Dog Training Need or Luxury?

I just came from a Behavior & Animal Training conference where the trainers, who work with a myriad of different species, gave us a lot of food for thought. One of my favorite presenters, Ken Ramirez - head trainer at the Shed aquarium in Chicago, spoke of among other topics,  the need to train our animals. So it got me thinking…. is training our dogs a need or a luxury?

Our animals are always learning, not only during formal training sessions. What they learn can help them have a much better quality of life or the opposite - make their lives a living hell. What then are the advantages of training? And who benefits from it?

Training teaches dogs to live in our care. It also addresses their safety and welfare. Welfare can be defined as the health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group. When it comes to our dogs, welfare includes the following:

1. Access to a health program (veterinarian care).
2. Good nutrition.
3. A “rich” living environment – including a social structure (the other animals they share their lives with and their relationships with them).
4. Friendly social interactions with conspecific and people.
5. Proper shelter such as comfortable temperature and sleeping/resting arrangements.
6. Mental and physical enrichment.
7. Management that provides for a safe environment.

Besides including adequate (depending on breed and the individual dog) physical and mental stimulation for our dogs, training also facilitates cooperative behaviors. For example, we should teach our dogs to be comfortable with our touch when being examined, to accept (and being comfortable with) equipment such as collars, leashes, harnesses, etc. that makes our walking with them easier, confinement such as crate training. And the list goes on.

There are, of course, other secondary reasons for the training of dogs such as the work animals are required to engage in as assistant animals and for entertainment purposes.

I guess living with our dogs and their care is like anything else in life: you get out what you put into it. It never ceases to amaze me how well dogs do living in a world that is kind half their own. Half their own because of domestication but not their own because they are subjected on a regular basis to our needs and whims – not theirs.

Now, if instead of often curtailing their natural behaviors (digging, chewing, barking, chasing, marking of territory, etc.) we find viable ways - via education and training that allow for their needs to be met in an acceptable way to us, (the concept of “compromise” comes to mind) we can rest assure that not only will we enjoy their company much more but at the same time we are providing for a being in our care. In essence, I am strongly advocating for a relationship and lifestyle that makes our dogs equal partners in our relationship. And as a result, they will thrive and continue to provide us with a lifetime of companionship and fun.

Jot It Down…

And see your training take place! Any good business coach would advise that if you write down what you want to get done the likelihood of that taking place would be higher.

I for one have put this to the test many times and found that it is so true.

The time has come to move onward with Deuce and his overall training now that he has had ample time to get used to his new family and surroundings. Since I have two dogs that are both active but have different learning styles and needs, I carefully plan their training sessions.

Deuce because of his personality – being the “mellow” one is "destined” to help me with my classes. He can handle being in close proximity of other dogs such as in a class setting - something Laika has difficulty doing. Because of this and because he is full of energy, I work with Deuce on very specific tasks so that I can demo  in class as needed.

We also have weekly training sessions where the focus is on either improving his loose leash manners (he was pretty awful!) to him learning to bring the ball back to me when we are playing soccer. In true Border Collie fashion, he is more interested in chasing after a moving ball than acting as a retriever. Now, if you wanted a Retriever why did you get a Border Collie - this is his question. The good news, is that (finally!) I came up with a training plan that is teaching him to bring the ball closer to me and lay down before I can kick it back again to him.

With Laika, the training sessions are more focused on mental stimulation, rehab. of her hind legs. I am adding to this list some specific training sessions where she gets to make noise and is reinforced for it. Laika is big time afraid of thunder. She can also be startled with frequency with other fastidious noises such as me trying to swat at a fly or the vacuum cleaner. The goal of these sessions is for her to learn that noises such as the ones above are not so bad. Since she can have more control over her (noisy) environment during these sessions/games she will become more confident and able to deal with noises with more aplomb.
The reality is that regardless of my goals for my dogs, they need fun and mental stimulation, less anxiety over noise, bringing the ball back etc. It is much better to carefully plan every session prior to the session taking place and to engage in them on a regular basis. The sessions are not really that long. I might play soccer with Deuce for 10-15 minutes doubling up with great physical stimulation for him, but sessions are normally 5 minutes long – which in most cases that is plenty of learning time for a dog.

Designing and jotting down the sessions on a weekly basis has worked very nicely for me and I think also for both of my dogs …. What I do is plan the sessions and writing down on Sunday what the week of training will look like. For example, this week our training calendar looked like this:

Note: depending on my workload they might get one or two “formal” sessions a day in addition to other mental and physical stimulation activities.

Monday:

Deuce and Laika: Morning hike- practice recall (come when called) with Deuce and lay down as we hike around the hills near our home.

Late afternoon:
Deuce: Whippet- impulse control and lay down on verbal cue
Laika: Foraging for her dinner and impulse control… stop chasing Deuce as he goes after the whippet!!!

Tuesday:
Laika: Breakfast filled inside Kongs in the outside a pen-adjacent to our “soccer” field.

Deuce: Soccer - work on him bringing the ball back to me and laying down before me kicking the ball again.

Laika: Leisure hike and a few rounds of cavalletti to make her gait more fluid while Deuce eats his breakfast out of Kongs.

Wednesday:
Sheepherding with both dogs!

Whippet for Deuce before dinner

Laika gets to hunt for her kibble

Thursday:
Soccer with Deuce and whippet (two of his top-ten activities in life!)

Laika eating out of Kongs - same set-up as Monday and working in her “gym”.

Friday:
Deuce goes to daycare to play as well as harasses his daycare buds Laika and I go out for a leisurely mother-daughter’s walk, which we do once a week.

Saturdays and Sundays:
We tend to take them for hikes or leashed walks plus providing some mental stimulation such as eating out of toys, playing “mouse” with kibble, a funky game of chase a cat toy or fuzz-ball soccer in the living room.

I have noticed that since I plan my training week for Laika and Deuce the following things have taken place:
1. Their training takes place – I reach my goals little by little.
2. They have rich, fun and stimulating lives. (how cool is that :)
3. I get to spend individual time with each one of my dogs and I love that.
4. I keep learning about their individual learning styles and where they need improvement.
5. I do not get stressed out or overwhelmed because I know exactly what needs to happen and when.

At the end of each day, they both lay quietly and happily chewing on a bully stick and I can chill too knowing exactly what my next day will look like and that is not too bad for a Virgo like me!