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Thoughts on Behavior Change
I love this quote by Dr. Susan Friedman!
I once had a dog who took his watchdog barking very seriously, like it was an important job to him. Problem was, he was barking at things I didn’t really want to be alerted to, and I found it annoying. But when I acknowledged his initial bark with an appreciative “thank you,” he’d immediately stop barking and run over to me as if proud and pleased for the acknowledgement.
Can you think of an example of a behavior that has value to your dog, but that you wanted to change? Did you find a way to balance your dog’s needs in other ways?
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18 Replies
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Hm – a behavior my dog values but I’ve wanted/ want to change.
There are so many. ???? I HAVE A PUPPY.
Top of the list right now said puppy, aka Spirit, aka Ms. QUEEN OF EVERYTHING (at 14wks) seems to feel both prima donna and insecure so she’s displaying resource guarding with Bliss, her “sister from another mother (and father)”
It started a couple weeks ago but is escalating. Bliss, bless her, is pretty oblivious (hence the escalation.) Thankfully, Bliss hasn’t a reactive or assertive gene in her body. She’s butter-soft and sweet as candy. Just completely oblivious to subtle (and not so subtle) body language signals.
I don’t like Spirit’s behavior; I’ve never lived with a dog who guards anything from anyone, if you don’t count a couple of roommates dogs a few decades ago – and they all moved on quickly.
Spirit finds value and importance in this behavior because she was BORN TO BE QUEEN OF EVERYTHING, but the world has yet to recognize her royalty. The last thing I want is a snarky b*tch, so I am decreasing the obvious opportunities to practice the behavior. Yet I’m already thinking about where else it may crop up, so we are doing a lot of prevention/trade-up/CC exercises with all 3 dogs present. ????
A photo of her highness in captivity.
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LOL! I feel your pain @catherine … I also have a puppy (Cooper)! He’s a now 6 month-old Sheepadoodle. He is guardy (towards dogs and people), very barky, and extremally high-energy. I was warned when I got him. ????
@virginiad Cooper runs outside into our yard and barks up into the trees because he thinks that there are always squirrels there. I don’t like this behavior because I know that our neighbors are already annoyed with his barking. I need to devise a behavior change plan to that he doesn’t feel the need to bark every time he’s in the yard. ????
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@sandy , I wonder if it might be helpful to establish some other forms of daily enrichment in the yard, like food puzzles, food scatters, toy on a bungee hanging from a branch…?
And if he enjoys a good chase, have you considered a bit of flirt pole play?-
@virginiad thank you so much for the great ideas! Sorry, it took me so long to reply lol
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Not to add fuel to the fire, but…I mean she looks like she should be queen of everything ???? What a beautiful puppy!
I understand what you’re saying about Bliss being oblivious to other dogs’ body language. That’s my Toki for sure! I don’t even think he knew he was a dog for the first year of his life. As he got older, he would sometimes irritate Starla because she’s very dog savvy, and Toki thinks he’s a cat/human hybrid.
Something I like to practice with my dogs is an activity I call “community building”. You can do it with all dogs out together, or if one dog is guard-y, that dog can be in an x-pen for the exercise. Essentially, with all the dogs focusing on me, a ask ONE of them to perform a behavior. Once the dog performs the behavior, EVERYONE gets rewarded. The goal is to teach the dogs that everyone benefits from the success of one. I have found that it helps when me dogs are stressed from changes in the home (workers coming in and out) or after scary fireworks displays that put them on edge. Or just those times when they are being annoyed siblings. But I do it randomly just for fun, too. The added benefit is that I feel it sets up for counter-condition guarding behaviors in a small way. I have a short video of myself and my dogs practicing on the patio if anyone would like to see it. It’s an embarrassing tiktok video, but I think it almost gets the point across ????
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Love this suggestion, @LisaOMy – we’re definitely on the same page. I started that a few weeks ago. First, we just did “belle of the ball” (Patricia McConnell) where the dogs all sit and each gets a treat in turn, when I say their name. We’ve graduated to stationing near one another and each dog getting paid for either staying or performing an activity. The reps are close together, so everyone basically gets a treat every time.
Last night tho… Spirit was way too emotional during the exercise so we abandoned ship. I think she’s just super insecure right now… so I need to get creative about how to progress…
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Ah! These pups and their big feelings! ????
I have just started experimenting with using a Furbo for this type of training session. I wonder if Spirit would feel better about life if you were sitting with her to give her more personal attention while you used the Furbo or a Treat and Train to deliver treats remotely to the others pals. I’m just brainstorming, I don’t have a solid picture of this in my mind yet. If you haven’t used a Furbo – it’s a hilarious good time. My dogs crack me up when I’m using it. Their facial expressions! They’re like: “oh her hands are working her phone, prepare yourselves!” while looking from my hands to the Furbo, tongues out. So funny.
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@LisaOMy – I’m not a gadgetess so I had to look up Furbo. Cool tool! I’m planning on trying again tonight but at a further distance. I’m also going to take Bliss out of the picture and see if that helps Spirit cope/dial back her big feelz. She seems more neutral aka not as pushy with Joy. So far, at least!
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Perfect
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When I first adopted Titan at 9 years old, he had this behavior of nipping at my face- all in playful, pro-social/affiliative way. Although I was happy to see the affiliative side of him, having a nip to the face was not on my let’s do this this.
I taught him “glue”, which was to simply target his nose to my cheek. He learned quickly (in my opinion) and I even built in duration.
If I did it correct, the videos should attach from my post a year ago in DD.
https://mycatchcampus.com/members/jenz/videos/https://mycatchcampus.com/members/jenz/videos/
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I have a client who boards her little Miss Bossy Boots, Olive (Border collie) with me from time to time. While she is incredibly intelligent (aren’t they all?), by day 2, I’m feeling like I’m living with a needy, drill sergeant/traffic cop hybrid, instead of the beautiful, B & W dog she is. I don’t want her to use her Jedi-mind tricks on me, so I have to find creative outlets for her and plan a few steps ahead of what she is thinking (no wonder I’m exhausted by the time she goes home…
Enrichment Planning for Your Human is being authored/written by this dog, LOL!)
I try the following things:
1. While she sits by me on the couch, I will pet her. If once I finish, she feels she was jilted and paws at me to continue, I fold my arms and purposely look away. It is really annoying and bossy, in my opinion. Usually if that doesn’t work, I tell her to get off the couch.
2. I have a green treat ball that you stuff with kibble or treats and with her, I add pieces that are slightly bigger and need more energy to get the treats out…she is incredibly creative and plays quite well solo by throwing it around, down the stairs, etc…I use it as a reward for her being quiet and calm.
3. I take treats on walks and work with her on cultivating a quiet Down Stay instead of barking and lunging at cars. The dog gets about 5-6 walks a day by me, as my yard isn’t fenced at all. I find that having excellent treats and rewarding the good behavior before she gets triggered and finding the right distance from the street is key to success.
Also, I refuse to use her pronged collar on walks as I feel it just is unfair and puts her on guard at all times. I’d rather Olive make mistakes and doesn’t get the reward or makes an a$$ of us both than subjecting her to pinches on the neck.
Lots of time outdoors and letting her lie at a comfortable distance from the road to Down-Stay and view traffic plus games like Tug are helpful in managing her bossy tendencies.
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Miss Olive
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Bossy Boots (lol!!) is lucky to be in your care, @bernerlabreclectus
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