How Not To F*ck Up A Behaviour Program.
The Happy Dog Journal™️- The FREE weekly newsletter for you and your dog from Freya V. Locke.
Hi Gang
It’s the end of yet another really busy week at Locke Towers.
Between my behaviour 121s and my TEFL teaching, I have been doing 14 hour days, and I am EXHAUSTED! My throat gave out in the middle of the week, so I didn’t end up doing my Wednesday video for Fun Not Fear® Club, which didn’t help one bit.
But when you love what you do or are seeing results, it can be hard to remember that we need to have rest from it too.
It’s easy to get carried away, and start to mess up. In my case, my throat struggled this week, with all the talking during teaching clients and students. I pushed myself too hard, but I know how to fix it.
I am on holiday for a week now. I know that to keep doing my best, I need regular breaks. When I return, I will sort out my rota to make my days more productive and less hectic. I’ll get some balance back in my life.
Sometimes people push dogs too hard too. But dogs can’t always speak up for themselves without escalating to behaviours we humans do not like.
How Not To F*ck Up A Behaviour Program.
When we see progress with their training and behaviour programs, the natural instinct is to keep pushing. After all, getting results is reinforcing for us. We want to have that amazing life with our dog and we want it right now.
So we push our dogs to achieve more.
Before you know it, our dogs are overwhelmed, bored, or over threshold and can no longer cope. We are back at square one. The behaviour comes back, trust may be lost, and we must build up to that point with our dog again.
Less educated dogparents (and trainers, sadly) might then assume they need to use harsher methods for their dogs and resort to trying horrible shock collars, prongs, and other torture devices in their quest to make their dog do as they wish them to do.
However, the problem is not with the teaching. Reward-based training, done properly, can work for ANY problem with ANY dog. In fact, it works with ANY SENTIENT ANIMAL.
There is nothing that can be taught with fear, that can’t be taught with fun, apart from fear itself.
Here are three common things that can go wrong:
Lack of patience.
Being patient, when teaching your dog, is hard.
It is so tempting to think:
“Just five more minutes of loose lead walking” while learning to walk together.
“Just one metre closer to that trigger” during a DSCC protocol.
“Just another few minutes or seconds out of the room” during SA teaching.
Then BOOM, all hell breaks loose.
Less is ALWAYS more, in teaching dogs how to navigate the world. Make your teaching sessions short, (like a few minutes, not an hour at a time,) with very few criteria and many rewards. Expect to be practicing any kind of new training for a while, beginning with teaching and doing the new things in easy places (like your living room) and building up gradually to more exciting places (like the park).
There is no need to rush!
ALWAYS quit while you are winning during a training session with your dog.
Go home while the lead is loose before the dog pulls again.
If your dog has already got a metre or two closer to a trigger successfully without a reaction, end there. Don’t just push them into the deep end.
Be back in the room before your dog has a chance to panic.
Don’t set them up to fail by making things too hard, too quickly. Your dog will come away feeling like a winner and so will you.
This will give you both more confidence and desire to keep working as a team in the future. The dog will come away from the experience and process feeling ok about the session rather than feeling stressed or scared.
The rewards are a bit crap.
You took cheese and chicken, cut it into small pieces, and grabbed the ball for good measure. You started to teach your dog, and they initially readily accepted the treats as a reward. But now, they are no longer interested in working with you.
They get bored, wander off, get over-stimulated and act the fool. Anything but do the training program.
The problem?
You didn’t ask the dog what they found rewarding. And if by chance you found something they liked, the chances are you gave them so much of it they are either sick of you pumping them full of it until they feel ill, or they have just got bored of it.
I like chocolate and fruitellas, but I wouldn’t want to eat them all day, every day. After a while I would feel ill at the thought of them. (Admitted, it might take a while.)
When the treat becomes a mission to eat, it becomes a punishment, not a reward. Effectively, the dog is satiated and now you are punishing the very behaviour you wish to reinforce. So the dog stops wanting to join in, or at the least, loses interest.
The solution?
Play the Treat World Cup on a regular basis.
Want to know what the treat world cup is? You can find out about it in our book The Fun Not Fear® Club - or tune in on Wednesday to our (paid) Fun Not Fear® Club video edition.
Unrealistic expectations.
Your friend’s dog walked perfectly from day one.
Your Mum’s dog was potty trained within a week.
Your brother had a dog who did all the cues, all the time.
You watched the dogs on Britain’s Got Talent walking the tightrope.
You watched a twit in tweed tell a person to yank upwards on a lead when their dog barked and the TV program made it look like it worked within half an hour.
Some South American dude, with very white teeth, told a nice middle class couple their dog was trying to dominate them, on Discovery Channel, and now you fear your dog is too.
Guess what?
You have been forgetting to look at the dog in front of you.
Your dog is not the same dog your Mother had, and the dudes on TV are highly edited, fabricated, and give terrible advice, which can be very unfair to your dog and sometimes quite dangerous.
There are so many wonderful things your dog can do, that your dog excels at, that they want to make you proud of them by doing … but you are so busy comparing them to other dogs that you are missing all the good things they are doing.
Yes, there are things you would rather they didn’t do.
Piddling on the carpet and barking at every dog that dares pass them on the street can wear your patience a little thin, which is very understandable. But do not assume that because something worked for one dog, it will work for yours.
Nothing is wrong with your dog; they are not stupid, being “bad” or “stubborn” if they do not react like your brother’s dog did to being taught tricks.
Your dog is not a robot; you must see them as the wonderful individual they are.
All dogs need different input, different rewards, and different strategies when it comes to behavioural struggles. The only thing that doesn’t change from dog to dog is that they can always be taught using Fun Not Fear®. There is never a need to use aversive.
If their struggle is difficult for you to help them with alone, first check they are healthy and not in pain, with a Vet check. Then, approach a reward-based trainer who can work with you and your dog, on a bespoke basis, to get the best results for you both.
Above all, remember that YOU are the best person to help your dog. If you were not, you would not be reading newsletters about dog behaviour like this one.
You are their voice and their advocate. You are the key to helping them live a happy life, and they want to do it with you.
Spotted and sharing.
A really insightful, thoughtfully written post by the lovely
Handy links.
I’m off to see the in-laws tomorrow for a few days. While there, I will spend some much needed time resting and playing with Twyla. Maybe I might even share some snacks with Peter.
See you on Wednesday if you are in the club. (Want to join? Just take out a paid subscription to this newsletter!)
Warm ‘n’ Fuzzies,
Freya xx
Lack of patience and unrealistic expectations are big ones from my end. Always good to see myself reflected. That image helps move in a different direction.
SO TRUE! This is exactly the kind of topic that runs parallel for both humans and dogs. Absolutely love this article. And thanks for the shout-out! Hope you get some rest and start feeling better.