Modern training for dogs and their people.
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"Empowering dogs is also good in indirect ways, because it helps shift the moral paradigm for humans. The act of respecting dogs’ interests in making choices is a way of acknowledging and respecting their intrinsic value."
Agency, choice, and control are essential for psychological integrity.
If you read one thing today let it be this post.
a desire for solutions to problems that weren’t problems until someone else outside of the relationship suggested they were.
Friends, we need your help 📣
This amazing girl has spent over 600 days looking for her forever home. I know 😞, I can’t believe it either, because she’s perfect. I mean, just LOOK at her!
So let’s please help change that.
Bella deserves a loving and committed home and will be an incredible family member, so please share this far and wide.
Bella is available for adoption through Mr. Bones & Co. and Rescue the Runway.
Anyone in the US within driving distance of NYC is welcome to apply to adopt Bella: www.mrbonesandco.org/adopt and/or email [email protected]
You can find more information on Bella here: https://www.facebook.com/169388193210777/posts/2207007886115454/?d=n
And as a small token of thanks for amplifying and sharing this post, here’s a video of Bella eating pancakes, which will immediately improve your day 🥰:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZUyA4zD5Pz/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Same with spotting harmful dog “trainers” 👌
(ID: A screenshot of a tweet by Alex Winter that reads: Pro tip learned from decades in showbiz; given that the theory of alpha wolves is long debunked as nonsense, a surefire way to spot and avoid a malignant narcissist is to note who self-identifies as an Alpha. Works a treat.)
Before I say more about this video, I want to make the following clear, this is not a personal critique of Dr. Hamilton. I have immense respect for all veterinary professionals, especially those who approach their work with compassion and best intentions as is clearly the case here.
What transpires on this video is something we see every day when it comes to the handling and training of dogs. Now that this particular video has gone viral and made its way to Good Morning America, I believe there’s a lot of value in unpacking what’s going on here.
A general summary of the brindle dog’s behavior and body language:
The dog sits in the corner of the room crouched with her back against the wall, back and neck lowered, ears low and pinned, mouth closed, and displaying whale eye.
The person is seated in a chair a few feet in front of the dog making direct eye contact, leaning forward, and talking to her.
The person waves and then reaches their hand toward the dog.
She sniffs the hand by stretching her neck while the rest of her body remains frozen.
The person picks up and handles the dog’s leash. She follows the person with her eyes. Two lip licks are visible as her eyes dart back and forth.
The person lays down on the floor and positions their face directly under the dog’s head. The dog lip licks and turns away.
She briefly sniffs the person’s face and then momentarily looks into the camera, her ears move forward slightly, then turns her head away.
The person moves their arm up and over and pets the dog’s head, the dog’s head lowers and her ears pin back.
Her forehead is taught, facial muscles are tight, and her mouth remains closed.
As the person pets the dog’s face she looks into the camera, flinches, and leans her body away into the wall.
As the petting continues she lip licks and turns her head toward the wall.
The person kneels a few feet to the dog’s side and reaches toward her mouth with a treat in their hand.
The dog remains still with body weight shifted to the wall, head low, and ears back.
She remains in this position as she sniffs the food for a few seconds and then licks it. Her ears are back, her head is low, and the whites of her eyes are visible.
The person wedges themselves into the corner between the wall and the dog.
The dog’s back legs are braced and body weight is shifted forward as she reaches to eat food that’s been placed on the floor a few feet away.
As the person continues to wedge their body further into the dog space, the dog’s back legs remain braced with her hind end weight shifted back and toward the wall.
The final segment depicts the person on the floor with legs folded.
The dog is leaning over the person’s leg with her head lowered as the person massages her head with both hands, then cup her face, pets her head, and kisses her.
The dog’s ears are flat, her mouth is closed, facial muscles are tight, her body is still, she lip licks and turns away.
At the start of the video Dr. Hamilton states that the dog doesn’t pose a threat, but appears to be very scared.
Based on what we see the latter certainly seems justified. It’s the former sentiment that the dog doesn’t pose a threat that I want to address.
When we label a dog “fearful” what we really mean is that the dog is displaying behaviors the function of which is to increase distance.
In other words, a dog who is cowering, crouching, shifting weight away from the person, and showing a range of other stress-based behaviors is looking for the person to move away, not to come closer.
A dog who’s tethered, restrained, or quite literally cornered can’t get the distance they want so they ask for it with their body language and behavior.
In some cases it looks like the behaviors displayed by the dog in the video. In other cases it looks like barking, lunging, growling, snarling, snapping, or biting.
In many instances dogs whose lower intensity requests for distance aren’t heeded, will eventually escalate to more overt signs.
And it’s those dogs that we label as “aggressive” and consider them threats when in fact the function of ALL of these behaviors is the same: to get the scary thing to move away.
Just because some behaviors are more palatable for us humans doesn’t mean we should take them less seriously.
It’s understandable why many people may look at this video of a person seemingly full of good intentions and armed with treats, pets and kisses and not see it for what it is—a repeated and highly risky violation of an animal’s personal space, physical boundaries, and agency.
This dog was desperately asking for some space, and unfortunately got just the opposite.
A dog who is cowering deserves no less space and caution than the one who is growling. A dog who is snarling deserves no less compassion than the one who is trembling.
GMA titled this video “The story behind viral video of vet building trust with scared dog.” Two quotes come to mind when I think about trust:
One, by Dr. Susan Friedman who said that a trusting animal is one who “uses behavior to confidently approach, rather than escape a stimulus.” And another by Meg Dye who said “trust is incompatible with fear.” These strike me especially poignant as I watch this video.
If we keep these sentiments at the forefront when working on trust with animals, our primary goal would be to center control and choice.
An animal who is afraid is an animal who is actively avoiding. Our goal is to decrease avoidance by helping the individual feel safe, give them choices, and meet them where they are.
If we’re going to use food in such instances, food cannot function as a coercive agent. When we use food as a way to get proximity between the dog and the thing they’re scared of (read: seeking distance from), we are using coercion and creating conflict.
This is especially evident in the segment where the person is trying to move the dog out of the corner and using their body and placement of food to accomplish this.
It’s clear that the dog wants the food (is reaching for it and eating it) but is actively keeping their hind legs braced in position in the corner. This is not a dog who is behaving confidently or voluntarily.
Dr. Hamilton correctly states that physically forcing this dog through an exam would create lasting damage. But physical force is not the only mechanism of coercion and its absence is the absolute bare minimum standard of care we should be setting.
For those looking for more resources on how to help decrease fear, anxiety, and stress during veterinary visits, please visit Fear Free Pets and collaborate with a reputable positive reinforcement-based behavior professional to put together a cooperative care plan for your dog.
ETA: If you'd like to share the text of this post, please copy and paste when you share the link (only the link shares automatically without the text) and credit or tag me.
I'm really touched to have been nominated to be in a group of these great trainers on Sniffspot. It's always heartening to see a pet care company center positive reinforcement-based practice. Sniffpost does a wonderful job helping people meet their dogs' needs in a way that's enriching and safe.
The link to vote is here:
https://form.jotform.com/220466155218049
And if you're not in MA, you're welcome to vote for your favorite positive reinforcement-based trainer in your area!
The more I do this work the more I’m convinced that what’s at the core of the most rewarding and joyful dog-human relationships isn’t training experience, or exceptional handler skills, or having raised dogs your entire life. It’s basic compassion and common sense.
It’s the ability to see the world from the point of view of another living being, in this case, from the point of view of our dogs.
It’s taking a moment to decenter ourselves and see our dogs’ behavior not based on how it impacts us, makes us look or feel, but from their point of view.
Dog training info and social media can be downright scary—pseudoscience, egos, fear mongering, and constant assertion of power and control.
People are made to feel guilty for showing their dogs basic acts of kindness or indulging in small moments of pleasure like sharing food or cuddling on the couch.
Our time with our dogs is so brief. None of us are going to look back and say, “wow, I’m so glad I never let my dog on the couch!” or “I’m so happy I didn’t comfort them when they were scared.”
Yes of course teaching life skills matters, but please don’t forget why you’ve chosen to share a life with a dog in the first place.
Don’t forget the joy and give them the compassion you’d want to receive if you were navigating a foreign world that wasn’t designed for you.
[ID: A screenshot of a tweet and tweet replies by Jack Herrera that read We give dogs a hard time for overreacting to normal things, but I think I too would react poorly if someone grabbed me and started trying to give me a bath. A stranger suddenly walks into my house? My reaction likely wouldn’t be quiet and calm. A massive explosion and a shower of sparks suddenly fills the sky for reasons I do not understand? I’d also be concerned!]
Original tweet: https://twitter.com/jherrerx/status/1483310435466153984?s=21
Who else knows this song? 🎶🎶
Also some good resources linked here.
You can find all the Christmas Bites, with lots of detail and video demos here: https://aniedireland.com/christmas-bites/
Including the current bite, no.3, here: https://aniedireland.com/2021/12/13/christmas-bites-2021-no-3/
A thoughtful and interesting piece. I see a lot of disdain out there for folks who choose to refer to their dogs as children or liken their pet caregiving role to parenthood. It might serve all of us well to let people decide for themselves how they define their relationships with their dogs without shaming those choices.
It’s not cringey. It’s accurate!
We all know that guy at the dog park 🥴
Credit and tweet link: https://twitter.com/laurenthehough/status/1467256018170220546?s=21
[ID: A screenshot of a tweet by Lauren Hough that reads “Guy at the dog park told me I’m ruining my dog because I call him and he comes then I give him cheese. Guy said he should come because he respects me not for food. So I said, yeah? call your dog. Now he doesn’t wanna give me training tips anymore.” Reply to tweet reads “Lol he’s leaving. Oh well.”]
Behavior is communication. Behavior is information. When we label and blame dogs without taking the time to critically think about what their behavior is telling us, we not only never get to grow as teachers and guardians, we risk causing them harm.
I can’t count how many instances of pain or health related issues I’ve seen that affected dogs’ behavior. Even for dogs with known health and physical issues, guardians often underestimate their impact on their dogs’ behavior and mobility.
When we insist on labeling and blaming dogs, we close the door to learning more about them and miss the opportunity to become better teachers and caregivers.
It might take a bit of practice, but I want to encourage everyone to become a bit more curious about your dog’s behavior. Instead of following an assumption, take a step back and consider what the other possibilities might be. I promise, it’s worth it.
[ID: On a light pink background words in dark gray read: Slide 1 What we can learn when we shift our mindset from blaming dogs to seeing their behavior as information.
Slide 2: We become aware of any potential health or medical issues. Pain plays a major role in behavior. It can be a contributing factor to aggression, reactivity, and sound sensitivity. It can cause sudden behavior changes and limit mobility. Dogs experiencing pain may not present with obvious symptoms. It’s often their behavior that clues us in that something is wrong. If we interpret changes in their behavior as disobedience, we risk not getting them the help they need.
Slide 3: We get insight into which environmental stimuli increase stress. Changes in light, sound, temperature, weather, and other stimuli in the environment can increase stress and impact dogs’ behavior. Dogs won't learn what we want them to learn when they're over threshold. Understanding what causes stress and impacts our dogs' ability to learn and engage with us is valuable information that allows us to adjust accordingly.
Slide 4: We learn which environmental stimuli are most relevant to our dogs. Dogs may not respond to a cue or respond "incorrectly" for many reasons, including: They're not perceiving the cue we're giving. They're perceiving another stimulus as a cue. They're offering a behavior they think is most likely to be reinforced under these conditions. Other reinforcers are more valuable at this time. Identifying these factors gives us the information we need to make the necessary adjustments and improve our teaching.]
Raise your hand if you too had to upgrade your bed size for your dog 👋😂
"'I think it really came from this idea that dogs should be segregated from the best parts of the house — they shouldn’t be in the kitchen, the dining room, on the couch or on the bed,' Dr. Horowitz said. 'For some reason, there is this sense that we have to maintain our dominance over them by having full possession of these things. It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous.'"
Although the scientific literature makes a compelling case that our pets are good for us in many ways, research into the effects of co-sleeping is more limited.
“Positive reinforcement is great for rewarding good behaviors, but I need to let my dog know that some behaviors are unacceptable.”
I’ve heard some variation of this statement more times than I can count, so let’s unpack it:
Yes, punishment decreases behavior, but dogs aren’t always learning what we think they’re learning when we administer punishment procedures.
Concepts such as right and wrong or acceptable and unacceptable are not concepts dogs understand. What they understand is which behaviors are safe and which aren’t.
Example: your dog puts front paws on the kitchen counter and you use a spray bottle to spray them in the face with water.
If the stimulus of water being sprayed in the face is aversive enough, your dog will learn that putting paws on the counter under certain conditions results in something scary and aversive.
Aversive contingencies engender avoidance behaviors. These include freezing, lip licking, yawning, looking away, turning away, cowering, running away, hiding, etc.
Because we don’t always control which stimuli are associated with the punisher, your dog will avoid those conditions that are *most salient to them* at predicting the aversive consequences.
These conditions can include you standing next to the kitchen counter; you holding or reaching for the spray bottle or anything resembling a spray bottle; you standing in the kitchen; or the kitchen itself.
Your dog will then engage in avoidance behaviors when those conditions are present.
Your dog didn’t learn that putting paws on the kitchen counter is “wrong”, they learned to avoid the counter, the kitchen, you in the kitchen, or all of the above. And since associative learning is always occurring, all the icky feelings that accompany avoidance are also along for the ride.
So let’s stop making stuff up when it comes to punishment and aversives in training. Although saying that corrections teach the dog that some behaviors are “wrong”, or promote “boundaries” or “accountability” may sound good and make the use of punishment more palatable for the average person, those statements are objectively and scientifically false.
[ID Slide 1: One a pale pink background words in light maroon and dark gray read: Myth: Corrections are necessary, otherwise how will my dog learn that some behaviors are wrong? Slide 2: Reality: "Right" and "wrong" are human constructs and dogs don't understand them. When we introduce punishing consequences (or corrections) dogs aren’t learning that their behavior is “wrong." They’re learning that certain conditions signal aversive contingencies that must be avoided. This avoidance can extend to a variety of stimuli present in the environment during punishment, including the dog's guardian.]
If you know you know 😂
[ID: A screen shot of a tweet by Ben Rosen reads “oh you don’t want my dog to bark at you? then why would you stand calmly within a 2 mile radius of my house”]
👇👇👇
RESILIENCE IN PUPPIES
So, this little fella (Zebedee) joined my household eight weeks ago. A lot has changed for him in those eight weeks – left mum, siblings, home, bonding with new mum and new siblings (some of whom like him and some of whom rolled their eyes and sulked for a bit), new food, routine, climate, and so the list goes on!
My approach to puppy rearing is very different to what it used to be. Gone are the tick lists of things he has to be exposed to, gone are the introductions to strange people or strange dogs (in fact to anyone outside of the house unless a very good friend of mine and only then for brief periods). The focus has been on me learning what makes him tick, how he responds to different stimuli and on ensuring that he learns that I’m his safe space (like a ‘magic mum shield’ that protects him against anything that might challenge him beyond his current resilience capability - ability to recover after an inadvertant stressor).
One of the most fun things to learn about him is how he processes exciting, anxiety generating or busy environments. We’ve created a conversation between us where he’s able to very subtly say ‘give me a minute’, at which point I find a safe space for him to observe the environment from for as long as it takes (some of our walks are him just watching stuff). He then either comes to me for a cuddle which means ‘can we go do something else please?’, or he starts sniffing and pulling forward if he’s happy to go a bit closer.
What’s been really interesting is that if I walked on he would follow and trot along regardless, so if I hadn’t taken the first few weeks to get to know his subtle whispers I could have very easily inadvertently over-faced him and increased the chances of a ‘surprise’ negative event and the development of unhealthy coping mechanisms because he'd got himself into a situation that he wasn't yet equipped to deal with. As it is now, because he has some say in whether he’s ready or not when things do happen eg a bus going past for the first time, he’s been able to take it in his stride. And it’s a cute little stride !
People often ask me how we can encourage the development of resilience mechanisms, well this is a good example of just that. It’s not a question of protecting Zeb from all things scary – life is unpredictable at the end of the day – it’s about building the foundations of our relationship on me being his safe space, the one who has studied his communication and will listen when it matters. Resilience isn’t constant throughout the life of a dog and whilst there are many things that can reduce it either temporarily or long term, there are also many things that we can do to support it’s development and maintenance throughout our dogs lives.
A beautiful piece.
"If I had lost a human partner, there would have been the usual funeral rituals, and being an emotional basket case would have seemed understandable. But our culture treats the death of a pet more like the loss of an automobile. When it wears out, you should just go buy another one. Well-meaning friends and family members had advised this in their attempts to help me feel better. What they didn’t get was that I had lost a soul mate—an irreplaceable relationship—not a piece of property."
When my yellow Lab died last spring, I was flattened by an overwhelming sadness that’s with me still. And that’s normal, experts say, because losing a pet is often one of the hardest yet least acknowledged traumas we’ll ever face.
The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior has released their updated statement on humane dog training that will replace their former statement on the use of punishment.
It’s worth reading in full.
“Many methods of changing behavior in dogs are effective; however, the evidence-based veterinarian or behavior consultant should be concerned not just with what is effective but what does the least harm and produces the best long-term results.”
https://avsab.ftlbcdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AVSAB-Humane-Dog-Training-Position-Statement-2021.pdf
Yesterday I came across this terrible and terribly callous Op-Ed from the Wall Street Journal by Mark Naida. Not only does the author spread misinformation about dog training and behavior, but he gleefully encourages others to follow his lead.
The resulting harm from such bad advice can be profound. Below I unpack some of the author’s points. For those hitting a paywall, the full text of the article is in the comments.
******
WSJ: “The sticky note on the door jamb did us in. ‘Your dog has been barking since 10:55 a.m. I can hear it through the walls.’ My wife and I had taken a short trip to the grocery store and left our Irish setter, Charley, alone in her cage. She barked wildly in our absence. Charley’s bad behavior has added a lot of stress to our lives. By the time the note appeared, we were sick of being pulled down the street during walks and barked at during video calls. Dogs are fun to have and dote on, but we weren’t enjoying ours much, especially because we felt we couldn’t leave her alone.
So we went nuclear. We bought a prong collar and an e-collar, considered forbidden tools by most dog trainers and pet lovers.”
🔹 This is a telling passage void of any compassion or acknowledgement that his dog is a sentient being who may be experiencing real anxiety and stress when separated. Dogs are “fun to have” until you realize they have needs and feelings. A real inconvenience it seems.
WSJ: “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ description of the prong collar captures the popular sentiment: ‘Prong collars are designed to punish dogs for pulling by inflicting pain and discomfort. They can cause serious physical and emotional damage to dogs and should never be used.’ In practice, the prongs tighten around the dog’s neck when they pull at the leash, giving the animal a clear incentive to walk by your side. If it really hurt, my dog, who is a bit of a sissy despite being an athletic 45 pounds, would yelp. She hasn’t yet.”
🔹 This argument that an aversive tool, such as a prong collar, doesn’t hurt is as common as it is misguided. And here’s why:
🔹 First, we don’t get to decide how something feels to someone else, especially an animal who can’t communicate their pain scale. Yelping is one indicator of potential pain, but its absence doesn’t indicate lack of pain. Dogs with severe injuries and health issues may never vocalize.
🔹 Second, what the author describes here is a negative reinforcement contingency. The “incentive” is the relief from an aversive stimulus—pressure from the collar—that when removed makes the walking by his side behavior stronger. In other words, the stimulus has to be aversive enough for the dog to work to avoid it. If the stimulus was benign, it wouldn’t change behavior.
🔹 Third, physical pain is not the only criteria for harm. Anyone who has experienced coercion understands this well. Threat of pain or threat of an aversive will cause escape avoidance behaviors. Behaving to avoid an aversive is not a pleasant way to live and comes with documented fallout.
🔹 Finally, it is the learner and only the learner who decides what’s rewarding or aversive. The change in future behavior determines whether something functions as a reinforcer or punisher. What we think about how something feels is irrelevant.
WSJ: “We haven’t used the shock feature yet. We set it to beep once and vibrate gently when Charley barks, and that seems to have done the trick. The vibration grabs her attention and provides an emotional reset. But if she starts to ignore that correction, we can always try the low-level shock.”
🔹 “Grabs her attention” and “emotional reset” are meaningless euphemisms that tell us nothing about the mechanism by which behavior is actually changed. Behavior is changed through *consequences*. Whether a beep or a “gentle” vibration, if it changes behavior, it’s aversive.
🔹 The last sentence in that paragraph speaks to one of the well-documented byproducts of using punishment to change behavior: the need to increase the intensity of the aversive stimulus over time.
WSJ: “For most dog trainers these days, the only acceptable way to train a dog is through positive reinforcement: Reward the dog for good behavior through treats, and teach good behaviors like sitting that replace bad ones like jumping on guests. Proponents think a spritz of water on the muzzle is cruel and ineffective, a smack with a rolled-up newspaper downright abusive. In theory, it sounds nice and humane. In practice, it’s a slow method. Estimates for having a well-behaved dog using this method run about 18 months.”
🔹 What Mr. Naida lacks in evidence he sure makes up for in smugness. Where does this 18-month figure come from and who defines a “well-behaved” dog? A dog who is vocalizing when left alone is not poorly behaved, they’re suffering.
🔹 If treating separation anxiety with humane, evidence-based methods takes time it’s because treating any disorder of this magnitude takes time. Teaching other skills, including what to do while walking on a leash, without compulsion is not a “slow method”.
🔹 You know what’s slow? Taking an aversive collar off a dog and finding out that in the absence of a threat of an aversive the dog has no skills and having to start from scratch. THAT’S slow.
WSJ: “Halfway there, I realized I didn’t have the patience. And despite the guilt I felt at resorting to ‘torture,’ the reduction in stress from having a quiet, easy-to-walk dog has been worth it.”
🔹 Here we see that Mr. Naida values and appreciates the benefits of stress reduction, a luxury he won’t afford to his dog.
WSJ: “Treating dogs 'humanely' is a goal that doesn’t fit their social behavior. Take any puppy to a dog park and it will run around, barking at other dogs to play. Older dogs will get fed up and lunge, nip or bark at the puppy to get it to calm down. Yet humans should avoid using force whenever possible?”
🔹 And we couldn’t do without the good old “dogs do it to each other so we should do it to them” argument. Except, no, dogs don’t do it to each other. Dogs don’t habitually use force with each other and adult dogs don’t habitually use force with puppies.
🔹 This shows a profound lack of understanding of how dogs operate as a species, their natural behaviors (spoiler alert: barking is normal communication) and intraspecies communication.
🔹 And even if they did use force with each other, as animals with bigger brains and opposable thumbs, we should be embarrassed to use this as a justification for compulsion. Maybe the author wants to mimic other dog behaviors, such as sniffing buttholes as a greeting, while he’s at it?
WSJ: “Dog owners who, like me, have found themselves at their wit’s end should feel free to show their pets a little tough love.”
🔹 Feeling frustrated with, embarrassed by, or upset about behavior of others is normal and understandable. We’ve all been there. Using this as an excuse to compel behavior no matter the impact it has on the other individual is not. We can and should do better.
ETA: Clicking the share button will not include the text above. To include the text, copy, paste, and tag me.
Exhausted, I gave in and tried a prong collar. I’m glad I did.
I remember hearing Dr. Susan Friedman say “control the environment not the animal” and writing it down. It struck me at the time because it gets at the core of the way we’re conditioned to see behavior. We tend to focus on controlling the individual, rather than looking at the conditions under which their behavior occurs.
All behavior occurs under certain conditions. If we want to change behavior, but don’t address those conditions first, we’ll be destined to fail and rely on compulsion. The traditional punishment mindset tells us that this is the only way, but it’s not.
Shifting our mindset gives us an opportunity to see behavior and how we go about changing it differently. We can help our dogs learn better by making the behaviors we want to teach easier to achieve and arrange the environment so that problem behaviors don’t occur. It’s a not as difficult as we might think, and it’s a lot more rewarding.
[ID: On a light pink background words in dark gray read A punishment oriented mindset asks, “How can I control my dog’s problem behavior under these conditions?”A positive reinforcement oriented mindset asks, “How can I change the conditions to prevent the problem behavior and make the wanted behavior more likely?”]
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One of the things I hear often from people when I suggest doing treat scatters with their dog is “my dog is not good at finding treats.” But sniffing (and eating) are behaviors and they can be taught! So here are some easy steps for teaching your dog to “find it” and putting sniffing on cue. 1) Make it easy. Start by tossing just a few treats at a time on the floor in front of your dog. Start indoors before going outside. 2) Help your dog by pointing out the remaining treats they missed. Repeat! 3) Say the cue “Find it” first and only then move your hand to toss the treats. This will help develop the behavior of orienting to the ground when your dog hears the verbal cue “find it” (as seen in the first video). There are countless benefits to this behavior, but here are just a few examples: enriched scatter feedings; sniffing games; orienting to the ground and away from other stimuli in the environment; stress relief; transition from other activities, especially exciting play or walks (extra helpful for puppies); incompatible behaviors with mouthing, jumping, staring, barking, or lunging just to name a few; sniffing lowers pulse and heart rate. In the last video you can see me cue a “find it” as a biker is coming towards us. I often use scatters if there’s a stimulus in the environment I don’t want my dog to have to contend with. Our dogs don’t have to take everything on, sometimes this is the easiest and the least stressful option. [VD Video 1: A brown dog is laying in the grass and stands up and starts to sniff. Video 2: A person tosses a handful of treats on the floor and a brown dog sniffs for and eats them; Video 3: A person tosses a handful of treats into the grass in a fenced in yard and a brown dog begins to sniff; Video 4: A person points to the grass and a brown dog orients nose down and begins to sniff; Video 5: A brown dog in an orange harness sniffs the grass in the woods; Video 6: A person is walking a brown dog on leash
I made a video on some of the foundation skills I focus on for walking close on leash. I used to refer to this behavior as “loose leash walking”, but I’ve found it too vague as it doesn’t really describe any behaviors we’re looking to teach. Walking closely at our side isn't something we should expect from our dogs on a regular basis on daily walks. This is a specific skillset that we teach in instances when we need our dogs to walk close to us. Hopefully, all of us are aiming to make the majority of our dogs’ walks enjoyable for them so that they can sniff, explore, and move with some freedom. For walking closely on leash I usually focus on two specific behaviors: walking in the “zone” and orienting to handler. I start without a leash in a very easy setting and add the leash later. Our goal is first to teach our dogs what it is that we actually want them to do on walks (“not pulling” is not a behavior) and then build a really strong history of reinforcement for those behaviors. A way to do that is to capture (mark and reinforce) all instances of those behaviors throughout your daily walks. We should, of course, be meeting our dogs' needs first—giving them plenty of time to sniff, explore, and move freely. This is both essential to their well-being and will help us teach leash behavior we want. When we avoid deprivation, and instead allow dogs to access environmental reinforcers on a regular basis, we make sticking close to us a lot easier. My preferred choice for walking equipment is a well fitted non-restrictive harness and a long(er) leash.
It’s true, folks.
An example of an errorless learning set up for an alternative to “leave-it”. The goal is to teach Luna, who is 14-weeks old, that food in my hands is a cue to offer eye contact. In lieu of a traditional “leave-it” where food is presented to the dog and we wait until they back off, I’ve set this up so that Luna can succeed at every step. I’m sitting on a stool instead of the floor. My hands are behind my back instead of near her. I’m shaping eye contact by capturing head orienting towards me rather than waiting for eye contact right away. I’m alternating delivering food from both hands and placing it in the same consistent spot. And I’m using a snufflemat to allow for more sniffing to slow things down. Over the next few sessions we will “fade in” more challenging aspects such as my hands coming closer to her. Our goal is to eliminate conflict and provide clarity about what to do when a person has food in their hands. What’s most important is Luna is loose, relaxed, and because we made this errorless, she is succeeding at every step.
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Jenny Efimova, Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP), Fear Free Certified Training Professional.
I came to dog training after more than a decade working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence. I owe this life-changing adventure to my rescue dog, Larkin, who taught me that animals, much like people, require compassion, dignity, and agency to live healthy and fulfilling lives.
Through helping Larkin overcome his fears and build confidence and resiliency, I witnessed firsthand the transformative effects of positive reinforcement training and the power of choice in the lives of animals. It was this experience that made it clear to me that how we teach our dogs matters as much as what we teach them.
I believe that teaching dogs should be informed by science, rooted in compassion, and centered on choice. In this spirit, I aim to create a learning environment that is safe, empowering, and accessible for every dog and person.
I’m committed to helping people use modern, positive reinforcement techniques to effectively and humanely work with their dogs and empower them to be willing participants in their own care.
