Dog Behavior and Training Dogs are wonderful pets and companions. Training your dog will make him a much more enjoyable part of your family. It also makes trips to the vet, groomer, and kennel pleasant and less stressful. Successful training starts as young as 6 weeks of age. If you adopt an older dog, this training might take slightly longer, but it can be accomplished. The groundwork you set at the beginning is very important. It is much easier to correctly train your dog to do the right thing, than to try to reverse the bad behavior.  It is also important to discipline and reward your dog at the correct times. Never used delayed punishment on your dog. This will just create a dog that disobeys when you are not home to correct it and he will associate you coming home with punishment instead of something positive. When you are choosing a dog, take into account your lifestyle. If you live in an apartment with no yard—an excitable, high energy Labrador retriever may not be the best choice. Likewise, if you have small children that are not used to handling animals- a nervous, delicate Chihuahua may not be the best choice. If possible, ask the Doctor their opinion prior to getting a new dog.  You also must consider the other pets in the household and how much time you can realistically devote to training a new dog.  With that said, here are some basic training tips that will cover the most frequent problems encountered. At each booster visit bring any other behavioral problems to the Doctor’s attention.  Remember that anything you allow your puppy to do now, they will also do as an adult. House Training -When your dog is first introduced to the home confine him to a small room with a comfortable kennel, food and water on one side of the room and a clean litter box (filled with the substrate you want your dog to go on outside i.e dirt, a piece of sod, gravel, etc.) placed on the opposite side of the room. Animals prefer to relieve themselves as far away from their food and sleeping area as possible. This is their long-term confinement area to be used when no one is home. They should use the litter box in here preferentially as it is the best place to go. Do not clean this extremely well because you want some odor there to attract your dog to use it. When you are home but are distracted with other activities, keep your puppy or dog in a kennel in the room you are in. This is their short term confinement area to be used when you cannot watch them all the time. Allow them out every 1.5-2 hours and take them right outside or to the litter box.  Give them a command such as “Go Outside” ,“Go potty”, “Do your business”,  “Go to the Bathroom”. Give them about 5 minutes to use the litter box or go potty outside.  If they go to the bathroom quietly praise them and when they are done give them several treats and praise.  If they do not need to go, they can have some free time out of the kennel with you watching.  If you cannot watch them, put them back into the kennel. If they do use the bathroom they can have a few hours out unobserved.  It usually only takes a few days of this to reinforce that outside or the litter box is the place to go. Always make sure you are outside or at the litter box with them so you can immediately praise and reward them. Once they do not have any accidents for 1 week in either the short term or long term confinement gradually allow more free reign. Open your house to them one room at a time after each accident free week. If an accident occurs go back to square one and reinforce using the litter box or outside with positive praise. If you catch your puppy or dog in the act of going to the bathroom in the house give a loud instructive command such as “No, Go Outside!” Then take them outside and praise them out there.  Do not use physical punishment or rub their nose in it. Dogs and puppies usually need to use the bathroom right after eating. Until your puppy or dog is housetrained do not leave food out all the time. Feed them twice daily and make sure they are then taken outside or to the litter box and allowed the opportunity to go. Again, praise and treats should follow accordingly. Destructive Chewing Chewing mistakes can be very expensive. Chewing is a natural behavior for dogs and puppies. If you discipline your dog or puppy every time it chews and do not instruct it on proper chewing materials you will create bigger problems. Many times this creates a dog that only chews on inappropriate materials when you are not there and that is a difficult situation to reverse. So, what do you do??   First of all, invest in a non-consumable, indestructible chew toy. If you allow your puppy to chew on old shoes or socks- they will have a hard time differentiating the old from the new. Kong products are very good. These products have a hollow core that can be stuffed with treats and food to encourage interest and chewing.  Stuff the toy with kibble or treats that come out easily and others that stay stuck. This way the tastier treats entice the dog to continue to chew, and it is rewarded with the kibble. You should also feed your dog or puppy out of a larger Kong. They are hungry at this point, and will chew on it to get fed. In addition to the food rewards, you should also praise your dog or puppy verbally acting like this is the best thing they ever did. This should be instructive praise  “Good chewtoy” or “Go find your chewtoy” Using instructive praise will allow you to use instructive discipline when inappropriate objects are chewed on.     When inappropriate objects are chewed on the discipline should be immediate “Off, don’t touch! Go find your chewtoy!!” Lower your voice after the initial discipline and enthusiastically tell them to find their chewtoy. Then reward the behavior when the chewtoy is found and played with.  Remember to let you dog or puppy let of some steam as well- this will burn off some excess energy that often goes into chewing.   If you are dealing with chewing behavior that only occurs when you are gone this presents a different problem. Initially the dog or puppy needs to be confined when you are not there to prevent expensive destruction. This is only temporary until retraining can occur. Confinement can be a collapsible wire crate, or a single room that has few objects that can be destroyed- i.e a tiled bathroom with everything else picked up.  This confinement area should have several different appropriate chew toys in it and no other articles in it that the dog can chew. If you are there physically but cannot watch your dog all the time, take some time to praise them when they are chewing on appropriate articles and keep them confined unless you can watch them all the time. Dog sitters come in handy in this situation. They can verbally praise the dog for appropriate chewing behavior and help to retrain when you cannot be there. Then the dog can be slowly weaned off the sitter by having them come for less and less times as the behavior is corrected.   Booby traps can also work when you are absent. This can work for dogs getting on furniture or raiding the trash. Placing empty beer cans in such a way that they will fall and make noise when the dog gets near or into the inappropriate area can work well or you can come up with your own booby trap. Set them up when you are there as well so if you hear the crash you can reinforce it with  “NO! Don’t touch” then “Go get your chewtoy” and praise. You can also use hot sauce with perfume to spray on armchairs, sofa legs, corners of carpet, etc. The hotsauce is the punishment when the dog chews , the perfume acts as a warning. Once the dog’s tongue is burned with hotsauce they will avoid chewing on things that smell like that perfume. Usually this only takes one time.   If you are still having problems as the veterinarian for other options. Play Biting Play biting is a normal behavior for puppies to go through. It helps them learn how to soften their bite and to mouth other dogs and people. It is an extremely important concept for them to learn. The more they mouth and bite as a youngster and safer their jaws are as adults. The ideal window of time for bite inhibition to work is by 4.5 months of age.  Puppy biting behavior must eventually be eliminated or they will be an adult dog that acts in the manner of a puppy.  If you don’t want your adult dog to mouth everyone and everything, do not allow them to do it as a puppy.   The first step is to inhibit the force of the bites, the second is to decrease the frequency and eventually eliminate the behavior.  These steps are usually taught in sequence but in some more active puppy biters they can be taught at the same time.  Physical punishments are not called for when teaching a puppy how to inhibit the force of its bite. When the puppy bites too strongly, simply say “Ouch!” in a high pitched louder voice. When the puppy backs off, take a short break from playing. Then instruct the puppy to come, sit and lie down. Then resume playing. If the puppy does not back off or ease up when you say “Ouch” call the puppy a “Bully” then leave the room and shut the door. Give the puppy a minute or two to be alone and not have you to play with. Then return to the puppy, make up, tell them to come, sit and lie down, then resume playing.  Eventually you should increase your sensitivity to the mouthing so even the slightest pressure makes you say “Ouch”. This way by the time your puppy is 4.5 months old it should not be exerting any pressure at all when mouthing.   The second step is to decrease the frequency of the mouthing. First you need to teach “OFF”. Use a food treat as a distraction and a reward. When the puppy starts mouthing say “Off” and hold the treat out. If the puppy doesn’t touch the treat in your hand for one second say “Take it” and the puppy can have it. Once the puppy has mastered this, make them wait longer and longer before allowing them to “Take it.”  Count each second out loud and praise after each one “ Good dog one, Good dog two, Good dog three, etc” If the pup touches the treat before you are ready, start the count over again.  Once the puppy has learned the command “Off” use this to stop them from mouthing.  When the puppy mouths you, say “Off” and waggle the treat as a lure to distract them, when the puppy lets go of you, give them the treat and praise them. Then allow them to mouth again and repeat.  If the puppy does not let go call it a “Bully” and leave the room, then come back, make up and resume playing.  When you are done with the training session give the puppy a Kong stuffed with dog kibble to continue chewing on.   From the above exercises your puppy should learn to mouth softly and only when it is allowed. It should stop whenever it is asked. Your puppy should be weaned off of mouthing by 6-8 months of age. After this point you should still routinely hand feed your dog and brush it’s teeth so it is used to having hands in its mouth and it continues to inhibit its bite.  This will allow you and your veterinarian to properly and safely work around the mouth of your dog. Barking Barking and vocalizing can be a very nice thing for your dog and puppy to do….as long as they know when to quit ! The key is to train them to bark on command and to be quiet on command.  You must be consistent with this training or your dog will get mixed messages.   To train your dog or puppy to bark  and quiet on command you must first determine what will cause them to bark regularly. This may be the doorbell ringing, the hair dryer, a person outside, wanting to be fed, etc. Once you have identified what will make your dog bark you can start the training process.  A doorbell ringing will be used as the example. Have one person outside ready to ring the doorbell. Have another person inside ready to train. Choose your command for barking such as “Alert” or “Speak”, give the command and have the person ring the doorbell.  Repeat this several times and your dog will associate the command with barking. Praise them for this saying “ Good Alert or Good Speak”.   The next step is to train your dog to shush. First ask the dog to bark or speak and praise them. Then ask them to “Shush” and hold a treat out in front of their nose to tempt them… they will stop barking in order to sniff the treat, then praise the dog “ Good Shush”.  You should give the “Shush” command quietly because they will have to stop barking to hear you.   Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.     If your dog is trained to bark on command this can be useful for protection. The shush command is also useful to prevent a dog from barking all the time. If you allow your dog to bark at certain times this will hopefully prevent an owner absent barking problem. If you dog is barking while you are gone ask your neighbors what seems to spark the barking- cars, doorbells, other animals, music, etc. Sometimes having background noise on while you are gone can help- TV, radio etc. Ask your veterinarian for help if you are still having problems. It is important to start training your puppy or dog as soon as it is introduced to your house. Remember that anything you let slide will become a habit and potentially disturbing behavioral problem. If you have specific questions or problems do not hesitate to call Dr. Stevens or Dr. Howe at 402-399-8224 Separation Anxiety Signs your dog may be prone to separation anxiety: 1) Excessively attached to owner (follows you around the house, always wants to be able to see you and/or have you touching the dog) 2) Greets you excessively when you return from being gone 3) Becomes anxious or distressed when you are preparing to leave One or more of the following occur when the dog is separated from the owner: 1) Excessive vocalization 2) Inappropriate urination or defecation 3) Destruction 4) Not eating, pacing/circling, digging, excessive salivation Behavior Modification Techniques: 1) Before leaving: *Do not pay attention to the dog for 20-30 minutes before leaving *Leave a special toy or treat when leaving and remove the item when you return *Do not “say goodbye” to the dog when you leave 2) When returning: *Ignore the dog until he/she is quiet and relaxed, then interact only when you initiate it *Do not reprimand the dog for any destructive behavior or for going to the bathroom indoors 3) At Home: *Interact with the dog only when you initiate it *Teach the dog to stay calm as you move further and further away. Gradually teach the dog to be calm with you in another room and for longer periods of time *Give departure cues (put on your coat, pick up your car keys, etc) at times other than when you are leaving. The behavior modification technique does take consistency and time.  This will not change your dog overnight!  Plan a few months to see any change.  If, with consistency and gradual change of your behaviors, your dog does not improve, discuss medication with your veterinarian.  The medications do not fix the problem on their own; they are a part of the behavior modification!