5 common dog training mistakes and how to avoid them

Here are a few of the most frequent problems I see folks have when it comes to training their dog, and suggestions on how to avoid them. Think of this as a “do’s and don’ts of dog training” told in picture form 😉

Do: have clear, simple, easy to understand signals for behaviors.

Examples:
short words/phrases (“sit,” “down,” “place”)
purposeful hand signals (raising a hand up for “sit,” pointing at the ground for “down,” twirling your finger for “spin”)
teaching an environmental signal by building predictable patterns (every time you approach a doorway you ask your dog to sit, feeding your dog a treat every time they see another dog so they learn to notice a dog and then look at you, only allowing your dog to walk forward when on a leash if the leash is loose)

Don’t: repeat your signals multiple times, give inconsistent signals (ie sometimes saying “Fido, come” and other times saying “Fido, here,” be wishy washy about when your dog should sit in doorways and when they shouldn’t

Your dog can only respond to one signal at a time!

If your body is moving, your mouth is not.

If your mouth is moving, your body is not.

If you want your dog to learn an environmental signal, then you need to let them experience the environmental stimulus FIRST before triggering the behavior you would like them to do when they notice that stimulus.

Do: have a clearly defined picture in your head of what the behavior should look like before you teach it to your dog.
Do: focus on asking your dog to do something, rather than asking them NOT to do something

If the definition of the behavior is vague or involves your dog NOT doing something (ie “I want my dog to stop approaching the distraction”) that’s going to be harder for your dog to learn.

Don’t: cue the ABSENCE of a behavior- ignoring something, not approaching something, looking away from something are all lack of behaviors.

It’s easier to tell your dog to do something than to NOT do something.

Instead of “leave it” or “off,” cue the behavior you would like your dog to do instead.

Do: pay attention to the patterns that are happening!

How much time passed between your dog experiencing the signal, the behavior happening, the behavior being marked (a clicker, verbal reward marker, etc), and reinforcement being delivered?

How much extraneous stimuli happened in between your dog experiencing the signal and the behavior happening?

Don’t: try to rush things.

Rushing to get your dog to respond to a verbal signal, for example, by issuing a hand signal while you’re still speaking will only overshadow your verbal signal.

If you want your dog to respond quickly and with ease, focus on being smooth.

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

You can be efficient with your timing without rushing!

This goes for training sessions too- rushing your dog to try to learn a new behavior as fast as possible will only cause more errors and problems for you to have to fix later on.

It’s faster to slow down and do it right the first time, than go rush and have to go back and fix things!

Do: take a beat to plan ahead. Have some idea of how you’re going to break a behavior down for your dog. Strategize what signal you want to use, what marker is going to work best (ie what kind of reward is going to help reinforce the desired behavior- a click & tossing a treat on the ground might be great for loose leash walking vs telling your dog to “tug” a toy you’re holding in your hand to reward a recall).

Know what you’re going to do when things inevitably go wrong, too! Nothing and nobody is perfect- that includes you and your dog.

Don’t: throw your dog in the deep end and expect them to swim when they never learned how to tread water.
Don’t: punish your dog for YOUR lack of prior preparation and planning.

Do: be humble enough to ask for help, even if this isn’t your first rodeo
Do: onboard some kind of professional training BEFORE issues arise, rather than waiting for one to rear its head

Don’t: assume that things like puppy classes and early basic training aren’t necessary. Your trainer might be able to spot things that you hadn’t noticed. They’ll have a ton of helpful tips & tricks that you never would’ve thought of yourself from their years of hands-on experience and continuing education in the field. Which are invaluable assets!!

My Dog only responds if…

When it comes to dealing with an issue such as “my dog only comes when I call him if I have a cookie in my hand” or weaning off of using corrective tools such as e-collars or prong collars, all we have to do is clean up our training mechanics to make sure our dogs actually understand what we are asking them to do! Additionally, we need to ensure we have proofed the skills we want our dogs to show us in a variety of settings and around a variety of distractions to ensure our dogs are primed and ready to have their best manners ready to go at all times.

Let’s talk mechanics first…

Training mechanics are the things that happen that prompt a behavioral response from our dogs. We’re going to get a little nerdy for a second, but I promise it’ll be quick and painless. Something to keep in mind is that behavior does not happen in a vacuum. That is to say, behavior doesn’t just occur for no reason. There is always a trigger to a behavior happening- I hear a car door close, so I get up and go check to see if the pizza guy is here with my dinner. My throat feels scratchy so I take a drink of water. A dog smells a critter outside so they run to the window. Etc etc.

For dogs, the stimulus that triggers the behavior is often simple, and that is because dogs are amoral. They do not understand that certain things are good versus bad or right versus wrong, just that certain behaviors accomplish a goal or not. If a behavior does serve a valuable function for the dog (and the function of the behavior could simply be that it keeps the dog feeling safe or helps them cope with a Very Big Feeling) they will be more likely to engage in that behavior again in the future. If the behavior doesn’t accomplish a goal, then they will be less likely to do it again. 

So, there are two acronyms I want you to remember: WTF and ABC. 

WTF = What’s The Function. Why is my dog doing this behavior? What is the goal?  

ABC = Antecedent arrangement, Behavioral response, Consequence 

A stimulus triggers a behavior, and then the consequence of that behavior determines whether or not that behavior is likely to be repeated in the future. 

When it comes to dog training, specifically when we are dealing with a problem behavior, many folks have a tendency to focus on the B & C. We get fixated on figuring out the exact right thing to do after the dog does something we don’t like that will ensure they never ever do that behavior again. 

However, in order to experience that unpleasant consequence, the dog has to first engage in a behavior that we don’t like. This is bad! Very bad! Why? Because the more a dog rehearses a behavior, the more that behavior is likely to become a habit. And if you think it’s hard for people to break a bad habit, boy do I have some bad news for you about dogs. 

Not only that, but if the behavior continues to happen and continues to have an unpleasant consequence for the dog, then clearly the punishment is not very effective. Otherwise the behavior would go away! The example I usually go to is animals on a farm who quickly learn not to touch a live electric fence. Those things hurt! And they’re very startling- if you’ve ever accidentally bumped into one yourself, you know what I’m talking about. Typically animals touch a live fence once, and then never again. But if we apply that concept to a dog, who has no choice in most of the things that happen in their lives, we then get into some murky moral and ethical waters regarding that level of a punisher for a creature who simply doesn’t know the rules. 

The other issue that can come up is the threat of the punisher often needs to always be present for the dog to “behave.” Same is true for animals on a farm contained by a live fence! They learn the sound that it makes when it’s on, but if the power goes out or a wire gets disconnected and they don’t hear the noise, they know they can run right through the fence with impunity! In dogs, we often refer to this as dogs who are “collar smart.” They know when the e-collar or prong collar is on (or they know you have the remote in your hand or not) and unless that context is present, all bets are off. Hence why people still speed on the highway even though they know it’s illegal… unless they see a cop ahead. 

The same concept is true for dogs who only respond if you have a treat in your hand! That context is part of what’s prompting the behavior to happen. So when it’s not present, the prompt for the behavior becomes unclear. Again, it’s just a silly training mechanic mistake and we can easily fix that.

So, rather than focusing on the B & C part of the equation, we are going to focus on our antecedent arrangement. This will mean that the dog is as unlikely as possible to engage in the “bad” behavior at all, while learning how to do new, more desirable behaviors in their place.

Unfortunately, this means in a lot of ways we are going to go back to square one when it comes to training certain behaviors. Why? Because we need to teach the dog a new prompt for the behavior that doesn’t involve having a treat in hand or a certain tool around their neck. There’s a saying we see all the time in agility that I want you to remember, because it is true for any type of training whatsoever. You have to go slow to go fast. Meaning, it’s faster to do it right the first time than to have to do it over.

This is why I don’t train using a lot of luring or punishment in my training any more. They are two sides of the same coin- a very, very obvious signal that prompts a behavior to happen that I then have to fade out. And that takes a lot longer than using a method such as shaping or capturing. If you want to get real nerdy with it, check out Hannah Branigan’s stuff online all about loopy training, ie “errorless learning.” This has become a core principle for me, and a game changer. 

I usually prefer to teach the dog to perform a behavior either through an environmental cue or a hand signal first, and then add a verbal cue once the behavior is established. Dogs do not have verbal communication pre-installed! They learn through visual cues- body language, the presence or absence of certain stimuli, etc. So if I am giving my dog two signals at the same time, one that involves movement and one that involves a sound coming out of my mouth, which one are they going to pay more attention to? The movement! They might eventually associate the word with the behavior too, but that could take a while and there are faster ways to do things so why bother with that at all (in my opinion). 

This means we want to introduce the behavior in an environment we can easily control, so we can set up our dog such that they basically can’t get it wrong. Read: antecedent arrangement! This means you’re probably going to start by introducing the behavior in your living room where there’s no other distractions present. Anything else specifically is going to be different depending on the behavior you’re teaching, but we’ll circle back to that later. Once the dog is reliably performing the behavior on a clear signal (such as a hand signal or a verbal cue that you don’t have to repeat), we can then start to incorporate proofing! 

There are three aspects to proofing a behavior: distance, duration, and distractions. As you up the challenge for one, you decrease the challenge for the others. Eventually you can increase the challenge on all three at once, but again… you gotta go slow to go fast! So don’t rush. You’ll make more progress faster going one step at a time consistently forward than going three steps forward and then two steps back. 

So, an example of this could be: 

• I used capturing to teach my dog to sit in front of me in my living room. 

• I introduced the verbal cue “sit” and now my dog responds to the word without needing any other signals. 

• I introduced this same concept in every room of my house. 

• I taught my dog that sit also means “put your butt on the floor” even if they’re at my side and not in front of me. 

• I slowly increased duration, so my dog will sit for 30 seconds straight between food rewards and/or will sit until I release them (with a special release word like “free” or “break”)

• I slowly introduced movement, until I could cue my dog to sit and walk away from them 20 feet without any additional cues. 

• I slowly increased distractions such as waving my arms in the air, bending over to tie my shoes, squeaking a toy, etc.

• I then put my dog on a leash and went out in the driveway, and went back to step one of capturing the sit before introducing the verbal cue in this new environment. 

• Then I ensured my dog could respond at my side in this new environment. 

• Then I slowly started to incorporate all the same challenges for distance, duration, and distractions as I did in my house in this new environment. 

Rinse & repeat in lots of different environments, around lots of different distractions, and boom now you have a dog that will snap into a sit and hold it until they are released no matter where you are or what’s going on! 

For dogs that are “collar smart,” you can do things like put the collar on but attach your leash to a flat collar or body harness instead. Have the e-collar remote around your neck but don’t touch it (or take the battery out/ensure the remote is dead to help train YOURSELF a new behavior too). Etc etc. It’s the same as getting rid of the cookie in your hand. It’s just a piece of context we can easily replace with something else- don’t let anyone fool you into thinking otherwise! 

Here are some examples of basic, easy foundation behaviors that are often helpful with dogs that you can start incorporating these principles with. Some of these are also a great challenge for giving your dog some needed mental stimulation too! 

Sit & Down: https://youtu.be/7aXLN_HxRTs?si=fVnv9-r15OWiHxJz

Heel: https://youtu.be/mjlEJcr8lzA

Come When Called: https://youtu.be/7RG_3ujC11c

Back Up: https://youtu.be/kdFyVj8R9WE

Responding to Cues from a Distance: https://youtu.be/Jvxa4yXViRE

Adding Duration to Known Behaviors: https://youtu.be/0TvpRmVdLmg

Retrieve an Item: https://youtu.be/egD3a8VcpMc

Place: https://youtu.be/wCX9a7C28Gg

By the way, if you want to see these behaviors in use for real, definitely go stalk my Instagram and Facebook pages, as I’ve posted lots of videos of my dogs doing a lot of these skills in different places and even in competitions where the environment is a huge challenge AND I can’t have food or toys on me. 

How to Meet Your Dog’s Needs to Prevent Problem Behaviors

An important part of raising a well-behaved dog is keeping their brains busy! Obviously teaching basic obedience behaviors such as sit, stay, and coming when called are important, but mental stimulation & enrichment is so much more than that. Working your dog’s brain can mean anything from teaching fun tricks like roll over or play dead, to playing a few scent games, or giving them a treat dispensing toy or edible chew such as a bully stick or raw bone to work on. All the most popular breeds out there- Labs, Goldens, German Shepherds, Beagles, the various terriers, etc- were all bred to do a job. That means that they all have some amount of working ability inherent in their genetics. If you do not provide them with adequate mental stimulation and enrichment, they are going to be more likely to engage in undesirable behaviors such as excessive barking, destructive behaviors, jumping, or just being generally obnoxious. Trust me- if you do not give your working dog a job, they will assign themselves one and it’s probably going to be something you don’t like! It’s much more productive to make sure we are giving our dogs a “job,” which can be anything from structured training to getting involved in a dog sport (agility, scent work, rally obedience, barn hunt, etc), or just giving our dogs lots of enrichment toys and things to chew on. 

Variety is the Spice of Life. Yes we all love our routines, but make sure you switch things up for your dog so they don’t get bored. Invest in several food dispensing toys, and rotate through them regularly. Also make sure you incorporate a variety of the suggestions listed below! 

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Nosework games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qhqEZwxGnk&t=2s

This is my favorite way to provide enrichment for my dogs because it allows them to engage in a behavior that they are VERY good at, foraging! Dogs are natural scavengers, and when left to their own devices would naturally forage around looking for food (the domestic dog isn’t a great hunter by and large, they evolved to coexist with people so they are far more likely to scavenge for scraps than they are hunt for live prey) rathis than eating out of a bowl. Using their meals as an opportunity for them to search for their food is an excellent way to provide them with mental enrichment, allowing them to burn off some energy without over exciting them.

Ditch the dog bowl: 

One of the easiest ways to provide our dogs with mental enrichment is by giving them their meals in fun and interesting ways. Investing in a few treat dispensing toys or food puzzles will be well worth the money! For more information on store bought and DIY options, please see the “Enrichment Toys” section.

DIY enrichment: 

From easy braided toys made from old t-shirts to more complex projects like snuffle mats, there are tons of ways to get the whole family involved in the responsibility for caring for a pet. One of the easiest DIY food puzzles you can make is to take a muffin pan and fill some of the wells with your dog’s favorite treats or kibble. Cover all of the wells with tennis balls and then give to your dog! They’ll have to move the tennis balls around to get at the food underneath. For a few easy to DIY dog toys, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4L8s1PI7pg

Sniffer Walks: 

Grab yourself a long line and head out to a quiet park or hiking trail. Follow your dog, allow them to sniff and explore to their heart’s content! It will be easier to keep the leash from getting tangled in their legs if you use a harness with a back-clip attachment. Ideally, a harness with both an attachment on the chest area and the back will be best, as the front-clip attachment is perfect for helping dogs with a tendency to pull on leash. The Freedom No-Pull Harness is a good one, as is the Balance Harness. 

A shorter walk where they are allowed to sniff and follow their nose will actually tire the dog out more than a longer walk where they are moving at a quicker pace. Why? Because they are using their brain more! 

Tricks: 

A great way to provide both mental & physical stimulation is teaching your dog to perform tricks. There are endless YouTube tutorials available for free to show you how to teach your dog virtually any trick you can think of (you can start with the videos on my channel: YouTube.com/PupToPerfection if you’d like!) from simple tricks like shake a paw or roll over to more complex tricks like play dead or a “rear leg hike.” Your hard work teaching your dog to perform tricks can also pay off for you! The more behaviors you teach your dog to perform, the more tools you’re adding to your tool box to get and hold your dog’s focus. 

Chews: Dogs love to chew, and providing your dog with appropriate items to chew on is a great way to provide enrichment. Brands like Benebone, Nylabone, and Petstages make long lasting chews (the Petstages Dogwood Sticks have been a hit with my dogs) but my favorites are edible chews that are meant to be ingested. Please check out the list below for some more ideas- you can find these items at most pet stores! 

Enrichment Toys for Feeding Meals & Keeping a Dog Busy

Treat dispensing toys and food puzzles are a fun, easy way to give dogs a great mental workout. Eating a meal out of a bowl is simply not that interesting for a dog, but knocking around a treat dispensing toy or solving a puzzle is great enrichment for them! There are loads of different options available online and in stores, but here are some of my tried and tested favorites. 

Kongs

Mix your dog’s kibble with peanut butter (all natural is best and make sure there’s no xylitol in it), non-fat plain yogurt, canned pumpkin, or even baby food! Fill up the Kong with the mixture and keep it in the freezer until needed. You can even ditch the kibble and just use a soft food if needed. Kongs are also dishwasher safe and come in three different levels: puppy, standard, and extreme for the most voracious chewers. Kongs are easily available at any pet store. Kongs should be big enough that your dog cannot fit the entire thing in their mouth! As a general rule, the larger the better. We don’t want anyone choking!

Toppl Toys

These can be used the same way as a Kong, but the opening is much larger. Some dogs find the Kong toys a bit frustrating because the opening is a bit small, so these are a great option if that’s the case for your pup!  

Kong Wobbler

The Kong Wobbler is a more interactive treat dispensing toy. Remember Weeble Wobbles- they weeble and they wobble, but they don’t fall down? The Kong Wobbler does the same thing! It has a weighted base with a rounded bottom and a hollow top with a hole for the food to come out of. Dogs have to knock the toy around in order to get the food to come out. This one is great for hyperactive pups! Kong Wobblers are available at PetSmart and other select pet stores or can be purchased online.

Starmark Bob-A-Lot

This toy is very similar to the Kong Wobbler, but can be made more difficult. The bob-a-lot has a sliding door that can be made smaller or larger to let less or more food out each time it’s knocked. This makes it great for dogs who need more of a challenge!

PetSafe Busy Buddy Magic Mushroom

The Magic Mushroom is a more difficult treat dispensing toy which makes it wonderful for extremely food motivated dogs or dogs that find most treat dispensing toys too easy. It is similar to the Kong Wobbler, but the mushroom cap on top makes it more difficult for the treats to come out. It’s also a little quieter than the Wobbler if that’s a concern.

PetSafe Busy Buddy Tug-A-Jug

The Tug-A-Jug is probably the most difficult treat dispensing toy on this list, but it’s great for dogs that like to pick up and toss their toys around. The bottom of the bottle-shaped toy unscrews and can be filled with any kind of treat or kibble. The dog has to pull on the rope and shake the toy around to get the food out, making it a great mental enrichment item for active dogs that are highly food motivated. 

Jolly Pets Teeter & Toppler

These two toys are on the easier end of the spectrum. Both can be filled with any kind of treat or kibble; the dog then has to knock the toy around to get the food out, but the larger openings make this easier. These are great options for dogs that aren’t as food driven or to introduce the concept of a treat dispensing toy. You can find these toys at online.

Omega Paw Treat Ball

This is probably the easiest treat dispensing toy out there and is easily available at Walmart or online. A perfect introduction for dogs who are new to treat dispensing toys! 

Lickimat (<- click here to learn more)

The Lickimat is a great option for those who feed wet or raw dog food. Simply mush your dog’s food into the Lickimat and let ‘em at it! You can also freeze the mat for an added challenge. Silicone ice cube & cookie molds available at most department and dollar stores also make great improvised Lickimats. 

DIY Options

Snuffle Mat (<- click here to learn more)

Giving your dog the chance to dig and forage for their food is incredibly stimulating. These easy to make mats enable your dog to use their sense of smell to find the bits of food hidden in the fabric of the mat. These are great options for dogs that eat too quickly! 

Spin The Bottle Treat Dispenser (<- click here to learn more)

This is a great option if you’ve got some scrap wood lying around- or if you don’t, it can be cheaper to DIY this one than purchasing some of the food puzzles! Fill empty bottles with their food or treats and let them work to spin the bottles! 

There are also endless other treat dispensing toys and snuffle mat options available online! Have some fun searching for options on Google or spend some time browsing Amazon or Chewy. 

Other Enrichment Ideas

Enrichment is not one size fits all. Each dog will have different activities that they find enriching. Variety is also important to a dog! Having lots of ideas that you can rotate through will help prevent boredom and frustration with your dog. Here are some other ideas: 

• Create a dig pit 

• Scatter feeding (literally scatter some treats or their kibble in the yard or in the house)

• Spring poles 

• Going somewhere new for a walk

• Giving your dog a new toy (or a few…)

• Trying your hand at more conceptual training such as “Do As I Do” or teaching your dog how to read

• Foraging puzzles such as a kiddie pool filled with plastic balls and scattering treats or kibble in for your dog to find. You can also use their toy basket! Place all your dog’s toy’s in a basket or bin and scatter treats or kibble throughout for your dog to find. They will have to pull toys out of the basket to get to the treats, so this can also satisfy the need for dogs to shred things.  

• Feed meals in empty cardboard boxes or packing paper. Your dog will need to shred the box or paper to get to the food, a great activity for dogs who can be destructive or like to chew to give them an appropriate outlet for those types of behaviors (meaning they’ll be less likely to chew/shred up inappropriate things). 

• The Hollee Roller ball has lots of applications for enrichment

• Movement Puzzles & indoor dog-safe obstacle courses  

Do Nothing Game for Curbing Attention Seeking Behavior

When it comes to curbing attention seeking behaviors, we need to switch our way of thinking a bit. And to do that, we are going to get a little bit nerdy about how behavior works. It’ll be quick and painless, I promise. 

The first thing we need to remember is that behavior does not happen in a vacuum. That is to say, behavior doesn’t just happen for no reason. There is always a trigger to a behavior happening- I hear a car door close, so I get up and go check to see if the pizza guy is here with my dinner. My throat feels scratchy so I clear my throat. A dog smells a critter outside so they run to the window. Etc etc. For dogs, the stimulus that triggers the behavior is often simple, and that is because dogs are amoral. They do not understand that certain things are good or bad, just that certain behaviors accomplish a goal. And if they do, they will be more likely to engage in that behavior again in the future. If the behavior doesn’t accomplish their goal, then they will be less likely to do it again. So, there are two acronyms I want you to remember: WTF and ABC. 

WTF = What’s The Function. Why is my dog doing this behavior? What is the goal? 

This one’s simple. Now for the nerdy one. 

ABC = Antecedent arrangement, Behavioral response, Consequence 

A stimulus triggers a behavior, and then the consequence of that behavior determines whether or not that behavior is likely to be repeated in the future. 

When it comes to dog training, specifically when we are dealing with a problem behavior, many folks have a tendency to focus on the B & C. We get fixated on figuring out the exact right thing to do after the dog does something we don’t like that will get them to never do that behavior again. However, in order to experience that unpleasant consequence, the dog has to first engage in a behavior that we don’t like. This is bad! Very bad!

Why? Because the more a dog rehearses a behavior, the more that behavior is likely to become a habit. And if you think it’s hard for people to break a bad habit, boy do I have some bad news for you about dogs. 

So, rather than focusing on the B & C part of the equation, we are going to focus on our antecedent arrangement instead. This will mean that the dog is as unlikely as possible to engage in the “bad” behavior at all, while learning how to do new, more desirable behaviors in their place. 

What does this look like when it comes to demanding behavior? For starters, we need to think WTF?!?! 

The function of attention seeking behaviors- like your dog barking at you every time you sit down to eat your dinner, biting at your pant legs whenever you stand at the sink to do the dishes, or pawing at you while you’re in the middle of that very important Zoom meeting for work- is fairly obvious. They are trying to get your attention for some reason. So, we want to focus on doing a few things to fix this. 

First, we are going to ensure we are meeting our dog’s needs to ensure they do not have as many reasons to need our attention.

Second, we are going to set our dogs up to be successful. We are going to make sure they have access to all sorts of other reinforcers while we are distracted. They should have toys on the floor of different sizes, shapes, textures, etc. You can also leave other items like Benebones/Nylabones, split antlers, dogwood sticks, or even some food dispensing toys around for your dog. I am also going to make sure that my dog has access to water, has recently had a potty break, and has ideally gotten some sort of physical exercise. Even if that’s a quick play in the yard to stretch their legs or a short walk. 

Third, we need to start teaching our dog a signal that attention from us is simply not available at certain times. To do this, I want you to first consider a few things: Where in the home is the demanding behavior most likely to happen? At what time of day is the demanding behavior most likely to happen? Are there any situations where the demanding behavior doesn’t happen? 

For example, maybe every time you sit on the couch after dinner to relax your dog starts barking at you. Or, maybe the dog is capable of hanging out with you in the basement while you switch the laundry over and they don’t engage in demanding behavior. Keep these situations in mind. 

Now I want you to put yourself in a situation where your dog might be likely to be demanding at you. For illustrative purposes, I am going to create a hypothetical situation. Every time Jane starts cooking dinner, her dog Rocco barks at her. If she ignores him, he escalates to jumping up, biting at her clothes, or getting destructive around the house (because he’s learned that those things always get Jane’s attention, because of course they do- if your dog is biting at your legs it hurts and you can’t just ignore it, same if your dog is chewing on your coffee table). So after getting home from work, Jane lets Rocco out in the yard to go potty and get some exercise. Then he got his dinner in a frozen Toppl toy in his exercise pen so Jane could get a few things done without the dog disrupting her. She got some stuff prepped for dinner, and then let Rocco out to potty again after he finished his dinner. Jane also made sure that in the living room, away from the kitchen, Rocco had plenty of toys available, including a new split antler she grabbed on the way home from work. 

Jane goes in the kitchen and starts cooking dinner. She knows from past experience that Rocco will start barking at her after she’s been involved in cooking for about a minute. So she sets a timer for 45 seconds. When it goes off, she leaves the kitchen and goes into the living room where she stashed a jar of treats on a shelf. She grabs a couple treats out of the jar, and chucks them across the room towards all of Rocco’s toys. She then goes back into the kitchen, and repeats this exercise. 

Jane is tossing the cookies towards Rocco’s toys to help reinforce that he can entertain himself with those items should he need something to do, but the goodies do not come from Jane directly. 

While she is in the kitchen cooking, Rocco gets no attention. Jane knows from past experience that if she were to leave the kitchen and give Rocco affection (looking at him, petting him, etc) or if she were to pick up a toy and play with him as a reward for leaving her alone in the kitchen for 45 seconds, that he would get too excited and would be more likely to demand bark sooner as a result. So she is using food as a reward. If the opposite is true for your dog (tossing a cookie across the room gets them too amped up, but you petting them does not) then you can do the opposite with your own dog. 

After five successful 45 second repetitions of this exercise, Jane bumps her timer up to a minute. After five successful repetitions of that, she bumps up her timer to 75 seconds. She rinses and repeats this exercise until she is done cooking. She then takes Rocco out to potty, and puts him back in his exercise pen with a marrow bone to gnaw on so she can eat her dinner in peace. 

What we are teaching the dog is that attention (or food, or play, or whatever reinforcer your dog wants) is not available under [fill in the blank here] circumstances. It is only once that picture changes that attention from you is available. 

If leaving the room is not an option depending on your situation, you can create a different signal such as putting a specific blanket on the floor. Put the blanket on the floor, sit on your couch for 10 seconds, then get up and put the blanket away, go to your dog’s toy basket, and play with them for 10 seconds. Then put the toy down, put the blanket back on the floor, rinse & repeat. 

Start with a length of time that your dog can be successful, and slowly build up from there. 

And remember- there is nothing wrong with just removing your dog from the situation! If you can’t do this protocol while you’re actually working at your desk, then keep the dog out of your office while you’re working and practice doing this protocol when you don’t actually have work to get done. When your dog can handle you sitting at your desk for five minutes at a time during practice time, maybe you can start letting them hang out in the office with you while you’re actually working for a bit (while still doing this protocol) and then when you have a meeting where you can’t get up every five minutes, the dog can go back in the other room or their crate with some busy work. 

Something to remember though, is that even when you get up and go to your “reinforcement zone” to give your dog a cookie or play with them, don’t make a huge super deal out of it. Nonchalantly grab the cookie out of the jar and toss it on the floor for them. Unceremoniously pick up a toy and do a little lazy tugging. Calmly give them a few pats and a quiet “good dog” before starting your next rep of Doing Nothing. 

What’s important to remember about this protocol is the dog does not need to be doing anything. They can do whatever they want! That’s the point! It’s literally just teaching them that when you are busy doing something, they can do whatever they want except solicit attention from you. They can lie on the floor, stand and look out the window, play with a toy, sit on the couch, etc. There are so many behaviors to choose from, and so many other reinforcers available to you, except one. 

By tying that concept to a clear signal such as you sitting at your desk or a specific blanket being placed on the floor, we are giving them plenty of context to understand what is and is not going to happen now. And this helps prevent frustration from occurring, which goes hand in hand with demanding behavior. 

And of course, if you need more help, please contact me to discuss virtual coaching or in person private lessons!

For more on meeting your dog’s needs: https://www.puptoperfection.com/blog/how-to-meet-your-dogs-needs-to-prevent-problem-behaviors