Perfect Paws - Dog behaviour and training (2024)

19/09/2024

‘They need to do it for love’ got me 🙄🙄🙄🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ how many times I had to explain to owners that that’s not now it works, felt like it would have been quicker to print an information leaflet of FAQs for this occasion!

17/07/2024

𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗸: "All you need to do is to be very strict from the beginning so they learn what their place is".

𝗠𝗲: 🙄

A few weeks ago, I was working with a client and her cute pup, and this is what a member of the public told us when they saw us doing some training together. They might have been well-meaning - but also extremely misinformed.

❌ You do not need to use intimidation, punishment, and aversives, or be 'very strict' with your dog to show them what their place is because you don't need to show them what their place is in the first place! ❌

This type of thinking comes from what is known as the 'dominance theory'. This theory has led professionals, as well as dog owners, to design and apply training techniques based on punishment, coercion and aversion.

This tendency has been probably motivated by the belief that for dogs to be well-behaved, humans need to assert their authority using force and intimidation to be the 'alpha', the 'dominant pack leader', the 'top dog' and prevent dogs from achieving a higher social status over them and become 'dominant'.

There are so many problems with this.

📚 Early studies and flawed foundations.

The 'dominance theory' is incorrect. The early studies on wolves' behaviour have been based on groups of captive unrelated wolves forced to form artificial groups and share the same territory and resources, which inevitably led them to compete over these resources through aggression.

Wild wolves living naturally in their habitat, on the other hand, rather than a strict hierarchical organisation, form cohesive and cooperative social structures which resemble more a family group, where aggression is rarely seen between individuals and where it does not serve the purpose of achieving a higher social status (Mech, 2008; Eaton, 2011)

🐺 Dogs are not wolves.

Another problem with the 'dominance theory' is the assumption that wolves and dogs behave and form similar social structures as they share a common ancestor. Whilst the fact that they share a common ancestor is undoubtedly true, dogs have changed a lot from wolves since domestication, and the social groups they form are very different from those formed by wolves (Eaton, 2011; Miklósi, 2015).

Studies about free-ranging feral dogs show how their social structures are loose and fluid, with unrelated individuals coming and going, and that the relationship between the breeding pair and the offspring is fundamentally different too, with the mother being the main and mostly the only provider for her puppies, and with breeding behaviour being more influenced by reproductive cycles and the situation rather than by the existence of a family-like group of related individuals like in wolves (Coppinger and Coppinger, 2002; Van Kerkhove, 2004; Miklósi, 2015).

The same can be said for groups of domestic dogs, who rather than strict and hierarchical structures or 'packs', seem to form loose and fluid social groups, where their interactions, and in particular aggressive behaviours, are not driven by the aim of achieving a higher social status within their group (Van Kerkhove, 2004; Bradshaw et al., 2009).

🏆 Being 'dominant' is not about status.

It's now important to note that the word 'dominant' has been erroneously used for decades to describe an individual, as if 'being dominant' was an individual trait, a character trait.

What the word 'dominant' really defines is not a status, but it refers to those behaviours that are displayed in relation to other individuals and that have been learned in order to acquire and maintain access to those resources that a dog values the most, and that might well be different between the same two individuals when the resource in question is different (Bradshaw et al., 2009; Eaton, 2011).

The truth is that unlike wolves, domestic dogs do not need to form packs with other dogs in order to survive as they don’t need to cooperate to hunt and find food: all their needs are provided for by us, their human carers.

We also know that dogs don’t form packs with us either and that they are not in competition with us, but they are part of our social group, of our family.

👉 In other words, dogs are not domesticated wolves, and they are not trying to dominate us.

This means there is truly no need to use methods based on the need to 'dominate' our dogs. Reward-based training techniques that support kinder, ethical and cooperative methods work and, the way I see it, are just much nicer for all the involved. ✌️

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

References

Bradshaw, J.W.S., Blackwell, E.J. and Casey, R.A. (2009) Dominance in domestic dogs – useful construct or bad habit? Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 4(3), pp. 109-144.

Coppinger, R. and Coppinger, L. (2002) Dogs. A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior and Evolution. University of Chicago Press.

Eaton, B. (2011) Dominance in Dogs. Fact or fiction? Dogwise Publishing.

Mech, L. D. (2008) What Happened to the Term Alpha Wolf? International Wolf, 18(4), pp. 4-8.

Miklósi, A. (2015) Dog Behaviour, Evolution and Cognition. 2nd edition. Oxford University Press.

Van Kerkhove, W. (2004) A fresh look at the wolf-pack theory of companion-animal dog social behavior. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 7(4), pp. 279-285.

10/05/2024

Happy International German Shepherd Day! Lacey thinks every day should be German Shepherd Day! 🥰

16/04/2024

Looking pretty in the daisies 🥰

16/04/2024

Grooming!

Whether you have a long haired, double coated Shepherd or a short coated Jack Russell, grooming is a hugely important part of caring for your dog. It helps keep skin and fur healthy, it gives a good opportunity for a health check and it also acclimatises a dog to being touched all over which may come in handy for vet visits.

It’s interesting that so many of us work at training basic obedience but for some reason very few people ever think to train a dog to be groomed. Many dogs will enjoy a brush and will be quite happy to sit there all day for the pampering session. However there is also a large number of dogs who just don’t tolerate it well at all. Even the dogs that are happy to be groomed may have certain areas they don’t allow to be done; typically the tails, legs or tummies may be problem areas.

Grooming can be a frustrating exercise for all involved if a dog isn’t cooperative, as a result you may avoid it all together which can lead to issues such as matted fur, skin problems and a build up of dirt.

If you plan to send your dog to be professionally groomed on a regular basis, it is still important to work on grooming at home. It is not the professional groomer’s job to teach your dog to tolerate grooming. They have limited time and a demanding job, the last thing they need is to be worrying about how your dog is behaving. Unfortunately many dogs don’t enjoy their trip to the groomers. They may need to be restrained or muzzled to complete the groom which will only lead to more fear/anxiety in future. Dogs at a groomers are typically exposed to ‘flooding’ where they are continually exposed to a stressful situation. While some dogs will cope despite the stress, others can become increasingly fearful and escalate their reactions to try and express themselves. This is not a criticism of the groomers, they are just trying to complete the job as effectively and safely as possible. Teaching your dog to accept all aspects of grooming at home will make for a happier groomer and a more relaxed dog. You will also still need to keep up regular brushing at home to keep the fur in good condition between visits.

Lacey is a prime example of a dog that may have been very difficult to groom without training. Like a lot of German Shepherds, she is very touch-sensitive and wasn’t keen on the sensation of the brush. As a boisterous, bitey puppy, our first attempts at grooming involved lots of chewed brushes, chewed hands and barking. If that behaviour had continued, brushing her as an adult could have been extremely dangerous. However, with lots of positive training in her first year, she now gets very excited when the brushes come out. We can brush her all over with no hassle and clip her nails as needed. We don’t bath her because she doesn’t need it, but for other dogs that will also be an area to train.

So, for happy dogs, happy owners and happy groomers, take the time to teach your dogs to accept grooming!

12/03/2024

Long ramble alert;

Dogs with ‘learning difficulties’?

I came across an interesting thread where someone was asking if dogs can have ‘learning difficulties’ because their dog is struggling to learn Left and Right cues for agility. This prompted a rather irrelevant and angry discussion in the comments with people disagreeing over specific diagnosis and what could be categorised as a disability in humans.

But the question did raise some interesting ideas for me.

Firstly, how do we as owners and trainers quantify intelligence and learning ability in dogs? Is it how many cues we can teach them? How quickly they learn? Or how many puzzle toys they can solve? Judging a dog’s (or any animal’s) intelligence by human standards has always seemed like a strange concept to me. Certainly it’s interesting and, I suppose, the only standard indicator we have. But is a dog less intelligent if it only knows 3 cues instead of 20 or is it just not motivated to work?

Disabilities that limit learning capabilities in humans will typically effect a person’s ability to learn the skills needed to survive independently, learning difficulties may not be a disability but can mean a person takes longer than average to pick up certain skills. But our dogs will probably never live independently. They are fully provided for in every aspect of their lives. A dog that isn’t able to learn to hunt or scavenge may not survive alone in the wild but a pet dog will have a bowl of food conveniently placed in front of them so they will cope perfectly well. Survival skills then are also perhaps not an indicator of learning ability in the modern dog. Furthermore, with so many variables in training, I’m not sure there is any reliable data on ‘average learning times’ for dogs.

We have been selectively breeding dogs for thousands of years, usually for physical attributes and personality traits. But I suspect for most of that time, little thought has gone into what it has done to our dogs brains. Dogs are bred for all sorts of purposes and even within each breed there will be variations; anyone who has a cockerpoo from working-spaniel lines as opposed to show-spaniel lines will know only too well how much of a difference it can make! Working breeds are often selected for their intelligence, so maybe, learning ability depends more on the genetics of the individual dog.

Close genetic lines will surely make anomalies such as brain defects more likely. And some studies show that selective breeding has physically altered the neuroanatomy of certain breeds (Selby et al, 2020). But if a breed is not selected for its intelligence or is in fact bred in such a way that inhibits its brain function, this wouldn’t exactly count as a learning difficulty. We wouldn’t say a Sloth has learning difficulties in comparison to a Dolphin; just as a Pug doesn’t have learning difficulties in comparison to a German Shepherd, they just have a different purpose in life (no offence to Sloths or Pugs!).

We also have to take into account human error, just because one person has struggled to train a dog to do something, doesn’t mean the dog is not capable of learning it. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been told ‘my dog won’t do that trick’ or ‘you won’t be able to teach them that, I’ve tried before’. Only to watch the owner’s face in shock 5 minutes later when the dog starts to learn the behaviour. Just because the dog isn’t learning using the method we know, doesn’t mean the dog can’t learn. And if the dog needs a different method to the one we know, that wouldn’t make it more or less intelligent necessarily, just different.

I feel like this might be one of those topics that lends itself to dozens of separate conversations. - I haven’t even started on the effects of early life experiences or sensitivity to environmental stimuli.

I would often have owners ask me if I felt their dog was cleverer than others, and I was never sure how to answer. They wanted me to say ‘yes’ because everyone wants to win the un-spoken Dog Intelligence Top Trumps game that seems so popular at the local park. But surely the better question would be ‘does my dog have the necessary learning capability and drive to do the things I want them to do?’. There’s simply no point buying yourself an Oxford Graduate dog if you just want to sit on the sofa with them and watch Love Island.

So I suppose my answer to ‘can dogs have learning difficulties?’ would be, it depends what you’re comparing them to. If a dog has a neurological or genetic defect in comparison to dogs of a similar type then, yes, it’s absolutely possible. But if your dog is just not learning the way you would like them to compared to the fancy Border Collie on YouTube with the professional trainer, is it really a reasonable comparison to make?

06/03/2024

Our Dog Training Mindset -

So often in dog training the questions from owners are along the lines of ‘How do I stop my dog…..’ or ‘How do I teach my dog not to…..’ . The problem is, both questions imply the dog is already performing the undesired behaviour and neither tells us what the owner would like the dog to be doing instead.

Humans are often very negative creatures and it’s in our nature to phrase these questions in a negative format (negative being to remove undesirable behaviour). The negative phrasing in-turn lends itself to aversive methods of training because our brains will conclude that in order to stop a behaviour we need to make it unpleasant/punish for it.

But wouldn’t it be better if we could re-phrase these into a more positive format that actually tells us what we are striving to achieve?
‘How do I teach my dog to….walk on a loose lead / go to toilet outside / come when called’
‘How do I encourage my dog to be….. confident when left alone / calm around the house’

Once we know what we want to achieve, it’s much easier to come up with a training plan. Plus, if we are looking to promote a wanted behaviour we are more likely to teach it using positive reinforcement methods.

It’s also important to remember that our dogs don’t instinctively know how we want them to behave. They naturally have different instincts, different objectives and different social structures to us. So it’s never enough just to tell them what we DON’T want because they’ll just find another behaviour that suits their own needs.

How many times have you seen an owner running around after their dog shouting ‘no’ to every behaviour? Or maybe you know you do this yourself! We have to teach them what we DO want and set them up to succeed in those behaviours.

06/03/2024

I haven’t posted on here for a while, as many of you will know, my life has changed a lot in recent months and I’m still figuring out what happens next. I haven’t been in a position to take doggy clients since August ‘23 but I do miss them and I miss helping owners with training work. So I’m going to try to start posting again - no promises I might do one and then completely forget!

Some may be training and behaviour tips, some may be rants on dog-related issues that spring to mind, some might just be photos of Lacey looking pretty - who knows! Just going to see what happens, but in the meantime here is a photo of Lacey enjoying the sunshine today.

Perfect Paws - Dog behaviour and training

19/09/2024

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10/05/2024

16/04/2024

16/04/2024

12/03/2024

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06/03/2024

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