Warning - 7 things not to do to fix your dog's behaviour problems....

It's sad, but one of the most emotional moments when helping people with their dog's behaviour problems is when I say.... but really, it is ok to cuddle your dog and to speak to them when you come home.... Sadly, they've been putting their dog in the 'dog house' and ignoring them, and what's probably worse - emotionally hurting themselves into the bargain because they think they're being cruel to be kind.... Thank you then for picking up the phone and finding a 'new-age behaviourist!!'

Unfortunately, a lot of behaviourists and dog trainers that are out and about in the world are following the concepts of the dark ages. They're using way outdated methods and no scientific knowledge to aim to fix problems. 

I guess it's really not all that surprising. I'm currently reading a book on the history of the study of the brain and how we got to where we are now. Even to this day, there are some brain-ologists who are discounting alot of scientific proof in their rationalisation of how emotion and the brain work.

Anyway, to get on with these 7 top tips on things not to do to fix your dog's behaviour problems.

Remember these are DO-NOT's.... not DO's

1. Do not continue putting your dog into the very situations that cause the bad behaviour. 

2. Do not eat before your dog (well, unless it happens to be handy for you)

3. Do not stop cuddling your dog (well, unless they really don't like to be touched - but we can fix that)

4. Do not yank your dog's lead to stop them pulling

5. Do not use choke chains, check chains, electric dog collars, or even spray collars. These really most often make the problem worse.

But here are the most important points.

6. Do not roll your dog over or pin them to the ground aiming to dominate them (there's more on how to fix your dogs dominance here) 

And 

7. Please do not browse around on forums, read random books, read things on web sites, search on amazon for an anti-bark collar....  and try this and that and the other. I know a lot of the information on the web is great. But you can't believe everything that's on there. (Ha ha - can you believe this either??...). Unfortunately, all the inconsistency thats freely available most often (unless you're lucky) ends  up causing more confusion for your lovely dog or puppy.

So, what to do? 

Please contact a qualified behaviourist. They'll be happy to chat and either set up an appointment to  help you with your dog - to follow a consistent, positive, psychological approach, or if that's not in your  interest at present, at least you'll be pointed towards the right books.

For help from a dog behaviourist in Scotland, from Aberdeen to Inverness and the Highlands, please contact www.PawsAbility.co.uk

Dog Training Secrets - Stop Stopin' Start Doin'

Or otherwise.....

How to Stop a Dog …..

Well, how are your New Years Resolutions going? Hearty congratulations if you’re still on target! But why are old habits so hard to resist?

Perhaps we’d have more success if we actually set out to makes our lives easier? Surely then we’d be breezing through 2018 feeling much more positive?

Our new years resolutions tend to be along the lines of stopping drinking, stopping eating sweeties, stopping spending too much money etc. The reason that it’s so difficult to stop these unwanted habits is that our brains have developed pathways that are now, easy to follow. With our new plans, we are essentially trying to delete brain memories!

Plus, perhaps more importantly, it’s all “negative”.  Really, we’d actually all do much better by thinking “Positive” -  by considering what “To Do” instead: take up knitting, read more, go for a walk, learn something new. “Doing” is much easier than “Stopping”.

Teaching our dogs benefits in precisely the same way:  stop thinking “Stop That” and start thinking “Do This”. 

For example:

• Instead of Stopping Jumping, teach a solid sit.
• Instead of Stopping Barking, teach go to bed
• Instead of Stopping Pulling, teach them to walk beside you.

Ok, so I’m hearing you say, “…but my dog already knows these things”.

Well, here’s THE secret – Practise Makes Perfect!

What? You knew that already? Of course, we all know that. Not a very good secret then…

The trick, or rather, the forgotten element when considering training our dogs is that we miss out many required practise steps. It’s like leaping from learning the first few notes on a piano to playing in a major concert.

Just like us, our dogs require practise, gradually changing the circumstances and introducing new difficulties. For example, to “stop” jumping : start off rewarding a 1 second sit and then gradually build up to 10 seconds. Then you move about a little – but reward a 1 second sit, gradually building the time. Then introduce a mildly exciting toy, but again reward a 1 second sit and then gradually build up the time OR toy excitement whilst consistently rewarding sit. And at the end of this wee 2 minute practise session, play with your dog with the toy.

So, please do have a wee think about your habits with your dog and see what would benefit from this thinking-flip. Ofcourse, please do get in touch with any difficulties via  www.PawsAbility.co.uk or anna@pawsability.co.uk

First Published in the Northern Times, Jan 18

Author - Anna Patfield 

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Should we train our dogs using punishment or reward?

There’s been a lot in the press and social media recently about the use of punishment and about animal emotion. An article on the topic, therefore, seemed pertinent.

First, let’s define what punishment is. The use of punishment in dog training is where we do something unpleasant to indicate to the dog that we don’t want them to do something.

Here are some examples:

• ·      A tap on the nose
• ·      Threatening them with a rolled up newspaper
• ·      Jerking their collar when they pull (whether using a choke chain or not)
• ·      Using a shock, spray or citronella collar to stop a dog pulling or barking
• ·      Using a prong collar
• ·      Shouting at them; saying “NO” or “STOP IT”
• ·      Saying “Was that you?”

So do you use punishment in dog training? I’m hoping that if you do, then you’re saying, well yes, but just the mild kind.

The thing is that dogs’ brains are really quite simple. We don’t need to punish the unwanted behaviours. We can simply prevent unwanted things from happening until new behaviours have been learned and the original habits have faded.  Applying such preventative measures also helps to reduce our need to be frequently annoyed with them (sounds good huh?). The less we use NO, the more effective it will be.

But here’s the question is: Have they actually had the opportunity to really learn what it is that you want them to-do? Dogs need plenty of consistent learning practise.  To teach a dog to “not jump” we need to teach them to “keep 4 paws on the ground”; to teach them to “not pull” we need to teach them that “be at my leg” is great.

If we haven’t taught them what’s right, is it really fair to punish them when they actually just don’t know any better?

If you do use more active punishment, then please just stop for a moment and think about how you are affecting your dog and how you’re affecting the relationship that you may be having with them. The recent reports from the BVA (British Veterinary Association) stand clearly against shock collars. No matter what people may think of their effectiveness, the stress of the shock remains long after the actual shock.

Of course teaching dogs can sometimes be quite complex. To get a better understanding of how to effectively train your dog and resolve any behaviour problems without punishment, please do look at PawsAbility.co.uk.

First Published in The Northern Times, 1st Dec 2017. Author Anna Patfield

If you'd like to read more about how dogs think and learn, please read this free e-book Dogz Thinkz Differentz

Considering HATE

Many pet owners and many who work with dogs use words such as Dominance, Stubborn and Hate when explaining dog behaviour.  Most trainers who consider themselves to be following what’s termed ‘modern methods’, become intensely frustrated with the persistence of such terms. Why is there such exasperation?

Well, along with some colleagues, I’ve been working on a new free e-book. The debate has been interesting and essentially, the problem appears to be terminology. Traditional beliefs consider dogs to be dominant when they pull on the lead or lie on the couch.  Science proves this untrue. Some arguments provide examples of such stealing toys to prove that dominance does exist. The book addresses the conundrum and provides practical training and behaviour advice.

Here’s a little insight into the book with regard to Hate.

We use the term Hate to describe our feelings for a plethora of scenarios. We may hate potholes. We may hate doughnuts. We may hate spiders. We may hate a person. But what do we actually mean? We feel frustrated that the potholes may damage our car. We don’t like the taste of doughnuts. We may well suffer from arachnophobia. We may feel very angry with a person. All quiet different. But, do we feel helpless to resolve these situations? Is it that frustration that we are trying to convey? And, do we then consider that we can’t help our dogs when they Hate something?

Well, the good news is, that for most scenarios, hate isn’t what’s happening in our dog’s world. They don’t (so far as we know) ruminate over what they may do in a given hateful situation. They don’t plan out ideas in their minds; they don’t think and play out options, which, for us, tends to intensify our feelings.

And that’s good because it means we can usually fairly easily help our dogs to feel calmer, more relaxed and behave more appropriately.

Let’s then consider some situations.

A common complaint is that a dog hates the posty. They may bark and growl and rip up the post or worse. When this all starts, the dog was probably simply scared of some potential intruder. Perhaps as he continues to ‘bark the posty away ‘ he becomes more and more frustrated. Perhaps he ends up feeling completely enraged. Perhaps this is hate, but, he probably isn’t planning revenge.

A second commonly used phrase is that a dog hates cats. For most situations, it would be valid to think that actually dogs love cats. They love the thrill and fun of the chase and just may end up in a successful catch. (We hope not of course!)

And our final example here, is when a dog attacks a hoover, we tend to say he hates the hoover. In fact, he is most likely scared of it although this may well escalate to anger.

So what can be done? Essentially there are 2 simple steps. We need to firstly, break the continuance of the habit and secondly, teach the dog how to behave differently; supporting them with a effective learning environment.

Of course, this is an over simplification. There’s no space to add any detail here and indeed, there may be much more going on in the dog’s life. But, if the behaviour’s not too bad, we really don’t need to just live with it; the solution may well be quite simple. For more intense and complex problems, please do seek out help from a good behaviourist.

And for more help, hints and tips please visit - www.PawsAbility.co.uk. To sign up for the free ebook please visit  Dogz Thinkz Differentz

(First published in the Northern Times 27th Oct 2017)

And finally... here's a helpful page to help to consider those things that your dog hates .. or dislikes ... or is scared or... http://chasingdogtales.com/14-things-your-dog-hates/#

Dogs Anonymous!

Today what’s grabbing my heart strings are the number of people out there with difficult dogs who think they are on their own. I mean, if I had £1 for every time I’d said, “don’t worry, you’re not alone”, I’d be writing for the Majorcan Gazette! Ha-ha, only kidding… you all know how much I love living in Scotland, especially with this summer heat we’ve been having (Oh no.. wait.. that's snow..!!).

Anyway, back to the point. There are about 9 million dogs in the UK.  How many do you think have training difficulties or behaviour problems?

A survey back in 2000 studied the prevalence of dog behaviour issues for dogs rehomed from rescue shelters. They did have a good response rate of 37%, but sadly mostly all of those dogs were reported to have behaviour problems including fearfulness, aggression and excessive barking.

Another more recent North Korean study reported in the Journal of Veterinary Behaviour, indicated that 84% of owners reported their dogs to have behaviour problems. We would presume to think that the rate in the UK would be much less. However aggression problems, in particular, appear to be on the rise, with over 7000 hospital admissions for dog bites in England in 2013-14.

It seems difficult to obtain a recent specific percentage figure for the UK. (If you have access to such research, please do email me). However, even if we considered only 10% of dogs to have behaviour problems then that is still very large figure – with lazy arithmetic - about 1 million dog.

So, really, you are not alone.

But back to my main point. Where would you get some support? There are certainly many support groups on Facebook and the likes, and many of them adhere to the modern rewarding and fear free methods of behaviour and training. These can be a great place to start, but, and apologies to those excellent groups, they can sometimes lead to a bewildering range of ideas to choose from. Sadly too, there are support groups out there that share outdated punishment based and emotionally challenging solutions.

Now, there’s another million $ phrase that I hear all the time – “I’ve tried everything”.

Maybe I should start an AA equivalent – Dogs Anonymous! “Hello, my name is John and I have an aggressive dog.” You get the picture.

Well the first step in that direction has led me to set up a series of group workshops, starting with reactive dogs. These small supportive friendly groups start out with a day’s education and are followed up with private or group support for people and for their dogs. And hopefully you’ll make some new friends with whom to share your woes. (For those of you out-with the Highlands / Aberdeenshire, I'd recommend looking up a good behaviourist running similar workshops).

The workshop objectives are to essentially empower you; to help you to believe in the path that you’re taking; to help you to recognize the good advice from the bad that may come your way from on line sources, seemingly new books or popular but sadly out of date TV programs. And, ultimately, to devise your own behaviour modification or training programme.

If you would like the support of new friends, to know more about why not to pin or role your dog, why it doesn’t matter who eats first and whether it’s ok to cuddle them when you come home, then please do have a look at www.pawsability.co.uk/workshop or give me a call.

(Main article first published in the Northern Times, March 2017)

How to choose your behaviourist or trainer

 Even as little as just 10 years ago, if you had problem with your dogs behaviour, then you’d probably just find the local dog training club, or perhaps ask your vet for help.

Nowadays, dog behaviour has become a profession, with new education courses and qualification options being advertised on line and in all the dog magazines. Who knows whether Victoria Stillwell or Cesar Milan have done more to promote the desire to join the merry band of dog lovers who believe that they can help you fix your dog behaviour problems.

Sadly, just a few months ago, I was asked to help a lovely couple that were just about to have a baby and had 2 problematic puppies. They realised that the dogs were going to be handful shortly after they came home and tried to find some help. Their story follows.

They went to the behaviourist’s training location to talk about biting, jumping, house training problems, separation problems, chewing problems and problem with one of the dogs constantly biting and fighting the other puppy.  They were asked a few questions then the person got down his hands and knees and tried to get one of the puppies to walk beside him as he crawled. An attempt at heel work. Nothing else was addressed.

Six months later, with no progress, much stress, and many of the problems having become worse, they contacted me. We now had only 6 weeks before the baby was due.

I’m sorry, but I have to say that I felt just awful that this lovely couple put their faith in someone proclaiming to be a behaviourist. With such poor service, how would they think anything other than that all behaviourists may be the same. Now I’m not magical, nor am I arrogant, so I’m not saying that I could fix all these problems in 6 months so that the puppies were perfect when the baby was born. However, I do know that they would have been in a much better place had the problems not been allowed to develop.

There are so many other situations similar to this, such as when people have been told to use a choke chain or pin their dogs or ignore them when they come home. All of these approaches simply serve to make the problem worse. They are dangerous. They hurt. And most importantly, they do nothing to teach your dog what you want, and they certainly do nothing to improve how your dog feels about life.

So how can a pet owner figure out whom they can trust? Despite what may be published on any web site - there is no regulatory body, and probably never will be.

Well, your vet is probably the best place to start. They should have a list of qualified and experienced behaviourists that they work with. Alternatively yes, look on line, but look at the qualifications that your prospective behaviourist has. Then go there and check up on the details of the qualification. I’m not saying that your behaviourist needs a degree. Far from it. But there’s a raft of difference between a 4 week on-line course, and qualifications that are regulated through a board such as OfQual – the government’s official education / qualifications regulator. 

Have a look here to find out more about the types of qualifications that your behaviourist should have – www.COAPE.org

And have a look here to find a COAPE qualified and trusted behaviourist – www.CAPBT.org.

If you’re in any doubt at all about someone you’ve found, I’d be very happy to check things out for you – no matter where you live.

You can contact the author – Anna Patfield – at http://www.pawsability.co.uk.