Jeni’s Dog Blog

Why I don’t use punishment? By Jeni Grant BA, CPDT-KA www.trainyourbestfriend.com

Positive punishment causes stress. The term “positive punishment” is trainer lingo or science speak for any punishment added to situation to stop a behavior from occurring. I work many cases where this type of stress has led to aggression or other serious difficult to resolve emotional issues like fear and anxiety. Also, I would say one of the main issues I see with clients is fear of people either within the family or strangers. I am definitely not for any practice that is going to classically condition a bad association with people as is very possible with the use of punishment. I am seeing very sensitive dogs with my business from shelters, rescues, and from breeders.

I say the heck with worrying about anthropomorphizing; it is very useful to imagine yourself as the dog. Imagine you are working at an office and a man 2 or 3 times your size and weight gives you a little push a few times a week as you move around doing your job maybe as you pass in the hallway walking to a meeting. The push doesn’t hurt but you have no idea why he is doing this. How long would it take you to become angry, intimidated, and maybe anxious? Wouldn’t take me long. Now imagine this same man speaks in sounds and grunts and only says about 5 words that you really understand. Now the same guy every now and then without warning as you go about your business says in a stern voice, not yelling, “DON’T DO THAT.” Let’s say you were about to eat your sandwich for lunch or sharpen your pencil and again you don’t really understand why he is doing this. Now you would have a choice no dog has, no matter how inconvenient, you could quit that stressful job. Each dog is trapped in their situation. No choices.

After years of working with animals, I see them very differently than I did before I had as much knowledge about dog body language and behavior. Dogs are remarkably subtle. They can learn extremely subtle cues. Honestly if you need to raise your voice, I think the cue hasn’t been trained correctly or completely in the first place. I watch people that use positive punishment and it may look like it works in the beginning but like the nagging spouse or parent, this is going to wear off and the receiver is going to start to blow off those nags. There could end up being emotional fallout resulting in truly serious problems. Why use something that will cause stress when there is another option that is amazingly effective? I think with using positive reinforcement methods, the relationship between dog and human grows stronger and stronger; and. since there is no stress caused by punishment when using positive reinforcement, that all important positive association with people grows. As long as the person follows through with the positive training in daily life, the training is exceptionally effective for life of the dog. After all, people don’t live with dogs for a few weeks or months. This relationship has to thrive for years.

Well, I am happy to say, the weekend went better than expected with my mother staying. This is our second overnight guest occasion with our rescue dog, Charlie. The first guests were a dog savvy friend and her young son. Let’s just say that visit didn’t involve much sleeping on anyone’s part. My other half had to go in to work the next morning and was pretty cranky with the whining and pacing. I ended up sleeping on the couch with Charlie on leash, well very little sleeping, and Charlie would not settle down until the house had been completely free of any sounds for a few hours when he finally begrudgingly slept.  I woke with a stiff neck. Our dog is very anxious around being separated from anyone in the house by doors or anything. We have done lots of work on this and I do exercises as this situation inevitably comes up as repair people have to move about the house and it is not safe and undesirable to have a Collie anxiously crowding them.

 We have made some good progress recently and Charlie is developing some coping and adapting skills with new things in the home. So after canceling friends that were planning on coming to the house, we had my mother stay over. Worst-case scenario was we all wouldn’t get any sleep but I was hoping since this was one quiet adult that we would do better now. Well, Charlie was very excited about my mother and if I didn’t manage him with great treat rewards and have him go to his bed, he would herd her and block any walking progress and wanted sniff her and nibble on her clothes, which is a nervous habit of his but he did eventually lay down although with big sighs.  Progress!

The first night I knew he would be concerned about being in our room with someone else in the house and indeed he did keep us up for at least an hour whining but he did eventually give up and go to sleep. Progress, less fussing. The next night there was only the briefest whining at door and then he settled in for sleep again with lots of sighing which he does when concerned but we got a good nights sleep. Yes, progress and adapting! Yeah!

 My mother drove home yesterday and this morning when I came down to make coffee I heard Charlie fussing and whining upstairs and I knew he was looking for my mother. I opened the door to the

Grandma Judy with Charlie

room so he could see she was gone. I left him on the guest bed and he stayed there for a while but now we are back to normal.

 Yeah, progress. We are climbing a steep hill to normal but at least we haven’t slid back down to the bottom and the view is improving all the time.

See if you can pick out the body language or things that reveal stress? Add them to comment section. Dog experts please just list one thing to give others a chance. Pardon my atrocious video skills. I am learning how to do video.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=46TjGhoXKXY

Okay, this is going to be a bit boring for some of you but may interest those that read a lot of materials from the positive training arena. I have read over and over that some methods make dogs think. This always sticks in my craw because I love to watch dogs and I observe a lot of untrained dogs. Dogs are pretty clever! I had a dog that could shell peanuts very neatly with her paws and her mouth. Try that without thumbs! I had nothing to do with this besides providing the peanuts. She would also trick my other dog into leaving his bone by pretending someone was at the door by barking at front door and quickly doubling back to snatch the bone. Years ago my neighbor’s dog, to call this dog untrained would be an understatement, would steal all of my dog’s expensive toys and chews by only playing with him only if he brought his toy over to the gap under fence and then steal the toy. This dog basically charged my dog the price of his toys in exchange for playtime. Many dogs teach themselves to open fridge doors and open latches that take some finesse. Do dogs need us to think? Nope!!!! Do children need schools to think? Nope!!! Do they need classes to learn what we want them to learn? Yup!! Dogs learn and think on their own but we need to condition and train them how to live in our world.

What is so powerful about positive training, especially using a reward marker is it gives us a very powerful and precise communication with our dogs. You can communicate with your dog, now that is something to celebrate, accurate communication between species. Awesome!

I will say this method does foster a well-mannered dog that doesn’t lose personality through training. The dogs’ eyes sparkle with eagerness to enter this process with us since they are reinforced for doing and trying stuff. So okay, instead of saying positive methods make dogs think, I would say it makes them eager to learn stuff with us. What could be better than that?

Well it is day six since we adopted our new dog and I am reminded of something an owner of a business once said to a friend in regard to managing people – “It is all smoke and mirrors.” Well, the key to having a new dog is much the same. You want to use your every advantage to direct their energy into activities you like and want to live with on a daily basis. So you set the stage. In positive training you reinforce the behaviors you want and ignore the behaviors you don’t want. The behavior that is reinforced increases. Behaviors that are not reinforced in some way should disappear. Of course the third part of the puzzle is that you are not the only one reinforcing behaviors, squirrels, mail delivery people, relatives, spouses, and the stinky socks on the floor can also reinforce behavior so you need to get ahead of these influences and set the stage so your dog learns what you want him to learn.

We are working on house manners so we have shut doors and blocked hallway access to the front of the house with chairs and boxes because we want to head off any potty accidents (there was one in front hall) and jumping and barking at front door, which happened once. We have tried to remove any tempting items and frequently put toys in his mouth and play with him. We distract him if he starts any unwanted behaviors and when we are out, of course, he is safely in his crate where he can’t get into trouble. Charlie is not trained to the yard yet so I have him dragging a rope attached to his harness that I can grab if I need to prevent him from learning any unwanted behaviors. This way I can interrupt and prevent any move to harass our wild bird population or our neighbors’ animals and allows me to reinforce all the things I want like coming when called, chasing and retrieving toys and staying away from fence. If I didn’t do this, he would inevitably find out it would be easy to run out of our grasp and harass the other animals and of course they would run or react, which would probably reward this undesirable behavior. Eventually he will have been reinforced so many times for doing wanted games in the yard that these activities will replace any unwanted behaviors and he will think I still can control him when I really physically couldn’t. Like I said, smoke and mirrors.

Dogs almost always learn unwanted behaviors when left on their own that is why controlling the surrounding area or setting the stage so they will follow your script is so important. We are doing this on a long list of behaviors but so far our diligence is paying off with great progress in a short time and I can usually see the mistake I have made in managing the setting when he does something unwanted like grabbing my slipper, which I should not have left on the floor. It is a lot like a preschool daycare teacher controlling a class. The teacher will put the toys and supplies she wants the kids to play with in front of them and be sure to remove any hazardous items or distract the children from doing any unwanted or dangerous activities like trying to climb the shelves. Dogs are always learning. Make sure you give them lots of stuff to do that is easy to live with like, activity toys, safe chews, games to play like fetch and tug, hikes and walks and get ahead of the game by preventing any unwanted behavior. No dog ever learned to knock down the garbage can if he never had access to one. All our trashcans are up high or behind closed doors right now just for that reason. Remember get ahead of the unwanted behavior so your dog won’t learn it in the first place. It will really make your life easier down the road.

Okay, I am going to tell you the secret dog trainers know and many dog owners don’t usually grasp that creates huge obstacles in training your dog to be well mannered throughout her life. That is what we want, a well manner delightful dog at 1yr and at 18 yrs. old and every day in between. Oh, and of course to have fun with our dogs!!!

Okay, you took a few positive training classes and learned some basic skills. It worked in class but now you have to apply those skills to every day life. Always think Mix It Up! Mix up the Where, What, When, and How.

Where-Take your dog training to many different locations. I have heard many people say they forgot to bring their training tools when they go on walks, or to the vet, on trips, that is EXACTLY when you must have the head halters, reward toys, reward treats, and clickers, whatever you used in class for training and I would say that is when your rewards should be even better. Always keep in mind if anything NEW is happening the dog may not understand the training because it is out of context. If you always wore your sneakers during training sessions, your dog may not understand you because he was looking for the sneakers to say it is training time. Do some retraining in NEW situations and the more you do this the quicker your dog will learn in all situations.

What-Don’t ask your dog to do the same thing all the time. If she always sits at the door, ask her to lie down. Before doggy dinner have your dog to all his behaviors for the great reward the meal. Sometimes use only hand signals. Sometimes use only voice signals. Never do the same thing in the same order. I would do some heeling with my dog around to house and then tell him to go up to the landing and wait until I released him for his meal and then the next meal we would do other tricks. He loved it so much I had to tell my sitters to play this game with him when I was away so he would eat!!! Make it different and always a bit more challenging for your dog. Keep them guessing. It makes life interesting for you and your dog.

When-Avoid ruts. I have seen the control shift from person to dog with ruts. Some people will feed the dog at 5 pm everyday because this behavior rut has been so ingrained that the dog fusses and actually gets upset if she doesn’t eat at the same time! Yes, feed the dog but mix up the times, sometimes 5 pm, sometimes 6:30 pm or 7 pm and always at your decision not because your dog is prompting you for dinner. This type of behavior rut can create a dog that cannot adapt to little changes and that is bad for the dog and you because of course you in turn worry about the stress of the dog. Mix up when you do your training behaviors. It will make life more interesting for your dog. You want an adaptable dog because we live in an unpredictable world. This is why very short training sessions randomly throughout the day are better than a set training time. You want your dog to be trained all day long not just during training sessions so keep it as random as possible.

How-Mix up how you ask your dog to do behaviors. Try lying on the floor or sitting if you always stand, remember at first your dog may be confused because you always stood before when training. Stand out of sight and ask for behavior and then check if she did the behavior. Ask your friends or different family members to signal the dog to do the behaviors so she learns to listen to people besides you. Wear different clothes; ask for behaviors while you swim in the pool for a ball throw reward. Bringing me to next thing to mix up, your rewards, mix up different food rewards, different toy rewards, different game rewards. I was walking my friend’s adorable Cavalier and I was out his treats so I would stop each time a car went by and wouldn’t start walking again until he looked at me. Sometimes, I would run a few steps as a reward and he loved it! Avoid ruts here too, your dog should think you are a magical creature and he will never know whether he will get a piece of steak, a new toy, a game of tug, a regular treat.

Just think Mix It Up and you will be glad you did. I promise!