I was wondering if you had any advice (or links to such) on the issue of dogs who bark a lot. The two big pieces of advice one tends to see about barking are “figure out what need is not being met” and “don’t reinforce behavior you don’t want” and I kind of… don’t see how to do both of those at once? If I don’t respond (positively) to the barking I don’t know how to figure out what need they’re expressing, and if I do respond to it I don’t know how to ask them to express it a different way? I feel like there’s some Step here I’m missing in how to marry these concepts.
Welcome to why barking is a really complicated behavior problem to address once it’s become frequent. I’m going to say, as I always do here, that you should find a local positive reinforcement-based trainer to work with on your specific issues, but I’m happy to talk theory a little bit.
There’s a lot of different reasons dogs bark, which is where you have to start. They might be letting you know there’s someone nearby (alert barks) or they might be asking for something (demand barks). It could also be communicative with other dogs letting them know to back off (threat barks) or inviting them to play (play solicitation barks). They might be expressing frustration or internal conflict (referential barks - I can’t for the life of me find the paper about this I remember reading). So the first thing you have to figure out is why they’re barking, which means understanding what the context is. Only then can you figure out how you’re going to be able to modify the behavior. That means you may have to watch for a while without trying to interrupt or redirect to figure out what’s going on, even though that goes against the rule of not letting animals practice behaviors you don’t want.
A good example of the variety of causes for barking is your classic “dog barking at a window” situation. A dog barking at passerby and their dogs might be, for instance, frustrated about the proximity of other dogs it can’t greet or interact with. (This is often your classic barrier frustration situation). But a different dog might be expressing discomfort - there’s another dog that’s too close to it / it’s property, and that’s uncomfortable. And a third dog, say of a guarding breed, might be alert-barking to tell you about the proximity of strangers. Each of those is going to need to be addressed differently. For a dog with barrier frustration, I might put up opaque window cling so they can’t see out the window, preventing them from seeing the stimulus that’s triggering the barking. For a dog that’s alert-barking, all it might take in some cases is training an acknowledgement cue. (Basically telling the dog yes, I see your concern, good job telling me, job done, chill out now). I’m purposefully not giving an example for anxiety or fear solutions because those are complicated situations that should be handled individually.
The hard park about modifying barking behaviors is that you’re only the reinforcer for some of them - in some cases, because barking is a bit of a self-referential expression of an internal state, getting to bark at something can actually be internally reinforcing for the dog. In a situation where, say, your dog is demand-barking for dinner, you can very easily choose to stop reinforcing it: don’t react to the dog when they bark for dinner, only put food down when they’ve stopped barking. But if it’s something more complex like a barrier-reactive dog barking out a window, you can’t necessarily stop that situation from being reinforcing for them once it starts: you can’t control passerby or what the outside dogs do, and both the reaction of the strange dogs and your dog’s experience of barking may be reinforcing it. At which point, if you can’t control the reinforcer, you have to control the thing that allows the behavior to happen - in this example, that’s being able to see outside dogs at all, hence why some people put up opaque window film to remove the dog’s ability to see dogs they want to bark at.
Because barking can have so many triggering stimuli, and it’s so context-dependent, that’s why it’s a really good idea to get a skilled trainer who can help you assess the situation and problem-solve it. @doberbutts, tagging you in for any additional thoughts since you’re much more active in dog training than I am these days.
hey you're like. really passionate about small dogs so. why are Chihuahuas always so angry??? it's just confusing. why are they so mad?
i fucking love chihuahuas, man. i think there are a few factors involved, but i think the problem first and foremost is how chihuahuas are treated by humans.
chihuahuas are rarely allowed to be real dogs. they are treated like decorations and accessories and stuffed animals and cute little novelties
so not only are they rarely trained or thoughtfully socialized and taught to be comfortable with different things, but their autonomy and sense of personal safety is very often disregarded or intentionally threatened by the people around them
people pick them up with little consideration for the dog’s feelings, manhandle them at will and physically force them to comply with human desires. sometimes people intentionally antagonize them because they think it’s funny – for a while there was a very popular Tik Tok by some twenty-somethings dedicated to harassing and frightening an elderly, disabled chihuahua because he made funny noises when he was upset and uncomfortable.
it only stopped because the dog died.
the people responsible claimed to “love” the dog.
chihuahuas’ attempts to communicate discomfort are almost always ignored. dogs usually start out with relatively subtle body language that most people don’t ever learn to read. they might have the whites of their eyes showing, or yawn and lick their lips, or look away, or pin their ears down, or get tense. and when chihuahuas do this, it is almost always disregarded.
so they learn that polite and subtle communication of their discomfort gets ignored, and they start to escalate in an effort to be understood. they might start to growl or snap or bite. they might learn that the best defense is a good offense, that people who approach them are rude and frightening and the only way to get them to back off is to try and be intimidating.
and a lot of the time even that doesn’t work. because hey, look, the chihuahua is growling. isn’t that funny and cute and nonthreatening
there’s more involved but fundamentally at the end of the day, the issue is that chihuahuas are often profoundly mistreated for their entire little lives, psychologically and physically, with no way to communicate or be understood or have their boundaries and needs respected.
and as much as people have made ~aggressive chihuahuas~ into a funney meme, i think that’s fucking tragic.
i’d want to bite people too.
This is spot on. If you learn that the only way you’re going to get any bodily autonomy is to use your teeth, you’re going to be very willing to bite. If you’re never listened to when you say “no” to something without growling and snapping, that’s going to be your go-to.
Because little dogs can’t do the same level of physical harm as bigger dogs, people tend to laugh off their very genuine distress and anger. It’s absolutely not okay, and it’s way too popular on social media.
My rule of thumb is always that if you wouldn’t do something with a 75lb dog, you shouldn’t do it with a 5lb one. And it’s never too late to start! Even littles that you’ve had forever can benefit from being allowed more voluntary engagement in their world, more choices to consent to things, and more freedom to say no.
(via)
Another great training example. There’s one cardinal rule of baby raising: don’t encourage or let them practice behaviors you don’t want as an adult. Animals won’t understand why something that was always okay before isn’t allowed now, and you’ll be fighting against a very long reinforcement history. I always encourage people to think through what they want the “rules” of the house to be before they even bring an animal home, so they can have in mind from the get-go what they want to make sure they don’t encourage. (This doesn’t mean you can’t modify a behavior when a pet is an adult! But it’s much easier to set things up so it won’t occur in the first place, if you have the chance.)
Good morning and welcome to another round of one of our favorite games on this blog: Does This Legislation Actually Do What It Says It Does?
This time, the topic is proposed regulation for dog trainers! Spoiler: no, no it does not, and that is a huge problem. If you live in the United States and are a dog trainer, know someone who is a dog trainer, or hire dog trainers, this is something you’re going to want to be aware of.
On November 15th, 2021, a new group called the Alliance for Professionalism in Dog Training (AFPIDT) was announced, along with draft “model legislation” for the creation of state-level licensing programs for dog trainers. It is a collaboration between the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (CCPDT) and the Alliance for Professional Dog Trainers (APDT), and their goal is to “give a voice to dog training professionals – and those we serve – before others with less understanding of the industry speak in our stead.” Proactively pursuing licensure and regulation for dog trainers is the first step they are choosing to take in that direction. The model legislation that they hope to present to state legislators in the future is now at a point where they decided it was appropriate to publish it and request member review and feedback.
Unfortunately, the model legislation AFPIDT has put forward has serious problems. It’s badly written, in the sense that crucial terminology is left ambiguous throughout and there’s at least one entirely missing section - it also contains a lot of more fundamental issues that should have been identified and rectified before it was ever floated publicly for member input. The proposed regulations create an unfair financial advantage for a small number of industry trade associations; it encourages a discriminatory and inequitable licensing system by allowing the government to adjudicate a dog trainer’s physical and mental health, behavior outside of work, and “moral character.”; the penalty section is written in a way that that appears to violate the right to due process by imprisoning trainers who operate without a license without even defining that as a criminal act. If implemented as written, AFPIDT’s model legislation would not create a fair, balanced, or even functional system of licensure - much less fulfill their stated goal of protecting animals and their owners from improper practices.
I don’t think that licensure is an inappropriate direction for industries dealing with both animal welfare and consumer service, but I am passionate about the fact that it has to be done right the first time. Laws that impact animal welfare and the livelihoods of large numbers of professionals must be meticulously written to ensure precise results. AFPIDT’s proposed model legislation for licensing dog trainers does not fulfill that criterion.
While it’s true that the current version of the model legislation is still a draft, it was considered complete enough to be shared publicly online - rather than disseminated internally - and therefore should be critiqued as representative of what the organizations involved think is appropriate to promote under their brand.
As I am a member of one of the organizations involved in AFPIDT, I have done what I always do with animal-related bills: interrogate the text of the model legislation and create an exhaustive writeup regarding my conclusions. After submitting it to AFPIDT as formal feedback, I’ve chosen to also put it online. Other dog trainers have noted they’re upset by the proposal, and I wanted to contribute my work to the public discussion to a) increase the available information to further discussion around it and b) provide some language other people can use when crafting their own feedback.
For ease of sharing on social media, I put the whole analysis into the Medium post linked above - there’s also a PDF of it here. Fair warning - it’s a long read. The model legislation itself is 2800 words, and even being as concise as possible, it took me just under 8500 to cover all the the problems I identified. Want a fast synopsis? The first page of that PDF is fact sheet that covers the gist of things.
Right now, AFPIDT has only requested feedback from their members, but I think it’s important for everyone who cares about the industry to be aware of what’s going on, because it’s much easier to edit legislation before it is formally filed.
Taught my deaf blind dog Bitsy to skateboard!
Honestly not enough people know that I taught my deaf blind dog to skateboard
I love this as an example of how training novel behaviors can be enriching for any animal!
This is also a great example of really good training, and an obvious trusting relationship between owner and dog. The cue to begin the behavior is a tactile cue - touching the leg to indicate a lift. The dog has obviously been taught to add the second foot and start moving once their foot is positioned correctly on the skateboard. Bitsy isn’t ever left to try to navigate solo: the food reward in the trainer’s hand functions both as a lure / motivator and a guide. As soon as the pup comes slightly off the skateboard, the immediate response is to stop and reset. This clip makes me so happy to see, because the behavior Bitsy is learning requires a huge amount of trust in the trainer to position and guide (since a lot of the dog’s tactile feedback about the world through their paws is negated by them being on the skateboard) and it’s so obvious how well they’re working together.
Games like tug and fetch, or training games that involve getting on and off objects or strength training are all ways you can help wear a dog out when they can’t go on walks. I like training “sit pretty” and “doggy pushups” (sitting up on hind legs, and down-sit-down patterns respectively) as long as the dog is medically cleared for them.
Don’t forget, though, that a lot of what tires dogs out on walks is the mental stimulus of the sights, sounds, and smells. When you can’t take a dog outside, you want to make sure you provide lots of enrichment such as puzzle toys, chews, and novel experiences to help replace that aspect of it.
Not if you can find another option, no.
What your mom did worked because it startled your dog badly and made him afraid of the trash can in general. That’s effective, but not very kind, because now that dog has to be in close proximity to an object he’s been conditioned to be afraid of probably every day of the rest of his life.
Using aversives to change behavior for things like counter-surfing is a fairly common practice that a lot of even positive trainers still recommend. The idea behind putting cans on the trash bin (or stacking pots and pans on the counter) is that when the animal engages with the thing it isn’t supposed to, the counter / trash can itself will “provide” the aversive stimulus of things being loud and scary as they fall, and the animal will avoid it afterwards. It’s certainly more effective than trying to punish the dog when you catch him doing that, because it’s very hard to apply an external punishing stimulus accurately enough that the animal actually associates it with the thing you want them to stop doing. But it still leaves us with the problems that it’s very negative for the animal, has the potential to actually hurt them if they get hit when the cans fall, and leaves you with an animal who is genuinely scared of a fixture of your house - not to mention that you haven’t taught him what you actually want him to do instead.
If your new dog hasn’t learned to get into the trash yet, try to prevent him from learning he can. Get a trash can with a lid that seals tightly, so there’s no tantalizing smells leaking out an encouraging him to investigate. Maybe even just put the trash can in a cupboard where he can’t get to it.
If he’s already learned he can get into the trash, the best option is honestly managing him so that he doesn’t get the opportunity again. Trash cans are basically the holy grail of forbidden human food, not to mention all the interesting stinky smells that emit from it as the food inside decomposes. Once your dog knows it is there and how awesome it is to get into, asking him to have the self restraint to not do so is a boss-level fight. Better to just make it so he doesn’t ever get a chance to practice the behavior you don’t like (and maybe, hopefully, his interest in it will start to self extinguish if investigating the trash can never yields interesting results). You could get a trash can that actually seals so he can’t open it even if he knocks it over, or weigh the bottom of the trash can so it can’t be tipped. If he’s able to get into a cupboard to get at it, put child locks on the doors. You could put the trash can in a room that has a door your can shut (like a pantry) when you’re not immediately present.
Part of why your dog may be interested in the trash can is out of boredom, so in addition, make sure he’s got lots of varied enrichment to work on. All dogs need physical and mental stimulation, but young dogs especially. If you see him checking out the trash can, make sure he’s had enough exercise and give him something to do with his brain (but be careful to time it so he doesn’t associate the trash can with the cue for fun things to happen, or he’ll never leave it alone). If you can’t prevent his interest in the trash cans with management, or it looks like he’s fixating on them no matter what you do, definitely find a positive reinforcement-based trainer to figure out what to do from there. And, of course, you can help him and yourself by taking super stinky trash bags outside rather than letting them sit there and be tantalizing.
Figure out what will motivate them effectively, then continue with normal R+ training!
I love working with dogs that aren’t extremely biddable (inclined to inherently do what you want at all times) because it makes me a better trainer. Instead of just coasting because a dog is happy to please no matter what I want, I get to figure out what my partner in the training process considers appropriate motivators and paychecks for the work I’m asking for. Sometimes it’s liver, but sometimes it’s a squeaky toy. I knew a dog whose favorite reinforcer was being asked for a foot target - she just really loved putting her feet on people and wasn’t given permission often. Sometimes dogs will do any work for just a kind word, but others might have a very structured payment scale depending on what type of thing you’re asking them to do.
A dog that’s “disinclined to listen” isn’t a bad dog, it’s simply a dog whose currency you haven’t figured out yet. Once you know what they think is worth working for, you’ll find them trainable with totally positive methods.
No dumb questions. It drives me absolutely up the wall when educators make fun of things they’ve been asked or stuff people didn’t know - especially when it’s their job to be a friendly, approachable resource on a topic. I’d say one in five asks that WADTT gets starts with ‘sorry if this is a dumb question’ and I saw another thread full of people making fun of dumb questions this morning, so, I figured it was time for a reminder that I don’t operate like that.
You probably want to train a ‘trade’ cue with your dog - here’s a good resource on how to do that. The goal is pretty much to have your dog be willing to drop whatever thing they’ve got willingly in exchange for something else high value, rather than try to hold onto it and make you pry it away from them. It’s a more positive and more reliable method of getting things back, and it will help circumvent the tendency of a dog to chomp down on a fragile crayon when they don’t want to give it up.
My philosophy is that squirting a dog is ok in certain situations. Things like barking should not be punishable by a squirt, as generally a squirt is supposed to spook/annoy a dog and barking is a natural response to stimuli. In that case a method like separating the dog from the stimulus is a better approach. To me a squirt should be used to deter a dog from a behavior that is dangerous or in a situation that needs to stop asap. If your dog is bullying another dog, getting into the garbage where you threw away a chocolate bar, etc, a squirt of water may be useful. Though, socializing and training your dog is a good way to avoid having to do that at all. But you can’t prevent everything so sometimes measures like that should be taken. Also note that squirts should be aimed at the shoulder and not at the face/eyes.
However I’m not a dog trainer or behaviorist so take what I say with a grain of salt and if you’re looking for a way to train your dog find someone qualified to help you. My current opinion may not be accurate.
From an ethical standpoint, you shouldn’t punish an animal for a behavior when you can a) set the situation up so it doesn’t occur or b) use positive techniques to train an alternate or incompatible behavior.
From a practical standpoint, things like a squirt of water are really ineffective punishers. For a punishing stimulus to work effectively (e.g. to actually achieve a change in behavior) the animal has to associate the punisher directly with the behavior that triggers it. When we talk about a punishing stimulus, that specifically means a stimulus that is added to a situation to discourage a behavior from reoccurring. If you get burned when you touch a hot burner the heat (a natural punishing stimulus in this case) will very effectively dissuade you from reaching out again. With a squirt bottle of any other common training punisher, because it’s something you add to the situation externally (instead of being something inherent, like with the stove example), animals generally associate you with the punisher instead of the behavior you want to stop. So you end up with them learning to avoid you when you’ve got the squirt bottle, but not associating getting squirted with what you’re trying to discourage.
In general, using squirt bottles or similar punishing stimulus is lazy training. It shouldn’t be a regular thing, ever - once you’ve realized what behavior your pet is doing that you want to prevent, it’s much more appropriate to put in the time and effort to fix it with positive methods. You can change your management protocols and teach your dog what you actually want them to do, rather than using a squirt bottle to only communicate what you don’t like.
(Punishing stimuli can be used to break up / disrupt very dire situations like dog fights, but that shouldn’t be occurring frequently).
There’s always a lot of questions when a video of a dog “smiling” on cue gets popular about if it’s actually a cute / okay behavior and if it was trained with positive methods. A lot of times it can be hard to tell, because the muscles involved in the final “smile” often also manipulate a dog’s face in ways that look similar to stress signals.
This is a great video of how the early stages of a “smile” behavior can be trained: Benji is being rewarded for just smallest amount of lip motion upwards, and it’ll continue to be shaped gradually into more extreme expressions. Here’s what the final trick looks like:
You can see the skin around his eyes looks a little tense, and the corners of the lips are pulled back and tense - but with the context of the work-in-progress video, we can get a sense of why that the rest of his face engages that way even when he’s happily and voluntarily doing the behavior.
I thoroughly support doing body handling and bathing prep on your own before taking your dog to a groomer. First off, it’s really important that you’re able to handle your dog or bathe them if there’s an emergency or if a groomer isn’t available, and second, it absolutely helps your pet be more comfortable if you’ve made it a super positive experience. The best way to help your dog be comfortable with the steps involved in grooming is to train them to engage voluntarily: work on voluntarily getting into the tub, holding a station cue or a target cue or a chin rest during bathing; practice body handling in a way that allows your dog to choose to disengage, etc.
I’d actually suggest you find the groomer you want to work with before you even start training, and go talk to them about your concerns and what training you’re interested in doing. From my experiences talking to friends who do grooming work, they’ll be happy for an owner to be invested in making the dog’s experience better because that keeps the groomers safer and makes their work day much easier. At minimum, find out what types of handling and tools your dog should be comfortable around so you can practice that and do some desensitization to weird noises or sensations. You might find a groomer who is happy to work with you and use the training you’re doing when your dog is in their salon, but don’t expect it - ideally, you want to be setting your dog up for success but not setting up a situation where your requests will add extra time or effort requirements from your groomer.
One of the things I always recommend to everyone is that you train your pup to comfortably wear a basket muzzle. Even if your dog is wonderful and friendly and perfect, there will likely be some point in her life when a vet or a groomer has to something to her that, while beneficial, is painful and that she will want them to stop doing. That is a point where even dogs with no behavioral problems may decide to use their mouths to communicate their feelings, and that’s where they’ll need to muzzle her for everyone’s safety. It’s much easier on your dog and safer for everyone if she’s comfortable with a muzzle and has a basket one that fits her (rather than the super-restrictive medical ones) and will just stick her face on it. While this is less of a concern with grooming if your dog is comfortable with body handling, your groomers will immensely appreciate knowing that she’s muzzle trained if they need one for some reason. Here’s some resources on muzzle training from The Muzzle Up Project that I highly recommend for training a dog to happily and comfortably wear one.
I’m really glad you’re thinking about this ahead of time! That’s key to making grooming a positive experience for your dog (and her groomers).
My best advice for you is this: listen to your dog at little more.
Dogs do not refuse to do things with or for us to be stubborn to to spite us. In most cases, when there is not a medical issue influencing behavior, dogs “act out” because either there is something going on we have not noticed, or we are not communicating with a dog in the way they understand.
You’ve got a young dog that hasn’t been with your family very long, so he’s likely still learning how you communicate and that he can trust you. If he’s only willing to walk with your dad, you need to ask yourself why that behavior is happening rather than assuming it’s just your dog doing something wrong. What is it about walking with other people that your dog might want to avoid? Does your dad have a different relationship with the dog than the rest of the family? If so, what does he do differently? Ask one of these questions, and then spend a day or two observing your dog and how he interacts with the family and around walks and write down everything you notice. Ask your family to do the same. Then compare notes. You should start to see patterns emerge that can give you clues as to what’s going on in your dog’s head, and then you can start figuring out what your family needs to do differently so he feels comfortable walking with you. I can’t solve this for your over the internet - it’s something you all have to work out together.
(FYI - if a dog that is normally food-motivated is unwilling to take even favorite treats in a situation, that’s a pretty good indicator that he’s too stressed / over threshold / scared to really be able to function or learn in that moment. That’s a key signal that something is going on that you’re not aware of.)
and telling her to heel, but she completely ignores it, and is definitely strong enough to not care. This makes it really hard to walk her. She is a very smart dog and when were at home is very treat motivated and easy to teach. She is some sort of border collie/ scruffy terrier mix if that makes any difference. Ive also been trying really hard to ground myself and be confident when walking her but shes just so intense with other dogs. How should I correct this?
Okay, so here’s the thing: with your situation (but also many other asks like this, you’re not alone here) the problem is that you’re missing the forest for the trees. You’re frustrated about what your dog won’t do when you want her to, and so you’re not thinking about why she’s not doing it in that moment. All behavior is caused by something, so in order to change what’s happening, you have to figure out why i’ts happening. The key to solving almost every behavioral problem with an animal is to change that bit of the framework in your head.
You’ve described a dog that is easily motivated and eager to work for you and learn except in these specific situations. What that tells me, immediately, is that there’s something going on that’s so overwhelming / overexciting / stressful that she’s not in a state where she can focus on what you want. Your dog isn’t purposefully choosing to ignore you just in this specific situation, so there’s something else going on.
It sounds like she’s got some leash reactivity issues with other dogs, from the description you’ve sent me. To work on that, you’re going to need to do a combination of things: figure out what’s causing the reactivity and work on a training / desensitization protocol to help her overcome it, and very thoroughly proof a lot of the basic behaviors that go into walking well on a leash (attention skills, checking in, loose-leash walking, etc) at home and in other situations so she has those skills to fall back on when she’s starting to lose focus. The latter requires simply time, repetition, and a little bit of practical knowledge - there’s lots of posts on proofing different behaviors in the depths of dogblr that should set up you up for that. With regards to the former, though, I cannot suggest enough that you get a professional trainer who uses positive reinforcement and is familiar with dog reactivity to help you figure out what your dog needs to be calmer around other pups when on leash. They’ll help you figure out the appropriate protocols to work with, and be able to help you find situations for your dog to practice all of her news skills where she’s set up to succeed.
[late response to migraine distraction]
The more you forcibly take something out of your puppy’s mouth, the less your puppy will trust you to trade fairly and the more she will want to protect what she has from you. Being proactive instead of reactive to the situation will help you quite a lot in the long run. If you know she gets into the trash, don’t let her near places where she might find it, and have something super high value to trade on you just in case.
Everything above is totally correct - part of puppy proofing is being proactive about making sure they can’t get into things that will kill them - but something else worth mentioning is that this is why repetition with fair trades is so important.
If 4/5 times your puppy willingly drops something and gets a fair deal, but 1/5 times you take away the thing she doesn’t want to give up (which is therefore higher value than the stuff she’s willing to give up), she learns there’s a 20% chance that she’s not going to get to keep the best things she finds. If 199/200 times she gets a fair trade, and 1/200 times you have to just take the thing, she’s much more likely to trust you when you ask for a trade the 201st time.
So practice, practice, practice trading games with low value things (not trash) a million times before you need it, and make sure she gets a fair trade each and every time you practice. You need to build up that “trust bank account” so that the few times you need to make a withdrawal for something legitimately serious (which, since you’re going to be more careful about proactive management, should only be an actual emergency situation) you don’t destroy the entire foundation of your training. The less effort you put into building that trust, the more you lose by having to break it when it really counts.
