Flowcharts

It is early evening and the pups are happily chewing on their bully sticks; dessert in my household. Sometimes Rio walks around carrying her bully stick cigar style, while Deuce without fail, lays down in exactly the same spot in the living room and chews away.

Rio always finishes hers first and I take note that she always gets the bigger one since she is such an active chewer.

While they are busy, I am stretching  in the living room. I notice that Rio is wandering around waiting, just waiting for Deuce to “abandon” his bully stick so that she can pounce on it and consume it. As I am watching her, she begins to “alert” bark: Deuce, there is someone, come see there is someone out there….

Deuce (who had just finished his bully stick) but was still laying down in the same spot, runs to the window facing the front of the house when I notice Rio running to where Deuce was lying previously chewing. I laugh to myself: Rio always masterminding something and Deuce falling for her tricks. This same scenario has happened before: Rio barking as IF there was someone and Deuce joining her at the window only to have Rio abandon the window in pursuit of Deuce’s half-eaten marrow bone or Kong.

Dogs are masters at flowcharts! They have an amazing ability to string antecedents to consequences. Being this, one of the main ways by which they learn.

Here is another example of Rioja figuring out the flowchart: When I have clients coming to train at C.H.A.C.O.'s HUB – also my home, both dogs are in their crates with stuffed Kongs and a chew bone. I wanted them out of the way and quiet.

Once my client is gone, I come to let them out so they can resume going in and out of the doggy door and if I am around an exploratory trip to the front area where they get to sniff to their heart’s content the scent left by my client’s dog.

When I come into my office to let them out, Rio can’t wait to get out of the crate! I ask her to exercise some self-control and lay down before I open the crate’s door. She then darts off barking her head off towards the front door wanting to be let out “i-meediia-te-ly”. More waiting at the door, before I release both of them to go investigate.

Minutes later they come back home once again disappointed that once again they just missed the dog…

On one occasion, when no clients where coming, I put them in their crates while I was hanging around the house. When it came time to let them out, Rio dashed again to the front door as if a client had been here. Wow! I thought she is getting the flowchart… a case of dog being smarter than owner … I let her out wanting her to find out that on this occasion there was no scents to trace, no missed visit to regret.

Since the whole point of having them in their crates is for them to be quiet when I am working with someone else’s dog, I began to put them in their crates when no one was coming – as if to prove to Rio that not because I ask them to go in their crates with super “goodies” does it mean a client is here.

The fact that our dog’s brains are wired to follow flowcharts with such finesse is very handy for us when teaching the dog something we want them to learn. It is all about the presentation of a consequence after the dog’s behavior.

If timed properly, literally seconds after the behavior has occurred and depending on the consequence, our dogs will learn to either continue to engage more often in that behavior or to refrain from engaging in it. An interesting fact is that just like our dogs, other vertebrates and invertebrates are capable of learning by consequences. Including ancient planaria, a type of flatworm.

Once my clients “discover” that their dog will work for consequences a new door of possibilities opens for them… as they become aware that their dog too is subjected to the laws of learning.

Mine, Mine It’s Mine

Laika has been taught to not feel threatened when she has a covet resource such as a bully stick, marrowbone etc. when a person approaches her. So as a result we can confidently ask her to surrender an object – at least that was the case until she got very sick and eating was not
possible. Clearly food and food –related objects have acquired a new meaning for her.

I do not fully understand the medical side of this but it appears that Laika wants to eat but at the same time she is unable to do so because of severe nausea due to the cancer. A very painful scene indeed. At some point when she was still eating a bit, I gave her and Deuce a marrowbone. I approached her and to my surprise she sneered at me. Wow! She totally surprised me. I thought that perhaps it was not the proximity to her while she was nagging on the bone but because I was also petting her and that this was in some way painful.

Either way, I moved away from her. Thank you Laika! Message received. What a lot of people do when their dog sneers, growls as a result of protecting a resource from being taken away is to take it personal. If we can think on our feet and realize that it is perfectly normal for a dog to guard precious resources from others. When it comes to guarding from people (again, normal from the dog’s perspective) we do want to teach the dog that we are not a threat to them or that we actually want their stinky bones because displays of aggression such as sneering, air snaps and the like can very well turn into full-blown aggression. I guess it is also the case of dogs living in our world (and one more time) they have to learn to comply with our rules.

When people take their dog’s display of aggression personal and as a result they take it upon themselves to teach the dog who’s boss or that they should mind their manners the dog learns not to trust this person (or all people) around its precious resources. In other words the dog’s
fears materialized: They wanted a resource for themselves and the proximity of the person meant the resource was removed. Why not teach our dogs instead that the contrary is true: Whenever a person is in their close proximity when they are chewing on a bone, or eating dinner, it means that something even better will come their way! Now here is the good news.

Unless the dog is already actively guarding, there is a very easy and effective way to teach dogs that we do not want their precious possessions. The exercise works like this: If your dog has no history of guarding from you, when he/she is chewing, working a Kong or eating from a bowl walk by and give or throw inside the bowl something absolutely delicious- much better than what the dog is working on. Do this as a cold trial… as explained above and you will see that after a few days or weeks of this simple exercise your dog will even welcome your approach. You will see your dog looking at you (the source of the goodie) with adoring eyes confirming that you belong on that pedestal- his/her demeanor soft and relaxed, mouth open perhaps as she goes back to the task at hand and you go on your way.

Another effective way of teaching your non-guarding dog that you totally rock is to do a series of exchanges. Your dog has something that you rather he/she does not have, say a pair of expensive shoes (they are always the expensive ones…) approach your dog with calm body language while you present him/her with a tasty treat. In essence you are teaching your dog that when he/she surrenders “x” object they will get paid for their trust and efforts. Lastly, I have taught both our dogs that if I ask “give” for whatever reason they surrender only to find that they will get the chewy back a.s.a.p.

Now, if your dog is already guarding from you or anyone else, things are a bit trickier. I have worked with dogs that guard so ferociously that their amorous playful personality changes into a Cujo-like dog when in the presence of the resource they choose to protect. Not only do I want to keep the dog from practicing the behaviors that I want to replace for more appropriate ones, but it is plain dangerous to work with dogs who are guarders without some safety precautions in place. The protocol on how to deal with this volatile situation is elaborate and lengthy yet the success rate is high in most cases.