Dogs exhibit specific signs of stress when they are under duress. If you know what to look for in your dog aggressive dog, you can help him remain calm around dogs. To do this, you need to learn his specific signals and then move him away when stress occurs.

If day in and day out your dog is kept comfortable around other dogs, he will learn that he doesn’t need to be “on guard” when dogs around. This will lower his anxiety. If you also pair all meetings with FANTASTIC treats, your dog will also form a positive association for the presence of dogs.

Signs of Stress
Pay close attention to his subtle signs of stress
•    Not taking treats
•    Taking treats more roughly
•    Not performing behaviors easily that he normally does
•    Wide eyes
•    Raised hackles
•    Sniffing the air
•    Scratching
•    Yawning
•    Licking lips
•    Freezing or stiff movements
•    Moving head or eyes side to side
•    Obvious indicators like growling, snarling, or snapping

Use Assessment Tools to Keep Your Dog Calm
Each stage of interactions with dogs should be assessed to determine if your dog is comfortable or anxious. Keeping him calm the entire walk will speed up results. The more times he reacts on each walk will make all treatment more difficult. If you are unsure of his mental state, move him away from the situation. After he calms down after more distance, continue the exercises.

Use a clicker or say “Yes” to mark when your dog looks at the other dog. Make sure you are watching your dog’s head for the instant he sees the other dog. If a dog is approaching, move to the side at a comfortable distance and wait for the dog to approach. If your dog reacts by barking, lunging or growling, move him away until he is calm and then continue the exercises.

Here are specific ways to gauge your dog’s anxiety. If you follow these guidelines on every walk by moving away if your dog shows anxiety, eventually your dog will get comfortable with other dogs.

Low Anxiety – Stay where you are or move closer to the other dog
•    Turns around immediately upon hearing the ‘click’
•    Takes the treat gently
•    Is able to look away from the other dog
•    Is able to do a behavior such as sit on cue (do not try too soon in the process)
•    Relaxed body, face, ears

Medium Anxiety – Stay where you are, do not move closer, possibly move away
•    Turns around after the ‘click’ after a slight pause
•    Doesn’t turn around, but still takes the treat when presented to him
•    Slight stiffness
•    Upright ear movement

High Anxiety – Gently move him away
•    Barking, whining, showing teeth
•    Doesn’t turn around and doesn’t take treats after the ‘click’
•    Takes treats with a rough mouth
•    Extreme stiffness, pulling excessively on leash

Have more questions about dog to dog aggression? Join my community and ask questions for free.

Housetraining a dog can be a very frustrating experience. Especially if you had a dog in the past that was unusually easy to housetrain, your current dog might seem "flawed" or you might be at your wits end. Here are some general tips to keep in mind and some ideas to try if you are frustrated with your puppy.

Physical Abilities
Puppies can hold their bladders approximately one hour per month of age. However, they can usually hold it much longer at night, so you need to pay attention to the time during the day to get an accurate reading. 

Use the Correct Size Crate
Crates should be just big enough for your puppy to walk in, turn around, stretch and lie down. If there are accidents or destruction in the crate take EVERYTHING out. It is not cruel for your puppy to sleep on plastic for reasonable amounts of time. Dogs sleep on wood floors, and hard marble fireplaces all the time by choice. If the crate is too big, divide it with a divider and put something in the back of the crate to make it look smaller. It is important that your puppy doesn’t have enough space to potty in one corner and sleep in the other. The crate is not a torture device. You are not going to use it for longer than your puppy can hold it. You will use a long-term confinement area, described below, if you’re going to be gone for extended periods of time. The reason the crate is small is to motivate your puppy to hold it. If you extend the time a bit longer each day, you will physically condition your puppy’s bladder to increase the amount of time between potty trips.

If There are Accidents
Do not rub her face in it, yell at her or anything else. Calmly clean up the mess and make sure you are charting all of the accidents in a daily chart. If you scare your puppy before she is comfortable going in front of you, you can actually scare her and she will avoid going potty in front of you. You need to build up a reward history for going in the correct spot. A success happens when you say, “Go potty” and your puppy goes potty in the right location. After 10 successful trials, if you catch her in the act of going inside, you will do what is called, “Interrupt and Redirect” by saying,  “Potty Outside!” and clap your hands once. Hopefully she will stop mid-stream. You then pick her up or put her on leash and run her outside or inside to the puppy pad and start the process again. As with all management techniques, you need to limit the amount of mistakes in order to get a smooth training procedure up and running

It is very common for accidents to happen shortly after a puppy goes potty one time and the person thinks they are “finished”. As with all accidents, write it down on the chart, circle it to make sure it stands out and then the next day at this time allow your puppy a much shorter amount of freedom and then put her in the crate. Take her out again a short time later to finish her business. As you get more comfortable with the timing and her signals, the amount of accidents should diminish.

Setup A Long-Term Confinement Area
You should also designate a long-term confinement area for times when you are going to be away longer than your puppy can currently hold it. You should be able to go out for the evening and not worry about your puppy having an accident in the house or hurting herself. You should use the long-term confinement area sometimes when you are home to ensure that your puppy gets comfortable with it. Some options include:
•    An exercise pen
•    A puppy-proofed bathroom or other room
•    Baby gates at either end of a hallway or in a kitchen

You can have a crate in the area, but the critical elements are some type of puppy pad or paper, and water if you are gone for a while. I do NOT count a puppy going potty off of the pad as an accident. The entire reason for setting up a long-term confinement area is because you are expecting your puppy to go potty during that time. If they go on the pad, great, if not it is better than in the crate or in another part of your house. It is purely a management strategy, not truly a housetraining strategy.

When is a Puppy Housetrained?
Puppies can be housetrained as early as 5-6 months, but more commonly puppies are accident-free between 7-9 months. With that said, you should see continous progress and less accidents each week. The less mistakes that you make the better. This means that you need to closely monitor your dog’s behavior and have her with you all the time or in the crate until she is potty trained. She is officially potty trained if she is accident-free for 30 consecutive days.

Have you ever gotten bored working on "Sit, Down and Stay?" Sometimes it helps to have some suggestions for ways to make training a bit more interesting. Here are some simple ways to keep it fun for you and your dog. 

• Reserve top tier chew toys, bones or treats for a point in the training session when your dog improves his performance. For instance, when he holds a Stay for a longer time than the last session, give him his chew toy as a reward.
• Hide Kongs or other stuffable toys around the house filled with your dog's dinner. Work on a training session and then allow him to search for his dinner after he does something outstanding.
• Work on improving criteria. For instance, the criteria for Come When Called include speed of the behavior, avoiding distractions, the position of your dog after he comes to you, etc.
• Work on basic training exercises on walks. Many people don't work on periodic sits, downs and stays on walks. This will improve reliability by providing your dog practice training in a variety of locations.
• Work with a friend on two-dog training goals such as working on attention around distractions, coming when called running next to each other, and come up with creative two-dog tricks.
• Practice a 5-minute training session without using any verbal cues, and just use hand signals.
• Move away from treats and use more verbal encouragement.
• Use toys as rewards. If your dog likes to play tug or fetch, do quick training sessions and reward with a quick game of tug or fetch.

Hopefully these ideas spark some other ideas for training. Often simple changes can keep things interesting.

Did you ever want to change a cue or teach your dog a new cue for an old behavior? It is actually very easy to do this with just a little planning.

Why would you want to teach your dog a new cue for a behavior that he already knows? One common example is when someone wants to teach their dog another cue for Come When Called. My dogs know many different cues for this behavior including the verbal “Come” as well as a whistle, and various visual cues. I use a different cue depending on how far away they are and whether they can hear me or not.

To change or add a cue you need the following:

• A new cue that you want to teach
• A cue that your dog already knows

Let’s assume you want to teach your dog to “come” when you whistle. To accomplish this do the following:

• Have your dog sit and stay
• Walk 10 feet away from your dog
• Whistle
• Pause for a moment (if your dog isn’t already coming to you)
• Ask for your dog to “Come” or another cue using a cue that he already knows
• If he doesn’t come right away, help him gently by guiding him with a leash or tapping your leg
• Repeat this exercise until he doesn’t need the secondary “Come” cue and has learned that the whistle means the same as “Come”

Helpful Tips

• It is important to give the new cue first and make sure you pause before providing the cue that your dog already knows. If you give the new cue and the old cue at the same time, this is called "blocking." If blocking occurs your dog might not learn the new cue because he has all the information he needs from the old cue. The new cue can become “background noise”.
• If you pause between giving the new cue and the old cue your dog will learn the cue eventually because he will anticipate that the new cue is always followed by the cue that he knows

Have fun changing or adding cues. Here are some fun things to try.

• Scratch your head to teach your dog to sit
• When you sit on the couch, teach your dog that this means he should lie down on his bed
• When you open the front door, teach your dog to sit

I was speaking with a client the other day about her dog that is afraid of men. Her dog is a rescue, had a rough background including some abuse by the previous owner. She had always been a little skittish around men, but until recently she had not been growling and now my client was concerned because it was becoming more frequent and severe. I asked what she had tried before speaking with me.

She told me that another trainer told her to use a spray bottle filled with water and spray her every time she growled. I cringed and immediately said that is REALLY bad advice. I used to be more gentle when I disagreed with a technique, but now with the popularity of The Dog Whisperer and other trainers that I mostly disagree with, I am getting more vocal when I hear bad training being practiced.

Why is spraying your dog or using cans filled with coins such BAD advice? Let me explain. The most common uses of using spray bottles or cans with coins are when dogs are growling or biting. In my client's case her dog was growling at men. So, her dog growled at a man and then got sprayed in the face. She felt that it was working because her dog stopped growling. However, I asked her if her dog was now comfortable with men. She said that she was not comfortable because she never went close to any of her male guests and still seemed uncomfortable around them.

You know what happened? She now has a dog that is STILL uncomfortable around men, but now doesn't growl at them becasue she doesn't like the consequence of getting sprayed in the face when she growled. My client taught her dog not to tell her when she is uncomfortable. That is BAD because growling and other signals are a warning when dogs are uncomfortable. If signals are punished, then you end up a dog that won't tell people when they are uncomfortable. People often get bit is when they don't have an idea when a dog is uneasy.

Some people will erroneously think that the problem is "solved" because their dog has stopped growling but that is not true. What should you do instead of these aversive techiques? You should slowly and systematically get your dog used the stimuli that currently cause discomfort and prove to her that she doesn't need to growl or feel unsafe. Have more questions? Visit my dog aggression forums more tips or join my community and ask me questions there.

I am not a fan of retractable leashes. There are dog lovers everywhere that swear by how wonderful they are and use them every day. While I think they are humane, (always my main criteria for even considering a dog product) I think they potentially cause more training problems than benefits.

1. Dogs are taught to pull. When the leash is in retractable mode (not locked in place) your dog will always feel tension of the leash and will still be able to move forward. This can cause confusion. I recommend that when dogs put pressure on the leash, the handler should stop moving or gently move the other direction. This will teach your dog not to pull. The retractable leash can teach a dog to ignore pressure on the leash and pull harder.
   
2. The handle is very combersome. To train effectively, you need to have good timing and be able to comfortably handle your dog and use rewards including toys or treats. The handle of the retractable leash can make training more difficult.
3. It can scare dogs if the handle is dropped. If the handle is dropped, it can follow dogs on the ground and dogs can run from it while it dragging on the ground after them. This has happened to a few of my clients and it was very scary because their puppies panicked and ran far distances. Luckily, neither puppy was injured.
   
4. The leashes get tangled. If you use a retractable leash and have ever tried to have an impromptu play session with a dog that you meet, I am sure you know what I mean. It can be very challenging to keep the leashes from getting tangled, and sometimes they can wrap around little puppy legs.
   
5. Inconsistency. Besides having constant tension on the leash, dogs are able to walk varying distances in front of their guardians. This can create confusion when you want your dog to walk nicely next to you in the future. I recommend using a 6 foot, fixed length leash during training for consistency.
   

While I think these leashes are good in theory, I think the cons outway the benefits. If you want to give your dog more exercise, I recommend walking on a 6 foot leash and using fixed length long leashes or take your dog to a fenced in dog area for good romps.

Want to learn how to teach off-leash control? See my off leash control video and teach your dog to STOP!.

If you have followed my blog, forum posts or radio show you know that I am completely against the use of prong collars, choke chains and shock collars for dogs. Besides the fundamental belief that dogs should be taught using humane methods, there is no excuse to use those outdated training tools because there are humane alternatives that allow anyone to painlessly control their dogs.

One of those tools is the SENSE-ible or Sensible harness.  While there are no dog training miracles, I can confidently say that this product has literally changed the lives of many dogs all over. While the design is simple, the results are noticeable and immediate. I used to use and recommend Halti or Gentle Leaders for walking, but have moved away from those products  almost entirely. While I absolutely put those "snoot loop" products in the humane category (unlike choke, prong or shock collars that are aversive and cause pain) dogs often take a long time to get comfortable with anything on their noses. Dog guardians sometimes give up out of frustration after days of seeing their dogs roll around in the grass or pawing their face.

The SENSE-ible harness, on the other hand, is easy to put on and dogs acclimate to it instantly. There is a very slight learning curve for people to use it as well. It does have to be sized correctly, however, to avoid discomfort for dogs. If it is too small, it can cause rubbing under the dog's armpits and if it is too loose, it can hang too low in front and can cause minor chafing.

Yesterday I received a call from a client that purchased a SENSE-ible harness for her 70 lb., 7 month old fast-growing female Great Pyrenees mix. My client was not walking her very much because she pulled her and hurt her wrist after lunging after a squirrel. My client was concernced that she would pull her down on a walk. She called me to tell me that she just got back from a 30-minute walk with her dog and she said it was amazing how different it was. She said it was very pleasant and that she felt was able to manage her very well without fear of getting dragged down the street. She said she worked on the leash walking exercises that I recommended and it made the walk even better.

How It Works
So how does the SENSE-ible harness work? if you look at the picture of the adorable Beagle to the right, notice how the leash is attached to the front. If a dog is pulling, she is pulled gently around by turning her body the opposite way that she is pulling. It gives the person holding the leash the advantage by using leverage. One of the best aspects of the harness is that takes potentially painful pressure off of a dog's neck and distributes the pressure over her body.

Like all training tools, you still need to practice training while your dog is wearing the SENSE-ible harness. But, the harness makes it easier to manage your dog and focus on the training vs. anxiety that your dog will get away from you or hurt herself on a regular or metal collar.

Great for Dog-Dog Aggression
I recommend all my dog-dog aggression clients use the SENSE-ible harness. Besides removing negative associations when dogs appear with any neck collar, it also gives my clients more confidence that they can control their dog when he or she lunges at another dog. Being calm when working with aggression is very important, and this increases the comfort level for both dog and person.

Why It is Different From a Regular Harness
A regular harness that attaches to a metal clasp located on a dog's back does not make it easier to prevent pulling. On the other hand, it allows a dog to put her whole body into the walk and actually increases her ability to pull. Think sled dogs in Alaska. They put a harness on and pull the sled. The SENSE-ible is designed differently and takes away the leverage from the dog and gives it to the person holding the leash.

Why It is Different From an Easy Walk Harness
You can find a similar product in many stores called the Easy Walk Harness. From lots of personal experience and client feedback, this harness is not the same and is not as easy to use. While it is still a great product, it is designed a bit differently. The Easy Walk has multiple clasps and also has a loop in the front that tightens the harness as the dog pulls. The feedback that I have received from my clients consistently talks about how that harness is harder to size and often slips and needs to be readjusted. The multiple clasps (the SENSE-ible just has one) make it more complicated to size.

Finding a SENSE-ible Harness
My one criticism of the SENSE-ible harness is that it is not in many stores. In Chicago, there are only about 4 or 5 stores that carry it in my travel area, and there are countless pet supply stores within that area. I used to carry samples with me for years and tell clients where they can purchase the harness on their own. To make it easier for my clients, I started carrying the harness and selling it on my website.

You can purchase the harness or get more information here.

My clients often hire me to help rehabilitate their dog's problems. Sometimes they recently adopted an older dog that already has behavior problems, while others have had their dogs since they were puppies and were lax in one or more areas that resulted in behavior problems forming over a period of time.

One reason why this is a common problem is because all dogs develop differently. You might have had multiplie dogs from puppy to adulthood and never did any preventative work with any of them in the past. Even though you raised your current dog exactly the same way as your others, he now has a behavioral problem. I don't consider myself a pessimist, but I always assume the worst with dog development to insure that I am doing everything possible to prevent  problems before they get out of control. It is an investment in your dog's future. Put the time in now and you will increase the chances that you will have many years of enjoyable experiences and much lower stress.

Insufficient Socialization. This is the most important task to focus on when working with a new puppy. The time-sensitive socialization period for puppies extends until approximately 18-20 weeks of age. During this time, your puppy will form associations with new people, sounds, smells, and events. If you spend enough time socializing your dog during this time, he will be a confident older dog. Read more about socialization here.

Not Practicing Separation Anxiety Prevention. Separation anxiety is the most challenging dog training topic to overcome. A dog that has separation anxiety has panic attacks when alone. The reason this is so challenging to treat is because dogs can regress if they are alone for a longer period of time than they can handle during treatment. For instance, if you work with your dog and get him comfortable with being alone for 30 minutes and you leave for two hours, he could regress and start to have a panic attack after only 10 or 15 minutes next time. Read more about separation anxiety prevention here.

Not using the Crate Enough. This is one of the most talked about puppy topics. Many people feel guilty about using the crate and resist doing it or don't use it enough. The crate, when used properly, is the best tool for efficiently housetraining your dog, preventing destruction, and preventing separation anxiety. Read more about crate training here.

Not Practicing Resource Guarding Prevention. Resource guarding occurs when a dog guards something around him and shows aggression. Resources can include bones, toys, food bowls, locations or people. This is treatable, but it is much easier to prevent. Read more about resource guarding prevention here.

Not Preventing Barking. Barking can be triggered for many reasons including aggression, alerting, fear, or demand behaviors. It is important to curb barking as soon as possible so it doesn't become a long-term problem. Read more about demand barking here. Read about barking at noises here. Read about barking out of windows here.

Kongs are one of the best antidotes to cure dog boredom.

I sometimes have to remind myself to use them as well because I get out of practice, but every time I use them it reinforces how great they are. I always talk to my clients about them and thought you might need a reminder as well.

If you don't know, Kongs are just one brand of a type of dog toy that allows food or treats to be stuffed inside. They are made of hard rubber and can be washed easily in the dishwasher to remove food residue. I view Kongs as food dispensers. Some dogs like to gnaw on them when they are empty, but most just find them interesting when stuffed with goodies.

It is raining today in Chicago and my dogs did not get their normal romp in the park. They seemed extremely bored so I fed them their dinner out of Kongs tonight. I split their dinner in two and did two "rounds" of Kong stuffing and finding games. They are all now passed out with full bellies and are very content.

Tips for Kong Stuffing

• Use anything that your dog finds tasty and agrees with his system. Options include cooked pasta, rice, peanut butter, wet dog food, dry dog food, treats, cheese, bread, oyster crackers, apple sauce, bananas, lunch meat, etc.
  
• I stay away from the Kong "sprays". I always read ingredient labels and they have all kinds of extra, unnecessary ingredients. Especially the peanut butter spray -- what's the point? Use regular peanut butter.
  
• Do not make it too difficult for your novice dog at first. If it is too challenging, even the best ingredients will be ignored because it is too much work.
  
• Freeze the Kong with the ingredients inside for your expert dog. This will make the extraction process take longer.
  
• If it is too difficult after freezing, microwave it for a few seconds to thaw it out and make it a bit easier.
  
• Microwave cheese inside before freezing to make it nice and solid.
  
• For bigger chunks to hold it together, use pasta or bread.
  

Tips for Kong Feeding

Once you have practiced stuffing Kongs, finding what your dog can handle and getting your dog excited about Kongs, now you can really have fun!

• Work on a Stay cue and then hide your dog's Kong filled with his dinner around the house
• Use multiple Kongs with varying degrees of stuffing difficulty
• Use a specific cue such as "Go Find Your Kong" to teach your dog to search
• Don't hesitate to help your dog find the Kong if he gives up. Encouragement is a good thing to keep him interested.
  
• For a novice dog, use a leash and tether your dog to a doorknob during the hiding process.
  

Other Tips

You can work up to the point where you have your dog stay for 10 minutes or more, hide Kongs around the house and then have him search for it. Your dog will get the enjoyment of "hunting" for food, and then spending a lot of time searching and extracting his dinner. Ten minutes of time for you could equal hours of fun for your dog. This is also a fantastic form of mental stimulation for dogs. What an efficient use of training time!

Also consider the Kong Time product. You can put four Kongs inside and set a 4 or 8 hour timer. It randomly ejects a Kong in that period of time. Great for dogs that are alone for long periods of time.

Walking a dog while trying to navigate a stroller can be extremely frustrating. Besides the normal frustrations with a pulling dog, there is also the danger and concern of a baby in the stroller. Visions of the dog pulling the stroller over and seeing the baby get hurt are not something that any parent wants to witness. So, what often happens? The dog often receives less walks because he is not able to walk nicely next to the stroller. That is a shame. Your dog will just get more rambunctious with each passing day if he is getting less exercise than he needs. With a little consistent work, you can walk your dog next to the stroller and have pleasant walks with your family.

Follow these steps and you will succeed. As with all training, your success might take some time, but it is worth it. You need a basic understanding of leash walking before you start working with your dog. If you need assistance, I recommend my Basic and Intermediate leash walking videos. You can watch them instantly on your computer and they also come with detailed notes to complement the information you will see in the video.

Steps to Walking Your Dog With the Stroller

Each step should be practiced in a small area close to your home without the baby in the stroller at first. As you practice more and gain more success, you can then add more distance.

Practice Holding the Leash

1. First practice holding the leash on the handle of the stroller. Use a six foot leash, with your dog on your preferred side of the stroller. Hold the leash with both hands on the handle and walk slowly with your dog just a few steps. If your dog pulls, stop walking and gently move him back into position and give a treat.
2. Add more steps and use encouragement to keep your dog in position. If he pulls, gently move him back into position and give a treat.
   
3. Every time you go to a new location, you should lower your expectations, and give more encouragement and treats until your dog is used to the new environment.
   

Practice Turns

Turning with a stroller has its own set of challenges. For instance, if your dog is on the left side, turning left is challenging because you can run over your dog if you are not careful.

1. Before you turn, say the direction of the turn.
   
2. Move REALLY slowly at first so your dog understands that he needs to be careful of the wheels. Gently guide him into position, if necessary.
   
3. Use lots of treats when he is in the correct position.

Practice With the Baby

Once you have practiced without the baby in the stroller and your dog is walking nicely, practice with the baby but use a helper to handle the leash if there is a "hot moment" such as your dog seeing a squirrel or another dog. Your helper can grab the leash and handle your dog, if necessary.

Practice, Practice, Practice

As with all training, practice makes perfect. The more you practice the more you will have nice, long pleasant walks with your whole family -- including your dog!

Happy Training!

Last week I saw a client that I have not seen since her puppy was 5 months old. I met with her for just one session to help her get on the right track and talk about basic puppy strategies including socialization, jumping, puppy biting and preventative strategies including separation anxiety and aggresssion. Her dog is now a 2-year-old, 55 lb. German Shepherd mix and my client hired me because he has been biting.

He bites when his collar is touched, he bites when he is startled when he is sleeping, and he bites when he is possession of bones or his food bowl. My first question to my client was if she practiced the handling and preventative resource guarding exercises I recommended when her dog was a puppy. She admitted that she never did the exercises and as the problems grew, she ignored them until they became unbearable.

I started some basic temperament testing including collar touches, muzzle grab, and body blocking. I barely touched his muzzle and 'snap', he air snapped quickly and aggressively. He could have taken a chunk out of my hand which was good news that he chose not to. The bad news was that I had barely started the test and had to stop because his heightened reactivity. I knew the following conversation would not be easy for my client to take.

The harsh reality in her case is she has a long road ahead of her and the final prognosis is unknown. I told her that if she does not manage her dog correctly and put a lot of time into correcting this problem, her dog might bite someone and she could get sued and he could be put down. That may sound harsh, but it is true. Her dog has a very rough mouth and has already had multiple damaging bites resulting in emergency room visits for my client's friends and family.

There are many important strategies for raising a confident, well-adjusted dog. Socialization, exercise, and training are often mentioned in my posts as well as other puppy resources. But, I think many people fail to stress the importance of handling and grooming in puppy raising. As with many preventative measures, handling and grooming exercises can seem kind of boring or uneventful. But, if done correctly, they should be uneventful because you are teaching your puppy to be comfortable with being touched without fear or aggression. In my private practice, I see a lot of aggression that could have been prevented if the dog was socialized properly including handling exercises.

The reason that handling exercises are so important is to prevent putting your dog in a situation as he gets older that might result in fear or discomfort. If a dog isn't comfortable with being handled, there is a higher chance that he will be fearful when visiting the groomer, vet, or being petted by strangers. When a dog is handled frequently in the correct manner, he will enjoy being handled and enjoy the presence of people. That is the opposite of being fearful. Fear can lead to aggression.

Here are some suggestions for handling that you should practice daily with your puppy for the first year of his life and then do weekly sessions after that. It is important that a variety of people of all ages practice these exercises. If children do the exercises, coach them with very specific instructions and give lots of treats to your puppy.

Grooming
Brushing, introduction to baths and hair dryers, tooth brushing, clipping nails, and cutting the hair on the bottom of feet are examples of simple exercises that can help a puppy enjoy normal grooming activities. To get your puppy to love nail clipping, for intance, clip one nail a day for 20 days in a row and follow with yummy treats. If you only clip one nail at a time it will not be a big deal. The whole goal of these exercises are to do low-stress activities and follow them with treats so your dog is not stressed out and starts looking forward to the activities because they predict yummy things for him!

Collar Touches and Basic Handling
During one meal per day, do the following handling exercises and follow with bits of food.

• Grab collar
• Pull tail (gently)
• Rub ears
• Touch paw
• Hold foot
• Hold nail
• Massage all over and give treats
• Rub gums with fingers
• Open eyes (to practice putting eye drops in)
• Rub ear with Q-tip and then Q-tip with rubbing alcohol or ear cleaner
• Grab muzzle
• Gently pick up puppy (if he squirms, wait until he calms down before you release him)

These are just some guidelines for handling suggestions. The main point to keep in mind is that your puppy needs to be introduced to everything that he might be exposed to when he gets older. Start early and be consistent. This is an investment in having a wonderful dog. It is well worth it!

Read more about puppy socialization here. Is your dog afraid of petting? Read this post about hand shyness exercises.

Have more questions about aggression? Join my community and ask questions in the forums.

How can this be possible? A professional dog trainer that makes his living training dogs admitting that dogs can actually think they are better? What? Is this some new-age dog training philosophy? Am I nuts?

No. This is just common sense that flies in the face of the teachings of scores of dog trainers out there that are stuck in the 1960s methods of dog training that would feel right at home in the popular series Mad Men.

Let me explain. You probably have heard the terms "alpha" or maybe have heard someone tell you that you "need to be the boss" or maybe even had someone tell you that you need to roll your dog on his back to make sure that he knows you are in charge. These are all indicators that someone is talking about "dominance", "pack theory" or "alpha" strategies in dog training. In that dog training "camp" trainers urge their students to make sure that their dogs never get out of line. The recommendations can be even more severe for aggression cases including terrible physical abuse each and every time a dog growls, snaps or barks at something that causes fear.

Besides physically abusing a dog that is already scared or “misbehaving” being bad advice in individual cases, it creates a bigger problem for dogs all over. This type of thinking puts the blame on dogs for being scared, barking, pulling on the leash, jumping, or other naturally occurring responses to environmental stimuli. The resulting strategies used to “correct these problems” are often extreme, overreactions to make sure the dog doesn’t get out of line.

One strategy commonly used is the alpha roll. If you are not familiar with the ill-advised alpha roll, the strategy is as follows. If a dog growls at a dog or a person, (let’s say a child) quickly flip him over on his back “to show him who is boss” until he calms down. This is supposed to change his behavior by teaching him that this behavior is not acceptable. Since the person “is the boss” and the dog is the lowly dog, the dog is supposed to quickly change his behavior because he was told to.

What is so maddening to me about this technique is that it does nothing to address the initial fear that caused the response. If a dog growls at a child, he is afraid of that child. People yell at each other and possibly sue them if they are angry, dogs growl and bite. This is a universally understood signal announcing discomfort and to “move away or I might bite you”. Signals are good because they are warnings and provide information for skilled trainers to assess the situation and humanely desensitize the dog to the event that caused the fear.

If you alpha roll a dog you might reduce or stop the growling, but you have done nothing to address the initial fear that caused the growling. You quite possibly will end up with a dog that seems calm, but then attacks without warning at a later date because he reached his stress threshold. He might be afraid of being alpha rolled, choked with a metal collar or shocked, but at that moment the child walking by is more frightening and he has to take action.

There are many other techniques frequently used that I am fundamentally opposed to including choke chains, prong collars and shock collars all in the sake of "dog training".  For the purposes of this post, I want you to think about making sure you understand that one "bad" behavior in a dog does not mean that they will go down to path of no return and turn into a "bad" dog.

But doesn’t it matter that dogs know their place in the pack?

My question to you is what the heck does this mean? What does it look like when a dog knows his place in the pack? Does it mean that he knows to stay off the couch? Does it mean that he doesn’t pull on the leash? Does it mean he isn’t aggressive?

To me, all of those personality and behavior traits of a dog are the result of proper socialization, training, troubleshooting and creative thinking along the way. There isn’t a manual to create the perfect Lassie in ten easy steps. Dogs are complex animals that require a lot of time, attention and smarts to raise a well-behaved member of the family.

The problem with the thinking that dogs need to be second-tier or be submissive, or lower in the pack insinuates that they are trying to take charge. That besides a fragile “order” keeping things in check dogs might change one day and become aggressive or “take over”. If they walk two feet in front of you on a walk, this means that they think they are better than you and that all hells going to break loose if you don’t quickly bring them in check. You know what? If a dog walks in front of you all it means is that they want to walk faster than you and that they need more training. Don’t get sucked into worrying about individual details of your dog’s behavior resulting in a catastrophic turn of events where you are in the crate and your dog is in charge.

If you want your dog on the couch, fine. If not, fine. If you don’t care if your dog pulls on the leash, don’t worry about it. If you do, train him.

And back to my original point, my dogs might be better than me, who am I to say? All I know is that our relationships are fantastic, they don’t pull on the leash, they come when I call them, they are not aggressive, and they make me laugh more than I ever thought possible. Those points are important to me. Figure out what is important to you and focus on those details of your relationship with your dog. Don’t let anyone scare you into making dog-human relationships more complicated than they already are.

There is a new study published in New Scientist that may change the way people view the cognitive abilities of dogs. Dog guardians around the world might now have scientific proof to back up their comments that their dog is extremely smart and knows what their guardians are thinking. The experiments have taken the argument a step closer to proving that dogs have a limited "theory of mind", or the capacity to understand the desires, motivations and intentions of others.

In the past most scientists said that dog guardians that said their dogs had a deeper understanding of the emotions and intentions of their human counterparts were foolishly applying human emotions to animals. Now that dismissive view has been challenged by studies presented a few weeks ago at the first Canine Science Forum in Budapest, Hungary, which back the idea that the 10,000 years that the descendants of grey wolves have spent evolving alongside humans have had a remarkable effect on dog cognition.

In one experiment dogs mimicked the scientist's behavior in order to obtain a reward. The fact that the dogs chose this path for obtaining the reward showed the cognitive ability to understand what benefits them and to perform this behavior.

Barking is also mentioned as an adaptive technique to communicate with humans. Wild dogs do not exhibit the same barking behaviors.

Meanwhile, Dr Juliane Kaminski at the University of Cambridge has examined how dogs can use human gestures such as pointing and gazing to find hidden food or toys and concludes that dogs do understand that we are trying to tell them something. "Domestication seems to have shaped dogs in a way which enables them to use these gestures from as early as six weeks," she tells New Scientist.

Read the entire article.

To effectively use positive reinforcement to train your dog, you need to understand the difference between bribing and rewarding.

Bribing a dog occurs when the treat or reward is shown up front before the behavior is requested or while the dog starts his behavior in response. Bribing often occurs when people call their dog. Someone might say, “Come” and not get the result they are looking for, so they show a treat to their dog or shake a treat jar. Then, their dog comes to them. Bribing is counter-productive and will degrade or ruin responses. If a dog is doing behaviors solely because the payoff is visible, then there will be sluggish, inconsistent responses at best. Savvy trainers teach their dog to do behaviors and that the frequency and quality of the reward will be based on their performance.

Strategies to Prevent Bribing

Shape Behaviors
Watch for behaviors that look like the behavior that you want your dog to do and periodically reward the partial behavior. This will motivate your dog to do the behavior on his own. An example of this strategy is to shape “Come”. Work with your dog in a safe, enclosed area and walk away from your dog. If he follows you, say, “Yes” and give him a treat. Walk away again and wait for him to walk a little closer the next time before marking his behavior with a “Yes” and a treat. When he is doing the behavior reliably, you can then say, “Come” before he starts moving towards you and he should make the connection that that cue is the predictor of a reward if he moves towards you. The motivation occurs because of the anticipation of the treat based on the cue, not seeing the reward upfront.

Use Helpers
With every behavior that I teach, I have a backup “helper” in mind in case the dog doesn’t do the behavior on his own. They are all gentle ways to help the dog make the connection between the cue and the behavior and avoid bribing. Many repetitions of behaviors result in strong, conditioned responses. There are many helpers that you can use for teaching, “Come”.

Say, “Come” one time and then use any of the following helpers:

• Gently pull the leash (no jerking)
• Tap your leg
• Run the other way
• Crouch down (this works great, especially with puppies)

Then, reward your dog after he comes to you even if you helped him. Then, move a few feet away from him and call him again. You may have to use helpers a few times, but eventually your dog should start coming to on his own, without bribing!

Use Really Great Treats or Toys as Rewards
If you reward with fantastic treats or toys, then your dog will be more motivated to do behaviors on cue. This is basic animal learning theory: motivation is increased based on the quality of the payoff for the animal. An animal in the wild will stalk and hunt all day for the possibility of a meal. If you prove to your dog that he might get a tasty morsel if he does a behavior, then he will be more motivated to do that behavior.

These are just the basics of motivation and rewards. This is a big, fascinating topic. If you have more questions, join my Community and ask questions there. 

Jumping on guests is a normal behavior that dogs exhibit, but through proper management and training, you can change your dog’s behavior.

With inappropriate behaviors, it is important to identify what changes in the environment start the pattern of inappropriate behaviors.

If you do not intervene at all when guests arrive, the normal chain of events might look like this.
•    Dog hears the doorbell and/or knocking on the door
•    Dog gets excited and starts barking
•    Guest appears, dog sees guest, dog rushes guest
•    Dog jumps on guest

The first course of action with inappropriate behaviors is to stop a dog from escalating their behavior during the first sign of anxiety. If you can stop your dog from rehearsing all of the steps of the behavior, then you can change the behavior pattern. The goal of behavior modification is to stop the inappropriate behavior and redirect it into appropriate behavior.

When guests arrive, the first event that usually causes dogs to react is either knocking on the door or hearing the doorbell. If your dog reacts to this event, you should read this post about desensitizing your dog to the doorbell and work on the exercises there.

The next event that can cause dogs to get excited is when the guest appears at the door. There are a number of strategies that can decrease anxiety and change the behavior pattern.

Reward before your dog jumps
•    Put your dog on leash to prevent her from rushing the door
•    AS SOON as she sees the guest appear, click and treat (if you are using a clicker) or say, “yes” and treat
•    I recommend tossing treats on the ground
•    Eventually your dog will see your guest and start sniffing the ground because she is anticipating a treat
•    Continue this as your guest approaches your dog by clicking and treating each time your dog looks at your guest but before she jumps
•    Move her gently away using the leash if she jumps and continue the exercise
•    As she calms down, you can drop the leash and have her trail it so you can pick it up, if needed

Tether Your Dog
If you want to greet your guests first you can tether your dog to prevent her from rushing the door. Put her on leash and put the end of the leash under a table leg or over a doorknob or other stationary object. Your dog should be able to comfortable sit or lie down. She should not be uncomfortable in any way.
•    Have your guests slowly approach your dog and click and treat before she jumps
•    Instruct your guests to back away if she jumps at all
•    You can also give treats to your guests and instruct them to give her a treat if she is on the ground and remove the treat if she jumps
•    As your dog calms down, you can remove her from the object and keep the leash on her so you can gently grab it if necessary

Use Toys
If your dog likes toys, you can throw a toy for your dog to chase as soon as she sees your guest. This accomplishes the goal of stopping inappropriate behavior and redirecting it into an appropriate behavior.

My Jumping Video shows other exercises to teach a dog not to jump. Each video also comes with downloadable notes with even more exercises.

Do you have more training questions? Join my community and ask questions FREE.