Leash Step, featuring Chip

Meet Chip!

Chip is a 2 year old doxie mix who is tremendously cute and showered with love in his home. However, he is also fearful, particularly with children and joggers on walks. Chip’s owners adopted him when he was 9 months old, and soon realized that his fear barking and nipping was trouble.  Chip was in need of some Zen Dog Training! 

Teaching Chip there is nothing to be afraid of when strangers pass by during walks is a great method to preventing aggression. We started the training plan by making sure to be extra aware of our surroundings. We don't want to get caught off guard by someone and end up with a scared, barking and lunging dog.

We made sure his owners weren't making things worse by trying to correct a scared dog or holding the leash too tightly. Leash tension can translate into feeling of nervousness. The dog might think, "My owner is nervous -- could it be that person running by? Maybe I should be on guard!" Nervousness can turn to fear, and if not addressed turn into aggression.

A method we use when stopping to talk with a friend on the street, is Leash Step, stepping on the leash while keeping no tension on your dog’s neck. The reason this is better than just simply holding the leash is because your tight grip might cause tension on the leash.

A Leash Step will not create tension yet it can quickly help stop a dog from lunging at any people passing by, which, in Chip's case can mean the difference between preventing a bite or an injured, angry jogger!

Use leash step when waiting to cross the street or in the elevator to prevent your dog from jumping up or running into traffic. However, it is important to never leash step in a way that traps a scared dog. Allow uncertain dogs to hide behind your legs or make distance between himself and a scary person, place, thing or other dog.
  Management and prevention are key in quickly solving these kinds of problem behaviors. For more information on Leash Step and Shy / Fearful Dogs, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Olive the Pit-Mix.

Meet Olive!

Olive is one energetic and joyful pup. She just about wagged herself to pieces when she met us, and continued the entire time we were there. We had to ask her owners to send us a picture because she was just too excited to stay still! While she was thrilled to be with us people, when around other dogs happy, bouncing Olive unfortunately became very unsure of herself.

When Olive would see a dog from a distance, she would first get very tense. As the distance grew smaller she would continue to stare and start to bark, and if the dogs met, Olive would run straight up to the other dog. This may not seem like a big deal to us, but in doggy language, Olive was being very, very rude. If she were human, it would be similar to pushing her way through a crowd, stomping up to a stranger, and yelling in their face “HI! MY NAME IS OLIVE! WHO ARE YOU?”

That doesn’t sound like someone you’d really want to stick around and meet, does it?

While Olive learned to be more confident and proficient in dog communication, we decided to teach her and her owners how to Leash Tango. The dance is simple:

When you see another dog, walk briskly towards him while keeping your own dog relaxed with Jolly Talk. If your dog pulls ahead, stop, take a step back and turn your dog back around to face you. Once you’ve spun your partner, head briskly back towards the other dog. Repeat this as often as the leash goes tight until you reach the other dog. A brisk walk-to-jog does help, but you want to avoid your dog rudely meeting strangers, so make sure to Leash Tango once or twice.

Playing Leash Tango accomplishes many good things at once. First of all, it keeps your dog from going straight at a stranger, and teaches them more appropriate behavior. It also helps the dog you are meeting; for dogs, turning to the side and not approaching straight on is the polite way of saying, “I’m friendly and I would like to meet you!” On top of that, Leash Tango keeps your leash loose. Since the leash is a direct line of communication, a tight leash signals tension. If the leash is loose, your dog is more likely to be relaxed as well. The first step of proper play is a good greeting, so use Leash Tango to help your pup get off to a good start!

To learn more about Leash Tango, as well as how dogs communicate, check out Zen Dog Training Online!

Nora the Pit Mix.

Meet Nora!

Nora is a sweet, playful girl...with her family. Once she is outside, everyone she sees is greeted with snarls and barking, outside she became a ferocious ball of teeth and noise! This didn't just happen overnight — Nora was a skittish and shy puppy, but she grew older and bolder. Over time, instead of hiding and tucking her tail, she began to bark, growl and lunge!

Many people would write Nora off as aggressive, dangerous, protective, or say she was downright vicious. But Gordon and I knew better. Nora wasn't born a mean or a bad dog. She was just afraid.

Nora was afraid of the noises on the street, of the people she saw, and especially of fast movements and unusual shapes. When dogs get scared their primal fight-or-flight instinct kicks in — either get to safety or do something to make the "threat" leave.

It's hard to understand but Nora's barking was a tactic to make scary things go away and it worked — every single time. The people who scared her, the kids, the bike, the car, all passed her by (quickly) when she barked aggressively — she had learned what to do to make them disappear!

Our plan for Nora was straightforward, but also challenging. The first mission: Nora's family was to make new, positive, memories of the things that scared her in the outside world. We recommended a "desensitization and counter-conditioning" plan that included Treating for no Reason, obedience training to help her focus during stressful encounters, (using food as a reward), better tools and new leash handling techniques.

Of course, the hardest part of training was our homework for Nora's parents: not punishing or "correct" Nora, but instead acting relaxed, jolly and confident — even outside — when her barking was at its worst!

At well over a year-and-a-half, Nora will take longer than a puppy to become okay with new experiences, people, places and things — after all, she's the dog equivalent of a twenty-year-old human! But with the right training plan, the proper tools, time and consistency we hope to see Nora exploring and enjoying the world around her with a new sense of confidence.

To learn more about Treating for No Reason and for additional info on shy and fearful dogs, please visit Zen Dog Training Online.

For a simple-to-understand guide on desensitization and counter-conditioning, please read The Cautious Canine by Patricia McConnell.

Why Dog Training Can Be SO Hard!

In a nutshell, changing a established behavior or teaching a new behavior is difficult!

Think about how hard it is to stick to a New Years resolution, to eat better or get to the gym. It's even harder to try and teach a child, spouse or friend to listen! Things get even harder when it comes to dogs, because of the human attitude, "darn it! This is my dog and he needs to learn my rules!"

In our efforts to make an animal understand we may miss the importance of truly understanding our dogs and communicating with them rather than forcing our wills on them! At Zen Dog Training we focus on understanding our dogs first, then trying to communicate with them. Our focus is on teaching people how to be consistent and smart about getting their dogs to listen.

Why things get confusing is that dogs are not rational animals (like us?), instead they are still hard-wired to first feel safe in their environment before they we can expect them to want to participate in 'listening' to us or 'obeying' our rules. For what most certainly will become a future post on its own, its Pavlov vs. Skinner - first having to meet those primal dog needs of feeling safe and confident before expecting B.F. Skinner like Operant Conditioning. "Sit" and you will get a treat.

What's so hard to understand is that when it comes to dog training and especially, new puppy training, just spending time getting our dogs used to the crazy, noisy world we live in is as important (if not more important) then teaching, sit, heel or come. At Zen Dog Training we call this "age-appropriate training". Focusing on the right thing at the right time. Puppy-hood is the ideal time to socialize really domesticate your dog to your particular lifestyle. Its surprises me how most people would never expect a wolf to be fine with living inside our homes but get a dog and don't put any conscious effort towards puppy socialization. Textbook "socialization period" is a stage of puppy development that technically ends at the 12-13th week!

The dilemma becomes: when to push your will on to your dog and when to listen to your dog and understand that at this very moment - your dogs natural instinct for survival (fight/flight) must be met before they can be in a place to listen to us.

Its difficult because it requires the human to not focus on 'instant results' but rather take a look at what their dog needs. Training paths for dogs not yet comfortable with the world require counter-intuitive methods like, treating a dog when they are barking out of fear. Some say you would reinforce 'bad' behaviors however, if the dog is barking because they are uncertain and feeling 'scared' there is no evidence that you can reward or punish them since they are in no place to listen to you anyway. They are too worried for their survival.

Here is where true understanding is key to our success. Try to force a scared dog to listen and they may listen but become shell-shocked and skittish from the experience. Try to punish a dog by staring them in the eyes and yelling at them and you just might break that ever important dog-human relationship where they learn to trust and love humans.

More on this in future posts but as we learned in the dog training academy, the first question is 'is the dog upset' from there you can determine if they are 'acting out' or just being demanding or if they are coming from a place of fear and uncertainty (with dogs amazing sense of hearing, smell and who-knows-what-other kind of senses your dog has) I'm often amazed at how well they cope with strange training 'techniques' or just the sights and sounds of the world: trucks, busy intersections, construction noises, fireworks, traveling by car, traffic, etc.

The solution, do yourself a favor and research people like Turid Rugaas, "Calming Signals" to try and better understand what your dog is feeling and saying by reading their body language. Try and be more patient with your goals and try to determine the difference between "disobedience" and a failure on behalf of the owner to clearly communicate rules and expectations.