My Dog Eats Too Fast!

I've heard this time and time again, and I've got one of these gluttonous hounds in my house. I've tried every trick in the book:

• Putting a giant rock in the middle of her bowl, that way it takes her 30 seconds to scarf down her food instead of 10 seconds. 
• Adding water--at least it'll be easier on her digestive track. 
• Making her work for each morsel of food by turning meals into training sessions. Realistically, with three dogs to feed, I don't have time to do this twice a day.
• Putting food into a Kong or Smart Toy. I don't have this option since I have multiple dogs. Otherwise this is a great idea. The kibble would be dispensed slowly and the dog is psychologically challenged: working for his food. LOVE IT!

But then--SHAZAM! I found something that works:

• Put the usual amount of kibble in your dog's bowl
• Cover the bottom the bowl with a little bit of water
• If you mix the kibble with wet food, fantastic! Don't add water, merely mix in the wet food
• Put the bowl in the freezer
• When feeding time arrives, I just take it out and voila!

Instead of inhaling her food, my reigned in canine had to work to lick and pry her food from the bottom of her dish and then more licking, licking...it was like a kibble-sicle. For once my Shih Tzu finished his food LONG before she was licking the frozen bits from the corners of her dish.

Other freezing tips:
When using peanut butter or Kong filling, fill the toy or hollow bone and then freeze the toy/bone. That filling doesn't last long, however when it's frozen it lasts longer for those car rides or for anxious dogs left at home.

YOU Are the Key to Dog Training Success

Oftentimes, the dogs who make little to no progress are the ones where the clients make little to no change in their behavior. Or they pick and choose what part of the training prescription they want to follow.

What!?!? That seems rather bold. Could it not be the dog? Or what about the trainer? Hmmm?

Touché! However, it's pretty easy to spot the dog owner I'm referring to. If I were a fitness trainer this might be the equivalent conversation of a client not getting the physical results they were hoping for: 

“I ate one healthy meal like you suggested, and then I ate fast food the rest of the week because I was so busy. I don’t know why I’m not losing weight! Ugh!” 

Or

“I haven’t been doing the full workout; I’ve only been doing push-ups. My arms are looking great but my stomach and legs are still flabby! What’s wrong with my stomach and legs?” 

I know this sounds ridiculously silly, however some clients experience this disconnect. They’re disappointed with their dog’s lack of progress and shift blame to their dog. (Or trainer?)

On the flip side, I’ve had clients who are extremely motivated to change their dog’s behavior. A week after our initial training session we meet again and even I’m blown away by the radical shift in their dog’s conduct. As the weeks go by, not only is there a rapid shift with the dog, but the owner has changed. They’re more calm and confident with their dog. 

The owners start relaying my spiel back to me: 

“Once you have the right tools and know how to communicate with your dog, it’s just so easy.” 

Or

“I realized I was shouting at him and joining in [his energy], now it’s just so calm [in our house] and he listens.” 

I love having my own philosophy plugged back to me, and nothing makes me happier than seeing dogs and owners working effortlessly as a team.

I had a client who was being bitten by his dog. Even though he understood and agreed that my training methods would probably result in positive change, he and his wife didn’t want to interact with his dog differently. I appreciated his honesty, however--what did Einstein say? 

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

There are many parts to correcting unwanted dog behavior (see equation below), but in order for lasting effective change, the owner must change how they interact with their dog.

Dog Training Success = Right diagnosis + Correct Training Rx + Timing/Consistency/Energy

*There are rare cases where a dog has a medical condition or is so aggressive that owners cannot and should not train their own dogs. I am not referring to these extreme cases here. People who have aggressive dogs should seek help from a professional trainer and/or talk to their vet.

When to Praise Your Dog

Two common mistakes I see dog owners make when praising their dogs:

1. People chase their dog’s mistakes yet rarely praise their dog’s good behavior. 
I often hear, “No! Stop! Off! Leave it!” A barrage of corrections letting their dog know when they’ve messed up. It’s not that these people aren’t loving and affectionate dog owners. To the contrary, they lavish affection on their pooch, but their affection carries no meaning since it’s not shared at meaningful times.

What should you do instead? Use praise and affection to communicate to your dog: “Yes, I want you to do this behavior more.”

EXAMPLE:
Let's say you have a dog who usually jumps up on people, you can play a modified game of "Hot and Cold," but instead you use the words: "Good and Eh-eh,"  to arrive at the destination, which is keeping all four feet on the floor.

• Your dog jumps up--mark that exact moment of jumping up by saying, "Eh-eh" firmly 
• At the same moment, turn with folded arms and walk away 
• Wait a 10-15 seconds, then call your dog to you excitedly to illicit this jumping response again 
• If he jumps up, repeat the above steps
• IF he jumps a little but then after your "Eh-eh" correction or on his own he puts his feet back on the floor, say, "GOOD!" And pet him. You're now letting him know that feet on the ground is what you want. 
• If you reach to pet him and he jumps back up--Your praise=excitement. Repeat the above. The goal is: Your praise=calm.
• After even five minutes, if your timing is good, you will start to see your dog's jumping start to extinguish. 
• If he manages to come to you without jumping--praise him like he's hit the jackpot. "Good!" TONS of pets and praise.
• Repeat during the day and every day, different people in the house should play this game. 
• Only when he's calm does he get affection or attention. Really notice when he does manage to keep all four on the floor and tell him, "Good!"
• Otherwise you merely say, "Eh-eh" and walk away. No more negative attention ("Off! No Fido! Stop!" and pushing him, touching him...attention, attention, attention) for his bad behavior.

Timing and consistency are everything. Sure, keep the corrections, however the praises should be used as much, if not more, because they are the behavioral road you are paving for your dog to travel.

2. Owners praise their dog at the wrong time. 

• Their dog growls at someone and they lean down and pet their dog, “Shhh! No-no. It’s okay baby.” 
• Their dog is very excited and they pet their dog to calm him down. 
• Their dog jumps up to get their attention and they say, "No!" but then pet their dog.

The message they are unintentionally sending is: “I condone your behavior. I want the behavior you’re exhibiting to continue." Sometimes clients say what they're doing works, the growling/excitement/jumping stops. Yes, for that moment, but they are building a reinforcement history for their dog to continue the unwanted behavior more, and for them to soothe him again, repeat, repeat, repeat. We're looking at extinguishing the unwanted behavior altogether.  

It's difficult with dog training to figure out when you correct, ignore or redirect an unwanted behavior. However it's very easy to remember, when you share affection you are sharing affection with their state of mind. 

Clear Communication: Its all Giraffes in Jars These Days

“Is it okay if we just focus on my dog’s aggression towards other dogs? His not listening to me and being a spaz in the house doesn't bother me.”

Sometimes I hear the above request from clients. However only treating your dog’s most annoying problem without addressing the root issues is like having brackish water coming out of a faucet. You can buy one of those water filter pitchers to clear the water but you never solve the water problem at its source. You continually correct the issue as the primary problem continues to exist.

So how can you get to the source of your dog’s issues? Even though each dog, owner, and case is different, there tends to be one truth: success starts with improving communication between dog and owner.

Let’s say your dog is like an unruly teenager named Alice. 

“Uh no wa-haaay! Like, I’m totally going to Tweet that you compared me to a dog. As IF! #DogTrainersRStoopid.”

Barbara has tried everything to communicate with Alice. She’s tried different strategies, reading books, looking on the internet, talking to friends, and even watching Dr. Phil. 

“You can’t lead a teenager to a giraffe hunt in a pickle jar!”

Okay, that cleared things up Dr. Phil.

Barbara has tried being more strict, using boundaries, praise, getting interested in Alice's music, but in the end Alice seems disinterested, and still acts out. Barbara's terrified of ruining their already fragile relationship. 

This IS a giraffe hunt in a pickle jar!

So what about the dog relationship? No matter the dog, nor the dog’s problem, when basic communication is brought into the equation, something shifts in the dog. Dogs that were disengaged become present. Hyper dogs start calming down. Anxious dogs focus. Reactive dogs relinquish control.

Owners also shift: Their frustration melts away, hope comes in, and a sense of pride in their dog and what the two of them can achieve together surfaces. This new way of communicating isn’t something you can practice for 15 minutes a day. Every interaction with your dog is an opportunity to either strengthen or weaken those lines of communication. And when that communication is solidly in place at home, outside, in the car, on the trail—that’s when you’ve gone to the source and cleared up the confusion. 

Now somebody let those poor giraffes out of that jar.

Treats and Training Wheels

“If I use treats, will my dog only perform when I have treats?” This is a great question. I don’t use treats for every aspect of training, however there is a time and place where treat training comes into play.

  

Treats can be like training wheels on a bike. Would a parent feel badly about sending a toddler out on their unsteady bike without training wheels? Doubtful.

“Woe is me Roger! Little Shirley’s going to turn 13 in 10 years and be the only kid in junior high with training wheels!”

“Great gadzooks Marcia! If she still needs these wheels when she’s at Harvard, we’ll have failed her!”

Highly unlikely scenario. These parents would probably realize using training wheels is a fantastic way to get their child used to balancing and coordinating all of those new skills. If Shirley continually fell off her non-training-wheeled bike, she might associate it with failure, or worse, with her parents saying the bike was safe and not trust them when they next try to convince her that the green goop on her plate is also "safe."

It's similar in dog training. Let’s take this bike metaphor for a metaphorical ride:

Let's say we're training Fido to sit and stay when guests enter the home. Usually it takes minutes with treats to capture this new behavior. We reinforce Fido’s new greeting routine daily because for the past months? Years? Fido has been in the habit of greeting guests any way he sees fit. By using treats as training wheels, we forge a steady, safe passage to this new, more desired behavior.

When Fido has mastered his new skill and both owner and Fido are confident, it’s time to raise the training wheels just a little. Fido’s owner treats less often, interjecting more praise, but still has treats in hand so those training wheels are in place if needed. Much further down the road the training wheels come up a bit further, then further.  

“Holy Toledo Roger! Poor little Shirley can’t ride her bike on gravel, sidewalks, or on hills. Bike riding isn’t for Shirley. Let’s get her a recorder.”

Hopefully Shirley’s parents wouldn’t jump to the assumption above. They would see that Shirley needs to practice daily under various biking conditions.

Similarly, Fido needs to practice, even if guests don’t enter the home daily. Practicing going to his spot at the door and eliciting an excited response by knocking on the door, or asking a family member to go outside and having daily “Fido drills,” all strengthen Fido’s new behavior. When guests do arrive and Fido’s shuffled off to another room, everyone has missed a great learning opportunity.

Remember those tikes with the training wheels so far off the ground they no longer served any real purpose? This is when the behavior is so well-established, Fido and owner knows what’s expected when the doorbell rings.

That’s when the training wheels come off!

**Warning: Once Shirley’s training wheels come off and she takes a three year hiatus from bike riding in her 20’s to pursue basket weaving in Timbuktu, chances are she’ll get back on her bike with little to no effort. 

Not so with Fido. If there’s a lapse in training with Fido, oftentimes the training wheels have to be reattached for a while to get him back on the road to success.

Puppy Biting

One client, Zach*, had a 9 week old puppy that constantly bit and he wanted to make sure it wasn’t viscous. Zach’s friends were telling him that he wasn’t being tough enough with this little ball of fur and he needed to roll him on his back when he bit, or slap him, or pinch him, or use a more firm tone and yell at the puppy.

At the same time Zach was very concerned about bonding with this rescued puppy. Why wasn’t this puppy coming to him? When would he view Zach as the source of “all that is?”

There were other basic puppy issues, but these questions kept coming up over and over as the puppy obviously was biting and nipping as a 9 week old often does, and was pulling away from Zach the full length of his leash and not coming when Zach said, “Tabor! Come! Tabor!”

I showed Zach how easy it was to get Tabor to stop biting. “First of all, your puppy is not viscous. Secondly, you are his teacher and every time you are with him is time to shape his behavior. Instead of chasing away the things we don’t want, let’s focus on the things we do want.” I find this approach much more rewarding for the dog and the human.

Humans who spend all their time and energy, whether with dogs or otherwise, chasing bad behavior are searching out bad behavior, are frustrated because of the way the bad behavior makes them feel and frustrated with how discipline makes them feel. Instead, the flip side is chasing good behavior.

 

“Look,” I said pointing at the puppy, “Tabor kept his paws on the ground and didn’t bite for 3 whole seconds,” so I gave him a little morsel of hot dog. This excited Tabor and he then chewed on my finger. “Eh-eh!” I said.

I explained that “Eh-eh” isn’t a magic word, I use it because it replaces, “No,” and it also replaces, “No! Stop, Tabor, sit, stop biting, quit. Get over here…” The word, “No!” by the time I get to my clients has quite a negative charge to it that dogs shut down to. They fight or flight or avoid when they hear it. Or on the flip side and more the usual, I hear a monologue of what they don’t want their dog to do and then what they want their dog to do and they use their dog’s name while angry. How confusing!

 

By simply saying, “Eh-eh,” the person has a neutral feeling about the word, so the dog and human can start over with proper communication. Just the basics: Yes I want this: “Good.” No I don’t want you to do that: “Eh-eh.” It’s THAT easy---on the training side.

Zach watched as Tabor learned within 10 minutes what, “Eh-eh” and “Good” meant. Tabor also learned, “Sit.” When he bit my fingers he didn’t get a treat. He didn’t get hit or rolled or even an angry human. He quickly learned that it was much better for him to not bite because he got more attention when he didn’t bite. It wasn’t all about hotdogs. I also gave Tabor praise and pets and attention.

 

I asked Zach to give it a go and he was very commanding. “Tabor, come!” He pulled at the leash and instantly Tabor started looking away from Zach and pulling.

“I don’t think it’s your lack of toughness with your puppy that’s the problem, I think it might be your lack of playfulness. If you can’t access that naturally, you raise your voice and speed it up a bit. Try it.” At this point Tabor had yet to come to Zach, look at him or interact when it wasn’t forced upon him.

Zach did as instructed, raising his voice and I’m guessing he felt a little silly. However, Tabor instantly turned around, looked at Zach and as fast as a lil 9 week old puppy can run, ran over to his shocked owner. Zach was thrilled.

“I’m just so happy! It just didn’t feel right to hit my puppy or roll him over or yell at him. This feels so much better. I just can’t believe that it’s this easy!”

*Client's name has been changed for his privacy