Why train your dog?

If you’ve grown up with dogs ever since you were little you might wonder why you need to train your dog. Didn’t you just have the most wonderful furry partner living the good life with you during your early years? Eventually you’ll come to realize that your parents did something (training?) that made the family dog the friendly buddy that you remember.

Or maybe not. Maybe one day the family dog was gone and you were told that he went to live on a farm. There’s a memorable scene in the TV show “Friends” where Ross reveals to his younger sister, Monica that the family pet actually passed away and didn’t go to live on a farm. In their case, it was old age. Back when Yves and I were children, it was not uncommon to euthanize or “put down” a dog that was “causing trouble”.

And sadly, to this day it is still happening when early training could have prevented behaviour problems from getting out of control. None of us is born knowing how to train a dog so calling in a professional is a smart thing to do.

It is not uncommon for us to get a call from someone who needs help because they don’t have the first idea of what to do with their young puppy or recently adopted older dog. Or maybe they did a lot of research on the internet and they’re not getting the results that they expected. Or maybe they take a class or two and their individual dog problem is not being addressed. This is where we come in.

First it is important to understand that dogs are not humans. We may think that they have many human qualities such as compassion and understanding of our human ways. And more is being discover in this field every day But it might make more sense if we look at canines as being a little more self-centred than that.

Your Dog’s 5 Basic Needs

Canine needs are based on survival. After all, the instinct to survive is basic in all living things.

The No. 1 Need is to procreate for the survival of the species. Since most First World cultures spay or neuter their pet dogs (after all there are more than enough dogs overflowing in our shelters), the new No. 1 Need for a dog to survive is food. We all need good quality food for a long and healthy life, our pets included.

Bad quality food can indeed affect behaviour. In one extreme case, we were brought in to help with a large, aggressive, mix-breed dog. Through our exploration of his overall situation, we discovered that he was on a “diet” formula dogfood whose 1st ingredient was peanut hulls. The poor dog was starving! After a few days of switching to a healthier, more wholesome diet, the dog’s attitude completely changed. He no longer felt that his environment was barely supporting his survival and he was no longer in competition with others for food. Where previously we couldn’t be in the same room with him, he was as friendly as any well-adjusted dog could be.

No. 2 Need is someone to manage the group or a Leader. Without a Leader there is chaos. If there is no obvious leader in the canine-human relationship, a dog will take that responsibility by default whether he’s suited or not. This is where a naturally fearful dog can develop huge anxiety or even aggression if its caregiver doesn’t step up to provide some structure and lead.

No. 3 is shelter or a place to live. A shelter provides protection not only from the elements but also protection from outsiders.

No. 4 is mental stimulation which would normally take the form of hunting if our domesticated dogs didn’t find their nourishment in a bowl. So failing that, you should substitute mental stimulation with training. Different breeds and temperaments require different levels of mental stimulation. Dogs who were specifically bred for shepherding, hunting or guarding are self-starters. They tend to make decisions on their own if they are not well-trained.

How we came to train a particular Border Collie

A client once told us how his border collie caused some trouble at a summer barbeque. It was also a business event so there could have been serious career consequences. There were several invitees at the party and a small group of 3 or 4 decided to step away so they could discuss a critical matter.

The young border collie seeing that some of the “herd” were drifting away, took it upon herself to run over and nip at the heels of the wayward few. Her instincts told her she had to keep the group together. She happened to catch one of the group with bare ankles and draw blood. Luckily the unfortunate but gracious guest understood border collie behaviour and forgave the dog immediately.

It might not have gone so well if the guests had been small children at a birthday party. Education on good training and good management is why we were brought in.

And No. 5, way down on the list, is exercise. Again, different breeds and temperaments require different levels of exercise. This may surprise, even shock you but the average well-adjusted dog sleeps 16 hours a day. Those other 8 hours are the time that require your attention. Whether walking on leash, running off leash or practicing certain training exercises to stimulate the mind, mental stimulation will be more tiring for a dog, even more tiring than anything physical you can do with your dog.

(If you have an overweight dog it may be more a problem of overfeeding or a dogfood too high in carbohydrates than a lack of enough exercise.)

To help illustrate how mental fatigue is more powerful than physical fatigue, consider this. You are driving in a thunderstorm or a blizzard. All your senses are firing and  being challenged to make sure you don’t get in an accident while sitting the entire time. You get to your destination to find yourself more exhausted than if you had gone to the gym for your regular workout. Similarly, challenging your dog’s brain through training results in a more tired, calmer, relaxed and happier dog.

Dog training results in building your connection and improves your relationship with your furry friend. Isn’t that why you got a dog in the first place?

So now that we understand what your dog needs, the next thing to know is how to communicate with your dog and more importantly how he’s been trying to communicate with you.

“Dogs speak mostly with their body,

or shall we say,

with Body Language“

Dogs speak mostly with their body or shall we say with Body Language. Did you know they convey volumes of information, how they’re thinking and feeling through the way they hold their posture, their ears, their tail, what they’re doing with their eyes, their mouth? You will learn far more about your dog if you can have someone (a dog trainer) interpret and teach you how to read your dog and how to communicate with your dog without even saying a word.

Ever notice how people tend to raise their voice when they’re speaking with someone who doesn’t speak their language? People tend to do the same thing with their dogs, expecting that if they shout or repeat a command over and over that their dog will understand better. Most dogs have far better hearing than the average human so shouting is totally unnecessary. You’ll find that if you’ve taught your dog well and you’re close enough, you can whisper a command and get compliance the first time around.

It’s very important to mention here that vocal praise, in a high pitched, happy tone, is key to reinforcing good behaviour. You do not need to give a treat or even touch your dog to tell him or her that you approve.

Back to Body Language. Over time most people get a sense that their dog is about to do something because they get a “gut feeling”. Wouldn’t it be great if you knew what to do in that split second to intervene?

An Accident Waiting to Happen

We had a client who was cycling with her husband who had their Golden Retriever on leash at the same time. In Calgary, this is a bylaw infraction for the exact reason of what happened during their ride. The wife saw everything from behind. As they were proceeding forward down the road, a man on the other side of the street was walking his dog. The Golden turned his head to look at the other dog, darted in front of his handler’s bike towards the dog walking on leash, and pulled the bike and rider sideways off its path. Luckily the wife was able to avoid the crash in front of her so it could have been worse than the simple scratches and bruises and a sprained wrist that resulted.

Despite the bylaw infraction, an accident waiting to happen, what could have been done to prevent this? Of course our answer is good training. Firstly, the Golden was known to pull towards other dogs. Training would have taught him that this was unacceptable behaviour. A good leader would have taught him that ”You are with me when you are on leash”. Secondly, the wife said she had a “gut feeling” as soon as she saw her dog look at the other dog. She wasn’t aware that her subconscious also saw the alert ears, the tight mouth and raised tail that signaled “I see another dog!!! I must deal with it!!!”

If she had followed our training, she could have changed her dog’s intentions in a nano-second if she had used her voice appropriately. Instead, she did what most people would do under those circumstances. She shouted, “Look out!”. Unfortunately, the warning was too little, too late.

So, in our next meeting we worked on leash control while safely walking, with a conscious focus on the body language signs that indicate what a dog is thinking.  With this knowledge it was easy to intervene early and get their dog to ignore other dogs and focus his attention on his humans. Any training requires consistency and lots of practice to make a new way of thinking second nature.

The Evolution of Dog Training

Dog training has evolved over the decades from physical force (punishment) in the earliest times to treat training (reward based and never saying “No”) to Furry Logic training where using the dog’s own language with appropriate posture and voice tones lets you speak canine right from the get-go. Come to think of it, the evolution of dog training seems to have followed the same trends of child rearing over the decades. Violence (yelling and corporal punishment) went to never saying “No” and rewarding every little thing to setting boundaries and teaching realistic consequences. But that’s a subject for child psychologists.

Consider this – If you’re travelling to a foreign country, wouldn’t it be better to learn a few basic words in the other country’s language rather than expecting everyone to speak English? It’s the same with talking to your dog. Help him understand you, by speaking his language. The cool thing is that all dogs around the world speak the same language so you can eavesdrop on a lot of their conversations. When you become well-versed in canine communication you can understand what is happening in so many social media dog videos that make no sense from a human point of view.

Very few dog trainers teach from our perspective. Contact us if this article has piqued your interest in learning more about your dog.