When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [76]
Do you see a pattern, here? Any time you are going to be involved in a very engrossing task, your dog may do something you don’t like, unless you give him a project to work on, put him in his crate, or you are able to train him by reinforcing him for quiet behavior at the same time that you work on your engrossing task (not always easy).
Some suggestions:
A. Owner sitting down to balance checkbook.
B. Dog lies under table.
C. Dog gets a nice stuffed Kong to chew.
Or:
A. Owner sitting down to balance checkbook.
B. Dog goes to mat.
C. Owner periodically gives treats to dog and praises/pats dog for staying on mat.
General suggestions for controlling chewing:
The key to ending chewing problems lies mostly in management. Pick up your shoes. Don’t leave your underwear in a laundry basket on the floor. Whatever it is, if he will chew it, put it away. Don’t leave a young dog alone in a room with a veritable smorgasbord of upholstered and wooden furniture.
Make sure there is always an ample supply of “legal” chew toys. I don’t mean one rope toy in the whole house. I mean that, wherever that dog is in the house when the fancy strikes him to chew, there is a legal chew toy in plain view. You can mail order very inexpensive rope toys by the dozen and have them in every room. You should also have baskets of toys around the house so your dog knows where to find a toy if he needs one. If your dog is a strong chewer you should always have many Nylabone chews and toys available and your dog should always have at least one in his crate with him.
If you make a mistake, and your dog does wind up chewing something that you do not want him to chew, take it away from him without (outward) emotion, and give him an appropriate chew object.
Have structured chewing sessions. Dogs aren’t determined to chew things to tick you off—if they have ample opportunity to chew appropriate objects, they will leave the other stuff alone. Make it a point to send your dog over to his mat and give him a great thing to chew a couple of times a day. Like other “problem” behaviors, when we give our dogs opportunities to indulge in chewing at our convenience, they will tend not to chew when we do not want them to.
Run Faster, Push Harder!
Charging Through Doors
Dogs charge through doors because they want to get to the other side. If you make staying on the same side more reinforcing than charging the door, your dog will stay on the same side.
Here is what you probably have now:
A. You put your hand on the doorknob.
B. Your dog quickly inserts himself between you and the door and presses his nose to the door.
C. Despite your best goalie maneuvers, about fifty percent of the time your dog manages to blast past you through the door.
How about this, instead?
A. You put your hand on the doorknob.
B. Your dog backs away from the door and stays there.
C. You go through the door, toss him a treat, and close the door after you.
Ruby is excited to go outside and runs to the door, but she has learned to back away from the door and sit politely until I open the door, go through, and release her. For added safety, I have trained her to sit automatically on the other side of the door and wait to be released again.
Here is how you can teach it:
1. Start by asking him to back up when you put your hand on the doorknob and treat him for that.
2. Once you have the back-up, you can ask him to stay and reinforce that while you open the door a crack.
3. Open the door an inch and treat your dog for staying in place, then two inches, then three, and so forth.
4. Finally, step through the door and throw a whole bunch of food down for your dog as you close the door.
Isn’t it a pain in the rear to have a dog that sticks his head in the fridge every time you open it? Despite your repeatedly informing him that the fridge is not a self-service snack bar, you see the following sequence again and again:
A. You open the refrigerator door.
B. Dog sticks his head in and steals something.
C. You