Cooperative Care

Cooperative Care

By Benah Stiewing

Just like us, there are certain activities your dog has to do even though they may be difficult, or sometimes painful. For humans, we may not enjoy going to the doctor but we can rationalize why it’s worth getting poked and prodded. For our dogs, going to the vet can be terribly confusing at best and traumatizing at worst. It’s not uncommon for your normally friendly and easy-going dog to develop fear or reactivity when they visit the veterinarian. As positive-reinforcement trainers, a trip to the vet can be especially destabilizing to our dogs who are used to feeling heard and advocated for. Enter, cooperative care! 

Originally started in zoos and animal parks as a way to care for and treat large, often dangerous animals, cooperative care is the method of training an animal to not only tolerate physical actions and manipulations, but to actively consent to such behaviors. This method is rooted in autonomy and the positive effects of choice. We teach our dog that they have full control over what happens to their physical body in a certain context. There are times, like an emergency medical scenario, where your dog may need to be fully restrained and sedated for a medical procedure and does not experience any autonomy, but this is entirely separate from the context of cooperative care training. You can use cooperative care training for:

• Blood draws

• Vaccines

• Physical inspections

• Nail trims

• Teeth brushing

• And more!

Sounds great, right? Let’s get started! First, you need to build your context of choice. You need to teach your dog how they can opt in and opt out of training by teaching your dog a stationary behavior! If you aren’t familiar with teaching that behavior, click here for an instructional video. Once you have trained your stationary behavior, we are going to use being on the mat as a way to opt-in to the training goal at hand. If your dog is on the mat, they are consenting to the behavior you are practicing. When they leave the mat, they are saying no. If at any point your dog leaves the mat during a training session, you must respect that choice and not encourage them to come back on. Remember that cooperative care is about autonomy, so it’s imperative that you honor your dog’s choices and allow them autonomy. 

After building an environment of choice, cooperative care breaks down a behavior (like nail trims) into many much smaller steps. Let’s explore nail trims as an example of how cooperative care works! Below we have broken down the act of trimming a dog’s nails. Please keep in mind that this is just an example and you may need to modify the steps/progression for your own dog. 

1. Hand moves towards dog’s head

2. Hand touches dog’s foot

3. Hand grasps dog’s foot

4. Hand grasps dog’s foot for 3 seconds

5. Hand grasps dog’s foot for 5 seconds

6. Hand grasps dog’s foot for 10 seconds

7. Go back to step 1, with the clippers present in the space (at a distance where your dog notices them but isn’t in a state of fear). 

1. Repeat steps 1-6 with the clippers in the space.

2. Continue repeating steps 1-6 at each stage of the clippers moving closer to you and your dog. Once the clippers are within reach of your body, move on to step 8.

8. While one hand is grasping foot, the other hand picks up clippers

9. Hand holding clippers moves dog’s foot

10. Clippers touch dog’s foot

11. Nail is placed in the clipper

12. Clipper is closed around the nail

13. This cycle continues for each toe. 

That’s a fairly complex set of behaviors, and we need to desensitize our dog to each step in that process. The general rule is 15-20 successful repetitions per step before moving on to the next. Remember, this is a general outline and you may need more or less steps depending on your dog’s overall comfortability with nail trims. 

While we’ve provided a deep dive into using cooperative care for nail trims, there are so many more possibilities for this training method, like baths and haircuts! If you want to start cooperative care with your dog but aren’t sure where to begin, consider enrolling in Cooperative Care for Better Veterinary & Grooming Visits! This 3-week virtual class is bursting with information, presented through recorded lectures, written instructions, and demonstration videos. If you want additional support for you and your dog, we offer in-person Private Lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado and Chatham, New York, and virtual coaching right in the comfort of your home.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Counter Surfing

Counter Surfing

By Benah Stiewing

Counter surfing is so much fun... for your dog! Dogs typically counter-surf for two simple reasons - it's interesting, which enriches their daily life, AND it often pays off with some high value rewards! However fun this behavior is for our dogs, it's typically not something we want them to practice in our homes. Not only is this hazardous for your food and other objects on your counter-tops, it can also be dangerous for your dog if they were to find & consume something unsafe. Below you will find enrichment, management, and training tips to prevent counter surfing and provide your dog with alternative behaviors that are safe and simple. 

Because dogs often choose counter-surfing as a fun activity when they are bored and don't have other, more positive outlets, we have to consider enrichment as a key part of our behavior modification plan for counter-surfing. When considering your dog's enrichment needs, you have to take into account your dog's age, breed, & preferred activity level. A dog with a high drive for hunting and working will be getting a lot of mental benefits from their counter-surfing routine, and we need to be ready to replace that with appropriate outlets instead!

Easy Enrichment Activities:

• Do training games or food puzzles for many of your dog's regular meals.

• Keep a freezer full of frozen Kongs & other stuffable toys for a regular mental exercise when your dog needs it!

• Teach your dog sniffing games on the ground, like find the treat or the toy.

• Add in some extra walks, runs, hikes, or other physical activities to your dog's weekly routine.

• Click here to view our recommended enrichment items & food puzzles!

Management is an essential piece of resolving counter-surfing behavior. If your dog is able to regularly practice getting up on the counters, and subsequently receives reinforcement (even in the form of a tiny little crumb of food), then they are likely going to continue to exhibit this very functional behavior. While we are working on replacing counter-surfing with better behaviors, we need to restrict our dogs' access to areas that have counters when we aren't around to supervise and redirect.

Even when we are around to supervise, sometimes our attention can be divided (i.e. cooking

dinner) and our counter-surfers can use that opportunity to sneak a tasty snack. Having a good management plan in place can help prevent that from happening! In practice, this could look like: 

• Use baby gates or exercise pens to keep your dog out of the kitchen when unsupervised.

• Keep food away in the pantry, cabinets, and/or refrigerator. 

• Avoid leaving food on the counter as much as possible. 

• When in the kitchen cooking, use tethering to keep your dog restricted to certain areas. 

• You can either tether your dog to your waist so you can supervise closely, or pick a nearby doorknob. 

The training game below is as simple as it sounds! We want to teach your dog that it’s more reinforcing to have all four feet on the floor. Through the enrichment and management techniques we discuss above, we’ve already made sure that your dog won’t ever be reinforcing for jumping on the counter. Now, we want them to learn what is reinforcing!

Four Paws on the Floor: 

• In your kitchen or other counter-surfing area, watch your dog and look for times when they have four paws on the floor. Mark and reward, then keep watching. Do they raise their nose up towards the counter surface, but keep their paws on the floor? Mark and reward! 

• If your dog struggles to even keep all four feet on the floor, you can ask your dog for a sit when they approach the counter. 

• Remember, we want to prevent the behavior, so ask them for a sit before they have begun to jump on the counter.

• You can add in mild distractions on the counter-top (think baby carrots or something else dog-safe) as your dog is ready!

Do you need extra support with your dog’s counter-surfing behavior? We’re here for you! If you want additional support for you and your dog, we offer in-person Group Classes and Private Lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado and Chatham, New York, and virtual coaching right in the comfort of your home. As you work through your dog’s counter-surfing, it’s vital to remember that your dog is simply being a dog and working to access what is reinforcing - the more we can understand this and pay our dogs well for desired behavior, the better we may serve our dogs.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Inter-Household Conflict

Inter-Household Dog Conflict

By Benah Stiewing

Just like people, not all dogs get along! Some people are your best friends, other people are your acquaintances, and some people you just don’t like - and that’s okay! Unfortunately, we can’t always predict which dogs are going to get along great and which ones won’t. Whether you’re visiting friends or have recently added a new dog to your family, experiencing conflict between dogs within a household is challenging and often exhausting. Worrying about preventing or breaking up a fight can leave you tense and constantly on alert. In this post, we’re going to talk about handling inter-household dog conflict, but if you’d like to learn more about preventing inter-household conflict, check out this podcast episode from Pawsitively Dog-Powered! Please note: if there are dogs in your household regularly experiencing conflict that escalates into lunging, snapping, or biting, we strongly recommend seeking professional help from a certified trainer. 

In order to prevent conflict escalation, it’s important that you’re able to recognize the early warning signals your dog gives. These communication methods are called calming signals, or sometimes called cut-off signals because they embody the dog’s desire to de-escalate. The vast majority of dogs are not inherently aggressive and do not want to engage in violent behavior, so will do their best to diffuse a situation before it escalates. Below is a list of some common calming signs. When studying dog communication, it’s important to understand that just like us, dogs are nuanced and contextual. Your dog yawning doesn’t always mean they are stressed - they could also be tired! It’s important to look at the whole body and make an assessment of your dog’s emotional state based on the big picture. 

Calming Signs:

• Lip licking: dog licks their lips or flick their tongue out from their mouth.

• Yawn: dog yawns, sometimes with their lips more curled back.

• Turning away: dog turns their head away from the person/dog that is making them nervous.

• Raised paw: dog slightly raises a front paw.

• Stiff body: dog’s muscles tense and movement slows.

• Tail raised: dog’s tail goes half-mast or slightly higher, maybe with a slow wag.

• Shake off: dog shakes off entire body.

Pay attention to your dog’s body language over the next few days, and start to notice what calming signals they display. Once we understand how to read when our dog is becoming agitated, it’s easier to intervene earlier before behavior escalates. If you notice your dog yawning and lip licking when another dog comes close, ask your dog for a known behavior or say their name to help them create distance from the other dog. Reinforce your dog if they’re able to walk away and perform the behavior you asked for. We want your dog to know that they can create the distance they need to feel comfortable, and that we are their advocate and will help them create that distance when it’s needed. You want your dog to know that you hear, see, and will respond to their early warning signals that they’re feeling uncomfortable. If you’d like to learn more about calming signals, click here to watch a brief documentary from celebrated behaviorist, Turid Rugaas!

Management:

When handling inter-household dog conflict, we always want to focus on quality or quantity when it comes to time spent together. When you have multiple dogs, it’s quite normal for those dogs to spend 24/7 together. They eat together, exercise together, sleep together. Just like people, your dog is bound to get sick of spending that much time with someone! It’s critical that you create time and space for your dogs to do activities alone, like solo walks or solo cuddle time (if cuddling is something they enjoy). Have a dedicated activity that you all do together, like going for a walk with both dogs, or playing with toys out in the yard. When your dogs are spending time together, remember to look for signs of stress (as described above) and immediately end the experience if they start to arise. We want the stressed dog to know that those early warning signs will be noticed and responded to, so they don’t need to escalate to aggressive behavior to create the space they need. It’s critical that your dog trusts you to be their advocate, so they don’t have to.

We want to make sure your dogs always have the space to feel comfortable and secure, whether they’re with other dogs or alone. To ensure this, we want to bring in management! We can use objects like ex-pens, baby gates, crates, leashes, and muzzles to create a comfortable environment. We can use ex-pens, crates, and baby gates to provide separation and allow for each dog to have time apart. In the photos below, you’ll see one such separation! Cosmo is very selective when it comes to other dogs, so this was his set-up while visiting some friends who had dogs of their own. He has his crate, which is a safe and familiar space for him, surrounded by an ex-pen covered with a blanket. This way, Cosmo has three barriers of protection if he starts to feel unsafe - the blanket blocking his view, the ex-pen, and his crate. Keep in mind that this set-up is specific to Cosmo’s needs. For other dogs, we might have removed the chair and used a taller ex-pen.Your set-up is going to be specific to your dogs and what they need to feel comfortable. 

Training Support for Inter-Household Dog Conflict:

Supporting you and your dogs is our passion! We understand how challenging conflict in your home can be, and we are here to help. Private lessons are an excellent way to work on the relationship between your dogs, with an individualized training program created for you and your specific situation. Private training is available in-person in Fort Collins, CO, Hudson, NY, and everywhere virtually!  If private lessons aren’t an option for you on this set of behavior challenges, we highly recommend this online course by our colleague Katie at Wise Mind Canine, who specializes in multi-dog households!

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Adolescent & Teenager Dogs

Life With Your Teenager Dog

By Benah Stiewing

Just like in humans, canine adolescence can be a challenging time! Canine adolescence generally starts between 6 months and 12 months and ends between 18 and 24 months, but can fall outside of that period. During adolescence, a part of your dog’s brain called the hypothalamus begins to release a hormone called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). Once GnRH is released in large enough quantities, it begins to stimulate the development of your dog’s reproductive organs, pumping out estrogen and testosterone. While critical to your dog’s healthy development, the sheer magnitude of these hormonal changes can cause some difficult behavioral shifts as well! Your dog’s change in behavior may shock or worry you, so it’s important to prepare ourselves and be ready to support our dog during this transition.

First, let’s discuss how we can manage our dog’s environment to help them feel comfortable and relaxed during their adolescence! It’s normal for your dog to have strong emotions about activities or actions that they previously may not have cared much about. For example, if you have family or friends that visit with their dogs, your adolescent may need more breaks and time away to decompress. Maybe your dog has had an excellent recall, even in high-distraction environments, but  now it’s less reliable. You and your dog can stay safe by keeping them on a harness and long-line. Baby gates, ex-pens, leashes, and your dog’s crate will really help you both through this developmental period.

Your dog may suddenly become more nervous around unfamiliar people and dogs. Never force an interaction if your dog is worried, this will only reinforce their anxiety. Instead, watch the unfamiliar people and dogs from a distance to  allow your teenager to collect information with a feeling of security. We do want to note that while behavior change is normal during this period, extreme behavior changes in your dog should be evaluated by a veterinarian and canine behaviorist. If your dog was solidly house-trained and then begins eliminating throughout your home, definitely have your dog evaluated by their veterinarian. If your dog went from sweet and friendly with strangers to suddenly biting your neighbor, seek professional support.

If you haven’t already, adolescence is the perfect time to start Look At That with your dog! Look At That, or LAT, is a pattern game developed by Leslie McDevitt from her Control Unleashed Program. LAT aims to neutralize the trigger (the thing that your dog has strong emotions about, like another dog or a scary thing) by reinforcing your dog for acknowledging the trigger. This exercise occurs in five steps, outlined below:

1. Your dog looks at the trigger.

2. While your dog is looking at the trigger, you say your marker word, such as “Yes!” or “Good!”

1. Your marker word is the sound you make (either verbally or with a clicker) when your dog is about to receive food. Because your dog experiences food as reinforcing, a behavior that is marked and rewarded will be repeated. You want to be consistent with your marker word because we want the word to have a strong positive association for your dog, or else they would have no reason to turn their attention back to you after looking at the trigger.

3. Hearing their marker word, your dog redirects their attention to you.

1. If your dog is unable to redirect their attention back to you, put food directly in front of their nose and try to guide their attention back to you. If you have to do this multiple times, you are too close to the trigger - create more distance and try again.

4. You reward your dog.

5. Repeat this sequence as many times as your dog will acknowledge the trigger, either by looking fully at it, or simply twitching an ear towards it.

Surviving your dog’s adolescence is all about meeting your dog where they are at. The rush of hormones they are experiencing can make them feel a little insecure and nervous, so the best we can do is recognize that and make life as simple and fulfilling for them as possible. Increase your time spent doing decompression activities together, like long, slow walks in nature where your dog is free to sniff and explore to their heart’s content. Instead of feeding meals in a bowl, switch to feeding in puzzle toys, like Kongs and Topls. Overall, we want your adolescent dog to practice relaxation over high-arousal activities, like fetch or going to the dog park. While these activities aren’t bad, we want to be careful to balance them out with decompressing activities where your dog is able to truly relax and you can take some deep breaths together. 

If you’re nervous about your puppy’s upcoming adolescence or currently in the throes of teenhood, we now offer Smells Like Teen Spirit! This is a 6-week virtual class that provides guidance, insight, and support for your dog to not just survive, but thrive during adolescence. The class is bursting with information, presented through recorded lectures, written instructions, and demonstration videos. 

If you want additional support for you and your dog, we offer in-person Private Lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado and Chatham, New York, and virtual coaching right in the comfort of your home. As you experience your dog’s adolescence, it’s critical to remember that your dog isn’t being bad, they are having a bad time. The more we can understand this and meet them where they’re at, the stronger your relationship will be. 

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Reactivity on Walks

Supporting Your Leash-Reactive Dog

By Benah Stiewing

A dog who barks, lunges, and experiences elevated stress when another dog or person appears during a walk is a difficult habit for you and your dog to experience. The word “reactive” is a label we use to describe a certain set of behaviors that dogs exhibit

under specific conditions, such as exposure to a “trigger” like another dog or person. Since we all might have slightly different visions of what a “reactive” dog looks like, below are some of the behaviors that might put your dog into this category. Having a dog who displays any of the below behaviors is stressful at best and extremely emotionally draining at worst for both you and your dog. 

• Fixation on the trigger (orienting towards, unable to turn away)

• Pulling toward the trigger 

• Hard staring (no blinking, jaw stiff, often includes a freeze as well)

• Barking

• Lunging

• Snapping / Biting

Though your dog’s reactivity may be frustrating and invoke anger from you or folks on the receiving end of their reactive behavior, it’s important to understand that your dog is having a bad time, not being bad. All behavior is affected by what comes before it (antecedents) and what comes after it (consequences). Understanding this sequence can help us understand why your dog does what they do, and how we may successfully modify undesirable behavior, like leash reactivity.

• Antecedent: whatever happens BEFORE the behavior. (e.g. trigger entering the

  environment, a cue that you give, etc.)

• Behavior: whatever observable actions the dog takes following an antecedent (e.g.

  whine, bark, lunge, respond to your cue, etc.)

• Consequence: whatever happens AFTER the behavior. (e.g. the trigger leaving the

  environment, the trigger getting closer, the dog being pulled from the environment, you

  delivering a tasty treat, etc.)

• We can visualize the whole sequence like this: Antecedent → Behavior → Consequence

To understand how to modify behavior and change the reactivity we see in our dogs, it is helpful

to think about what consequence the dog might get out of the behavior they are currently

choosing. What function does the reactive behavior serve for the dog? If a dog’s behavior functions in a way where the consequence is advantageous to the dog (i.e. it is something the dog wants), the behavior is more likely to occur again in the future. For example, if your dog barks at another dog on a walk, and what your dog really wants is for that dog to go away, when the other dog walks away with its human, your dog will learn that the most effective way to achieve their goal is to bark at dogs that make them uncomfortable.

This is important to understand because a critical key to behavior modification is to prevent rehearsal of the undesirable behavior. The more the behavior is practiced (and reinforced), the stronger the behavior will become. To prevent undesirable behavior, we need to understand your dog’s threshold. Threshold is the term we use to describe the point at which a dog transitions from a comfortable state of mind to a more distressed mental state, in which we see outward behavioral symptoms of their discomfort (i.e. reactive behaviors). Before we are able to effectively modify a dog’s behavior, we need to recognize situations that cause them to become distressed and work to prevent them so we can keep our dogs comfortably just below that threshold level while we teach them new coping skills. 

Things that can bring a dog over threshold:

• A separate event that has caused the dog stress recently - i.e. a thunderstorm during the night before or a recent vet visit.

• A trigger becoming more intense and/or coming closer to you - i.e. dog walking towards

  you rather than away.

• The dog being tired / hungry / thirsty (like at the end of a walk)

• Encountering multiple triggers in a row / at the same time - this is called trigger stacking.

The goal threshold for training sessions with our reactive dogs fluctuates at the borderline between their comfort-zone (no reactions) & over-threshold (big reactions), and well within their comfort-zone. We want to give our dogs exposure that will help them learn, and then contrast that exposure with easy recoveries at a distance where they feel as comfortable (and non-reactive) as possible. Initial learning (such as foundation skills like focusing on you, responding to basic cues, etc.) is best done well below the comfort-zone threshold line. If you are trying to teach your dog new skills for the very first time at or above their level of comfort, this will be very difficult. Start by rehearsing good behaviors and skills in practice areas where your dog feels most comfortable, like your living room or your backyard.

Our goal through behavior modification is to create a different set of behavior patterns for our

reactive dogs that fit better into our human expectations of appropriate canine behavior. In order to help our dogs do this, we need to set them up for success with some environmental management. This means facilitating situations where our dogs can be successful and guiding them, through our training, to make better choices. Management comes into play to prevent our dogs from rehearsing the unwanted behaviors until the dog has a better behavior built up to replace the reactive behavior. Pushing your dog into uncomfortable situations just because they haven't reacted yet is not necessarily setting them up for success. They don’t need to cross their threshold to learn!

Management ideas:

• Cross the street or duck behind a car if a dog is approaching and you won’t have the space you need for your dog to be successful.

• Install visual barriers on your windows and play white noise so your dog can’t practice their reactivity in the home.

Behavior modification is the process by which we teach our reactive dogs a different set of

feelings and, most importantly, behaviors about situations they would typically default to reactive

behaviors. To help change your dog’s current association to the sight of other dogs, we provide VERY HIGH VALUE treats (think diced chicken, liverwurst, and hotdogs) when your dog is in the

presence of other dogs (or other triggers). Over time, and with proper desensitization, your dog will learn to associate the presence of other dogs with yummy things. Your mantra should be “good things happen for my dog when other dogs are around!” We would prefer if the presence of another dog was a happy, exciting event for your dog. Our goal is for your dog to see another dog and immediately look to you as if to say, “Yipee! I see another dog! That means I get chicken, right?!” No barking or lunging, just an excited, expectant look on your dog’s face.

Behavior modification is a complex task, and if you are struggling with leash reactivity we  recommend seeking the support of a certified trainer. This post barely skims the surface of all the components that could be part of a leash reactivity training plan! Consider starting with our Reactivity in Dogs Webinar that dives deeper into the complexities of this behavior, and how we may support our dogs in developing different behaviors around their triggers.

If you want additional support for you and your dog, we offer in-person Group Classes and Private Lessons for reactive dogs  in Fort Collins, Colorado and Chatham, New York, and virtual coaching right in the comfort of your home. As you work through your dog’s leash reactivity, it’s vital to remember that your dog isn’t giving you a hard time, they are having a hard time - the more we can understand this, the better we may serve our dogs.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.