The Dog Listener

by Jan Fennell

  Once the puppy has left the litter it is the first 48 hours in the new home that become the most crucial. It is a harsh but important truth to remember, but the fact is a puppy is a pack animal that has been removed from its pack. The litter should be a happy, lively and loving environment where it is interacting with its siblings. The dog is being transported into a completely alien environment, a new home it has had no choice in selecting. Treating the puppy as you would any normal dog is potentially traumatic. It is going to be a nerve-racking experience for the puppy, no matter how loving a home it goes to. For this reason I believe in establishing the closest possible bond with the puppy during these two days.

  I believe in doing all I can to ensure they like their home environment and to make life within it seem as natural as possible. To this end, I actually advocate sleeping with the puppy on the first night. I am not saying it should come into its owner’s bed. A far more practical method is for him or her to lie alongside the puppy on a covered sofa for the night. It is a small sacrifice to make as, in my experience, it reassures the puppy at a particularly vulnerable time. The bond this establishes will also help the next day as you help it in investigating and exploring its new environment. It is vitally important that the dog feels comfortable here. This is where it is going to get its food, this is where it gets its affection, this is where it is going to bed down.

  At the same time, however, it is important to establish good habits immediately. For reasons I will come to, I do not find gesture eating is necessary with puppies. The remaining three elements of Amichien Bonding should be introduced as early as possible, however.

  The most important element of all is undoubtedly establishing order at times of separation. Tempting though it is when owners come in from shopping and this lovely bundle of fluff comes bounding up to them, it is imperative that owners ignore the puppy in these early days. The signal being sent out must be clear and unequivocal: ‘I will play with you but not now, I will let you know when.’ It must be sent out from the very beginning, from the first separation even if it has gone into another room and has been out of an owner’s sight for a few seconds.

  The two processes may seem contradictory. How can an owner be authoritative and loving at the same time as he or she is enforcing such strict rules, people often ask? I point out that the joy that comes when the puppy learns to play on the right terms is, if anything, even greater than that one would get in a less regimented household. There is no question of the fun being eliminated: quite the opposite. It is simply that the affection must be given in the right direction.

  The good news with puppies is that the five-minute rule I suggest owners use after separation is almost always enough time in the case. In grown-up dogs with behavioural problems, the repertoire of tricks they will use in trying to get attention can last any length of time. I have seen it last from ten seconds to an hour and a half. An adult dog can leap around, bark and whine for a seeming eternity. A puppy doesn’t get to that stage.

  Once the puppy has settled down, the normal process of getting it to come to its new leader can begin. And, as I say, it is here that the true enjoyment can come in. Part of the fun of getting a dog is choosing a name. It is vital that this name is used from the very beginning. At this stage, the more familiar owners are with their dogs the better. I ask owners to call their puppies to them as often as they can, always remembering to reward them with tidbits and praise when they do the right thing. As far as I am concerned there is no limit to the number of times a puppy can hear the words ‘good dog’.

  One of the great joys of training a puppy is the speed with which young dogs learn new tricks. I have found that if you repeat any procedure three times, a puppy will pick up the message, whatever it may be. As with older dogs, it will be clear to see when the Amichien Bonding is working. When it begins standing wagging its tail or sitting in a relaxed position while it waits for your attention, the puppy has confirmed the leadership election process is working. As this develops, owners can also begin working on the other areas of bonding. I do not recommend taking puppies out for walks until two weeks after their first sets of vaccinations, that is until they are about fourteen weeks old. Puppies are simply unprepared for the big wide world at this point. It is far better in my experience to put them into a well-run puppy playgroup, where they can run around in a situation similar to the natural playfulness of the litter environment.

  At the same time, however, it is important that the principles of heel work are established early on and I recommend training the puppy in the home or the garden. The important thing is to teach the puppy that the best place to be is by its owner’s side. Again, it must be done through food and reward. If the dog wants to walk ahead, the lead must be relaxed and the dog must be returned to where it should be. Tugging matches should be avoided at all costs. There is nothing a young pup loves more than a game. There will be more than enough time for games later. For now it must learn the rules of a different game. If you don’t lay down those rules at this point, believe me, it will make up its own.

  To my mind, the tone of voice an owner adopts with a new dog is of paramount importance. I ask people not to shout or shriek but to make what I call a bonny sound. I remind them that the dog is supposed to be man’s best friend. How do they talk to their best friend, do they shout and bawl or do they talk kindly and calmly to them? Once the dog is responding to gentle commands, the voice can be reduced to a near whisper. This will really bear fruit later on. A dog that is tuned in to soft commands will really pay attention when an owner raises their voice.

  In the case of decision making at the door, the puppy should be disregarded when people come in. It can work two ways in this situation: in some ways it is easier to ignore a small dog, on the other hand, there is nothing more certain to arouse visitors’ sentimental streaks than the sight of a cute puppy. It is imperative that the principles are adhered to at all times, however. How often have we all heard that saying that a puppy is not for Christmas, it is for life? Well the same applies to my method. It is not something to be picked up and discarded. Owners must start as they mean to go on, then stick to it.

  I have talked about the power of food already. It is nowhere more useful than in puppy training. In this case, however, feeding methods have to be subtly amended to take account of the unique circumstances at work in puppies. The central message of feeding remains, as ever, leadership. An eight-week-old puppy is generally on four feeds a day. In bringing its food to it this frequently, owners are also delivering a powerful and consistent message. They are the providers, the authority within this pack lies with them. Given this, I see little need to carry out the normal gesture-eating technique as well. Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

  At the same time, however, food plays a really useful role in teaching other behaviour. One of the simplest is teaching the dog to sit. As I have said before, teaching a dog to adopt a sitting position is a priceless tool to have available. By using the method outlined earlier, and bringing food up to and then over a puppy’s head, the dog will quickly learn to do this. Once more we are playing on the ‘What’s in it for me?’ principle, the self-interest that is already ingrained in the puppy. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly puppies cotton on to this.

  Chapter 16

  Gremlins: Dealing with Problem Puppies

  Puppies can provide the perfect opportunity to train a dog correctly from the very beginning. Sadly, not knowing the right way to introduce a puppy into a home can bring disastrous results. I am often asked to deal with puppies that have become unmanageable, and arrive at a home to discover a scene straight from the film Gremlins. Weeks earlier, the owners were cooing over their adorable new, fluffy friend. By the time I turn up, they are living in fear of a creature that – as far as they are concerned – has suddenly turned into a monster. The truth of the matter is that it is as easy to create a badly behaved puppy as it is to train a good one.

  When people ask me how they can train a
dog so it is happy and well balanced, I often begin by asking them to turn the situation on its head. If they wanted to deliberately go out and create a completely screwed-up young dog how would they go about it? They’d probably talk to it in a language it didn’t understand, ask it to do a job it was not equipped to do, and spend their days offering contradictory signals that ensured it didn’t have a clue what was right or wrong. One moment they’d reward it for being an exuberant ball of fun, the next they’d chastise it for the same behaviour. That is precisely what many owners do with their puppies. What they need to do is the complete opposite of these things. The reality is that any fool can wind a dog up: it takes a genuine dog lover to create a happy and contented pet. Two cases exemplify the main problem areas I am asked to tackle in the case of puppies: teething troubles and toilet training. Both are caused by owners heading off down the wrong path at the beginning of a dog’s life.

  Of all the problems people experience with puppies, by far the most common is teething troubles. Once more, it is useful to understand a little of the natural forces at work before exploring this subject. Puppies develop an armoury of little needle teeth at an early age. They have no real function apart from allowing the dog to test the power of its jaws. Puppies, much like little children when they first acquire teeth, do this by biting everything and anything they can place in their young mouths. Within the litter environment, they bite their brothers and sisters. The siblings deal with this with a simple signal: they squeal then walk away from the situation. In the absence of siblings, however, a puppy being raised in the domestic environment will happily bite whatever it can slip into its mouth, including its owner’s fingers.

  To my mind, the best way of dealing with this problem is via play. There is no place for pain in the training method I undertake. Far from it, I much prefer to teach dogs the important lessons of their young lives through fun and games. Puppies present an ideal chance to do this, provided it is done in the right way. I always advocate that puppy owners have a plentiful supply of toys and objects that it can chew on. They are the equivalent of a baby’s teething ring. Puppies are teething for fourteen months, so have got to be helped. The choice of toys is entirely up to the owner; they can include things like chew sticks and rope-like raggas, or even a knotted towel dampened down. My only request here is that the toys are of reasonable size: small objects can easily slip down a puppy’s, or even a grown dog’s throat.

  These toys prove invaluable when a puppy starts to chew on an inappropriate object, say the tassels on your furniture. At this point, I recommend the puppy is distracted by one of its toys which is then thrown somewhere else for it to play. The important thing here is that the puppy’s natural exuberance is not being punished. The owner is redirecting play in a positive way. If the dog behaves, the game is brought to a close via the ‘thank you game’: the toy is taken away from the puppy, the dog is rewarded and told ‘thank you’. It is another simple way of underlining the message of Amichien Bonding. As leader, the owner has selected the toy as well as when the game happens, how long it continues and when it ends.

  Obviously, if a puppy oversteps the mark, then leadership has to be asserted. Puppies are, for instance, very fond of pulling at items of clothing and biting. This is something that must be nipped in the bud. What I do to teach a puppy to pull its punches is, if a puppy puts its teeth, however lightly, around my arm, I yell out and walk away to disencourage harder biting. If a puppy persists in misbehaving, I ask that it is placed in isolation, ejected from the pack for about five minutes, so that it has time to calm down before being silently readmitted to the group.

  It is all too easy for owners to send out the wrong signals to teething puppies, however. Such was the story in the case of an Akita puppy called Nuke. When I went to see Nuke’s owners, a mother and her three children, they explained that Nuke loved to play a biting game. The whole family would put toys or their hands up to his mouth and let him nibble away. If he nipped at them they would tap him on the nose. It had all seemed great fun at first. Unfortunately Nuke had become more and more exuberant in his playing of the game and had begun hurting the children. He was biting more and more ferociously each time.

  Akitas are majestic, beautiful but powerful dogs even at that age. He had drawn blood from all the children. Nuke was only eleven weeks old. The family had already begun locking him away in a separate room in the house. Talking to the family, it was clear they had made a number of mistakes. In particular, by indulging Nuke’s natural desire to exercise his teeth, the family had made a rod for their own backs. The puppy had learned how to make the owners give him attention on demand. He had also begun to learn how to manipulate them, at playtime in particular.

  As I have explained, it is vital that the leader has control of the playtime. The leader must decide what the game is, when it starts, what the rules are and when it ends. Nuke was making all these decisions. This had to be changed. My first task was to set about re-establishing the leadership. The children were all teenagers and able to comprehend my method’s principles, but because the house was very busy, with other children popping in all the time, I asked them to keep Nuke confined to a specific area when they were not alone.

  They kept Nuke behind a kitchen gate. When the family was alone together they allowed him to come back into the living room. Each time he would come bounding in, but each time they would block him with their bodies. If he jumped up in the old way, expecting them to indulge him in his biting game, they just took their arm away. If he did succeed in biting them I asked them to yell and walk away, precisely as puppies’ siblings do in the litter. Nuke quickly cottoned on to the fact that he was not getting the attention he wanted. A dog is no different to a human in this respect, if something isn’t getting the desired result, it stops doing it.

  There was no uninvited activity; Nuke quickly learned that he had to be even-tempered, well behaved and had to exercise self-control. And as I have said before, the most powerful form of control is self-control. Within a few weeks, Nuke’s behaviour had improved enormously. The children were able to play with him much as they had before. The difference this time, however, was that the rules of the game had been changed. They decided when, where and how long the activity lasted. Nuke was back on the path towards being a well-balanced dog.

  The second most common problem I am asked to tackle with puppies is their toilet training; it can become a very stressful event for both owners and their dogs. In the summer of 1997, I was asked to visit a family having problems with D’Arcy, their black-and-tan Gordon setter puppy. D’Arcy was every bit as aristocratic as his name suggested. Even at the tender age of five months, he was a beautiful, noble-looking dog. He was clearly going to be a magnificent adult. To his owners’ acute embarrassment, however, D’Arcy had started eating his own faeces. The family had tried all they could to rid him of the habit, but the harder they tried, the harder D’Arcy worked to evade detection. By now, he was hiding away in corners of the garden and slipping under bushes to do his business. The family were deeply distressed about it and had no idea how to tackle the situation.

  No sooner had I met D’Arcy than it was obvious he had several recognisable problems. As young as he was, D’Arcy was clearly stressed. He was jumping up and pulling on the lead, he was constantly ‘in your face’. To the family, these were not even symptoms but to me they were all related to the central problem. He was already convinced he was the leader of this particular pack. As I spoke to the family at length, it also became clear why toilet time had become the real focus of his anxiety. The family were fastidious, houseproud people and had become almost neurotic about his going to the toilet. If they thought he was going to go, they would pick him up and rush him outside, making an enormous fuss as they did so. If droppings were discovered in the house they would go through a similar theatrical scene.

  It was clear to me that D’Arcy was stressed because not only did he believe he was leader of his pack, he also felt he was failing in
that role. Part of his job was to keep the family happy. He was clearly failing in this so he had addressed the cause of the unhappiness, the product of the traumatic toilet time, by eating it. My task was two-fold. In addition to removing the leadership from D’Arcy, I also had to take the drama out of toilet time.

  Toilet training is, of course, a fundamental part of puppyhood, one that has spawned a host of conflicting ideas. Some of the traditional methods such as rubbing the dog’s nose in its faeces border on the barbaric. It has no place in my method. Yet there is no escaping the fact that it is a practice that must be learned. In my experience, there is no need to do it by giving a puppy a lecture on etiquette.

  I began instead by getting D’Arcy’s family to start the bonding process in the normal way, ignoring the puppy’s attentions. He was a demanding dog so this took some time but produced good results. To improve the situation at toilet time, I got them to encourage D’Arcy’s behaviour through stimulus and response. They were obviously on tenterhooks about him going to the toilet. I explained that it had to be a hit-and-miss thing. They were never going to catch him every time. I asked them to concentrate on the most likely toilet times, first thing in the morning, when waking up after a sleep and after meals. The most important thing, however, was that they calmed the whole process down, that the drama was removed from it. Rather than running around in a fluster, I asked them to be relaxed and happy. And, as ever, I wanted them to be consistent in what they did so that D’Arcy understood what was in his best interest.

  The first job was to stop him eating his faeces. So whenever one of them was at hand as he went to the toilet, I asked them to leave him to finish, then get him to come to them with reward. I got them to come up with a consistent piece of praise, telling him ‘clean dog’ as they stroked him and gave him his reward. As D’Arcy digested his reward, they would be free to dispose of his droppings.