Cute, but Brutus is a toy-hoarding monster

Q. My dog, Brutus, loves his toys to the point where he attacks other dogs that try to play with them. And it’s not just his toys. Say we’re at the dog park and there is a dog that is playing with a tennis ball: He will steal the tennis ball from the other dog and get very mean if that dog tries to take it back or even share it. At home, I have to take his toys away and put him in “time out” which is him being sent to his crate. I don’t think it’s a matter of lack of exercise; I let him run next to my scooter until he’s tuckered out, which he absolutely loves. Any suggestions on how to stop this possessiveness/obsession?

A. Possessiveness is an entirely natural behavior for dogs and, in the case of dog-dog interactions, a difficult one to modify. From Brutus’s perspective, his behavior works—and every time he successfully steals a toy or defends one from another dog, his obnoxious behavior is rewarded. I know of no way to decrease his interest in toys—I expect that “time outs” will have the opposite effect—and I don’t want to deprive him of what are obviously a great source of joy in his life! But here are some thoughts on improving his etiquette around other dogs:

1. I suspect you’ve figured this out by now, but… Don’t give your dog toys when he’s around other dogs.
2. Train your dog to drop toys (or anything else that’s in his mouth) on cue. When your dog has a toy, offer him another, better toy or treat.  As he opens his mouth to take the new thing, say “drop”  and praise him enthusiastically when he does. If he likes to retrieve, you can throw the toy for him as a reward. This is going to take a lot of training with every toy he has before it becomes automatic. Make your dog think that whenever you say “drop,”  an even cooler toy or fabulous treat will appear. You will get lots of use out of this command, and you can use it when Brutus steals another dog’s toy. We’re working on this one with Danger at ADW, now.
3. Train your dog to have solid leave it and come (recall) commands, and use them to prevent stealing other dogs’ toys. This is especially important if your dog is inclined to get ugly with other dogs. As your letter indicates, you recognize that he lacks self-control around toys, so it’s your responsibility to provide that control.  Just like you wouldn’t let a son (or daughter) bully other kids at the local playground, you can’t let your pup bully other dogs at the park for their toys!

It's come to this

Q. I can’t get my dog to stop knocking over the trash like it’s a ghetto liquor store. You got anything fuzzy and “positive” for that?  —Randy

A. Randy, first thing’s first. Danger’s a trash eater, too, but when he does get in there, it only means that two other things have gone wrong, first:

1. He’s roaming and not lying on his dog bed. No good can come from a dog that roams the house. He’ll never clean up after me, and more likely will just make messes himself. Your dog should be conditioned through repetitive training to either stay on his dog bed or lie at your feet. If he’s there, he’s not in the trash. If he does get up and wander over to the trash, start with a calm leave it.
2. If you’ve got a trash dog, he shouldn’t be left in the house unattended. That’s asking for trouble. I’ve got a friend who stacks kitchen chairs up on her couches and rubberbands the cabinets shut when she leaves, just so the dogs won’t get into trouble. Instead of trying to dog-proof your house, just leave the dog in a fenced area when you’re gone.

If all else fails, here’s a hillbilly technique* . . .

(Note: Attempt this one at your own risk, and definitely don’t try it with young, small, or sensitive dogs—only large, thick-skinned, repeat offenders. This means you, 80-pound Labs.)

There’s a branch of dog training called respondent conditioning. That’s a fancy way of saying that you’re using the dog’s natural reflexes to your advantage. Think of a dog that’s gun shy or scared of thunder, snakes, vacuum cleaners, or hair driers. It only takes one gunshot or snake bite for a dog to know he doesn’t want any part of guns or snakes.

To fix my problem, then, I taped an unbaited Victor mousetrap to the trash can with the bar down so it would snap up under Danger’s chin, rather than down onto his nose. The next day: Snap! Yelp! No more trash. Now, if there’s some place I don’t want danger to be, like under the coffee table, I just leave an unset trap there and can be reasonably sure he’ll give it a six-foot berth.

More notes of warning: Definitely don’t use a rat trap. (You do know the difference, right?) Those could do real damage. And if you’re desperate enough to think this is a good idea, pad the bar of the mouse trap with something soft like a few wraps of duct tape.

*Disclaimer:  Triggering a shock reflex in a dog is a risky proposition. If the dog associates the pain with you, say if you’re standing right next to him when the trap goes off, he may never trust you again. It could also lead to fight rather than flight reflex and get you seriously hurt. You’ve been warned.

But Danger, I feed you

At times, it seems like Danger is trying to willfully unhinge me. Frantic outbursts, lunging for my arm and then dangling from it by his teeth, swiping sticks of butter off the counters and then swallowing them whole like horse pills–these are all par for the course. Getting a dog to not do something can often be harder than teaching complicated behaviors. Most guys I know resort to some combination of shouting, “Cut that $@&# out!!!” and the dog’s name over and over. I’m guilty of this, too, though less now than I used to be. Here’s a primer on what works and what doesn’t.

What to Do

1. First, figure out what’s setting the dog off. In my case, the big problem has been his going crazy and lunging at me during field training. Yeah, that seems like the big problem, but, really, what he’s doing is trying to avoid structured training. Sometimes it’s easy to figure out what’s setting him off, like when he barks bloody murder whenever someone knocks a the door. Other times, it’s harder. In any case, try to figure it out and know that it could be something as subtle as the way you lean over him before signaling a retrieve.
2. Decide on an alternate behavior to replace the unwanted behavior with. For the door knocking problem, Sue is having me train Danger to go to his dog bed and sit rather than race toward the door. For other annoying episodes like barking, greeting strangers or strange dogs on walks, and sniffing when he should be heeling, eye contact is generally the best swap.
3. We’ll start with the eye contact swap and save the door rushing (harder by a long shot) for another time. The command that most people use to mean, “Stop whatever it is you’re doing, raiding, looting, humping . . . and look at me,” is leave it. Sue had me start by holding a treat out to my side in my right hand and a clicker and another treat in my left. Danger sniffed my closed right hand, tried to mouth it, and, finally, when he gave up and made eye contact with me, I clicked and gave him the treat from the left hand. It only took one or two tries for him to realize that trying to gnaw the treat out of my fist wouldn’t work, but that making eye contact would be immediately rewarded. The clicker speeds this process up drastically by marking that exact moment when he makes eye contact as the thing that earned the treat. Now it’s just a matter of slowly upping the level of distraction: First with a treat under my foot that I could step on if he dove for it, then dropping treats in front of him. When Danger was successful about 80 percent of the time in making eye contact when I dropped a treat in front of him, we added the cue, leave it. NOTE: Leave it is not a punishment. You don’t shout it or growl it; just say it like matter-of-fact like. (This is actually really difficult when he’s dragging you toward another dog on a walk.)
4. Now, with your new leave it command, you’ll need to train him with the specific problems you’re having. If you want him to ignore other dogs on walks, you’ll have to train with another dog. For this, I give Danger a preemptive leave it as the other dog approaches. He’s got to turn away from the other dog and make eye contact to get a reward. By this point, he knows exactly what is required to get a treat, it’s just a question of whether pulling toward the other dog is worth more than a treat in his doggy brain. If it isn’t, I’ll lower my expectations and increase the distance to the other dog until he’s getting it right every time. The goal with this, as with all training, is for the dog to be successful at least 80 percent of the time.
5. You may still encounter situations that are too enticing for your dog to ignore. Yes, physically remove your dog if you need to, but, no, don’t get mad at him. You just need more training for higher levels of distraction. The worst thing you can do is repeatedly shout leave it. Doing this will only weaken the meaning of the command.
6. Now the harder part: unwanted behaviors that aren’t caused by obvious things like approaching people and dogs. My specific problem is a playful lunging that quickly escalates to growling and biting. First, I’ve got to remove whatever stimulus is setting him off. It turns out that trying to overpower him, which is both doable and tempting with an otherwise sweet 60-pound Lab, is a big-time stimulus. When I do this, he only accelerates until I’m bleeding and we look like one of those cartoon dust balls with paws and arms occasionally flying out of it. Instead, I force myself to stay dead still and say leave it one time. He’ll usually keep it up for a few seconds, aiming for an arm or flap of clothing, and then quit, sit, and make eye contact. Then I mark the behavior and give him a treat or praise. (Note: My hunting buddies think that allowing the dog to disrespect me this way is crazy. Maybe, but it’s going to keep us both out of the emergency room.)

What Not to Do

1. In general, trying to force the dog to anything is going to set that arrangement as a precident. See another dog coming and you yank one way on the leash and he yanks the other? That’s how it’s always going to be.
2. The old rub his nose in . . . [pick one] turd, steak, trash and shout No! OK, on second thought, it’ll probably still make you feel a lot better, even if it doesn’t teach him a damn thing. Go ahead and shout No, just once, and then throw his ass outside. No rubbing his nose in it, though. You’ll feel bad once your need for revenge has passed.
3. Drive your knee into a dog that’s jumping up. This one’s still surprisingly common among a lot of trainers for one simple reason: when a dog is jumping at you, fending him off with your knee is often the first instinct. It was with me, even before I heard about it as an actual technique. It was also one of the factors that led to my current problems with Danger lunging at me. From my limited experience, it’s best to save your sharp knees for the Octagon than explain yourself to horrified onlookers and risk hurting your best friend.
4. This applies to everything in dog training (and life): Don’t lose your cool. It’s really easy to do when Danger is tearing off down the street, but I force myself not to chase after him or repeatedly shout his name. Whatever the problem is break it down into small pieces and train it out methodically.