DogRelations™ NYC dog training is really about positive reinforcement training in an enjoyable and life enriching way. This means giving your dog a clear understanding of behaviors you want to encourage while having fun and developing a close relationship. Dogs thrive on honest, direct and consistent communication, just like friends who completely trust and rely on one another.
Reinforcement at the right time can help you and your dog!
Using management can be a valid teaching pathway for both you and your dog. Essentially, you can build a reward history in your dog by associating great outcomes with specific events and circumstances.
Ideally, we control the dog’s environment in such a way that makes undesirable behavior less likely. As much as we might wish so, we do not have a magic wand to wave that allows the dog to understand how we would like him to behave.
For example, let’s say all of a sudden your puppy notices that when you have dinner, there are deliciously wonderful smells emanating from the table top and of course he wants to explore and devour the aromatic foods up there. That is perfectly natural. After all, wouldn’t you?
But luckily someone in your life has taught you a certain amount of impulse control, also known as manners, that allowsyou to gracefully wait until (through some learned social signal) it is OK to take one of those freshly baked brownies or taste that delicious cheese.
Your dog, however, does not yet have the necessary social skills to cope with the temptations that set off the “bad” behavior.
Until that time, it is a great idea to help your puppy by not tempting them in the first place!
Remember, timing is of the essence. If you wait for the dog to bark, whine, jump up and then decide, “oh we better put him in the crate with a nice stuffed toy!” You are reinforcing a chain of behaviors.
The most important thing in behavioral training is to help the dog not to feel compelled to perform an undesired behavior.
Your dog learns that barking/jumping/whining will get him attention and then something nice to lick! He learns that quicker than you think and so the behavior chain will be reinforced.
With a little attention to forethought, you can “manage” this or any other problem behavior.
If your treat delivery becomes part of a routine and happens before the dog starts to beg/jump/whine, you will teach your dog to run to his “spot” or bed directly because setting the table becomes a predictor or cue that something great and rewarding will appear there. Running to the bed becomes a self rewarding action and barking/whining/jumping doesn’t even enter the picture. www.dogrelationsnewyorkcity.com
Read More at https://www.dogrelationsnewyorkcity.com/dog-training-tips/timing-is-everything-with-your-dog/
Providing your puppy with clear boundaries leads to great outcomes for you and them!
Sometimes I am highly amused by the way people describe the behavior of their puppy. It sounds to me as if they were describing a movie in which they have no control over the outcome. They adore their puppies and they want them to have fun but they seemingly don’t quite know how to organize things to prevent chaos.
This is where management can be very helpful!
Management to me means providing an environment or manipulating the environment in such a way that minimizes the chance for error and provides mostly desired outcomes.
In context with a new puppy, that means less space, lots of supervision and a fair schedule. That is good management that will lead to good outcomes.
Remember: Puppies and Dogs Want to Understand What You Need From Them
To put it another way: Good management will not deprive the puppy of having fun and games and a loving relationship with you but, if thoughtfully applied, will contribute to the learning process!
Consequently, the puppy will be well prepared to act “properly” on his own when he can learn that those behaviors are always rewarded and once “taught”, will not need to be “managed”, but will already understand what the situation requires.
In context of a new puppy, management means giving less space, lots of supervision and a fair schedule… Good management leads to good outcomes!”
If you are reading this and currently feeling overwhelmed with your puppy and the training they need, reach out to us at Dog Relations NYC! We offer personalized puppy training and have just launched a new In Home Puppy Day Care, to give you time to run your errands and catch your breath while we play with and house train your puppy.
Grooming your dog at home doesn’t need to be difficult
In this unfortunate time of a pandemic when many grooming salons are closed, you might want to do some basic grooming at home. So you think: I’ll just brush him a little bit to get rid of those mats that have been accumulating. You pull out brush and comb and want to get started but come to the realization: “Wow, he really is incredibly wiggly, he won’t let me touch his paw, he runs away!” The groomer never told you how on earth she got the job done! However: Do not despair! If we can teach zoo animals to comply with care voluntarily you can do the same with your dog at home.
With a bit of patience and good humor you can turn the grooming session into a fun training/learning game for both you and your dog.
EASY TIPS FOR GROOMING:
Do not be in a rush! Do not feel you have to get everything done now! We humans can be very task oriented. Change your mindset to: Let’s see if I can actually teach my puppy not to run away when he sees the brush. As with everything in teaching: Success is inspiring, so if you make your goal attainable, the likelihood of being successful is much higher. Baby steps are far better than wrangling with your dog and “just letting you do it”. That would mean setting yourself up for more struggles in the future. All reinforced behaviors increase in intensity. So I can guarantee you that the dog’s fear and resistance will escalate. In other words: by stressing the dog out the opposite of what you really want to achieve will happen.
Second important point would be how to set yourself up for success. As with all things sometimes it takes a step back to get a step forward.
Decide on a spot where you are going to teach and eventually do your grooming. Can your dog relax on a mat or a bed? If yes: great! If not, I would greatly encourage you to start there.
There are several recommended positions your dog can take:
Lying on mat or table/grooming table if you have one
Any geographically defined surface (a dog bed, a towel, a yoga mat) will greatly help teach your dog that good things happen if I stay in that area.
Head Rest on your lap or seat of chair
SCRATCHBOARD FOR NAILS:
One of the most wonderful aspects of the trust you can build with positive reinforcement is the ability to give your dog choice and control over what he feels comfortable offering at the time of the interaction. Rather than restraining the dog and “getting it over with” and reprimanding the struggling dog, we can teach that nothing bad will happen when he makes the choice to trust the guardian or handler. We achieve this by rewarding small increments of showing trust and building on the fact that the rewarded choices will increase in strength in the future.
To give you a specific example: for nail filing : If you have a scratch board, you will first reward the dog for not avoiding the scratchboard when he looks at it..then as he becomes more comfortable with it, you will reward him touching it as it is lying on the floor. You see, it is a game and he will understand that it is a game!
Save yourself and your dog a lot of stress and trips to the vet or groomer
A touch can easily become a scratch as you change the angle of the board. And within a short period of time you have the dog filing his own nails. Not only do you save yourself and your dog a lot of stress and trips to the vet or groomer, you add to your repertoire of fun interactions with your dog. It is a win/win for everyone.
You will be pleased that you have solved one of the more challenging issues dog guardians encounter, partly because of their own hesitation to use unwieldy, hard to gauge clippers that can cause heavy bleeding if you miscalculate by even a tiny amount and because both you and your dog are apprehensive about the procedure. If we can teach wild animals to offer their paws for nail filing and their tails for blood sampling you can be assured that you can achieve this goal with your own dog.
I have discovered a very good source for these scratchboards and am pleased to collaborate with ScratchPad for Dogs TM on this project. Take a look at their products, here: www.etsy.com/scratchpad
Keep in mind the most important piece of information: Always present the tools you will need: brush, comb, nail clippers, bottle of ear cleaner, toothpaste etc. first. If your dog doesn’t recoil or move: reward THEN. Do not try to lure the dog by holding a cookie and then when the dog approaches pull out your tool. That cookie will become a predictor for the scary brush to appear and devalue the treat! So if your dog backs away when the brush appears: wait for the dog to voluntarily take up the highly rewarded “position” again and then present the brush from farther away. Your job is to make the dog feel successful!
Want a lesson to achieve the goal of establishing a relaxation spot for your dog? For help with this and turning it into a safe, fun party: book an online session. This is a lesson that is really easy to teach remotely and is something I can easily instruct you to do via streaming. I promise it’s going to be exciting and rewarding for you and your doggie.
Reach out to me on my website to easily book an online or in-person coaching session for grooming and any other need you or your dog may have! https://www.dogrelationsnewyorkcity.com/
Read More at https://www.dogrelationsnewyorkcity.com/dog-training-tips/at-home-dog-grooming-is-possible/
In my work with puppies I often find that related issues pop up in waves.
We all know that dogs crave attention. In turn, we adore how they look at us lovingly when we give them attention. We love admiring how cute they are, how smart they are and we are amazed by the deep emotional impact all that cuteness has on us.
What we seem to overlook is that fawning and constant commenting are reinforcing the pup’s behavior in real time! The puppy more than the humans realizes that playing keep away gets them at least as much attention as coming when called.
“Oh honey…we have to go out now and come on come on we have to go now, let’s put on your harness…here…here…I will lure you with a treat…haha you are running away…look I have a treat…oh, don’t do that! “What are you doing over there? Oh, don’t eat the rug! What is it that you have in your mouth? Why don’t you play with your toy instead, oh don’t bark, don’t whine…why are you whining… What do you want?!”
In that constant stream of verbal attention, why should the puppy know what to ignore and when to pay attention?
How does he differentiate between running commentary and an actual cue?
Also keep in mind that dogs have to learn to understand specific words by associating them with physical behaviors first. If your dog does not really know what action to associate with a particular word under a variety of circumstances and with distractions then you cannot expect the dog to perform on cue.
Be aware of the fact that your puppy needs clear guidelines. That does not mean that you have to bark out commands in a military fashion. Just try really hard to show your puppy that behaviors that you do not want to repeat should not have a reinforcing effect on your puppy. Use your actions and words strategically.
Notice them when they are doing the “right” thing,. When your dog ignores you or “does not listen” consider if it’s actually your behavior that is confusing to your puppy.
This morning my young dog Snorri gave me reason for pride.
Snorri has an incredible nose and is also highly food motivated. Like all smart dogs (and kids) he is also very curious and he likes to explore everything. He uses his mouth and his nose. On the sidewalks of New York City using his nose is mostly acceptable but using his mouth is definitely a hazard to his health.
On our walks we practiced “drop” about a million times. To me “drop” means: Get your mouth empty because delivery of something very delicious and a much more valuable reward is waiting.
So this morning ingraining this in him really paid off. Snorri snagged chicken bone on our walk,I cued him to “DROP” and he DID.
WHEW!Those are the moments when I am overwhelmed with joy and pride and find that all those practice repetitions really paid off for both of us.
Not long ago I was called in to help with a “completely” out of control 11 year old little dog. Interestingly the dog walker’s impression was “he is a sweet little dog” with a few quirks. The guardians had a very different description.
The dog greeted me with great enthusiasm. However that enthusiasm didn’t wane after a few moments but in fact escalated and he started to leap onto chairs, onto the top of the table and he barked non-stop.The humans in turn only yelled at the dog: “STOP!” “OFF!” “GET DOWN!” “DON’T DO THAT!!!”The constant and intense barking was continuing uninterrupted. In fact it seemed to me that the humans were joining the dog in a constant stream of barked out reprimands.
After observing this mayhem for a few minutes I spoke up (loudly) andinterrupted the humans and just said: You have got to STOP this.
After interviewing them it turned out the humans had pretty much expected the dog to “behave” without actually showing the dog what they wanted him to do instead. The dog had NEVER been rewarded for doing the right thing and had been raised only on corrections. The dog was generally ignored when he was doing “nothing”, in other words: being a “good dog”.
The dog’s inherent need for attention was satisfied. However the behaviors that got him this very intense attention were not desirable actions. If that was the only kind of attention the dog could get, that’s what he would accept. The dog never had the experience that a polite behavior could earn him kudos.
With other unacceptable behaviors the humans tried to figure out how they could appease him or manage the environment and their own actions. Everything was “managed” around what they thought the dog might think or want. If that wasn’t enough the dog would lash out. So the humans would try to accommodate the dog “better” or “differently” in order to keep themselves “safe”.
So I explained that we needed to turn that situation around completely and show the dog what behaviors we wanted from him and highly reward him for those behaviors. That training meant nothing more than teaching the dog which behaviors would pay off for him and that the humans would choose those behaviors.
I started by teaching the dog that barking and jumping did not get him any reinforcement or would have an unexpected consequence. All I needed to do was show him that I wasn’t at all impressed with barking and jumping but that I was extremely appreciative of an offered sit. After a few minutes all the dog did was sit voluntarily and he was quiet too!
Luckily the humans saw and understood the concept, andafter a day or so I got feedback from them that they had a different dog! That was very satisfying to me as well as the dog guardians. I am so grateful that they actually followed through. Good training pays off for all those involved.
About 6-7 months ago I got an inquiry from a guy who had a puppy who was “boisterous” and he wanted “it” trained. He asked if I could I come for 2-3 days in a row and teach him basic manners and how to walk on a leash.
It was clear to me that he had no idea how dogs learn, but his request sounded so urgent that I agreed to those terms, hoping that I could explain some things to him and him on a path to understanding.
The evening before the first lesson he texted, apologized and said that his mother had offered to help and that he wanted to cancel. Fine.
To me this has turned into a very sad story. I see that pup almost every morning. I don’t know if the guy knows who I am. But here is what happened:
He talked to ALL THESE PEOPLE in the neighborhood who were “experts”.
The puppy continues to pull on the leash, jump all over the place, and the guy continues to be frustrated. I keep seeing neighbors giving him all these “tips”. One daynot long ago, I overheard him boasting to a group that he hired a trainer who had told him to get this special collar and he was now confident that all his problems would be solved.
This dog was a perfectly sweet, happy enthusiastic puppy. Now he “finally” hired a trainer who has advised him to use a choke collar. Every time they encounter a dog (just like me and Snorri) the puppy jumps and wants to play after which the guy chokes the dog to the point where I can hear the puppy gag. It hurts me to see such stupidity and uselessnessin these terribly timed, punishing actions.
It makes me worried about this dog’s future and it makes me wonder how much this guy enjoys his walks with his puppy and what kind of a relationship they have. Also, I wonder if all of his relationships are framed by the things that are wrong with the other person just like the critical way he sees his dog.
But mostly I feel bad for the puppy. Sadly our entire society seems to be driven by the reigning in of behaviors that are deemed unacceptable rather than increasing the motivation for “good” behaviors.
