But what happens when Uncle Rolly comes at Christmastime? Just thinking about it is enough to put your stomach in a knot.
Your dear brother Rolly loves to roughhouse with the dog. He gets Fido all worked up into a frenzy. The kids think it is great fun until Fido starts mouthing at them a little too hard. They whine and cry. Things fall off tables and break. And you’ve got to be extra careful when Grandma Bea is around. One false move and a big dog like Fido can knock her over!
You’ve tried explaining to Rolly, but it falls on deaf ears. You’ve yelled at the kids, threatened the dog, banished, punished, and pummeled with holly – wouldn’t that be jolly? You hate being the bad guy, but Uncle Rolly thinks it’s all great fun, oblivious to the yearly chaos that he leaves in his wake.
The trick is to start early this season and build some positively based behaviors for your kids and dogs. Done correctly, these behaviors can be a match for even your worst nemesis – Uncle Rolly. Let’s start with “go to bed.”
Place a dog bed somewhere in the living room where your dog can see the action and feel part of the family, but also stay out of trouble. Put some treats on the bed for him to go and get. Just before your dog gets on the bed to eat, “mark” his behavior with a code word like “Yes!” or a clicker to let him know he did something right.
Next, try using a hand signal with a food lure to give Fido the idea of going to bed on cue. Whenever you point your finger at something, you’ve always got three fingers curled up. Just tuck some treats under those fingers so your hand still looks like it’s pointing. Then let Fido smell your hand so he knows there are treats there. Sweep your pointed finger at the bed, and release the treats on the bed. If you’re using a clicker, click right before he eats them. Repeat this hand signal a number of times with a food lure in your hand until he gets the idea that every time you point at the bed, you end up throwing treats on it. Watch him carefully to see if he’s getting the idea, perhaps even getting on the bed in anticipation of getting the treats.
After doing that three or four times, fade out the food lure but keep the same hand signal. You’re going to want to have some treats available, but you’re not going to tuck them into your pointing hand.
Hold your hand in the identical way that you did when you had a food lure in it, and gesture towards the bed in the identical way. Give your dog time to think it over, and if he goes on the bed or even sniffs at it, click or say, “Yes!” and drop a treat on the bed. This is a subtle but important difference. Before, you were tossing the treat on the bed before he got on it. Now, you are waiting until after he gets on it (or at least shows some interest in it) before tossing the treat. In other words, he performs first, and then he gets the treat. And he has to think it over and figure this out for himself.
If he doesn’t respond to your hand signal without the food, wait awhile and try it later. And using verbiage to try to convince him to do it is just like talking to Uncle Rolly – a waste of time. You can use the lure a couple more times, but you’ve got to make that switch or your dog will never do anything for you unless you’ve got food in your hand. Then gradually raise your expectations so that he actually has to get on the bed and lie down before he gets a “Yes!” and a treat.
Once your dog is used to going to bed on cue, “proof” the behavior by giving him the signal at different times of the day, with or without other people present, while you’re standing on different sides of the room, etc. Try to think of every single distraction that could keep your dog from going to that bed on cue, and give it a test run. For example, if you signal the dog to go to bed and then roll a ball while he’s doing it, will he still go?
Knowing that he can make you click and treat him keeps Fido interested in learning. It becomes a great game! So, while he’s learning to handle the distractions, it’s still good to use the click and treat. After he’s got it down, you’re going to fade out the click and treat. Skip the click and treat once in awhile and replace it with praise, a toy, a pat on the head, etc. But every once in awhile, go back to the click and treat. Keep him guessing – that’s what keeps the game interesting for him. (But every time you click, you’ve got to treat, or the click loses its meaning.) And it’s best to use tiny treats so he doesn’t get too full during training. By the time Uncle Rolly arrives, your dog should be going to bed on cue 100% of the time, no matter what Uncle Rolly has to offer. Make sure you practice with a shill who can replicate the roughhousing for you!
You can do the same thing with the kids. Figure out in advance something that you would like your kids to do on cue when things get too crazy, and have them do it when things are calm at home. Then surprise the heck out of them with a reward of some kind that they’re not expecting. After you’ve done that a few times, you can give them a code word and let them know to perform this behavior whenever they hear the code word. Proof their behavior, too.
Next time Rolly starts roughhousing with the dog, give the hand signal to the dog and the code word to the kids. Make sure the kids know in advance that something good will happen, even if they don’t know what it is. But make sure that during the proofing stage, you did indeed give them a few spectacular privileges so they never know when they are going to get something fantastic and when they are just going to get a “Thank you.” Dogs are always a little easier because they are more than willing to work for food.
Having some behaviors on cue like this is your best ammunition against the Uncle Rollies of the world. There is always some well-meaning visitor that encourages your dog to jump up on him when it’s obvious that you’re trying to teach your dog not to jump up on people. Or, the visitor loves to get the dog to play-bite when you’d rather teach your dog good manners. Instead of trying to get the grown-up humans under control, work on getting your dog prepared for their presence. With some practice, you can anticipate problems with the usual suspects and bring Peace on Earth into your home this holiday season.
Copyright Andrea Robinson 2007 All Rights Reserved
About the Author:
Andrea Robinson, owner of Positive Pet Training and Supply in Madera, California, became interested in dog training as a result of buying a home and taking in over 40 stray dogs over the course of 10 years. She now provides positively based training and desensitization as well as a specialized, cutting-edge treatment for aggression. Her mission is to promote joy and happiness in dog ownership and to help alleviate the number of dogs that are euthanized in shelters due to overpopulation and lack of training. Contact Andrea: andreadogtrainer@yahoo.com, or her support group at http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/AndreaDogTrainer, or call her at (559) 675-8005.
