Oliver's Travels Dog Training, with Virginia Dickson

Getting a settled in state of mind when your dog is in command is very different from that tense I’m holding it but it’s taking all I’ve got!. What’s the impact? Two big ones: (1) It’s the difference between constantly managing him with corrections versus giving a command confident that he’ll hold it. (2) Being able to hold a command with a relaxed state of mind feeds into the rest of his over all state of mind, contributing to his developing into a calm, balanced dog. When you’re helping your dog, especially one with a behavioral issue, this is a valuable difference to aim for.

Increasing the challenge for Max as he holds his Down command is important to prepare him for his life once he’s back home. Repetition is key. Not only in getting him to success, but even after he’s done it well once, he needs repeated exposure to the same challenge to build his strength at holding the command. This notion of repetition or maybe just us humans’ discipline at doing it is often what gets skipped. Without it, our dogs don’t have the benefit of having the full expanse of what the command means and then when they’re expected to hold the command with real-life, random triggers, they’re not fully prepared. So now that Max can hold his Down with me walking away and my dogs walking to him, I need to practice that same level of challenge multiple times over multiple days.

For a lot of dogs, being calm and relaxed even in a quiet environment is a big deal. They’ve got to learn this as a skill and master it in relatively easy locations first. A common mistake is thinking that white belt skill will help the dog against his big triggers. But being able to apply it in higher distractions is a challenge best approached with carefully planned and controlled incremental challenges. So for a reactive dog, these in-house scenarios are critical but not sufficient. Planning a dog’s first outside sessions need to carefully increase the challenge which means maybe being around dogs a block away till he can handle that calmly. Then gradually increasing the exposure but only at the rate the dog can handle... working through his colors till his new skill at staying calm is what you’d call a black belt.

The dreaded it depends! Why can’t life’s questions be made up of simple, clear answers! If your dog has no behavioral issues, then where he stands and when he does it is not anything you’ve got to consider. But if he does, especially if you know he’s insecure in some settings, then you do want to assess his motivation when he’s near you. If it seems like he’s hovering, (being close to you out of insecurity) and he seems uncomfortable with the activity around him, you shou...ld push him away. What? I know it seems counter intuitive but by pushing him away you’re accomplishing two things: 1) you’re disagreeing with his insecure state of mind (versus rewarding it); 2) encouraging him to practice handling uncomfortable situations on his own. As time goes on, your formerly insecure dog may start to look quite comfortable in settings that used to bother him. If he chooses to be near you then even though he used to have issues there’s nothing bad that’ll come from that. Not only do you not need to push him away, but you could further reward that confident and calm state of mind by petting him. Now one caveat, as with most tips given here, this won’t be effective in isolation, rather, is part of a behavioral rehabilitation program that includes building new skills to handle old triggers. See more

This is a hard one for a lot of my owners. After training, they are reunited with their dogs who, for the first time, are listening to their commands and the behavioral problem they were experiencing may have already disappeared. The changes I ask owners to make in how they interact with their dogs during the first weeks home I call it boot camp can quickly seem unnecessary. The issue in relaxing too soon and just enjoying their new dog, is that they’re still only mid-...way through a sustained behavioral rehabilitation. Relaxing the rules too soon means that their old dog will be back. The other element that’s important to talk openly about is that for some dogs, owners won’t ever be able to go back to living with them the way they did while the behavioral issue developed. Knowing that your dog is in recovery (I don’t use that term lightly) can help owners sustain their dogs’ rehabilitation. It becomes about giving their dogs what they need (typically, more structure) to stay emotionally healthy. Framed this way it can help owners overcome their own emotional weight of denying their dogs the complete freedom and privileges they previously associated as being what was best for their dogs. Straight forward obedience training does provide most balanced dogs just that: freedom to make good choices. But for behavioral rehabilitation, even the best obedience training can be insufficient if the emotional needs of the dog are not being met. See more

I’m not mad at anyone who answered Always and it’s definitely best practice only to give affection when your dog is calm... if you want a calm dog . But my experience is that some dogs are easy and no matter what their owners do or don’t do, they’ve got no issues. I like to acknowledge that since many of my clients have had such a unicorn in their past which adds to the struggle of changing how they interact with the dog they’ve come to me for help with. So my fuller answer to this quiz is (C) For some dogs, yes... and for those dogs it ALWAYS matters.

For dogs with behavioral issues, sustained improvement happens when we owners leverage all the tools and tricks at our disposal. Associating specific places with being calm is a powerful one. Good locations include riding in the car as well as being inside the house. A few benefits accrue from this, perhaps the most powerful being that these become areas where your anxious dog is not practicing being anxious. As his association strengthens with being calm in these places they... become automatic and he’ll feel calm even without being in a command (which is how you create the initial association). This new default state of calm also impacts how reactive he’ll be to common triggers people walking past the car, someone coming to the front door. If he’s at a calm 2 out of 10 state of mind when those trigger activities happen, his excitement level might jump to a manageable 4 or 5 out of 10. Whereas if he’s already excited in those moments, the trigger can push him up to an 8 or 9 out of 10... or maybe an 11 . Creating an association with a calm state of mind goes a long way towards helping a dog with a history of anxiety or reactivity stay on top of his issues. See more

It’s funny how predictable it is: a stubborn dog who resists complying with commands is the same dog who struggles ignoring commands given to another dog. So it’s a sweet, rewarding moment when those dogs practice the self discipline it takes to ignore the commands for the other dog and have the confidence to know that when they hear their name it’s for them! Jersey the #corgi and Otis the #berner are in for very different issues (human aggression and generally innocent bra...ttiness, respectively), but they share a stubborn streak a mile wide (full mile each!). This exercise is great for them and their owners can sort of replicate it at home just by giving a command using another dog’s name. Not quite as challenging as having the other dog present and moving while they hold their command, but a good exercise in practicing impulse control nonetheless. See more

When owners have a set back with their dog’s behavior, I ask them to send me 5 clips that show: 1) going in/out of the crate; 2) walking in the house through internal doorways; 3) going outside/coming inside; 4) getting ready for a walk; and 5) on a walk. No matter what the dog’s behavioral issue might be (reactivity, off-leash aggression, fearful aggression), I don’t ask for clips of that. Seeing the problem behavior doesn’t help get to the underlying reason causing the beh...avior. While my owners have already mastered these moments with their dogs, over time the quality can deteriorate, just a little, and for some dogs that’s all they need to start to second guess their owner’s leadership. This is a perfect example of the devil being in the details and often I’ll see something in these clips that will help the owners tighten things up. With their leadership firmly re-established, owners see their dog’s behavioral issue go away. See more

Trainers say, Don’t name it till you love it and you’ll be amazed at how much faster your dog picks up a new command if you only start to give the verbal cue after she has mastered the physical element . A couple of other tips for potty training: use the crate! 100% of this process is establishing a good habit and if your puppy never has the opportunity to practice the bad habit of going potty inside the house, you’re more than half way to success. The best resource for ne...w puppy owners is The Monks of New Skete’s The Art of Raising a Puppy. It provides all the detail new owners need from the moment they pick up their puppy including crate and feeding schedules and socialization tips before she’s had all her shots. It’s not a bad resource for adult adoptions either. While the puppy-specific info won’t be necessary, their over arching message about providing rules, boundaries, and establishing leadership in subtle yet powerful ways is . See more

This madly handsome corgi has never NOT pulled the leash in his 4 years on planet earth. Here, not only is he not pulling, he’s keeping himself at my side as we walk upstairs. Teaching your dog to show polite, deferential behavior in moments that are valuable to him (up/down stairs, through doorways or narrow spaces) is invaluable to creating and maintaining a good relationship with him. These are called non-command moments because you don’t have to tell him to be polite, h...e just makes that choice on his own. For dogs with behavioral issues Jersey here thinks it’s okay to bite his owners and also lunge and bark at kids and dogs making these non-command moments automatic will be the difference between his owners genuinely relaxing in his presence or always be managing his behavior. For the record, he’ll also practice complying with obedience commands... although he knew all those before he got here. Net new for him is showing respect and choosing to do it all on his own. See more

In an earlier post about Rocky’s low social drive, I describe the benefits of advocating for him to build his tolerance for appropriate and polite social interaction. So why would I allow Nellie to keep trying so hard (bless her ) to get him to play? Why aren’t I stepping in to relieve him of the pressure when he clearly doesn’t want to play? Because they’re friends. They have a relationship that is bigger than this moment. And while Rocky isn’t reciprocating Nellie’s intere...st, he also doesn’t look tense and uncomfortable; his body is relaxed. Also, Nellie is being respectful, she’s not body slamming him and with all her bouncing around is careful not to run into him. Keep in mind that your low social drive dog might not mind some pretty invasive interaction but that doesn’t mean he won’t still need your support when the next stranger dog approaches him with that same kind of energy. Just like humans, dogs can be fine with some behavior from a friend that they’d feel very uncomfortable with from a stranger... or a dog they know but just don’t like. See more

There’s nothing wrong with having a low social drive (can I get an amen? ), but if your dog isn’t skilled in handling unwanted attention and reacts too strongly, this can cause a fight depending on how the other dog responds to his inappropriate correction. Knowing how to advocate for your low-social-drive dog may be the difference between him enjoying his social outings on his own terms and you having to respond to a dog fight. First, make sure you can recognize reciprocal ...interest. If your dog walks away, looks away, or sits down when another dog approaches and sniffs, he’s letting the other dog know that he’s not interested. Second, if the other dog insists, you should intervene. You might call your dog to you or if necessary step between the two dogs; either way you’re reinforcing to your dog that you’ve got his back and he doesn’t need to take matters into his own hands. All this assumes that your dog isn’t snapping at others as soon as they approach, even when approaching respectfully. (If so, get help from a trainer to help get your dog at least to a level of tolerance.) But if your dog looks similar to Rocky who, although tolerating the greetings, clearly isn’t interested in returning the gesture, you can actually build his tolerance by stepping in and making the greetings he doesn’t like last as short as possible. While this may seem counter intuitive at first, think of Rocky’s greetings like a pressure cooker with each greeting adding to his internal pressure. Keeping each interaction short means the pressure doesn’t build. Over time, short interactions without any pressure build up start to create a new pattern. Now, this doesn’t mean he’ll ever become more interested when greeted (we leopards can’t change our spots, after all ) but his skills improve so he’s not bothered by interaction and just happily enjoys those social encounters in his own low-social way. See more

These two beautiful sisters have a history of fighting and to hear that they have had a year under their belts without any fights is a beautiful thing. It’s also one of the most challenging behavioral rehabs for owners. Unlike having a dog who’s reactive on walks or aggressive with house guests which are based on triggers that are largely predictable, if you have dogs who fight each other, this can happen any time, any where, 24/7/365. This is where how your dogs feel about y...our leadership informs the choices they make even in those hundreds of tiny moments that happen between dogs throughout their day. This is also where embracing your leadership role means understanding that observing your dogs’ behavior and understanding when she makes respectful choices or rude ones means you may be giving her corrections for poor choices but won’t be breaking up dog fights. Understanding the little moments that are meaningful to your dog and agreeing with good choices and disagreeing with bad ones is a skill that allows for years of harmonious living. See more