When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [71]
Here is another common nipping ABC story:
1. Children playing rough, screaming, and running around.
2. Dog runs around with the children and eventually gets wound up enough to start nipping.
3. Children wail and scream really loudly and sound like wounded prey animals. (How exciting!)
My first advice in this situation is, don’t ever let it happen. In this ABC story, you need to watch out for the antecedent and manage the situation so that your dog does not engage in rough play. If your children are going to be playing rough games, especially games where the children might hurt each other and start screaming, let your dog hang out with you while the kids play. Don’t leave your dog unsupervised with rowdy children. Your dog may either join in the fun and nip, or “defend” one of the children from another aggressive child. You can’t blame him in either case, but he can wind up paying for it with his life. Parental management is called for.
Notwithstanding that advice, it is a good thing to teach a dog an alternate and acceptable behavior in response to children behaving wildly, in case you make a mistake and leave your dog outside with some wild kids. How about this?
A. Children playing rough, screaming, and running around.
B. Dog comes to you when you call (you have been standing by, monitoring the situation).
C. Dog receives a big reward of treats and praise.
Now unruly children become a predictor for good things if your dog leaves them alone and comes to you. Again, you should never rely on your dog to automatically leave hyper-stimulated children alone. It is not fair to the dog or the children to expect that. However, at least if you practice this ABC enough, your dog will not escalate his behavior as quickly and he will be (with enough practice) willing to come to you even under the extreme provocation of wailing children.
Regarding the interactions of children and dogs, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you visit www.doggonesafe.com. This is an incredibly interesting and informative website dedicated solely to dog bite prevention. They offer games and other interactive materials that will help you and your children learn how to safely interact with dogs.
Chill Out, Please!
Restlessness Around the House
It is a big pain to have a dog that never calms down. Sometimes wouldn’t you give anything to have your dog lie down quietly next to you and relax? Here is a news flash:
Lying down quietly is a behavior.
An operant dog will offer lying down quietly just as he will offer any other
behavior.
You can free shape quietness around the house just like you shaped all the other behaviors you have taught your dog. Catch your dog in the act of being calm, and reinforce the heck out of it. The difference is with a sit or a down you might effectively teach a behavior in one or two sessions, calmness around the house is a life project that you reinforce persistently over time. You will see some immediate results when you start reinforcing calm behaviors, but your dog will become more and more civilized as you make reinforcing your dog’s calmness a habit.
In order to get calmness around the house, use a two-pronged approach.
1. Do an ABC list for when your dog is calm. No dog is wild every single second of his existence. Find the calm periods and see what led up to them. If you know what antecedents lead to calm behavior, you can stack the deck in your favor for more calm behavior by making sure that those antecedents happen more often.
2. Next, do an ABC list for when your dog is wild. Once you know what predicts unruly behavior, you can manage the situation so that your dog doesn’t have a chance to practice going wild in the house.
Persistent behaviors are habits, and if dog practices calm behaviors instead of wild behaviors, he will eventually get into the habit of acting calm around the house.
You need to observe your dog’s behavior and come up with your own ABC lists, but here are some common examples:
For Calm Behaviors:
A. Dog goes on an hour long walk.
B. Dog comes home physically exhausted,