Controlling Unwanted Behaviour

By Mark B

The CUB programme is a social awareness system designed for people and dogs; it is a simple regime that works on your social interaction through cooperation and consistency. It provides simple but effective lines of communication that gives you and your dog the opportunity to understand the rules in life. Its aim is to avoid the stress and confusion that ineffective communication can bring. It can be used on its own or to supplement treatment for behaviour issues.

An example of poor communication is, allowing your dog up on furniture and then a couple of minutes later shouting at it for doing the same thing. Dogs don’t understand ‘sometimes’ and a large number of behaviours can be attributed to this sort of confusion.

Imagine going to a foreign land, where you don’t understanding the local language or customs. If a person smiles at you and points to a seat, you might sit down, how would you react if they suddenly become aggressive towards you. You may be confused and perhaps a little fearful; you might respond in a number different of ways depending who you are as an individual.

To address confusion and improve lines of communication we need to put some simple guidelines in place, for bothyou and your dog to follow. When you are consistent in communicating, your dog will slowly start to understand. Dogs are social animals that have a cooperative nature; providing consistency provides an environment where they can learn.

The Guidelines of Consistency.Be Consistent.

Consistent behaviour is the key to good communication, and communication is the key to understanding.

Consistent behaviour means not only showing your dog what is expected by encouraging good behaviour, but actively ensuring we don’t reward unacceptable behaviour. If right or wrong is clearly indicated then it’s easy to understand.

Your dog isn’t deaf, if it doesn’t respond; it is not because it can’t hear you. Raising your voice and shouting louder won’t make a difference other than to cause increased stress, making it less likely that it will respond positively. Use consistent calm simple one word commands, and reward success. It’s not always easy to remain calm when you have a dog bouncing and barking, but this behaviour will help your dog to understand you are in control.

Train your dog to understand you

Dogs are not mind readers. For them to learn something new, it is important to show them that we like this new behaviour and not just expect it to understand.

Dogs develop very quickly and a young dog can learn to understand many new skills from a very early age. Reward good behaviour as soon as it happens; we can use food, games, walks and attention to provide this reward.

If you provide any rewards when your dog has shown unwanted behaviour, such as nipping or jumping and inappropriate barking then it is likely it will repeat it, in order to earn the reward again.

If this happens you have trained your dog to do the wrong thing. So ensure that in future you do not reward the unwanted behaviour; then it will diminish and go away.

All family members should be consistent

If your dog is rewarded for unwanted behaviour by a family member he will repeat that behaviour with them and try it on with you. Encourage older children and adults to follow these guidelines.

Show and expect good manners

Dogs are naturally good mannered, if you reward good manners and don’t reward poor manners then you will quickly see this is the case. Expect your dog to show you and other people respect, don’t allow it to:

· Jump at visitors

· Snatch or take food without permission

· Demand attention

· Jump around when putting on its lead

· Push through doorways in front of you

· Drag you down the road during walks

All of these behaviours will increase if you reward them and decrease if rewarding stops.

Your time with your dog should be positive and on your terms, jumping, nipping, barking, pulling and other attention seeking behaviour puts the attention in your dog’s court. Do not reward this behaviour or you will increase it.

Fulfil your dogs’ needs.

Many people live busy lifestyles, this can mean the dog is not given the stimulation it needs to remain physically and emotionally healthy, dogs need activity; they are intelligent animals that need lots of exercise, play, and stimulation. This is an obligation that comes with the dog-human partnership. If you can’t do it get someone to do it for you.

· Exercise, 2 or 3 times a day for at least 30 minutes to an hour. Most of this should be off-lead if possible. Note: puppies should be exercised gently and for short periods during the first 9 months of their life.

· Stimulation, your dog needs to use its brain, so stimulate it by fun training, small doses are better than long sessions, 5 to 10 minutes, 3 or 4 times a day will have your dog and you looking forward to training.

· Play, dogs are social animals who play for the whole of their life, it is important for their wellbeing that you provide opportunity for play, teach your dog to retrieve, or sniff out an old sock and reward good play. Do not put down a bunch of toys and leave them to it, this can lead to even worse behaviour.

· Rest, dogs need time out, don’t fuss them all the time, let them rest, particularly pups. We also need some time out; don’t allow your dog to push its attention on you or others during these periods.

These guidelines are easy, follow them and your dog will understand your intentions better. You will have learned how to communicate and will have more control before long you will find your dog is a pleasure to be with.

Now we know the guidelines, how do we ensure that they are followed?

Use SMART Rewards.

SMART Rewards.

Dogs will repeat anything that is rewarding and stop doing things that are not. It is important to communicate well with your dog and ensure that only the behaviour we want to encourage is rewarded. Most inappropriate behaviour is caused through rewarding by mistake, so you will need to be aware of this when you see behaviour you don’t want. Become a SMART rewarder.

Simply put, a SMART Reward is one that is deliberately given, that stimulates your dog in a pleasurable way. You can use this to shape and improve the behaviour that you wish to develop, SMART means:

Simple, keep rewards simple don’t make it hard for yourself or your dog.

Meaningful, rewards should be offered only for behaviours you want to keep.

Achievable, ensure that your dog is able to earn the reward.

Realistic, don’t go over the top with rewards or your dog will expect it.

Timing, you should reward new behaviour when it happens.

Smart Rewarding can be broken down into several categories.

Touch, our dogs often seek physical contact as a reward, (this can be the basis for attention seeking).

Eye Contact, our dogs will look at us to make contact, returning this eye contact can provide a positive response for our dogs.

Verbal, though our dogs’ communication system is not verbal, they do respond well to familiar, pleasant sounding words and tones. Such as ‘Good Dog’.

Food, this is a survival resource and dogs will often jump through hoops for a tasty treat.

Play, play as a reward is a great way to end a session

It is the process of providing and withholding the rewards at the right time that makes a reward SMART. It takes practice, but once you understand the principle that your dog will repeat any behaviour that is rewarding and stop any behaviour that is unrewarding, then you are on the right track to being able to provide or remove this stimulus on cue.

To shape or teach the behaviour we want: we can provide any or all of the above rewards. To get the timing right use a clicker, or give a primary reward of a gently spoken “Gooood ”. Example; to teach a dog to make eye contact, take a treat, look at your dog, when he looks into your eyes, immediately click, or say, gooood and give the treat. Try it you will be surprised how quickly this behaviour is repeated. Don’t rush it, wait till your dog looks.

To stop unwanted behaviour: simply don’t reward, for example if your dog jumps up, Immediately move your arms away to prevent touch, break eye contact by turning the head away, do not talk to the dog, if it continues to try to make contact, take one step away. Do this each time the behaviour happens, when your dog does something you like, such as sitting in front of you, then reward this behaviour immediately.

It takes practice to follow the guidelines of consistency and learn to SMART reward; but it is the basis for much of the skill of behaviour modification.

Summary

Follow the Guidelines of Consistency

1. Be consistent

2. Train your dog to understand you

3. All family members should be consistent

4. Fulfil your dogs needs

5. Show and expect good manners

Keep training simple, reward good behaviour, don’t reward unwanted behaviour. Use SMART rewards. Practice, if you get it wrong don’t worry, try to get it right next time. Don’t expect too much at first from your dog or yourself.

As with all changes to your behaviour with your dogs, it will take you a little time to get the processes running consistently. If you make a mistake don’t worry, note it and try to get it right next time. You have lots of time, the more you use the principles written here, the better your communication will be with your dog.

Paul Rawlinson Cert Ed ADipCCB PAACT

K9 Dogs: www.k9dogs.co.uk

Further details are included in our training program. Click on the ‘please train me’ button below: