How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend

by Monks of New Skete

  Bedroom Deportment

  Your pooch is in the room and you're ready to retire. Although it is best to have trained your dog to lie down in advance (see chapter 35, "The Down"), it is surprising how even the most hyperactive dogs tend to plop down as soon as the lights are shut off. If your dog paces, runs around, or gets up too often, you might want to start teaching the down in advance and then tethering the dog to the foot of the bed. A good way to start this training is during the day, by taking (or appearing to take) a brief nap. That way, if the dog is restless, you can work on the down without losing valuable sleep. Begin with your dog next to the bed on a down. Lie down on the bed and relax. Often the

  Sleeping in your bedroom is an ideal way for your dog to bond with you.

  dog senses the shutting-down mode and relaxes as well, but if not, you are easily able to enforce the down. Be consistent. The tether keeps the dog from wandering around, even allowing you to correct the dog without getting up. By keeping the sessions short, you can progressively work on the procedure over a couple of days; before you know it, the dog will be perfectly at peace in your room. Allow no jumping on the bed or other horseplay. Discipline such behavior by curtly removing the dog from the bed and literally depositing her on the floor with a sharp "no!"

  Provide a spot for the dog with a small rug, dog bed, or blanket. Food and water are not needed overnight. The best policy is to have the dog lie down, ignore her, and go about preparing for bed. Do not make a fuss over the dog. This is a time of quiet, uncomplicated interaction between you and your dog. It is a time when you let the dog into your private "den" but not to disrupt it. Most dogs simply find a wall and lie down against it. Some like to lie under a desk since it provides a denlike atmosphere. As long as it is not inconvenient for you, let the dog pick the spot. Don't force the dog to lie anywhere. If there is an area the dog lies on that bothers you, block it off by rearranging furniture or placing an object in the way.

  Finally, turn off the lights. This is usually the final sign-off. If you have problems with pacing or hyperactivity (more common in males than in females), try turning off the lights and telling the dog to lie down. Most dogs circle in a holding pattern for a few revolutions, then land for the night.

  Get Up!

  The canine privilege of inhabiting the master's den is just that — a privilege. Don't allow your dog to abuse it. If the dog bothers you during the night, give him a slight tap on the muzzle and the command to lie down. Pawing the bed or trying to get on it should result in slapped paws and a shove off. In general, it is a good idea to keep the dog away from the top of the bed but still in the bedroom. Dog owners who enjoy a long good-night scene or ritual bedroom romp are inviting trouble and canceling out the potential benefits that stem from an in-bedroom sleep. Don't go overboard. Allow your dog to share your den but not take it over.

  If your dog bothers you during the early-morning hours, he may be obeying his psychological and physical alarm clock that is telling him to defecate, especially the younger he is. If your dog has a regular schedule for elimination, you need to stick to it, regardless of whether you want to sleep in. Many a dog owner has become an expert at stumbling to the door on a Saturday morning, letting the dog out and back in, then falling back into bed for a little more shut-eye. Part of being a dog owner is respecting your dog's inner schedule. The more mature the dog, the more control he has. With time, you should be able to sleep later, and the dog will, too.

  On the other hand, some dogs take an invitation into the bedroom as a chance to play "doorman" with their owners. Don't get up "every hour, on the hour" for your dog. Assuming that your dog receives adequate exercise and is not restless simply because of excess energy, take the dog out before retiring and make sure he has had enough time to eliminate. During the night, ignore whining and shush him with a stern "no." In the case of young puppies, you should get up and take the pup out for a time (usually until he shifts to two meals per day), but older dogs can usually "hold it." Don't rev the dog up before bedtime, since this might encourage vomiting or defecation.

  The Value of In-Bedroom Sleeping

  Of all the training exercises described in this book, sleep therapy is the easiest. You don't have to do much except let the dog in and out of the room and keep the whole experience in the room as low-key as possible. But this is a time when a lot is happening, from the dog's point of view. The dog is enjoying an extended period of time with your scent. The bedroom contains the most intense scents. Dogs focus on the bed itself, especially the center of the bed. Therefore, we prefer that the dog not be allowed on the bed. Aside from potential problems with dominance issues, owners who allow their dog on the bed may discover the middle of the mattress chewed up. Some contact with the owner's scent is beneficial; too much contact backfires. The rest of the bedroom is a fragrant delight. The closet houses shoes and socks, the rug on the floor is walked on by bare feet, and the drapes are touched constantly. For your dog, the in-bedroom sleep is a scent "high"— but a high that must be properly regulated and controlled.

  Night is a time when the owner and dog can have extended contact without demanding anything from each other, a time when most dogs make their own decision to lie down and relax with you, shut down, turn off, sleep. This, in itself, while deceptively uneventful, builds trust and confidence between owner and dog. Consequently, the in-bedroom sleep can be a great help if you are experiencing problems with hyperactivity, social isolation, lack of rapport, night barking and whining, or general unruliness. For the owner without much time for a pet, it can be a final moment of contact and attention.

  In the hundreds of "problem dog" cases we have worked with at New Skete, 80 percent of the pets slept outside of the bedroom, usually in the living room, basement, outdoors, or, significantly, just outside the bedroom door.

  All of the New Skete monks keep their assigned dogs in their rooms at night. The bedrooms are in the cloistered section, where we have a rule forbidding any noise. Our dogs glide into the room behind us; then we give the down command with a hand signal and go about the business of retiring. Our dogs are usually asleep before we are.

  A good example of the power of in-bedroom sleeping is what happens when we have an imported dog arrive from Germany. Since we try to include the very best bloodlines in our breeding program, some dogs must come from overseas. They may or may not know any English when they arrive, and are generally disoriented. But after a week of sleeping in the same room with one of the monks, they calm down and follow that Brother around like a shadow. This is a good tip for trainers and others who must get to know strange dogs in a short period of time in order to train them or nurse them — move them into your bedroom for sleeping, and wonders occur.

  Dog Dreams

  Dogs do dream. They are often quite verbal about it, moaning and purring during the dream. Some owners have mistakenly thought it best to wake up the dog and stop the "nightmare." But the old adage "let sleeping dogs lie" applies here. If the dog's REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is disturbed too often, daytime hyperactivity and unruliness can result. If the dream becomes really noisy, try stopping it by crinkling a piece of paper or tapping the floor. This changes the pattern of the dream but does not wake up the dog.

  To us, it is important where your dog sleeps. The best place is in your bedroom or in your den. Needless to say, the protection potential of any pet increases insofar as he can quickly alarm his owners of any danger. If the dog has access to your bedroom, you have a built-in burglar and fire alarm.

  21

  Playing Pavlov

  The Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) used dogs extensively in his experiments with conditioned reflex. Though he was not specifically concerned with dog training, he left a body of work that can be of great value to breeders, trainers, and dog owners. This chapter does not presume to explore all of Pavlov's work, much less in detail. Nevertheless, we do explain a canine socialization and training technique that is highly Pavlovian.

 
; A simple set of keys can help you deepen your relationship with your dog and alleviate many forms of problem behavior. Dogs with recall problems, a tendency for chewing, digging, or other destructive antics, or appetite problems can be successfully "keyed in" by a simple form of sound conditioning. You need four or five keys on a

  A simple set of keys can help alleviate problems.

  key chain. Every second key should be brass, while the others should be made of another metal, preferably not aluminum. Brass and steel make higher-pitched sounds, and four or five keys sound better to dogs than ten or twenty.

  The basic idea behind this sound conditioning is to precede desired behavior with a distinctive sound. Keys are used here because they provide a strong, high-pitched sound that is irresistible to the dog once she is properly conditioned. Hand clapping, whistling, and cooing are in another realm, obviously proceeding from a person. To these specifically human sounds, a dog may or may not respond, depending on the current state of the relationship between the dog and the person making the sound. Keys or whistles are neutral, and therefore more effective. In our experience, however, we find the most effective sound device to be the keys on a chain.

  Let's take an example. Your dog doesn't come when called. If you have a puppy or a dog younger than two years old, your chances for effective sound conditioning to correct the "come problem" are better than with an older dog who is used to going the other way when called. Yet it is never too late to try this training technique. For the greatest success, you must have regular feeding times for your dog twice daily, and he must finish eating in about fifteen to twenty minutes. If you have your dog on the "nibbler plan," you need to switch to a regular feeding schedule and remove the food if it is not finished promptly. (We suggest this method of feeding in general.) Before placing the dish within his reach and allowing him to eat, get your dog's attention and jingle the keys for two or three seconds. Then go about your business as he eats. Do not make a show out of it, and preferably do not allow your dog to see you jingle the keys. You may attach the keys to your belt loop with a snap belt. Repeat this procedure at the second meal, continuing it for two or three weeks. Do not use the keys around your dog for any other purpose until you have spent some time doing this conditioning procedure whenever your dog eats. Another positive booster and "reinforcing effect" can be gained by using the keys whenever you return from work, from an errand, or in your car — stop the motor, open the door (both distinctive sounds in themselves), jingle the keys, and call out the dog's name in a happy voice that carries.

  After two or three weeks, begin a daily session in which you call your dog, jingle the keys, and praise him lavishly while offering him a treat when the recall is good. Make sure you are crouching down, have a smile on your face, have your arms open to "funnel" the dog in to you, and are not overjingling your keys. The whole point, obviously, is to let the dog hear the sound of the keys — so that he reacts positively, on his own. Let the dog win. Then reverse the procedure by jingling first and then calling your dog's name. Finally, try it with the keys alone. Above all, make sure your praise is animated, verbal, and physical when your dog comes to you. There is hardly a moment in training more deserving of praise than the successful recall. (Again to reiterate: never call a dog to you and then discipline him. If you have anything other than a happy reception planned for your dog at the end of a come-in, go get the dog yourself.)

  Conditioning with sound for recall is a training technique that builds with repetition. Expand the practice to other happy occasions, such as treats, play sessions, or car trips. Always follow up the key jingling with a happy experience and praise.

  Key therapy works on a group level, too. Puppies are often sound-conditioned in lieu of giving them names, since the breeder may prefer to leave that prerogative to the future owners. As it is so effective with puppies and younger dogs, keys can help teach pups the recall, can aid in gait evaluation, and helps keep a litter grouped together and diverted from traffic and other dangers. One breeder detoured a litter of nine puppies from a busy road with a few jingles of her trusty keys.

  We have long used keys with our puppies here at the monastery with great results. By starting the conditioning at feeding time, puppies become focused on the sound of the keys in no time, making preliminary training for the recall a snap. When a group of pups is out in the yard, investigating and playing with one another, a simple jingle of the keys brings the whole litter running toward the source, and to lavish praise.

  We progressively extend this procedure to walking them around the monastery grounds and up and down steps, thereby also conditioning the pups to a variety of environments and surfaces.

  Some professionals use the key method to double-handle dogs in the show ring. In double-handling, one person actually shows the dog, while the other provides ringside encouragement, often with strategic key jingling. However, we should note that this is a technique forbidden by the American Kennel Club, though it is the subject of some debate and practiced widely.

  For dogs with appetite problems, begin as above, jingling your keys a couple of times before placing the food before your dog. Pavlov's dogs salivated at the sound of the bell, and the principle here is the same. Appetite problems often have many roots (see chapter 11 on feeding), so if your pet is already playing a food game with you, make sure that you are not simply adding the key ritual without first correcting the basic trouble.

  Chewers, diggers, and general house wreckers can sometimes be diverted from their destructive activities by strategic sound therapy. Verbal or physical discipline is the usual corrective for this kind of behavior, but sound diversion may work for the dog who fails to respond to these methods. Keys, whistles, and other sound devices are even helpful with dogs who chew or dig when the owner is absent.

  Here is just such a case.

  Thunder, a two-year-old malamute, spent the day digging holes in the backyard. When the owners returned, it was standard procedure to wallop the dog and then isolate him. The digging, however, continued to get worse until, in exasperation, they went to their veterinarian, who referred them to us. Thunder appeared to be a normal, sound male, alert and active, with some holdover behavior from puppyhood. We combined a program of basic obedience training, some diet changes, and sound conditioning. Later, when Thunder left us, his owners began to condition the dog with a simple key set at meal-times, early morning, and night. One of the owners had a day off and spent the day at a neighbor's house, which had a view of her backyard. Anticipating Thunder's digging, she jingled the keys several times that afternoon. Balls, sticks, and toys had previously offered no diversion to the digging. Construction of a simple obstacle course of old tires and boards and some large tree limbs did. When she returned to work the next day, she left the keys with her neighbor, who agreed to watch for signs of canine excavation. This helpful neighbor jingled the keys whenever she felt the dog was about to begin digging or if she actually caught the dog in the act. By the end of two weeks' time, with the combined impact of many facets of her program, the digging had stopped completely.

  The owner next installed a dog door to give Thunder the option of being inside or out. Previously, she had been against this, fearing indoor destruction more than the outdoor variety. Later she reported that neighbors had observed the dog spending about 50 percent of his time indoors, with no destruction of any kind, in or out.

  A simpler problem is exemplified in the case of a two-year-old German shepherd, Abbey, a lovely bitch of show quality. She was being campaigned to her championship, having already completed obedience work to CDX (Companion Dog Excellent) level. She had no trouble mixing the different types of work demanded in the obedience and conformation rings, but she had one slight problem. When anyone proffered a camera to take a show shot, her ears went down, her tail flipped inward, and her expression became dull and forlorn. Here, too, sound conditioning won the day. In all such picture-taking sessions, a second person would stand before her out of camera range and
"bait" her with the keys; Abbey's whole demeanor would change, resulting in highly animated, attractive photographs.

  However, keys (and in the following case, whistles) are not a magic solution to any and all behavioral problems. In the original edition of this book we told the story of Shana, a year-old collie mix who barked incessantly and was reconditioned with the help of keys to remain quiet in the absence of the owner. This case study, in which sound conditioning worked, admittedly involved a complex set of measures (including the help of several neighbors) that often is not practical in real life. We've also heard from some clients who have tried the same approach with their dogs without consistent success. As a result, we would approach this problem differently today. In addition to the general recommendations we made of initiating basic obedience training, toning down emotional departures and reunions, and making sure that the dog received plenty of exercise, we would recommend a bark collar instead of using keys and timed corrections. Bark collars today are humane and work very well: almost all dogs quickly make the connection between their barking and the correction. Another advantage is that the collars correct consistently. They do not depend on split-second timing and do not associate any physical correction with the owner (something that in this case seems preferable).

  Clicker Training

  We would be remiss if at this point we did not mention a new type of dog training that has a strong relationship to sound and is becoming increasingly popular in some sectors of the dog-training world: clicker training. This type of training is based entirely on positive reinforcement and uses the principles of operant conditioning, what one of the chief exponents of this method, Karen Pryor, describes as "a set of scientific principles describing the development of behavior in which the animal 'operates' on the environment, instead of the other way around."*Translated into layman's terms, this means rewarding a particular behavior so that the animal will repeat it whenever the trainer desires. Before it was applied to training dogs, this approach was most famously used with dolphins, an animal you really cannot discipline. Furthermore, dolphin trainers discovered that corrections were unnecessary since the principles of positive reinforcement alone could be used successfully to train dolphins to work. By using toots on a whistle and a bucket of fish, trainers could shape dolphin behavior in highly refined ways.