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What does it mean to think scientifically?  To begin, we start with mindset. Being skeptical is key to thinking scientifically. Being skeptical involves suspending judgement until you've had the opportunity to collect evidence from reliable sources. There's no doubt that at times, the evidence about something we want to better understand isn't perfectly clear, and that's all right. It simply means that you must make do with a working model until you have a handle on better evidence.  In dog training, thinking scientifically is a critical part to addressing our dogs and their behavior. Avoiding problematic conclusions and statements like universal truths "ALL dogs love other dogs" or "All Dalmatians behave poorly with children" is the first step in determining what work you might like to do to improve your relationship with your dog and any problematic behaviors you want to address.  Understanding that not all dogs have the same drives informing their choices and behavior allows us, their caregivers, to treat each dog as a unique individual. When we take into account the countless variables at work in any dogs life, from puppyhood through to middle age, it's easy to understand why there is no one-size-fits-all solution to dog behavior. They're simply too different, their experiences too varied, to be able to apply a singular truth to all dogs.  Another critical component to the process of thinking scientifically about your dog and dog behavior in general is being able to accept and taking some delight in being wrong about our initial assumptions. When we can disprove what we initially hypothesize, this is a very exciting thing. It allows us to narrow our focus, to take factors into account that we might have initially thought were unrelated to whatever it is we're trying to better understand.  For anyone working in the field of dog behavior, there is an implicit understanding that what we think is true is always some kind of approximation of what is actually true. Sometimes our approximations are deeply inaccurate, founded in more confidence than actual data or evidence. Our beliefs and expectations can inform judgements made prematurely. In dog behavior, these premature judgements about why something is happening can be extremely costly to our dogs and their caregivers.  When we develop a more flexible approach to our propensity to make judgements before we have sufficient evidence to support them, our lives with our dogs become easier. We learn to see our dogs as individuals-in-context, rather than trying to make them fit into a preconceived model that may be wildly inappropriate to what our dogs need to be healthy and well-rounded. We can do this by exercising skepticism, not forming premature judgements, and understanding that our first assumptions are usually wrong.
It's never too late to adopt scientific thinking into your work and daily life. And our dogs agree. Better late than never at all.
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This blog is for Marija, who sent in a request hoping to teach her dog recall. It's a great subject, a phenomenal skill to learn with your dog, and her request immediately inspired me to write this post. Thank you Marija!  Teaching recall is quite simple. You want it to work anywhere and everywhere you might need it, so first you'll want to choose a cue word that you will remember in a pinch. Make it easy to remember and ideally, short. You'll want it to be a cue that you and your dog don't use for anything else. Next, choose a treat you know your dog will do somersaults over. Something really high value works here. Make sure it's a treat your dog doesn't often receive. It's rarity will establish a more powerful reinforcing function in your recall work with your dog. Begin the actual work of recall by saying the cue word and feeding your dog the high value treat reward. Don't try to incorporate any distance, distraction, or unusual environments at this stage. All you want to do is pair the sound of the cue with the reward. This will help to motivate the dog to come to you when you utter the word from a distance. Do this at least 10-15 times with your dog, and not all at once. You'll want to do it many times throughout the day.  After a week of steadily and regularly rewarding your dog when you say the recall cue word, you can start to test your dog's understanding and association with the cue. When you're elsewhere in the home, say the recall cue loudly enough that your dog can hear it. If he comes to you in a great big hurry, tail wagging, nearly tripping over himself to arrive at your side, make it rain those same high value treats for your dog. Really have fun with it, and make sure your dog knows how delighted you are with his efforts. Continue to condition this word inside the house with generous treat rewards over another week or so of practice. And if your dog wasn't quite over the moon to get to you the first time you tried it out, you may want to reconsider your choice of high-value food motivator. Maybe the one you're using isn't quite valuable enough to get that big reaction you want from a rock-solid recall.  Once your dog is responding reliably to this cue every time, you can test it out-of-doors. Start in your backyard, if you have one, and if not, try the exercise on a long line in a dog park, ideally at a quieter time of day, or at the beach.
Even once your dog has learned a solid recall, be sure to revisit the exercise a few times each week. This will keep the cue fresh and the response snappy. If you have a fearful, shy dog, you know how challenging managing this fear can be in a day-to-day context. This is perhaps no where more pronounced than in large city centers (like the one I’m in here in Toronto). Across mammalian species, fear is a normal response generated in response to a threat that can be real or perceived. While fears that present themselves up-close and personal are relatively easy to acknowledge and even address, perceived fears experienced by our dogs can be difficult to pinpoint and even more difficult to remedy. In terms of best practices for the handling and management of our shy, fearful dogs, there is a way to approach the issue in real time that’s relatively straightforward. It just takes a little practice. Let’s dive in.  Body Language We start with learning the language of our dogs. Dogs do communicate with barking, but here we’re going to focus in on the way they communicate with their bodies. It’s a remarkable language and in some ways, quite complex. Without question, learning to read the body language of dogs takes some time, but there are a few cues you can watch for and utilize right away. The Tail Maybe the easiest to spot, the tail of a dog experiencing fear is most often lowered and you might see a low, slow wag. Don’t worry about what’s causing the fear just yet. The Head In our fearful dogs, the head may be lowered in something that looks like a deliberate dip of the head and extension of the neck. You may also see stress lines appear around the eyes and cheeks, a furrowed brow, and narrowed, blinking eyes. A tight mouth with long lips can often be seen here as well, with a kind of compulsive licking of the lips. Perhaps most commonly but most often missed by us as dog handlers and caregivers – yawning. Extreme Cases When a dog is experiencing extreme, overwhelming fear, the body language signals get quite serious in their implications and potential consequences. A dog in this emotional state will avoid eye contact, and their bodies may tremble in an all-over response that looks like a full body shiver. The tails are tucked deeply between their back legs, they may pant heavily or, alternatively, close their mouths tensely and completely. If you corner a dog experiencing this level of fear, they may snap in the air in your direction, a behavior designed to get more space by getting you to move away. Here you may get explosive barking, lunging, air snapping, charging, and if the dog cannot get relief and space with these, they may do their utmost to land a proper bite on whatever it is triggering their fear.  How Can We Help? It’s heartbreaking when we don’t understand and don’t know how to help our fearful, shy dogs. Dogs we love and know are suffering terribly with fear, often on a daily basis. So how can we help them manage, mitigate, and even overcome their fear? Outside of learning how to read the body language of fear so that you can recognize it as it happens and ideally, intervene before it escalates to an extreme, there are a number of steps you can take to get ahead and help your dog. Take Notes In my experience working with shy, fearful dogs and their human companions, this may be the hardest part for most of us. We’re busy, we’re trying to pay attention to a thousand things at once, and we ourselves find that we’re often overwhelmed by the demands of daily life. Despite understanding and recognizing all of this, if we can take just a few minutes each day to make note of what is triggering our dogs fear and how that fear is showing up in our dog’s body language we can start to understand the patterns in our daily lives and interactions with our dogs generating the fearful response. You’ll notice elements in this pattern that relate to time-of-day, places (environments), noises, physical events (sudden appearances, arrivals to the home, stranger-danger), and the like. So why is note-taking important here? Well, having foreknowledge of what triggers your dog ahead of the fearful experience will allow you to anticipate, avoid, and manage your dog’s exposure to their triggers. Understanding like this will allow you to give your dog a break from being constantly triggered in a way that feels outside of your control, and I cannot overstate how important it is to relieve sources of fear, especially extreme fear, for your dog. If we do not address this fear, it escalates across all metrics: severity, longevity, and frequency of the experience. What’s more, it will facilitate getting help for you both. By having this work done before your consultation (with someone like me), or your next visit with your veterinarian, you expedite our ability to do what needs to be done to relieve you both.  Avoid Punishment This is where my patience and tolerance for dog “professionals” is truly the thinnest. I’ve worked with six-month old puppies whose ‘trainers’ have told their owners to slap a prong or shock collar on them when experiencing fear on walks, effectively punishing those dogs for their emotional experiences. Leash pops, shouting, hitting, exposing your dog to increasingly worsening fear by flooding them through unrelieved exposure to the fearful experience – if anyone ever advises you to do any of the above, run in the other direction. And if you’re interested in saving some canine lives in the process, make sure you leave that ‘business’ with an honest review exposing their practices. We can no longer look the other way when those who purport themselves to be well educated professionals continue to recommend cruel, aversive management techniques with our fearful dogs. The damage these individuals do can take many years to remedy, and in some cases, the damage is permanent. I take solace in the foreknowledge that the science we are now doing on these techniques will soon inform the legal framework we need to ensure these individuals are frozen out of the profession permanently.  Trust
Recognize, respect, and address your dog’s needs and boundaries. Some dogs do not appreciate being embraced, kissed, or interacting with children. Maybe your dog doesn’t care much for adolescent dogs and puppies. There’s no need to force the issue. If your dog isn’t having a good time, and you’re pressing them to do what they’re not comfortable with in order to address some idea of what good dogs do, you’re missing the most important part of what it means to love and live with your dog: trust and respect. If you trust and respect both your dog’s boundaries and what they love, they’ll return the favor in ways you can’t imagine. |
AuthorCamille Salter is the founder of All Dogs Toronto and a certified, knowledge-assessed dog trainer (CPDT-KA). She is the author of two books on dog behavior: Pandemic Puppy, Decoding the Dog Park, and the Big Book of Dog Training. Archives
July 2022
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Books On Dogs and Dog Behavior by Camille Salter, CPDT-KA
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Urban dog parks are fraught with risk. These environments host to an ever-changing assemblage of dogs with different backgrounds, life experiences, tolerances, and drives. Learn how to navigate them with confidence, safety, and skill with this navigation guide designed for the active dog parent in mind. "Pandemic Puppy" is a mini-book designed for the undersocialized puppy, and outlines best practices for puppy rearing, socialization during a pandemic, obedience, attention, calming behaviors, and compliance. All delivered in a force-free, scientific manner. Read this book. Once you have these lessons under your wing, you and your puppy will soar with excellence and never look back.
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