’s The Dog Who Loved Too Much is one way to tell if your dog needs a shrink. Documenting case studies of canine patients who really have problems, from obsessive tail chasing to severe separation anxiety, this book will give you perspective on your dog’s mild shyness or occasional temper tantrum.
Most of the time, you’ll know if your dog is in imminent danger of harming herself or others and thus in need of expert help. But there are gray areas, including behavioral changes that seem to come on suddenly, that may leave you wondering whom to consult.
If you suspect your dog may have a problem that’s beyond the scope of a regular trainer, start by checking with your vet. Some obsessions are breed-related, for example, and sudden aggression could be caused by pain from an undiagnosed illness. And any veterinary generalist—or layperson who watches Animal Planet—will tell you that exercise is the key to canine mental health. Diet may make a difference, too. It’s worth asking your vet if feeding your dog less protein might lessen her aggression, for example.
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