Some years ago, I was about to start a K9 GAMES demonstration at the Wag & Bone Show in England, when a steward ran up to me and said that I was late for my training workshop.
After comparing schedules, it became apparent that I had been double booked, so I asked Gwen Bailey, author of The Perfect Puppy, to finish the K9 GAMES demo and ran across the arena towards the workshop ring, desperately wondering what on earth I could put together at such short notice.
As I got closer, I saw that there was a crowd of several hundred people with well over a hundred dogs in the ring. And they were crazy! The dogs, that is. They were all whining, barking, yowling, jumping, and straining on their leashes. This was during the heyday of my UK television series, Dogs with Dunbar, and I guess most of the people had come to the show so that I could lay my hand on their dogs’ foreheads and immediately and magically make it all perfect. It was an impossible situation … but out of nowhere, I had a light-bulb moment — I would put canine craziness on cue.
I grabbed the microphone and stepped into the ring. After a short introduction, I explained that, on my signal, they were to jazz up their dogs and get them to bounce and bark to their hearts’ content. Then, when I raised my hands, everyone was to try and get their dogs to lie down. Of course, things didn’t go quite that way. When people tried to encourage their dogs to act silly, most dogs simply stood still and looked at their owners in amazement. German Shepherds seemed to regard their owners in embarrassment or horror. We call this Murphy’s Law in Dog Training — if you want your dog to do one thing, try to get him to do the opposite.
After a bit more instruction, I showed the owners how to get the dogs to go crazy on cue, and this time when I raised my arms it must have taken at least five minutes for all 100+ owners to get their dogs to lie down. We repeated the Jazz-up/Settle Down exercise a dozen or so times until the entire group could settle down their dogs is less than five seconds. The owners had all learned an important skill — how to control their dogs when crazy.
Of course, they could only have learned this by putting craziness on cue. It is very difficult to teach dogs to be calm when they are excited and beside themselves, because visitors are at the front door for example. It is much easier to teach Settle Down when canine craziness is the owner’s idea.
Next, we taught all the dogs to pull on leash and alternated it with loose-leash walking. Teaching the dogs to pull was extremely difficult until we got members of the audience to lure the dogs with food treats. Then we taught the dogs to speak on cue and alternated Woofs and Shush. The dogs all learned to woof on cue (very useful) and to shush on cue as an added bonus.
Putting “problems” on cue is now pretty much standard practice for controlling all hyperactive behaviors. Put the “problem” behavior on cue and then yo-yo it with the desired behavior. In no time at all, the behavior that was once a problem soon becomes a reward for the appropriate behavior. Jazz up becomes a reward for settling down, pulling becomes a reward for walking on a loose leash, woof becomes a reward for shush. Then there’s my and Dune’s all-time favorite: running away becomes a reward for a reliable recall.
Here’s how it works: I ask Dune to come and sit and give him a tug toy, then I tap him on the head, say “Tag,” and start chasing him. I chase him round the dining room table, into the living room, upstairs and downstairs. During this game, I periodically stand still and ask him to come, whereupon he gives me the tug toy and we play a short game of tug before resuming the chase. Once running away is on cue (and under your control), reliable recalls are a given.
Here’s wishing you loads of summer fun while using these ideas to train your pooch to be the perfect canine companion.
Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian, canine behaviorist, and puppy-training pio-neer. He is the founder of SIRIUS® Puppy Training and Scientific Director for www.dogstardaily.com.
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