31 DecEpisode 108 | Dog Training Q and A! 12/31/2020: Can I speak multiple languages to my dog? Is it okay if my dog watches TV? How do I keep my dog off my sofa? & More
This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.
In this episode, Annie answers questions from:
-A bilingual dog owner who is confused about what language to use with his dog, and who gets angry when the dog goes on the couch
-A dog owner whose older dog just died, leaving the younger one, a border collie, sort of depressed... can any thing be done?
-A person who lives with a dog who is obsessed with watching TV. Can TV time actually help this dog be less reactive with other dogs?
-A Great Dane owner whose dog attacks the door when people come in, or when he can see people through the glass
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Mentioned in this episode:
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Treat and Train – remote controlled treat dispenser
Transcript:
[Intro and music]
Annie:
Now onto some of these questions. I have four questions here that I am going to try and answer.
First question today comes from Luis, whose dog is named Luca. He is a 47 pound one year old American bulldog. They live in Phoenix. You can find them on Instagram, @nomadatemporal. Luis says:
I just welcomed a beautiful dog into my life after we met at the shelter and I started listening to your podcast to get ready and train her. I think we are making progress and your tips have been super helpful. I'm having a hard time because my tendency is to get angry. For example, I don't have a ton of money, and I got a set of couches as a gift from my family. So I'm trying to keep her off the couches.
But when she gets on them, I respond in a way that is not helpful to training. I usually say no point to the ground, and sometimes she listens. Other times I have to physically take her down. Also Spanish is my first language. So it's been hard to give her commands in English when my instinct is to say the first thing and it's usually in Spanish.
I know commands can be whatever. The people around are English speakers or bilingual. So I feel like training twice as much to teach her two commands for each. I love her, she's American bulldog and we are learning from each other. Thank you for such a beautiful show and I hope I can support your work.
That's very nice. Alright. So a few things here, first of all, I really wouldn't worry about what language that you're speaking to Luca. You know, it's funny with this because I really think that you know, most of the things we say to dogs they interpret like, remember like the parents in Charlie Brown? Like wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa. Sure, I think they understand tone to some extent, but I wouldn't get too caught up in worrying about which language you're using.
Because you know, you can use gestures, you can teach using visual cues, for example. And when you do start to teach her specific behaviors, then you can start to think about being specific about what cues you use. And you might choose a visual cue instead of a verbal cue if you're worried about going back and forth from one language to another.
I find once a dog has a visual cue, and often they pick up the visual cues much faster than they pick up verbal cues, because they're so tuned into our our body language in general, then you can start adding a verbal cue once they have the visual cue. Or some other cue that's not a word.
Like I really like teaching sit with a snap. I think I have a podcast episode actually, where I talk about how to do that, how to teach sit with a snap. I like teaching down with my hand up kind of like at my shoulder. I think that's a nice way to teach down. You can kind of build a cue out of a lure. There's also a podcast episode on doing that.
But you know, it's funny, in the last couple of days, with this puppy, I find I'm talking to her a whole lot, even though I know it's sort of pointless. It's like, it's just ingrained in us as human beings to talk. So like, I'll bring her over to the potty pads and I'll be like, this is where you're supposed to do your peepee poopoo. Can you make sure to go here? Do you understand me? I want you to go here.
And then like, I listen to myself and I'm like, this is ridiculous. This is pointless. I might as well be saying total gobbledygook. There's no point in me talking right now. But I'm not, you know, upset at myself about it. I just think it's a natural thing that humans do, and I don't actually expect her to be understanding what I'm saying. I think, must just somehow feel good to talk. So don't sweat the language thing.
Also, dogs can learn multiple cues for one behavior. Like I said, they can learn a visual cue. They can learn multiple verbal cues. So do whatever's comfortable for now. But think about the specific cues you want when you're teaching her specific behaviors, and the words you’re using the rest of the time, don't worry too much about it. And you know, something like teaching Come, I like using a whistle, which does not involve using any specific language at all.
How do you keep the dog off the couches well? Two things. And by the way, I commend Luis here for noticing that he gets angry. I think Luis, you probably have more control over your anger than you realize, if you're even noticing that that is your response. When you're noticing you're getting angry, like as always, when you're noticing you're getting angry, try and pause, take a breath.
But understandable that you don't want Luca on your couches. I would take two steps to make sure she's not getting on your couches. First, make sure there is a really super comfy bed for Luca near your couch. Something that is so cozy comfy that Luca is going to be like, Luis must be sad that he can't hang out on this bed because it's mine!
You want to have like a competing couch for her that is her couch. And certainly, there's any number of dog beds that you could find out there. For a big dog, it might just be getting like a comforter and folding it and letting her lie on that. It doesn't have to be a specific dog bed. But find something that's allowable for her, put treats on it, put things for her to chew on it, make that like her very special spot. And spend time with her also while she's on it. And I think that is going to most likely decrease her interest in your sofas.
But also, you can just in this period while you're trying to teach her where you want her to hang out where you don't want her to hang out. You can put things on the sofa to keep her from getting on the sofa. On the podcast before, I've talked about my dad's method of keeping his cat and his dogs off the bed, which was to put mouse traps on the bed.
I don't suggest putting mousetraps on your sofa, although I’m sure there are people that do that, but you know, you could put other things on your sofa that are just going to make it less interesting for her to want to cozy up on them. You could get, off the top of my head, I'm just thinking. Like screens, like the kinds of like screens that you put in like what are they called? Like fly screens. Like the screens you put in a window, you could put those up just sort of put those down on the sofas. It's gonna make the sofas a lot less comfortable, and those are not expensive to buy.
Or even just find stuff that you have in your apartment, pots and pans, cookie sheets. What else. You can cover those all with a blanket or you can just leave it out. But do what you can to make the sofa less of an easy option. I think if you combine that with giving her a really nice spot where she can hang out near the sofa, you're gonna have a lot of success. And yeah, just make sure lots of good stuff is happening when she's on that appropriate bed.
Okay. Our next question comes from Chrislynn whose dog is a border colleague named Allie. They are in Surprise, Arizona. Chrislynn writes:
Apologies for a long question, maybe too many details that are unneeded, but we recently had to take our older fur baby, Aubrey, 14 years old, in for her final sleep on December 18th. (Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.) I know my other younger one, Allie, is missing her, and we've tried to keep her routine as normal as possible, but walks and car rides, she has nothing to do with. She goes just a few feet outside the door and then goes back to the door and sits till we go back in.
She was always anxious about them before, and she would only go if she knew Aubrey was going. Allie has never really been by herself as was Aubrey. We got Allie and her sister Little Bear as companions for Aubrey in October, 2018, after we lost Aubrey's sister Angel in June, 2018. That way we would still have a pair to have each other after Aubrey passed.
But in May 2019, we lost Little Bear to parvo. So it has just been Allie and Aubrey til a couple of weeks ago. So I guess I'm asking after all that, what, if anything, can I do to help her be able to go for car rides walks to get her exercise and even not be totally nervous around other dogs when we do get her out and about again? Thank you for any help.
Okay. You know, when I answer questions in this way, these are not fully — they’re not full answers to these problems cause I'm only going by the information that you're giving me. So I'm just couching my answer in that. But you know, my first thought is maybe you should get another dog for Allie. It sounds like she was quite bonded to your other dog and you had another dog too, before that dogs are pack animals. She might just feel more comfortable with another dog.
But also, she's a border Collie. Border collies are super smart, super active. It looks like she's a young dog, only two, three years old. So if you haven't already done some really good training with her, I would really start to focus on that. What kind of classes can you do with her? What kind of just fun stuff can you do with her?
Especially like right now there's so many virtual options. Do make sure you check out our virtual options? If you go to schoolforthedogs.com/services, we have basic classes. We have tricks classes. We have a class called Barkour, that's like all sorts of things that you can do in your own home with things that you have at home. All with the goal of just keeping your dog’s brain engaged and active. Helping them be enriched, helping them problem solve.
I think when you start doing that kind of training with a dog you know, anything that kind of falls under the umbrella of clicker training, training that's really letting the dog make choices. Letting the dog problem solve, giving the dog the ability to control her environment. You tend to find dogs become just a lot more confident and happy in their own skin, and happier in the world around them.
So that would be my suggestion. Make a training game out of all things having to do with the car. Teach her to go touch the car door with her nose and come back to you. Teach her to, I dunno, run around the car when it's parked. Teach her to jump in the car seat and jump out again, teach her to do things with the car that don't involve the car moving or even going anywhere. Just make it kind of like a fun obstacle for her to interact with.
I mean, border collies, God. Border collies are, are pretty highly trainable. I don't tend to make a whole lot of generalizations about breeds, but I can say that every border Collie I've ever known is psyched, psyched to train. And it's really fun to watch them learn, watch them pick up new things I've done some live sessions with my friend Meredith and her border Collie Roma. We've taught Roma to count, we've taught Roma to use iPad, we've taught Roma to do some reading.
My feeling so much of the time is it really doesn't matter what you're teaching a dog. It's just about getting their brain working in that kind of way. I think it's going to just overall make her a happier dog. So if you do need some suggestions of online classes you can take or other resources, do feel free to reach out to me directly, Kris Lynn. My email’s annie@schoolforthedogs.com.
And also, we have a core behaviors course. If you go to schoolforthedogs.com/courses where we have our online courses. That is a course that walks through like 10 basic behaviors. So that's kind of an outline of stuff that you could do with her.
My only other thought is, if being outside at all is difficult for her, try starting to give her her meals outside on walks or even in the car. Think about where you're feeding her. And if you're not going to get another dog at least try and see if you can set up some play dates with her with other dogs. Sounds like she is a social animal and she's maybe a little bit in in mourning, which is understandable.
Okay. Two more questions here. Joan has a dog named Maggie who's a golden retriever. Joan is writing from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. She writes:
My dog likes to watch television. She will stare at a blank screen all day long. When the TV is on, she stands in front and she watches it. She will watch anything. She gets excited seeing animals. She loves cartoons and will whine when watching them. My question is, is this good for her? She is regularly exercised. She eats well, she enjoys company as long as there are no other dogs around. She is aggressive towards dogs. Could I use this to recondition her aggression? She is a rescue. She was a breeding dog from a puppy mill.
Very interesting question. I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with a dog who likes to watch TV.
You know, it's interesting actually. I believe that TVs now, like digital digital TV, is much easier for dogs to watch. Pre digital TV had a refresh rate that made it very difficult for dogs to watch. Like their eyes and brain couldn't perceive TV the way ours could. So we're kind of living in a golden moment, I guess, of dog television.
Could you use the television to recondition her aggression? You know I don't see why you couldn't try it. I think that it can be very difficult to set up real life situations to do counter-conditioning with dogs who are aggressive. If you can work on doing it with the TV, I think you should go ahead and try it.
One thing might be to start with puppies on the screen. I used to work on the TV show, Too Cute: Puppies and Kittens on Animal Planet. That's one that you could find all puppies all the time, on that show, an hour of puppies. And see how she reacts.
And then figure out what distance she can be at and seem okay. So obviously this is going to involve — you might have to move around the dog or move around the TV. But is she feeling, does she seem like she's calm at 20 feet from the puppies on the TV? Does she seem like she can handle being at 10 feet away? Find that happy spot and work with her at that distance to the point where she seems okay about seeing those dogs on the screen.
And then at that point, you could either choose to find maybe dogs that she might be more reactive to. I said puppies because, I don't know, I'm guessing that puppies on the screen might be less stressful for her, especially if she was a breeding dog, than other kinds of dogs. But you know, experiment. You could try different other kinds of dogs on the TV, or you could try getting closer.
Counter conditioning is the process of creating a new association with whatever it is she has bad feelings about. So it could be just giving her a treat every time she looks at the screen, but you want her looking at the screen when she's not stressed out. If she's stressed out and barking or showing you stress signals, and you're trying to shove food in her face, that is not how good counter conditioning looks. So that's why it's important to kind of find the happy distance that she can deal with.
Again, this is a good moment to take virtual classes. I'm not pushing necessarily our offerings, although we do have virtual classes. Any kind of virtual class that you can take right now would be really great because that can be a way for you to work on this stuff, literally using the thing that she likes, which is looking at a screen. So you can be in a classroom with other people and their dogs. That classroom could be on the screen.
We’ve found that some of the virtual stuff we're doing actually opens up classes to dogs who would not be able to be in an actual classroom with other dogs. But they're able to be in a virtual classroom with other dogs. And it's actually sort of — this funny bonus of so many things moving online during the pandemic is that in some cases it's actually, I think, more conducive to dog learning.
We do have a class called Sidewalk Psychos, which is specifically for dogs who are stressed around other dogs. For us because we're in New York City, it's usually dogs on the street. I'm not sure if we're offering that virtually right now. Again, if you want to get in touch with me, I can let you know, and you can go to schoolforthedogs.com/services and see the virtual classes that we do have.
But like I said, any class might be a good option just because it's a chance to work with a trainer in real time while seeing other dogs on the screen. Also, if you did a private session, even, a trainer could arrange to have their dog on the screen. So that could also be an option for you.
But, the short answer is I think it's fine if your dog watches TV.
Alright, last question comes from Mackenzie who has 145 pound Great Dane. McKenzie is in Missouri. Aldrich, Missouri. She is on Instagram, @Maggie_e54. She says:
I have a Great Dane who attacks the door and when he hears a knock or sees someone through the glass door. It’s starting to cause problems with scaring people to the point that they don't want to come over, and he is hearing my doors as well. Help!
Right. And this dog, he was born in August, 2018. So that's makes him what, two, two and a half years old. Gosh, you know, this is a training problem with where the answer really is figuring out how to manage the environment, I would say, to make sure that we're not getting this behavior.
Before we focus on changing the dog's behavior, I think we should focus on changing the environment. So, seeing someone through the glass door, well I would suggest putting some wax paper up on the glass door, contact paper. Put something up that goes as high as your dog can see to literally block his ability to be able to see out the door.
And then as far as hearing knocks on the door, I would suggest that you work on doing some crate training in another part of your home. Work on keeping your dog in another part of the home. A lot of problems actually can be solved by keeping dogs from having a lot of access to the front door.
I think doors in general, front doors in particular, can be stressful to dogs. They don't know what's on the other side of the door, where there’s sounds there that they can't necessarily identify, there’s shadows that sometimes they can see under the door. Just a lot of unpredictability. And when dogs are stressed out, just like when humans are stressed out, it's useful to have as much predictability as possible.
So yeah, I would work on keeping your dog away from the front door. And reduce the chance that someone's going to knock on the front door by, I don’t know, putting a note on your door that says someone should text you instead of knocking when they come.
Beyond that, you can start working on creating an association with your dog. You know, every time someone comes to the door, you get really good things in your crate in the other room. I'm a big fan of the Treat and Train, the remote controlled training device. You can sit a Treat and Train on top of the dog's crate. You can load it up with treats. You can even use just like kibble and a Treat and Train, but I would probably, for this situation, use something better than that. Like even, I don't know, bacon chips or something. Anything dry and pretty small will work pretty well in a Treat and Train.
You can trigger that when someone is at the front door. You can pretend someone is at the front door by knocking and then triggering the Treat and Train, and doing that over and over and over in order to forge the association: knocking at the front door means good stuff comes out of the Treat and Train.
Now, your dog has already built up the behavior of, you know, I hear someone at the front door and I run into the front door and bark. So it's not necessarily gonna be a quick fix, but I think if you practice a few times a day and you make sure that during this period, no one is knocking at the front door unless you are absolutely prepared to go put good stuff in the crate with a Treat and Train or not. I mean, you could also just go over and throw good stuff in the create, that will also work. I think that you will have success here.
We've even had some clients who, when they have a Treat and Train, will like stick up with Velcro, like stick it up at their front door with a note that says, press this button when you are going to enter, so that no one is ever entering the house without the treats coming down fast and deliciously into the crate.
Okay. I got to get off cause someone's trying to call me desperately, here. Hope I was able to answer some questions for you all, and I will see you next week.
