Dogs do what works. A behavior that gets a desired response is likely to be repeated. A behavior that gets no response will likely be extinguished. This is important to keep in mind when raising a puppy, because even accidental rewards will reinforce a behavior.
So consider the following situations:
A young puppy is teething. His gums itch and ache, especially after he’s been chewing on a hard toy. He wants to chew on your legs, but you correct him and mold him into a “sit”. This frustrates him, so he snaps out of resentment. This makes you pull away and he finds relief, because you’ve stopped correcting him and trying to make him “sit”. Now he is more likely to snap next time, and will likely begin to escalate if he feels he needs to increase his efforts.
Your mostly housebroken puppy has been earning more freedoms. She’s made some mistakes and you’ve corrected her when you’ve caught her in the act. She’s loose in the house and has the urge to “busy”, but is not sure how to get your attention. She goes to the door silently and waits, but you don’t notice. She paces and paces, then sneaks away and “busies” under the dining room table. She feels immediate relief, and because you don’t notice, she does not get punished. Now when she feels the urge to go, she quietly leaves the room and makes a mess where you will not find it until later.
An adolescent pup is playing and romping in the backyard. You call him to “come” so you can go to work. He starts to head towards you, but then notices an enticing clump of grass and grabs it. You call him again, and he freezes, staring at you. Then he leaps into the air and begins to play with the grass clump. You start after him and he bolts around the yard, adding a delightful 15 minutes of playtime to his own schedule and making you late. Now he’s learned that the “come” command is optional if he feels like he has better things to do.
Your pup is happy to see you when you come home and hops up to greet you. You hug and pet him before telling him “off”. A few months go by, now your puppy is 70 pounds, and has just been out in the muddy backyard. You come home and your giant puppy with muddy feet clobbers you and hits your nose with his giant, blocky head (if this has ever happened to you, you never forget that kind of pain).
All of these are examples of behaviors that were reinforced unintentionally. Behaviors that the dog finds beneficial easily can become habit. Dogs are always unconsciously trying different behaviors and seeing what the result is. If the dog is in the crate and wants to be let out, he may circle, sit down, paw at the crate door, whine, and then bark. If he gets let out when he barks, the circling/sitting/pawing/whining behaviors will quickly be extinguished, and he will move right to barking.
So for the teething/snapping puppy, the reinforcement is the removal of the unpleasant stimuli (corrections, efforts to manipulate the dog into position). My recommendation would be to frequently have the dog on tie-down or leash, so that if the puppy begins to throw a “tantrum”, the puppy can be restrained calmly. I like to give the puppy a short length of leash so that he cannot continue to physically work himself up; I calmly hold the puppy’s muzzle. If the puppy throws a whining, screaming tantrum, I hold on, or at least keep the puppy leashed. It’s important to make sure that the corrections are firm but CALM. The puppy is already energized and feeding into it will only make it worse. If I am frustrated as well, I just put the puppy into time-out until I am better prepared to deal with the attitude problem. I consider this behavior to be pushy and results-oriented; it in no way represents the puppy’s temperament currently or in the future. It does tend to occur more in excitable, high-energy dogs, and sometimes in dogs who actually have a little bit of anxiety and insecurity. So while you may be thinking the puppy is trying to dominate you, it’s usually more of a case of “the schoolyard bully” syndrome. The puppy is insecure and has figured out how to be intimidating and “big and bad”. Sometimes, the best cure is regular interactions with adult dogs or older puppies who are skilled at letting puppies know their limits. There is no better puppy raiser than a savvy dog who communicates well with other dogs.
For the puppy regressing in housebreaking (or other house manner issues), don’t be afraid to go back to basics. Put the puppy back on tie-down, leash, or in the crate. Remember, we advise our graduates to keep their guide dog leashed to them AT ALL TIMES for two months after they go home. Preventing self-rewarding behaviors is the best way to set good habits. The dog can gradually earn more freedoms as it shows that it is trustworthy. Then, in case of regression, the dog can go back to restriction. I like using tie-downs a lot because when the dog feels the need to busy, they often circle, pace, or whine in “that certain way”. They don’t have the option of wandering off into a hidden corner to relieve themselves, so they express a little bit of frustration. This becomes their way of telling me that they need to be taken out, and I don’t miss the signal.
For a dog who decides the recall is optional, my answer will always be the same: put the dog on a leash. Leashes come in many lengths, which is useful for recalling a dog at a distance while still being able to enforce the command. I use my Scorch frequently as an example. He is five years old, and my only “off leash reliable” dog. I did not consider him reliable until he was about three years old, at which time he had matured, shown a high level of responsibility, and had been neutered. I called him off of pursuit of a rabbit recently, and he turned around and came without hesitation. That level of reliability was achieved by thousands of on-leash recalls. Sometimes I would be holding the leash, sometimes he would be dragging the leash, and I constantly varied the distance I called him. We practiced in the backyard, in the house, on walks, and around distractions. I hardly ever called him out of a “stay”; I called him away from distractions and, because of the leash, he never learned that he could blow me off or choose to ignore me. I was always able to enforce the command. Of course, I made it worth his while with a randomly-given food reward, which we have now worked into our puppy raising program.
For a jumping puppy, I cannot stress this enough: START EARLY. When a puppy is little, I set them up frequently with attention games. I go crazy over the pup (“PUPPY PUPPY PUPPY!!”) in my trademarked, high-pitched voice. The second the puppy’s front feet leave the ground, I immediately cut off all attention, fold my arms, and look up at the sky. When the pup puts its paws back on the ground, I resume the crazy attention, usually at a slightly less frenetic level. When the pup consciously resists jumping, I lavish them with attention (or even a toy or a special tidbit). It’s much easier to do this with a baby puppy rather than a giant. I progress to “sit and say please”; if the pup wants my attention, it has to respond to my “sit” command first. If you are very consistent about ignoring the puppy at a young age, the jumping behavior will be extinguished. If the puppy thinks the behavior doesn’t “work”, then the behavior will not be repeated. This is often why some of our puppies will never jump on the raiser, but will happily leap up on strangers; if enough strangers reward the “cute” behavior, it will be repeated. Since it is impossible to train everyone who wants to meet your puppy, I advise using “four on the floor” as acceptable behavior in your young puppy. If the puppy jumps up while someone is petting it, I back the pup away a few steps (or do a treat recall) and then try the approach again. The pup learns that it is taken away from the attention as soon as it jumps. It is still attention-removal training, but you’re not relying on a random stranger to have good timing.
These are just a few, commonly-seen examples. The most important thing to remember is to start early, ignoring behaviors you don’t want to see repeated. Believe it or not, dogs don’t sit around scheming, however it may seem. If a dog counter-surfs when you’re not in the room, it’s because it has learned that the behavior doesn’t work in your presence, but it DOES work when you’re not around. Start looking at behaviors from a dog’s point of view, and find a solution by eliminating the self-rewarding aspect of the problem behavior.
