How to do socialization well

This week I have spent almost every waking hour taking care of and socializing a young puppy.
How do you know what to work on? Well think about it this way:  Whatever you want your adult dog to be comfortable with and not scared of for the rest of his life, that is what you should be working on.  The list of items on a well-crafted socialization program is daunting, time consuming and necessary for the well-being of this young animal as he marches into adulthood and then towards his golden years.

My ‘young keep’ was raised in the country and unfortunately there was little to no socialization to urban environments. I know, I can hear you gasp. The good news is that he is still young enough (16 weeks old) and we can work diligently and intelligently in making him super chill with urban stimuli.
Here is what happened on our first urban outing:  We got to a mall that is fairly busy, but it's not a very huge mall. Initially he was happy and moving along with me on the leash.  We first encounter the noise of flapping flags on a pole. He noticed them and he got fed for that. As we began to walk inside the mall, he suddenly balked. He began to pant, his body stiffened up, and he tried to rush to the entrance we just came in from. It was so sudden that it did not even give me the time to assess what got him concerned in the first place. Was it the slippery floor?  The window display with a gazillion items? A smell? The cars and traffic noise that he had experienced a minute ago?  Or all of the above?  I left the mall immediately and began to take stock as to what I should do the following day.

The next day, we went back to the mall with Rio as support (dogs in general and puppies in particular, take lots of cues from other dogs)  and the results were pretty much about the same.  Again, we aborted the mission and went home to give this young pup a much needed rest.

So, here is what I did for our third outing: I went to a location that was a bit more of a “country” setting, yet provided us with enough cars, a few bicycles and people to work with. This made all the difference. We were still outside but, he was exposed to mainly one kind of trigger: Traffic. The slower pace of the cars and the more predictable approach was much more manageable and I had more room to create distance between the cars and the puppy.

Just a few minutes into our socialization session, I noticed that the puppy was still aware of the cars driving by; yet, he was able to cope and began to sniff his surroundings. Good lad, I thought, good lad! I continued to pair the passing of cars (the noise and the actual movement) with tasty hotdogs. On occasion, I asked the puppy to sit as a car or a bicycle drove by, but mainly I was looking into creating positive associations with a stimulus regardless of what the puppy was doing.

I am mainly interested in changing the fearful association the puppy has for a lack of exposure with urban triggers, such as traffic and other noises, to a positive one.  My goal is to change how he feels about these things from being afraid and wanting to create distance from them, to either a neutral response as in: yeah there is a car going by and… wow, check out this smell here! Or even happy to see a car zoom by because he has learned that cars driving by, bicycles and the like mean that he gets a tasty treat - something he normally does not get to enjoy.

When socializing to any stimulus it is not only the exposure to the offending stimulus that matters, it’s how we go about it that is of utmost importance.

If the puppy (or adult dog) is already too concerned in the presence of the stimulus the association will not be a good one, no matter how many hotdogs we toss the dog’s way. By default, the experience must be one that is positive to the dog. Choosing the right location, as my example provides, as well as the amount of time, and distance, and if applicable, approach of the stimulus, will provide us with the tools to make the encounter   a positive learning experience. If we repeat this sort of situation plenty of times- which will depend on the severity of the negative association that the puppy or adult dog already has as well as  the age of the dog.

Now do keep in mind that when done well, we cannot over socialize a young puppy! I repeat:  When done well, we cannot over socialize a puppy as some people claim.

So please, if you choose to bring a young puppy into your life make sure you know that it will take lots, and lots of carefully orchestrated efforts in order to teach a young puppy that life can be grand and that there is nothing to be concerned about!

One of the indispensable behaviors your dog should learn

Teaching your dog to wait without dashing out the door or jumping off the car seat is really a must-train behavior for any dog. Not only can learning this save your dog’s life, but in the process your pup is also learning some self-control. I have seen time and time again, how dogs thrive when they are taught some simple manners. And wait is really one of my top ten things I want dogs to learn well.

The way I define wait means that the dog should not cross a threshold by moving forward without prior verbal release. I also like to implement another version of wait as part of my recall (come when called) training plan, but that is for another post.

I suggest you begin with a hungry dog and semi-high value treat. Perhaps some moist treats, but do not pull the meat or chicken for this.

I also suggest to practice with interior doors - not the front door or side door where your dog can just take off or run into traffic.

Follow these steps:

• Stand in front of your dog, your dog can be seated or standing, that is not important as far as I am concerned. 
• Make sure you are truly in front of your dog AND that you can use your body to block the door should your dog break the wait. 
• Unlock the door and have it just a tiny bit open, perhaps enough for a mouse to go thru but not your dog.
• Tell your dog:  Fido, wait!
• Show your dog seconds AFTER you have said wait, your hand with fingers straight up and palm facing your dog.
• Open the door a bit more, say 1/4 of the way to a full open door.
• Now release your dog to go through the door.
• Give your dog a treat by mouth once outside or for more “impact and fun” throw it in front of your dog so he has to find it.
• At this point your dog should only stay put between 1 to 2 seconds before you release him or her.  More than this and your dog will fail. 

The most difficult thing to teach in most behaviors is duration. Which means for how long the dog has to do the behavior, so adding time that your dog has to stay without moving forward will be added SLOWLY and only as your dog is successful for 5 trials (tries) out of 5 at the current time criteria of 1-2 seconds.  You will add seconds one at a time until your dog can stick it for 5 seconds before you open the door any wider.

Practice with your pup with lots of internal doors- not the front door just yet.
As you see that your dog has understood the game, begin to open the door more and more- which you guessed it, makes it more of a challenge for your dog.

• Go back to asking your dog to wait followed by your hand cue.
• Also, be ready to body block and reset again. 
• If you are positioned correctly, you should be able to not only body block your dog but also close the door.
• Do lower the amount of time (seconds) your dog must stay put once you begin to open the door more. We only want to increase the difficulty of the exercise by changing one criteria at the time.
• When you are both ready for the front door:  lots of successful reps where your dog can stay put for 5 seconds, you will repeat the steps above BUT with your dog on leash.

Wait from the car:
When practicing in the car, the steps will be the same. Please begin to practice with your dog on leash and in a traffic-free area.  Depending on the type of car you have how you will handle the opening of the car door.  Either way make sure you can block your dog with your body or by safely closing the door to avoid escape.

The video below illustrates the training plan.  Have fun.

Behavior modification for “real” life"

I am busy Wednesday morning trying to get Deuce ready to go sheepherding.  I know that if I do not leave in a few minutes I will be late.  I have Deuce on a leash as we step outside the front door.  He puts on the breaks. Darn!  The car issue is becoming worse.

For some reason Deuce has developed a really bad association with getting in the car.  When he was a young puppy he struggled with getting dizzy while riding in the car, so now I don’t know if his aversion to riding in the car has been conditioned by that past experience. Or it might be something completely different.  Perhaps once he tried to jump in and he missed injuring himself.  Now, the car or jumping in the car spells trouble for him.

By looking at him I realize that he is really stressed and really not interested in going for a ride. Try to convince him that we are going sheepherding!  I try to do so by showing him his orange vest which he wears so that he can be seen by the occasional car as he gathers the sheep.

Clearly, he has not made the association that the only time he gets to wear his fluorescent vest is when he goes sheepherding as he decided not to budge from where he was standing.

It gets complicated when a dog for whatever reason does not want to get in the car  because sometimes we must take them places.  In the case of Deuce we must get past this hurdle because once he is in the car he is comfortable and besides, he enjoys going places and getting in the car is of course needed in order for him to enjoy walks in town, sheepherding, etc.

So how is one to proceed when we must take the dog in the car yet, we do not wish to force the dog in any way? This is kind of tricky but it does not have to be if we think this thru.

The fact that dogs are such avid discriminators is an asset for training in “real” life.  The goal here is to make it very clear to the dog that sometimes he has a choice as to if he wants to get in the car and sometimes he does not.  As I have stated many times before: Dogs thrive when they have a choice or choices.  And that is for me one of the biggest pillars on how I want to interact and teach dogs. However, no one has 100% choice in life.

This is then how I am “clarifying” to Deuce when he has a choice coming for the ride and when he does not. I use a leash and lots of verbal coaxing that I use while sheepherding to have him move by his own volition towards the car when he must come.  When he is not wearing a leash it means that he has a choice to jump in the car or stay behind. This set-up is a clear contingency for Deuce.

Now, this past week things got complicated.  Deuce needed to come for a ride as he was assisting me with a client’s dog.  A case of this pup having to earn his keep … LOL. While on the leash, he put on the breaks as he refused to get in the car.  The clock is ticking and I need to go. I had no choice but to carry Deuce in order to “protect” my contingency above and to get going.  As I later explained to John:  Carrying the dog in the car is truly not an option since he does not want to be lifted i.e: the choice has been totally removed for the dog. Because of this, there is a great possibility that he might growl or escalate his communication of: “I don’t want to do this” the next time John or I attempt carry him …  a slippery slope from then on.  Instead, it is best to teach him that getting in the car is fun! Nothing to be concerned about.

Another training set-up:
The next day, the whole family is going to visit some friends. Now, with more time on my hands I put the leash on Deuce and began coaxing him to get in. Keeping the experience light in tone. With more time in my hands, I can give him as much time as he needs in order for him to jump in on his own.  Bravo!  He jumps in and off we go.

There is always the possibility that we want our dog to do something that they cannot do. So, one has to proceed with caution, observation and fairness. In order to rule out any physical impediment as indeed, dogs can get sore backs and necks, pinched nerves, etc., I made sure that Deuce was physically capable of jumping in.

Here is my “test”:  I stacked up some large pillows a few inches high- almost the height of the back of my car.  In a different setting, one that Deuce has trained in and really enjoys. We begin the training session as we always do and I direct Deuce to jump on the pillows… he is able to jump back and forth without any hesitation or trouble.  Clearly, his hesitation is rooted somewhere else and not in a physical inability to do so.

Moving forward:
This morning, I took him out for a mini-session armed with super good stuff.  We stood next to the car and he got paid for that.  Then I open the back of the car, and he got paid for that.  We continue then to walk towards the car while he relaxed a bit more as I paid him again for him not balking, but moving forward. We ended the session without him having to do more than just hang out around the car as I opened and closed the hatch back followed by a few steps in the direction of the car. I ended the session with a happy and relaxed dog!

My ultimate goal is to counter condition Deuce to all aspect of getting in the car so that the process is not ridden with anxiety for him. More to come…

Car Toubles

The dogs and I have been going sheepherding (Rioja is just good company :)) for the past 2 years - same place, days and times. In fact, I only take this route with the two of them when we are going sheepherding. The only variables are that sometimes Rioja stays behind and goes for a hike with John and sometimes Deuce is wearing his fluorescent vest so that passing cars can see him when we work outside the big
enclosed pen.

I noticed about three weeks ago, on one of those days when Deuce was coming solo that he began to whine out of excitement. Well there is my boy, who for the most part is quite silent, now expressing pure joy and anticipation on what lays ahead.

Whining dogs in moving cars is a phenomenon that quite a few people experience once their dogs have figure out that a certain route as well as other contingencies, such as items of clothing - a prop like a walking stick, and a myriad of other non-verbal cues which dogs are masters at observing which means fun for them is to be had.

Dogs are masters at flow charts… When she wears these pants or those shoes it means we are going… weeee, how exciting!

If the whining and barking is excessive and the route long, this could turn out to be a torturous activity for the driver - and it is never the dog behind the wheel.

It is hard to modify the barking and whining behaviors because people should be driving when behind the wheel and not training! However, not impossible.

I am not ready to jump into training mode with Deuce because I kinda’ like hearing his excitement. And besides, it got me thinking once again: When is it appropriate for our dogs to express joy? Sadness? Frustration? ANYTHING?

This is a big lesson for me because I am sensitive to pretty much any loud noise. In fact I hate noise! Well I should have thought about that before I got involved in training dogs for a living and having my own dogs, no? Because whining and barking are normal parts of the canine vocal & emotional repertoire. So there you have it.

I have noticed however that Deuce’s whining is beginning a bit earlier (farther away from our destination) with every outing and that his whining is accompanied many a times with a typical Deuce move: the stretching of his front leg – almost looking like a dressage horse, only to let it drop full force on whatever surface happens to be there. Now this has to stop! Because besides my distaste for noise I also hate it when my car gets “trashed” by dogs.

If you have been reading this column now for a while, you probably have taken note that I am constantly assessing my emotions and responses towards my dogs, their behavior as well as the behavior of client’s dogs. I don’t mind this part, in fact, I welcome it – I definitively do not want to go on living blindly - without engaging in making [personal] choices.

Should I ask Deuce to stop expressing joy (whining) in the car because of my own neurosis towards noise? Should he be allowed to do so as long as it is not too "high" a pitch or for too long? And what about his pawing? Should I just accept the fact that if you live with dogs some of your possessions will get trashed?

There are times, of course, when the whining in the car is so unbearable that one can make the case of jumping into full training mode in consideration for the safety of all passengers or if not that, the possibility of the dog being scolded waaay too much by an exasperated driver.

In cases like this, I must say that curtailing vocalization or any possible car destruction is necessary. The training plan for something like this is not much different than any other behavior modification plan: You have to think like a detective or at least like a problem solver (love this part… totally fun) you must weigh in fairness for the dog by taking into account what is normal part of canine behavior with the fact that dogs live in our world and travel in our cars in addition to sound knowledge of the science of animal learning.

Yes, you are right! It will take patience, many, many “reps” and creative thinking. Sometimes it will require the use of some aids such as a crate - if the dog is crate trained or a calming cap, which will also require of prior desensitization.

For the time being, I have managed to calmly, in an almost -as-melodious- pitch, as Deuce is whining ask him to tone it down a bit. And he has. So we take turns: he whines in excitement and I look at him in the rear view mirror while I politely ask him to curtail the noise.

So far no need for a more elaborate training plan. And the beauty of it is, that I also enjoy knowing that my dog is having a grand time!