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Troubleshooting your training

6/20/2022

When it seems like your training isn’t working, your dog isn’t getting the concepts and/or training is frustrating instead of fun, check out the troubleshooting items below:

Medical – Is there an underlying medical or neurological issue that needs to be resolved first? Does the dog have health problems that cause pain or discomfort? Is the dog on a quality diet? (Poor diets can cause dogs to feel crummy and can affect behavior and training.)
Post spay/neuters, dogs in heat and pregnant dogs find focusing and training challenging. Take a break during these times and make sure they get physical exercise and plenty of chews and food dispensing toys.

Environment – Have there been changes in the dog’s life that are causing stress, is the environment too distracting or are there events that make training difficult? (In the process of moving, thunderstorms, family member is in poor health, etc…).

ROR (Rate of Reinforcement) – Are you rewarding the dog frequently enough for them to connect the rewards with the desired behavior?

Quality of Reinforcement – Are you paying well enough for the behavior you want? For example, if Kibble is a low-value reward for your dog, you can’t expect them to work for that around high-level distractions (like other animals or finding cheesecake on the ground). Try upping the value of the reward.

Timing – How well do you time your marker and rewards after the desired behavior? Studies tell us that we have tops 2-3 seconds after a behavior occurs to give a marker and reward the dog will connect with the behavior. However, if the dog offers multiple behaviors within that window, they will associate the reward with the last behavior they did. This is why the timing of markers is so important.

Attitude – Are you treating training like it’s a chore or a game? Your dog can tell the difference! They get excited about what you get excited about so bring on the energy and the happy tones! DO NOT train if you’re in a bad mood or you’ve already had a stressful day. Take a break from training and give your dog something else to do instead. If you don’t feel a little silly when you work with your dog in front of others, you might not be doing it right.

Length of sessions – Try shorter training sessions with just 2-5 repetitions at a time. Many dogs struggle with new exercises and don’t have the brain power and attention span to handle longer training lessons. When starting new behaviors, train for 5-10 minutes max. Keep in mind that puppies, adolescents and seniors tend to struggle more with focus and attention span. The key is multiple short sessions each day.

Take a break – sometimes dogs, just like people, get burnt out and need a break. Especially with any training that can cause additional stress (like reactivity training). It takes 72 hours for stress hormones to leave the body. Start with a 3-day training break (but still play with them and give them things to do), then try again. Puppies and adolescents in particular, seem to need longer training breaks sometimes. Try giving them up to 7 days, then try again.
Note that you don’t always need to take a break from ALL training. Known cues or easy behaviors for your dog should be fine to practice.

Check your three Ds (Distance, Duration and Distractions) – Are you adding too much at once? Are you going too far too fast? Remember that training often happens in baby steps. Go back to an easier step and use the 90% rule. Don’t increase the difficulty in any area until your dog is 90% consistent in performing the behavior at the asked-for level of difficulty.

Learning style – changing the approach to teaching may greatly benefit your dog depending on their learning style and likes and dislikes. Pairing recall with a fetch and retrieve game might work better for a dog who loves to play fetch. Pairing recall with a chase game might work better for a dog drawn to movement.

Threshold – This really falls under the 3 Ds, but it’s worth repeating. The point at which your dog no longer takes treats, won’t listen, or can’t perform known behaviors (like sit), is their threshold point. They literally can’t focus on your and can’t learn because their brain is in a state of over arousal. Don’t punish them or get frustrated, just dial back the difficulty a few notches by decreasing the 3 Ds, then try again.
*Note that for fearful and reactive dogs, if they’re past threshold, their brain goes into fight or flight mode. Learning will not occur in this primal survival mode their brain is locked in if they’re past threshold. The best thing you can do is put distance between them and whatever’s causing the reaction. If they do have an outburst or run to hide, give them a break for three days while you practice easy stuff or work on your relationship at home. This will give their body a chance to flush stress hormones.

What are you rewarding? – Make sure you’re rewarding desired behaviors far more than correcting undesired behaviors. Remember that reinforced behaviors occur more frequently and punished/ignored behaviors decrease. Only the learner decides what’s reinforcing and what’s punishing.

Management – Management simply means taking steps to ensure they can’t reinforce themselves for bad behaviors. For example, if your dog likes to get into the trash can, put the trash cans behind doors or out of reach when you aren’t actively supervising your dog. Are any of your management areas failing? If so, fix them or find alternative management methods.

Don't forget to reference the Human Hierarchy for help with which tools to use and when! If you need help or have questions, please contact us. We're more than happy to help and we offer online lessons as well!

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Heat Cycles – What to Expect

6/15/2022

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Zora finally went into her first heat. I chose to let her go through at least one heat cycle before spaying due to the benefits shown by more recent studies that looked at hormones, growth patterns and long-term health benefits. I have no intentions of breeding her (in fact I’m going to great lengths to avoid that). Contrary to what some people believe and what older, outdated information may say, there is NO BENEFIT for your dog’s health to letting her have a litter of puppies before spaying. Any perceived benefits were likely due to letting the dog go through a heat cycle and avoiding a pediatric spay.

On average, female dogs will go into their first heat around 6 months of age, although depending on size and each individual, heat cycles can start anywhere from 4 months of age to 24 months.

Heat cycles are made up of 4 main stages – Proestrus, Estrus, Diestrus and Anestrus. The main phase of the heat cycle typically lasts 20-30 days, but depends on each individual dog. First cycles are often less intense than following cycles.

Proestrus starts with swelling of the vulva and red/bloody discharge. How much will depend on your dog’s breed, size and individual body. Larger dogs can bleed more than smaller dogs. This phase usually lasts around 7-10 days.

Estrus is the period of time when your dog is most likely to be receptive to mating and when they can become pregnant (although dogs have been known to become pregnant through different stages of the heat cycle as well). She may seek out males to try to mate. This phase also lasts around 7-10 days.

Diestrus is the period of rest after Estrus. There may or may not be additional swelling of the vulva and discharge. This phase often lasts 7-10 days (or longer if she becomes pregnant).

Anestrus is the final phase and is the period of time between heat cycles. This can last anywhere from 5-9 months. During this phase your dog should have no swelling (although nipples may become a little larger after the first heat) and no discharge.

You can help your dog by continuing all of their normal activities, providing additional walks and enrichment, adding absorbent cloth materials to their bedding and ensuring they are closely supervised with all dogs during their heat cycle. Even neutered males may give unwanted attention and though rare, may cause injuries through attempted mating.
You will need to take a break from taking your dog to dog facilities (other than the vet if needed), dog parks and off-leash dog trails. She should NOT be around un-neutered male dogs during this time.

Supervise your female or keep her secure and indoors when you cannot actively supervise her. You will need to manage her environment and which dogs she has access to for a full 30 days. Note that dogs have and will breed through kennels and fences. They are also notorious escape artists (males and females) when there’s a breeding opportunity.

You may also want to restrict your dog to easy-to-clean areas and/or get some cloth doggy diapers for her to wear. The diapers help with mess and also help to prevent pregnancies (though that’s not enough protection from a persistent dog). Give your dog breaks from the diapers if you use those since they can make your dog more susceptible to UTIs.

Your dog’s behavior will likely change during her cycle. She may become more aloof, more cuddly, want to play with other dogs, want nothing to do with other dogs, more whiny, restless, snippy or have a variety of other behavior changes. Remember, physical health affects behavior!

For more information about the heat cycle, consult with your vet and/or find some good breeders to talk with about their experiences. Personally, I've found it more informative and helpful to listen to/chat with seasoned, ethical dog breeders. It's been fascinating to learn their stories and see how different each of their breeds and individual dogs behave and go through their cycles.
You should also educate yourself on the risks and benefits of keeping an in-tact dog and if that's something you are up for and responsibly able to do.

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Enrichment – The Most Important Thing For Your Pet

6/1/2022

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Enrichment is the wheel of behaviors your pet would naturally do “in the wild” or when left to their own devices. This assumes your pet is physically and mentally healthy. Pain, neurological conditions or mental disorders will affect an animal’s normal behaviors (humans included).

Your pets’ enrichment wheel will depend on their individual personality first and foremost, species and breed (if applicable). For example, if you have a pet rat, their wheel would consist of things like foraging for food and water, social play, lots of grooming (both singular and allogrooming – social grooming), lots of chewing, building nests, finding shelter, sleeping, etc. If you have a border collie, their wheel would probably consist of thing like smelling, herding behaviors (chase, stalk, circle, nip), lots of brain games, foraging for food and water, lots of walking/running, sleep, social play (often with a human, but many individuals have friends with other animals), etc.

When all of your pets’ enrichment needs are met, you’ll probably find that most of their behaviors you object to seem to melt away. This is because when they are mentally and physically enriched, they aren’t looking for other ways to meet those needs. If appropriate chews are provided for them that they like AND they’ve received reinforcement for chewing on those, they have no reason to chew on your shoes, or your table. If they’ve been given appropriate height and material scratching areas in places where they feel safe using them (often next to places they’ve already been scratching), they have no reason to scratch your couch.

Most people immediately jump straight to training to solve behavior problems. Training is wonderful and is a great complementor to enrichment. However, enrichment should always be priority number one and should do the heavy lifting.

In an ideal world it should go Enrichment -> Management -> Training. All three should be used together to create the optimal healthy relationship between pet and owner. We understand that it’s not always possible to do all three, so our recommendation is to prioritize in the above order. Again, there are always exceptions and in certain cases, management or training may need to be prioritized for the safety of the pet or those around them. Seek qualified professional help if you are unsure of what to do.

So what exactly is Enrichment?

As stated above, it’s different for each individual and species, but let’s go through a more typical example of an enrichment wheel for a dog. These are options to choose from and you don’t need to do every thing every day. The average dog needs about 2 hours of activity a day. You’ll need to play around with things and figure out what works best for your dog. Note that mental exercise usually tires a dog out 4x faster than physical exercise but is NOT a replacement for physical exercise.

Physical

Diet/nutrition
- Foraging
  - Scatter-feeding
  - Food dispensers (DIY and store-bought)
  - Food puzzles
  - Stuffable products like Kong and Toppl
- Training
  - This can and should include using regular kibble during mealtimes
- Stop using regular food bowls (they’re a wasted opportunity!)
Exercise
- Walks/Runs/Hiking (Note that walks aren’t good exercise except for seniors or dogs with limited mobility)
- Swimming
- Bikejoring or any other “joring” sport
- Competition or for fun dog sports (check with your vet first!)
- Fetch
- Tug
- Flirt pole
- Digging
- Trick-training
- Balance pods, Dog yoga
- Healthy play with you or other animals
- Be careful with growing puppies and don’t create an athlete unless you can handle it!
Environmental
- Need at least one nap during the day, preferably more – especially puppies and seniors
- Need a safe (physically) and secure (emotionally) space to live
- Need to feel comfortable with the surroundings
  - Noise
  - Textures
  - Inanimate objects
  - Movements
  - This includes neighbors/neighborhood
- Need to feel comfortable with the people they live with/interact with on a regular basis
- Need to have some sort of routine/predictability to reduce stress
Health
- Routine check-ups
- Behavior changes may indicate poor health
- Think about how your health affects your behavior
Hygiene
- Not the same as human hygiene!
- Dogs usually do pretty well with keeping clean
- Bathe no more than every 6 weeks unless they REALLY need it
- Spot clean with unscented pet wipes
- Trim fur around feet and sanitary areas if needed (ask a groomer for help if you aren’t sure what you’re doing)
Safety
- Need help to be kept physically safe – dogs don’t know the difference between security and safety. They may feel secure wandering in the middle of the road or approaching an unknown dog. We need to make decisions for them and manage their safety.

Emotional

Independence
- Learning to be ok left by themselves for short periods
- Learning to entertain themselves without your constant attention
- Karen Overall’s Relaxation Protocol
- Agency – the capacity, condition or state of acting of exerting power (having a say on what happens to them)
  - Opposite of learned helplessness
  - Immunization Training – how we train animals to be resistant to learned helplessness
Mental Stimulation
- Training (especially trick-training)
- Confidence-building exercises (trying anything new they can easily succeed at)
- Foraging
- Scent-work
- Introductions to different sounds, scents, tactile stimulations, tastes, etc.
- Play/Social Play
Social Interaction
- Play (healthy play with people, dogs or other species)
- Observation/Social learning
- Social activities (naps/cuddles together, chewing/eating together, walks, etc.)
- Training

Instinctual

Foraging
Chewing
Security
Other behaviors specific to your individual dog
- Herding
- Digging
- Nipping/Biting
- Guarding
- Retrieval
- "Velcro" behavior
- Barking
- etc.

All of this must be done with the dog choosing to participate. If the dog is given no choice, this is not enrichment. This is forced interaction and will likely become flooding, which can lead to learned helplessness – the opposite of what we wish to accomplish through an enrichment program.

Start with 2-3 of these activities each day and build from there. See what your dog likes and change up the activities each day to keep things interesting. For different species, research your species and based on what your individual pet likes, create a similar enrichment list.

If you have any questions, please contact us and we’d be happy to help!

Additional, amazing resources:

Canine Enrichment for the Real World by Allie Bender and Emily Strong

Facebook group – Canine Enrichment (mostly foraging ideas, but still good info)

Facebook group – Canine Enrichment Ideas (mostly foraging ideas but still good info)

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Troubleshooting your training

Heat Cycles – What to Expect

Enrichment – The Most Important Thing For Your Pet

Kat & Haylee

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