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| Tug-of-war between Junior and Mr. President |
A mother squirrel and her baby spent all day on a walkway of the UCLA campus, repeating over and over the same apparently fruitless task—trying to get the baby squirrel to jump up and over an approximately four-foot-high wall. Such exercises in life learning are everyday occurrences in the animal world, but this particular incident was captured on videotape by some fascinated university student, who uploaded it onto YouTube, and it received an amazing 500,000 hits! When I saw the short piece, I was happy to learn that it was reaching so many people. To me, this simple amateur video illustrates exactly what I want my readers to take away from this book about how animals learn—and how we can help, not hinder, their natural processes.
In the video, the mother squirrel is showing the baby squirrel what it looks like to jump to the top of the wall, teaching by example. The mother squirrel seems to have an endless supply of patience as she demonstrates her graceful moves over and over again. The baby squirrel finally gets up the gumption to try it a few times himself, but he makes it only partway before falling. At this point, the concerned UCLA students watching this unfolding drama decide to get involved. They move a backpack up against the part of the wall that the squirrel is attempting to scale. At first, the squirrel flees the strange object, but after a few minutes, it returns and figures out that the backpack could make a good ladder. The squirrel climbs up the backpack, but the object isn’t quite high enough to leverage the baby animal to the top. Another student comes on the scene with a couple of large sandbags; stacked together, they are taller than the backpack. Again, the tiny rodent flees the scene. This time, his mother comes down and escorts him back to the wall for another try. She leaps up and waits just above the sandbags. Then, encouraging with silence and energy, she watches her baby climb up the sandbag, make a last heroic hurdle, and finally succeed in scaling that daunting concrete wall.
My first thought after watching that video was “What if that had been a mother dog and a puppy?” I have no doubt whatsoever that the same concerned students would have simply picked the puppy up and put her on the grass above the wall. They might even have comforted her, petting and cooing as they did so. Then they would’ve gone on their way, confident that they had “rescued” a helpless animal, while the puppy actually might have missed a learning experience that could one day save its life. The truth is, in most situations, animals—even juvenile animals—are anything but helpless. Animals are smart, resourceful, and all about survival. What we humans interpret as “rescuing” can actually be blocking a puppy from her natural process of learning and growing and mastering a new environment. In the UCLA squirrel video, the animal in question was saved from this fate because of its wildness. The students approached and dealt with a wild squirrel very differently than they would have a domestic puppy or kitten. And what they did with the squirrel turned out to be exactly the right thing to do! They helped the animal, not by rescuing it, but by working in partnership with it, giving it direction but not stepping in and solving its problem. A partnership between human and animal is exactly how we need to approach first connecting and communicating with, and finally, conditioning (or “training”) our puppies.
CONNECTING
Relationship Is Everything
It was my original ambition in life to grow up and become the best dog trainer in the world, and I have trained many dogs in my life—to perform tricks, to answer to commands, as well as to work as security dogs. Soon after I arrived in America, however, I observed that traditional “training”—meaning sit, stay, come, heel, or answering to other commands—was not solving the problem of an epidemic of unstable dogs. What those dogs needed was for their owners to stop humanizing them, to reclaim a leadership role in their lives, and to fulfill all their primal needs—the needs of animal, dog, and breed, in that order. But as you have already learned, a puppy’s mother starts “dog training” from the earliest days of her pups’ lives. Her training is not done with a high, squeaky, overexcited voice, commands, or bribery by treats; it is done in silence, using energy—a much more powerful tool of communication.
“When I have a litter, they are learning from the moment they are born. They learn from their mother, their siblings, and from me handling them,” says my friend Martin Deeley, executive director of the International Association of Canine Professionals and an acclaimed breeder and trainer of gun dogs.
When an owner picks up a puppy for the first time, the pup is already beginning to learn from the owner. The ride home in the car is a lesson. The meeting of the family is a lesson. Dogs are learning twenty-four hours a day. Even when asked to relax and do nothing, they are learning to do this and be patient. Everything we do with a pup from the moment we get that pup is a learning experience. So we actually start “dog training” the moment we get a pup, and in fact we should start teaching ourselves how to behave and how to establish all the good habits before we even get the pup.
A mother dog’s “training” is also done through connecting. She has a real relationship with her pups, expressed through constant calm-assertive leadership. This is why I advise all puppy owners to think “connection,” then “communication,” before they think “training” or “conditioning.” Learn to converse with your dog the way another dog speaks to her—using energy, body language, and eye contact—before you ask her to master the intricacies of any human syntax. Your conversations will have much deeper meaning for your dog that way, and you will be sharing a true connection. Connection is the language of energy; it is the cornerstone of the lifelong bond between you and your dog. Connect and fulfill first, then move on to conditioning.
CESAR’S FULFILLMENT FORMULA
Every dog and puppy needs …
1. Exercise—in the form of a minimum of two structured walks with a pack leader, twice a day
2. Discipline—clearly communicated and consistently enforced rules, boundaries, and limitations
3. Affection—in the form of physical affection, praise, treats, and playtime
… and in that order! Though you may be adopting a puppy in order to give it love, the reality is that puppies need a lot more than love to keep them balanced. A good pack leader shows love by fulfilling the dog in all three areas—in the right order. This fulfillment formula works throughout the entire life of your dog.
LEASH TRAINING
When it comes to bonding with your puppy, once again you have Mother Nature on your side, since from birth to eight months, your puppy is programmed to always follow her leader. Once the natural mother is out of the picture, you become the puppy’s default pack leader, and if you direct her with the same calm-assertive energy that she’s been accustomed to since birth, your puppy will automatically follow you whenever you wander away. It’s as if there were a built-in invisible leash between you and her.
Still, when your puppy is with you in the public, human world, an invisible leash is not enough. There are far too many distractions and dangers out there. Once she enters adolescence, she is going to want to range far and wide. You need to leash-train her from a very early age, in such a way that the leash is barely noticeable and has only positive connotations for the puppy. Done right, leash training strengthens the connection between you and your puppy. It becomes a physical cord through which your energy travels to her, and vice versa.
Many conscientious breeders will begin the leash training for you. Brooke Walker already had Angel well on his way by the time he came home with me, at eight weeks. Brooke starts the process by putting little paper bands on their necks right about the time they are starting to walk. She initially does this for identification purposes—that’s how I first met Angel, when he was simply Mr. Green, next to his brother, Mr. Blue, and sister, Ms. Pink. “Since my puppies rarely leave home before three months, I usually start introducing them to the leash at about eight or nine weeks. Just five minutes, twice a day. I’ll do short little stints with a treat held close to their nose to encourage them to move forward. I like to compare it to when you introduce a child to swimming and you keep moving backward from them so that they have to take one more stroke to reach you.”
Brooke’s method of leash training is right in line with my own philosophy of being a partner instead of a dictator when it comes to your dog’s learning. I recommend letting a puppy drag around a very short leash for quick intervals while she’s playing—supervised at all times, of course—just so she can get accustomed to the unnatural feeling of having something around her neck, while still experiencing the fun and freedom of play. Remember, we as humans are used to getting up every morning and putting foreign objects like clothes, shoes, and jewelry on our bodies, but to a dog, leash, harness, booties, or sweater are just that—completely foreign. Conditioning is the process of making the unnatural feel natural. Trainers who work with wild or exotic animals—for instance, big cats that perform in magic acts—always start conditioning their animals to leashes and collars as young as possible. The younger a puppy is when she gets used to the feeling of a leash, the more normal the sensation will be for her.
As for the tools themselves, I am a big proponent of less is more when it comes to a puppy’s leash. In fact, with all the puppies I’ve been raising for this book, my simple 35¢ nylon leash slipped over the pup’s head and held high up on the neck for control has been my number one tool. I am a fan also of “show leashes”—slim-cut, pure leather leashes with a loop at the end that are used in dog shows. They are short, lightweight, and allow a maximum of control with a minimum of tension. If you want to introduce a Halti or gentle leader to your puppy, the correct time to do it is between four and six months of age.
Never use a prong collar or other advanced training tool on a puppy under six months of age, but if your powerful-breed puppy is still exhibiting signs of overexcitement or lunging as she enters her adolescence, consult a professional to help you decide on the appropriate tool to help manage the problem. By preventing any behavioral issues now, in puppyhood, I hope you will be so in tune with your dog that there will be no need for advanced tools or extra help down the line. But if you need help, make sure to reach out before the problems escalate out of control.
And always remember that it’s not the tool itself—it’s the energy behind the tool that matters! Your energy passes through the leash directly to your dog, so if you are uncomfortable in any way with the training tool you are using, your dog will sense it—and react accordingly.
Another important detail of leash training is that you must always let the puppy come to the tool, never force the tool on the puppy. The first few times, this may take patience. Make a loop that’s about one and a half times wider than your puppy’s head. Then hold it in front of you and let her sniff it. You can spray it with an organic scent or palm a treat on the other side of the loop. Let the pup examine the tool and feel comfortable with it. Lightly touch it to her forehead and nose. Once the puppy seems relaxed and curious about the tool, hold the treat on the other side and let her put her head through the loop to reach the treat. Then gently tighten the tool. If your puppy is still relaxed, provide a reward—petting, praise, or a treat. The adventure of the walk that goes along with the leash is the biggest reward, giving the leash a positive association. That’s why so many dog owners report that their dogs get excited whenever they see the owners going for the leash—the association of the good times that the leash represents.
After a few times repeating this ritual, you may be able to hold the loop of your leash out in front of your puppy and watch her put her head through on her own. If your puppy is wearing a collar and you are simply attaching a leash to the top of it, never chase the puppy around when it’s time for a walk. Once again, let the puppy come to you. Using the tried-and-true formula of nose-eyes-ears, engage your puppy’s nose and make sure she’s standing or sitting still while you fasten the leash to the collar. Stay relaxed and quiet; keep the image of your pup’s calm, confident canine mother in mind. And keep your energy positive. Taking a puppy for a walk should be one of life’s most joyful experiences!
Puppies have very short attention spans, so when they are young, keep the time on the leash short and sweet—no more than five to ten minutes at first—and fill that time with fun, pleasant surprises, and rewards. When the shorter sessions become easy, gradually lengthen them. This way you’ll leave your puppy wanting more each time. She’ll actually come to crave the experience of the leash because it will come to represent adventure, exercise, praise, and, most important of all, bonding with you, her pack leader.
MASTERING THE WALK
1. Always begin the walk with calm-assertive energy.
2. Don’t chase after your puppy with the tool you are using, be it a simple 35¢ leash like the ones I use, a harness, or a Halti. To your puppy, the tool you are using is an extension of your own energy, so it should have a pleasant (but not overstimulating!] connotation. Let your puppy come to the tool, not the other way around.
3. For your very first walk with your puppy, wait at the threshold of wherever you are leaving from, be it a shelter, your car, or your home. Make sure your puppy is in calm-submissive waiting mode beside you, and then step out the door first. Ask your puppy to follow. Whoever leaves the dwelling first, in the puppy’s mind, is leading the excursion. You want that leader to be you.
4. Hold the leash in an easy, relaxed manner as if you are carrying a purse or a briefcase. Hold your head high, put your shoulders back. If your puppy begins to pull, pull up lightly on the leash, then immediately release the tension once the puppy gets back into line. Keep the tension loose at all other times. Your puppy should be walking beside or behind you, not pulling to the side or dragging you from in front. If your puppy doesn’t get that concept right away, use an object, like a walking stick or an umbrella, to create an obstacle until she gets the picture. Gently put the object out in front of the puppy’s path in order to create a boundary that will soon become an invisible one.
5. If your puppy starts to wander, gets distracted, or seems to balk at moving forward, use a bully stick, a palmed treat, or a scented toy and engage her nose. Then continue to move forward once you have redirected her attention.
6. If a puppy gets excited when she sees a commotion or another dog across the street, this is not a signal for you to get excited, too! Keep your focus and, most important, your calm-assertive energy, and continue walking. A slight side-pull correction on the leash will communicate, “Don’t get distracted, keep on walking!” If necessary, turn your puppy’s back to the commotion that is causing the distraction, and make eye contact with her. Wait until she sits, relaxes; then continue on with the walk.
7. When you and your puppy have had a successful ten-, fifteen-, or twenty-minute walk, then allow your puppy the freedom to wander a bit on the end of the leash, to smell the ground (only if you are in a safe area and/or your puppy has completed her third round of vaccinations) or pee and poop. This is a reward. After about three to five minutes, return to your structured walk.
8. When arriving at your destination or returning home, repeat the procedure outlined in step 3. Walk through the threshold first, then invite your puppy in after you. Remember, in your puppy’s mind, whoever goes through the door first owns that space! Make sure she is calm and submissive as you remove the leash.
Walking correctly with your dog will be the most important skill you can master if you are seeking a deep, lifelong connection. Stick to the basics—always be the first one out the door and the first one to return back in. Always walk with your puppy beside or behind you, never allowing her to pull you from the front or “zigzag” out to the side. Keep the tension on the leash relaxed, and imagine you are carrying a purse or a briefcase. Focus your eyes ahead, don’t stare at your puppy. Most conventional schools of dog training instruct you to keep your dog on your left, but in my experience, you can condition a dog to walk to your right, to your left, or even to do both whenever you want. The key is to have her beside or behind, never out front. If you are having trouble getting your puppy to walk reliably on a leash, choose one side and stick to it until she gets the lesson down cold.
Owners I have helped always marvel at the night-to-day differences they see after they finally master the walk with a formerly troubled dog. For adult dogs, I recommend a minimum of at least a thirty-minute walk twice a day, to drain pent-up energy and for the primal bonding ritual that it signifies. Adding a backpack to an adult dog can help intensify the walk, or make up for time if you can’t do a longer session. For puppies with short legs and even shorter attention spans, walks can be brief—even ten minutes a time in the beginning—but they should still follow the outline above, and you must begin the routine of two or more structured daily walks at your side as soon as your puppy comes home with you. It’s the structure and the ritual that are important here. You are imprinting on your puppy’s malleable brain that this is your routine; this is how one works for food and water.
IMMUNITY AND WALKING
Because a puppy’s immune system will not kick in fully until the third round of shots at around sixteen weeks, many modern owners don’t believe they have to walk their puppies until they are four months old or even older. In fact, some of them are so scared of parvo and other illnesses that they want to encase the puppy in a protective bubble for its first months home. I will never disagree with the advice of a veterinarian when it comes to the physical health of a dog. But a puppy’s psychological development is also a big part of her overall health. From a purely behavioral standpoint, keeping a puppy inside a house and limiting its ability to exercise is a recipe for disaster. Imagine if you had a human child, and you kept him in the house until he was a teenager. What kind of person do you think he’d become? It’s likely he either wouldn’t have any clue how to deal with the outside world and would be timid and antisocial, or he might go to the other extreme, come away bursting with repressed, frustrated energy, and become a force for destruction the minute he got a taste of freedom. An over-protected puppy can have a similar reaction if it is virtually quarantined through adolescence.
There are so many different ways to keep a puppy safe from disease while at the same time making sure you fulfill all her physical and psychological needs. Try mastering the walk on a back patio or in your yard, on your driveway, on a limited, sanitized area outside your home (Chris Komives used a ten-to-one bleach-water solution to spray and sanitize the short portion of his neighborhood sidewalk where he first started walking Eliza), or even on a treadmill inside the house as a last resort (you can run on the treadmill next to the puppy to simulate an off-leash migrating ritual). Swimming alongside a puppy in a pool—especially a water dog—can have much the same effect. Use your imagination, along with your sense of caution, to begin this bonding ritual and the exercise habit right away.
Says Diana Foster:
We always stress walking and exercise. German shepherds are powerful dogs, they’ve got a lot of energy, and they need their cardio. Walk around a parking lot or go down a busy street where there are a lot of cars and buses and noise—you will very rarely see other dogs. Avoid areas where there are vets’ offices or pet stores. Of course, you need to keep them on the sidewalk and don’t let them sniff the ground. That’s not what the walk is for; it’s for structure and for training them to be comfortable on the leash. Just make sure you are walking your puppy in a controlled environment. In our group puppy class, everybody’s checked for shots. I don’t let anybody on the property that is sick at all. If they have a loose stool or a cough or their eyes are weird, they’re not allowed on the property. I tell owners, sure, by all means be careful, but you’ve got to take the puppy out!
OBSTACLES TO THE WALK
Walking a puppy isn’t the same thing as walking an adult dog. A puppy is much more easily distracted. You may need to stop, press the “reset” button on her attention, then start again before she gets into the rhythm of it. Using a scented toy, palmed treat, or bully stick to redirect the nose is a great way to distract a wandering puppy and get her attention back on you. But a puppy also has built-in limits as to how far from home it’s okay to wander.
Recently my wife, the boys, and I had the delightful opportunity to care for some newborn Chihuahua pups and their mother in our home. It was fascinating to watch the three one-month-old puppies and their different responses to the outside world. While two of the puppies would not leave the bed we provided for the little family, one pup of the same litter jumped right off it and explored by himself to a distance of four full feet away. Each of those three puppies is “normal.” But each of those puppies, at three or four months old, will have a different reaction to a walk with a human. When he grows up to be a big boy of three months of age, the “explorer” Chihuahua might follow me half a block away. The other two might not want to go more than a few yards past the driveway.
You as an owner have to be sensitive to your pup’s limits. You definitely need to keep challenging her, but you shouldn’t push her past what her instincts tell her is comfortable. Instead, add a few extra feet every day to your walk. Increase the distance gradually. But don’t force a young puppy into a new place or circumstance if her body shuts down on you. Slow down and let her take in the experience at her own pace. If you continually ignore and block a puppy’s instincts, you will never be able to build the trust necessary to connect truly with your dog. And remember, dogs’ superior instincts—their original five and vaunted sixth senses—are a very large part of what we value them for.
ANGEL AND THE DARK PATHWAY
When Melissa brought Angel home with her for his weekend night sleepaway experience, she and her husband took him on several walks. At my house, Angel was always very courageous, exploring the hedges and mailboxes of several houses on our cul-de-sac long before his pal, Mr. President, dared venture beyond our driveway. He also ranged farther than the other puppies when left to roam at the new Dog Psychology Center. True to form, Angel was gung-ho and cooperative when Melissa and her husband first walked with him along busy Ventura Boulevard at twilight, crossing a busy, noisy street and parading down and back a long California block with no problem at all.
Later in the evening, Melissa took Angel out to relieve himself, then began a shorter walk in a lighted park next to their apartment building, hoping to tire him out one last time before putting him to bed for the night. He trotted happily by her side for a few minutes, but when he saw that the path ahead led to an area where the glow from the streetlights dropped off into darkness, he stopped cold and wouldn’t move forward. “At first, I treated the situation as if it were an adult dog stopping down; I just kept moving forward,” says Melissa. “But Angel wasn’t going to go. He became even more determined when I tried to bring him with me, creating tension on the leash. I tried the bully stick—that had worked before—but he wouldn’t even engage his nose. I signaled him to sit and asked him to make eye contact with me, but his eyes kept darting toward the path ahead. I was wracking my brain for solutions—‘What would Cesar do?’”
Melissa decided to respect Angel’s instincts. She chose to turn around and walk back toward the building, which was the correct solution. It’s not that Angel was afraid of the dark—he’d been out at the Dog Psychology Center in a pitch black night with the rest of the pack. The problem was, this time he was being led by a human—one who may know how to write about dogs intellectually but is not as experienced from an instinctual point of view. On this occasion, Angel’s human companion was not checking out the new situation in the way a balanced dog would check it out. Melissa was barreling ahead without taking the time to smell, or let Angel smell, totally unexplored territory. Angel could not use his nose to check out the dark path looming in front of him, nor could he even use his eyes to see it, so he stopped. That’s using good instincts. Even Daddy might have reacted that way, although as an adult dog, Daddy has learned that he can usually trust the human who is leading him. If Melissa had wanted to move forward, she would have had to let Angel take his time, moving a little bit, smelling, then moving a little bit more, smelling. It might have taken them a half hour to move a few feet forward. That’s because Angel was using his inborn common sense and playing it safe, which is exactly what we want our dogs to do. If we are truly connecting with our puppies and working in partnership with them as they become more confident about new things like strange new places and dark, mysterious paths, we will retain their most valuable instincts, and we will not lose their very precious trust.
ENERGY AND WALKING
In my previous books and on my television show, I continually stress the importance of walking, especially the energy of the owner during the walk. You must consistently project calm-assertive energy to your puppy if she is to follow you. It may seem redundant, but there’s a reason for that—I keep coming up against humans who repeat the same excuses. They actually blame a dog for being a bad walker, giving justifications like “She just hates to be on the leash” or “She always wants to pull ahead” when, truly, I have yet to meet a dog of any age that has been unable to learn how to walk.
The precious months of puppyhood offer you a window of opportunity to mold your walks into the ultimate, most joyful bonding experience imaginable. If you do your job now, even when the rebellious period of adolescence kicks in, your dog will be programmed to be an excellent walker. If during adolescence she seems to want to stray, you will always have the tools to bring her back to the routine. And every successful walk you take brings you closer and closer, pack leader to follower. I credit much of my intimate, almost psychic relationship with Daddy to the thousands and thousands of perfect walks we have completed together. But you have to put the time in now.
BLIZZARD LEARNS TO WALK
In the two years since my family and I moved to our Santa Clarita Valley home, our neighbors Adriana and Terry Barnes and their kids, eleven-year-old Christian and fourteen-year-old Sabrina, have become our close and valued friends. When we first arrived, however, Adriana wasn’t too thrilled about having the Dog Whisperer living right down the block. She was terrified of big dogs—especially pit bulls. Her blood would run cold whenever she saw me out walking Daddy. But my charming wife, Ilusion, can win anybody over, and Adriana began working with us as we started planning the new Dog Psychology Center on land we had purchased nearby. Adriana found herself around our house—and our dogs—more and more often. Daddy is a pit bull that can change anybody’s mind about pit bulls. “There was just something about Daddy’s eyes,” Adrianna told me. “Such a connection, in those eyes. It made me know I could trust him.” Things changed so much for Adriana, in fact, that now she and Terry help me run the new Santa Clarita Valley Dog Psychology Center. Terry was thrilled, because he was a dog person, and his kids desperately wanted a dog. I let them adopt Molly, a mellow, low-energy dachshund I’d rescued from Ensenada. Life with Molly went so well, the kids—especially Christian—started campaigning for a puppy.
Unfortunately, the family had had a bad experience with a Labrador puppy in the past, when the kids were toddlers. “The puppy was just really wild,” Adriana recounts. “She’d go after us all the time. To me it was too out of control. We’d leave her in the backyard, and we actually stopped going into the backyard; she ate the whole backyard up. Looking back now, with what Cesar has taught me, I’m sure that it could have been fixed. We were ignoring her a lot, we didn’t walk her, we didn’t exercise her. We didn’t balance her out at all. And I was thinking that she was aggressive, but really she was bored.”
I felt that my neighbors had earned a second chance, so when Blizzard, the yellow Lab we rescued for this book, turned four months old, I presented him to Adriana. Because I see so much of the family, Blizzard gets double benefits—the cozy comfort of being a family dog, as well as having access to living and playing among the pack at my house and at the center. Adriana and her family are fast learners, and they have all grown in their leadership skills by leaps and bounds, thanks to the challenges provided by a dog like Blizzard. But the dynamics of the Barnes family offer a great example of how different energies can affect the same dog.
SAME PUPPY, DIFFERENT WALKERS
Fourteen-year-old Sabrina is a Dog Whisperer in training. She’s cool, confident, and exudes a calm-assertive energy—really impressive for a teenager. Her brother, Christian, however, is a more laid-back, quiet guy, and when Blizzard first arrived, he was much less self-assured with his new puppy. Blizzard picked up right away on Christian’s hesitation. Whereas Sabrina would walk Blizzard without any problem, with Christian, the energetic Labrador would pull ahead or to the side.
“Cesar says that Christian and Blizzard are both the same energy,” says their dad, Terry. “So when they’re both the same energy, he’s not going to listen to Christian. My boy, he’s so quiet and so timid, I think that’s one thing. Sabrina will get right on Blizzard if he pulls away, whereas Christian will be yelling, “Stop! Don’t!” Yelling at him in full sentences. Too much talk. Like Cesar says, ‘They don’t speak English; they don’t speak human.’”
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| Blizzard hanging out with Sabrina and Christian |
Despite Christian’s lower energy level, when Blizzard would get worked up, Christian would become nervous and tense. “He’s only a puppy,” says Sabrina, knowingly. “He’s trying to figure out who to follow. He’s like a kid. And with Christian, it’s like there are two puppies, they’re both hyper, and it doesn’t really balance out that well.”
“I think it’s because I have too much tension on the leash,” Christian admits. “Then when he goes on in front of me, he starts pulling. Cesar’s taught me to relax and let go, to the point where he’s right next to me.” I began working with Christian on the walk as soon as I noticed this problem, because it’s vital that a puppy see every human in the house as pack leader. When I wasn’t around to help, his sister, Sabrina, stepped in. Over the past few months, Sabrina has noticed a big improvement in her brother’s technique. “I think he’s gotten more used to him walking him now. He’s giving him more exercise and he’s playing with him a lot more. And I guess they’re starting to really bond now. Like I can see the trust grow between them.”
Trust and respect are the two most important ingredients of a perfect human-dog relationship. Mastering the walk with your puppy each and every day is the single best way to guarantee a great connection for a lifetime.
CONNECTING THROUGH PLAY
While the walk offers a ritualized, structured way to bond with your puppy, play offers you more varied opportunities to challenge and enrich her life and to build an even deeper connection. Puppies begin to play practically as soon as they can walk, but even their first clumsy attempts at recreation have their own natural rules, boundaries, and limitations. The dominance games they play with their siblings become their very first lessons in social restrictions and canine etiquette. Playing with your puppy should be a big part of your bonding with her as well, but follow the example of nature and remember that play doesn’t have to equal anarchy. Many owners think “play” means letting their puppy just go crazy. It’s better for your puppy’s education and for your own sanity that instead of being a free-for-all, a play session challenges her mind as well as her body. Think about it—we send our kids to soccer practice, which has rules, regulations, and discipline, rather than letting their natural energy build up and cause them to tear through the house, destroying things. Both activities could be considered “play,” but one is productive, the other destructive.
There are two ways a dog will play—one from the dog side of her and one from the breed side. Learning to discern one from the other is the key to making play a fun and positive learning experience, as opposed to an out-of-control riot that may fuel certain unwanted breed-related characteristics in your puppy.
PLAYING LIKE A DOG
All dogs love to run, they all love to chase things (though not all breeds innately know how to retrieve, any dog can learn), and all dogs can track using their noses. One simple game I use to bring out the dog in my puppies while keeping their breed-related tendencies under control is to attach a string to the end of a long stick, then tie a soft stuffed animal—a favorite is a plush duck—onto the string. Then I dangle the string in front of the puppy and move it around in a circle. The tendency for most people would be to move the stick rapidly, working the puppy up into a lather of excitement. Instead, I maneuver the stick slowly, stopping it and starting it. This way, I stimulate both the play and the prey drives in the puppy. The faster she plays, the more physical energy she drains. The slower she plays, the more mental energy she drains and the more she is challenged, since prey drive involves more concentration. This is a good game to play while allowing your puppy to drag a short leash. In this way, the leash and the duck, as well as you, the one who controls the game, don’t come to symbolize overexcitement and chaos. Instead, the entire exercise represents challenge and focus, bringing out the puppy’s animal-dog nature.
In playing games like this that engage the animal-dog in your puppy, you can also begin to observe the breed-related traits that the play or prey drive bring out. When they were three and four months of age, I started playing this game regularly with Angel, the miniature schnauzer, and Mr. President, the English bulldog. There was very little difference in how they played as dogs. Both of them stalked the toy like a dog and chased the toy like a dog.
The breed in them, however, showed itself at the moment they captured the toy. Angel would stalk with his perfect show-dog posture, then muster up the energy to pounce on the duck. After wrestling with it a little, he’d gently let it go and direct his attention elsewhere. Mr. President was calmer than Angel during the stalking phase, but once he got hold of the duck, he would continue to maul it unless I stepped in immediately to make him let go. This is where I have to make sure he plays like a dog, not a bulldog. If he gets into a bulldog state, his play will have no limits. He will actually try to “kill” the toy. It’s much more difficult to remove the toy when a powerful breed’s behavior escalates to that level. If Mr. President—even as a four-month-old puppy—were to get fully into his bulldog state, even food wouldn’t distract him from tearing apart the toy. As long as the puppy’s play stays in the “animal-dog” zone, you can always use the nose to distract him.
A NOSE FOR PLAY
All dogs are born exploring the world first with their noses, then with their eyes, then with their ears. Challenging your puppy’s nose is a wonderful way to engage the “animal-dog” in him—even if he’s a flat-faced dog like a bulldog or a pug. Because of the shape of their noses, these breeds aren’t as sensitive as normal dogs to the scents around them, and they can become addicted to using their eyes as their primary senses in interacting with the world. This in turn can cause them problems. Socially, they can be perceived as more “challenging” to other dogs. It can also lead to behavioral issues if they are frustrated—for example, when bulldogs get obsessed with fast-moving objects such as skateboards and bicycles.
In raising Mr. President to become more dog than bulldog, it was my goal to get him always to use his nose first. One way I went about doing this was through making a game out of hiding his food. I built obstacle courses in the garage, using barriers, boxes, and containers. Then I rubbed the scent of food in several spots throughout the “course” but made a point of hiding the main meal in the toughest place to find. Since Mr. President’s food drive is mighty powerful, this is a wonderful way to get him to engage his nose more than his eyes. This is an exercise I do with all the puppies—with Angel, it is also a way of getting him in touch with the terrier breed in him—but for Mr. President, it will go a long way toward freeing him from the sometimes destructive pull of his bulldog genetics.
OBSTACLE COURSE
An obstacle course is another great way to challenge the animal-dog in your puppy. This is another instance where you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on expensive tools and toys—you can use your imagination. An emptied-out box, an old tire, a two-stair stepping stool—anything and everything can be a way to mentally stimulate your dog and challenge her agility. Begin by using food or scent as a lure, then progress to the point where you save the food reward until the end.
Knowing he’d adopted a high-energy terrier with a mind that would need constant challenges, Chris Komives set up his own agility course for his wheaten terrier, Eliza. “Eliza has a strong play drive. I built jumps, tunnels, and other obstacles in our backyard so she could be challenged. She has balls, Frisbees, rope toys, and other toys that are her reward for running through the course. In the evening after returning from our walk but before her dinner, we’ll do some practice for ten to fifteen minutes. On weekends or days I’m not working, we’ll do agility work in the afternoon—again only ten to fifteen minutes at a time.” Chris points out another thing owners must remember when doing mentally stimulating games or conditioning sessions with their puppies: “Being obsessive by nature, I think she was done before I was. If anything, I had to be aware of when I was overtaxing her.” With puppies, short and sweet is always best; think of the old showbiz motto, Keep the audience wanting more.
NURTURING BREED
Once you have fulfilled the animal-dog in your puppy through walks and certain kinds of structured play, next you can introduce her to the world of activities preprogrammed in her by her breed. By fulfilling every side of your puppy’s nature—animal, dog, and breed—you will open up a deeper line of communication, a better channel for intimacy.
Blizzard the Retriever
Labrador retrievers are hunting dogs, designed by humans to search out and retrieve prey killed in a hunt. The Labradors have a “soft mouth,” which means they carry their prizes lightly so as not to destroy or mutilate them. This also makes them ideal playmates for children, although the soft mouth of a Lab must be cultivated by the owners from puppyhood. “Blizzard likes to play-bite with Christian,” Terry informs me. “Sabrina will touch him on his neck and snap him right out of it, but with Christian, he really pushes the limits.” My next job is to help the family retrain Christian to provide stronger leadership with Blizzard whenever he begins to use his mouth a little too much.
When it comes to retrieving, all the ingredients are in a Labrador’s genes. But what is inborn doesn’t always come naturally, as John Grogan discovered in Marley and Me:
He was a master at pursuing his prey. It was the concept of returning it that he did not seem to quite grasp. His general attitude seemed to be, if you want the stick that bad, YOU jump in the water for it. … He dropped the stick at my feet … but when I reached down to pick up the stick, Marley was ready. He dove in, grabbed it, and raced across the beach in crazy figure eights. He swerved back nearly colliding with me, taunting me to chase him. “You’re supposed to be a Labrador retriever!” I shouted. “Not a Labrador evader!”
John’s solution to this problem was to tempt Marley with a second stick, based on the theory that a dog tends to want what another dog (or human) has more than he wants the stick he already has in his mouth. After an exhausting day of trial and error, he and his wayward Labrador did make some progress, but his description of the event makes clear two things—one, Marley did not respect John, and two, John was absolutely not his pack leader. Marley was treating John the way he might treat a sibling or a littermate—teasing and cajoling—but a follower does not play “keep-away” from a leader. Marley may have trusted John and been bonded to him, but John didn’t command enough respect from Marley to be able to guide the fast-growing puppy into the Labrador his genes intended him to be.
I have good news for all future Marley owners out there: there is a much easier, more straightforward way to tap into a Labrador’s—or any dog’s—retrieving abilities than playing the frustrating “mine is better than yours” game. It all comes back to the concept of being the pack leader and controlling the game through your connection with your puppy. As soon as Blizzard came home with me, I brought him into the hills at the Santa Clarita Dog Psychology Center to begin unleashing the retriever in his genes. The key—the secret ingredient John Grogan was missing—is eye contact. I take the ball and hold it, immediately getting Blizzard’s attention, because whenever an object moves, it becomes “alive” to a puppy. Then I wait until he is seated, active-submissive, looking into my eyes and waiting for my signal. Only when he is fully engaged in full eye contact with me and is in a waiting mode do I throw the ball. I don’t throw it when he’s overexcited; I don’t throw it when he is fixated on the ball itself. To throw a ball to a puppy when he is fixated on a ball can plant the seeds of obsession. Blizzard is playing the game with me, not the ball. I don’t continue the game if he doesn’t retrieve the ball, but since he has acknowledged, with eye contact, that this was my game to begin with, he naturally wants to bring the ball back and go for another round. The game—like any game I play with my dogs—also has a clear beginning, decided by me, and a clear end, decided by me. I communicate that the game has ended by making sure Blizzard is seated and relaxed, not excitedly twitching around, waiting for one more round. This exercise is an example of where connection, communication, and conditioning all combine to fulfill all the needs of our dogs’ natures. The beautiful part is, this behavior is already in a retriever’s DNA. My puppy just needs me to be the one to bring it out in him.
You don’t have to own a Labrador or other sporting-breed dog to play this game successfully with your puppy. With leadership, eye contact, and lots of repetition, a dog of any breed can use the exercise of retrieving to access the “dog” in him. I have raised Junior to be a top-notch retriever—it’s a joy to behold his muscular body racing after the ball, kicking up grass and dust as he sprints over the brown California hills. Pit bulls are not supposed to be retrievers, but Junior always brings me the ball back. In fact, retrieving has become for him a kind of polite gesture of respect for his “superiors”—unbidden, he always brings toys to Daddy, to me, and to any other human he wants to please. Angel, a terrier, is also a great retriever. Using the eye-contact method, he will reliably chase and return any ball. Even Mr. President has learned how to retrieve, with the help of discipline, repetition, and the examples of his fellow pack members. For a born retriever, the reward is in the successful accomplishment of the task itself. For other breeds, you may have to supplement the reward with more praise, petting, or a treat. Whatever breed you may own, don’t underestimate the power of the simple game of fetch to strengthen the connection and bond between you and your puppy.
BEHAVIORAL REWARDS OR INCENTIVES CAN INCLUDE
• Praise, approval, smiles, laughter
• Petting, massage, or other form of physical affection
• A favorite toy or game
• Treats or special meals
• The end of a correction (i.e., releasing tension on a leash]
• The joy of the activity itself
• Your silent but powerful approval
Blizzard the Water Dog
If you have access to a swimming pool or live near water, you have at your disposal a wonderful tool to challenge your puppy, drain his energy, and help him get much-needed exercise. Labs, poodles, Newfoundlands, Chesapeake Bay retrievers, German shorthair pointers, Brittany spaniels, and Portuguese water dogs like the Obamas’ Bo are all hunting-retrieving dogs that have water activities in their genes, but pretty much any dog will take to the water if you give him a little encouragement. Swimming is an exercise I recommend also to people who are being cautious about the puppy’s immune system during his first few months. There is no chance of the puppy’s catching the parvo-virus in a chlorinated pool, and it is a fantastic way for you to bond with him as well as to get his body moving. Make sure to supervise at all times, however, and remember to keep your pool fenced in to prevent potentially life-threatening accidents.
How does a dog learn to swim? He dog-paddles, of course! Go into the water ahead of your puppy, and let him watch you enjoying yourself in there. That alone will get his curiosity going… he may actually follow you in on his own. If not, urge him in by bringing him gently with the leash, or letting him follow his nose to a food treat you have with you. Once he’s fully water bound, he may get a little panicky, but don’t panic yourself. Instead, hold his body firmly with your hands and let his legs get into a natural rhythm of paddling. Move him around in the water for a while so he gets used to the feeling. Once you sense he is no longer panicky, you can then take him a very short way—maybe two or three feet—from the pool’s edge and let him swim back.
“But Blizzard’s afraid of the water!” Christian complained to me shortly after he and his family had taken Blizzard into their home, when the puppy was about four months of age. “He just doesn’t want to go in the pool.” Christian was justifiably upset at this turn of events—after all, one of the attractions of the Labrador breed is their storied history as swimmers and aquatic retrievers. As much as Christian and his sister, Sabrina, loved Molly, the older rescued dachshund they adopted from me, they had been dying to have an active, playful dog that would splash around in their backyard pool with them. I reassured Christian that a little hesitation around water does not mean they have a “faulty” Labrador. As with Marley’s first clumsy attempts at retrieving, the genes for Blizzard’s water aptitude are preprogrammed within him. The dogs just need guidance and leadership to bring out those qualities.
I decided to initiate Blizzard into my own backyard pool when he was about five months of age, while shooting the Dog Whisperer episode in which I was working in the water with a Lab-mastiff mix named Joe. I’ve turned all our dogs into water dogs. That particular day, Junior, Angel, Mr. President, Jack the Jack Russell, the French bulldog Hardy, and a visiting English bulldog named Chuckie were all joining in the fun. A pit bull, two terriers, and three bulldogs were all swimming with me in the pool as if they’d been born in the water, yet there was one dog still lingering on dry land, hanging back from the water’s edge with his head down and projecting a nervous energy—the only water dog of the bunch, Blizzard.
I placed a nylon leash over Blizzard’s neck, to give me a little more control over him, and set out initially leading him with food. As I drew him toward the water where the rest of his pack were splashing around and having such a great time, he began to shut down. From experience, I knew that offering food to a puppy that has shut down results in rejection, and every rejection weakens the trust between me and him—to him, it means that I am not hearing what he is trying to communicate to me.
Abandoning the food strategy, I took my time, getting into the water myself, coaxing him a little bit closer for several minutes. When he got to the edge, I lifted him up in my arms. I felt his body freeze completely, so I did not put him in the water right away. I held him for about thirty seconds, until I felt him begin to relax, then I went to the “partnership” strategy—putting Blizzard’s two rear feet on the pool stairs in the shallow water. I let him balance his front legs on me while he adjusted to the feeling of the water, then I gently let go. He had to put his front legs somewhere, and found himself sitting upright on the stair in the shallow water. He seemed puzzled to be there, but I could read in his body language that he was figuring out, “Hey, this isn’t so bad.” Clearly, it wasn’t the water itself that was so threatening; it was the transition from dry land to water that seemed to confuse him.
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| Blizzard exploring the pool |
I sat quietly with Blizzard for three more minutes, letting him become accustomed to the sensation; then I waded out a little farther into the pool and tugged lightly on the leash. As his body came forward, I caught it underneath and let him paddle with all fours while he figured out the motion of swimming. I then slowly lessened my hold on his body, until Blizzard left my arms on his own and swam toward the edge of the pool. I brought him back, and after letting him rest a moment, stepped backward and urged him to swim out to me. We repeated this several times, and with each attempt, Blizzard was increasingly comfortable in the water and more confident in his movements.
Next, I practiced walking him from land straight into the water, which he managed without the hesitation he had first shown. He did such a good job, I added a toy to the exercise. Instinctually, Blizzard knew just what to do, swimming back to me with the toy in his mouth. That told me that his genetics were beginning to overpower his original fear of the unknown. Next, I threw the toy far out into the water, and Blizzard excitedly swam right out to retrieve it. I encouraged him with plenty of praise. By the end of the session, he was going in and out of the water and retrieving on his own. We worked on this exercise more than ten times, and in the course of a nearly thirty-minute session, Blizzard went from being a Lab that was afraid of the water, to the water dog he was born to be.
The Nose of a Schnauzer
As a good pack leader, I want to nurture and cultivate all the special skills of the members of my pack, starting early in their puppyhood. Miniature schnauzers got their name from the word Schnauze, German for “snout.” They were bred to hunt out rats and other vermin in barns, and suffice it to say, they have a powerful sense of smell. When Angel was only two and three months of age, I started scent-related exercises with him in the garage, using a similar but more advanced technique than I used to nurture Mr. President’s nose. I would hide his food inside an object—say, a cardboard box—and let him find the food and figure out a strategy for getting it from where it was hidden. Connection and communication with me is a part of the exercise, however; when Angel would find the hiding place, he’d look to me for help and acknowledgment. I want to encourage this part of his genetics that knows to alert me, the pack leader, when he has located the object he seeks. (Mr. President, on the other hand, would simply barrel straight ahead toward the prize.) I would use silence as my training command in this case, communicating to Angel that I wanted him to solve the problem by himself. When he finally figured out how to get to the food, it would be his reward, but I would also praise him.
At four months of age, I began introducing Angel to a more difficult challenge—sniffing out and identifying something that doesn’t have the obvious food reward attached. I came up with the idea for this exercise after watching a television documentary about how dogs are trained to sniff out cancer, and decided to take advantage of Angel’s recent habit of sniffing out cigarette butts at the park or other locations where I’ve been bringing him. I wanted to go with the flow of what he’d already been doing to condition him to single out and alert me to a specific scent.
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| Angel and the baby food jars |
At four months of age, more than ten minutes of an exercise like this will max out any puppy’s attention span. But if I continue to challenge Angel with exercises like these, who knows, someday he may be hired by the City of Los Angeles to clean up all the cigarette butts from the beach at Malibu! By nurturing Angel’s nose, I both challenge him as a dog and honor his breed as a terrier.
BATTLING BREED
Sometimes you want to do the opposite of nurturing a breed-specific trait in your puppy. With certain breeds, such as bulldogs, Rottweilers, pit bulls, and other powerful breeds, you don’t want to nurture the activity that the dog was originally genetically engineered to perform. For example, you don’t want your adorable puppy to bring down bears or bulls or fight another dog to the death, yet you do have to be aware of his breed-related needs and find creative ways to exercise them.
Junior is a pit bull, but his energies have been channeled into other productive activities—“dog” activities such as running, retrieving, swimming (he loves to swim more than any water dog I’ve ever met!), and, like Daddy, helping me to rehabilitate unstable dogs with his calm-submissive energy. I started challenging my slate gray pit bull this way when he was just a puppy, bringing him on Dog Whisperer shoots at three and four months of age, and showing him that we don’t respond to aggressive dogs, anxious dogs, or overexcited dogs. The last and most important of Junior’s jobs is very unnatural for him—or for any dog—as a dog’s inclination when faced with an unstable animal is to physically correct it, and if it doesn’t straighten out its attitude right away, to attack it. But the mental energy and concentration it takes for Junior to do his job is incredibly fulfilling for him.
COMMUNICATING
Learning to Leave It
Being able to set and communicate boundaries is one of the most important roles that you play as your puppy’s pack leader. Communication, to me, first is intent, then energy, then body language, and last, sound. Martin Deeley agrees. “The most important part of a dog’s life is to learn limits and boundaries: what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Without knowing commands, a dog may not always be able to know exactly what you want, but he will quickly get to read your body language and your actions if they are consistent and he finds himself being rewarded in some way by doing what is acceptable to that owner.”
From the time Mr. President first arrived at our house at just over two months of age, he would gaze enviously at Junior and Blizzard as they tugged and cavorted with their plush and rope toys. Much more than for his “brother” Angel, his bulldog breed attracted him to their tough, competitive style of playing. When Mr. President was four months old, I allowed him to start getting involved with the “big boys” and their activities, so that I could observe and guide his reactions. I would choose a toy—a plush squirrel with some vanilla scent—and throw it into the fray so that Mr. President would be the first to get it. Even at four months, Mr. President’s belligerent bulldog nature would kick right in. He would puff up his body, hunch over the toy like a football center readying for a hike, and fiercely take possession. Then he’d start wandering around with the toy in his mouth, glancing back at the older dogs as they followed him—actually seeking out a challenge.
To many owners, such a tiny bulldog trying to look tough to a huge pit bull and lanky Labrador might look incredibly cute—a subject for some funny home videos, perhaps. The danger is that if you allow the intensity of this kind of play to escalate too much or too often, you will be nurturing the very worst side of the bulldog genes—the stubborn side that I’m usually called in to rehabilitate. That’s why it’s important to start supervision and setting limits early, so that your puppy is “programmed” not to play so intensely that it gets out of control. If you hear a low growl or see the dog dominating the toy with his whole body, or if he’s ripping at it as if he wants to kill it, it is time for you to step in.
When Mr. President would start getting into this state, I would approach him calmly and squat down next to him. The first few times, he would put his chin on top of the toy; his eye contact with me was intense. He was challenging me, using his bulldog side. If I had food, I could always use his nose at this low level of intensity to redirect and move him away from the toy, but what I really want is to be able to say to him—simply with my assertive presence, my energy, and my firm, focused eye contact—that it’s time for him to give me the toy, now. This is how another dog of higher status gets an object away from another dog in the pack—she doesn’t bribe him with food, and she certainly doesn’t yell “Leave it, leave it, leave it!” like a distraught human might. She’ll just “demand” the object by using eye contact and energy.
An example of this occurred while I was playing with Mr. President, Blizzard, and Junior in the garage. One of our visiting cases from the show, Memphis, a formerly dog-aggressive pit bull, walked into the middle of the game and did just that—told the younger boys to drop the toy, because she wanted it now. She did it with a look, her body language, and energy, and when she moved toward the toy, they didn’t hesitate to give it up to her. I know that some people have a hard time with the word dominance to describe this kind of behavior; for some, the words dominance and submission still seem to have negative connotations. Call it what you will. The point is, this is the strategy used across the board, throughout all social species in nature, so that most conflicts can be solved without fighting or bloodshed. There is a natural hierarchy and a silent negotiation going on, so that those with the stronger energy are able to set the rules and regulations for those with weaker energy. The stronger dog only follows through—first with a correction, last with a fight—if the other dog doesn’t agree with or abide by the rules. Among a pack of balanced dogs, this happens very infrequently.
In teaching Mr. President to give up toys to me, I want him to surrender exactly the way Junior and Blizzard did to Memphis—to just drop the toy and walk away. I could try to grab the toy away from him; I could distract him with food, then do a sneak attack by grabbing it when he wasn’t looking, but this would defeat my purpose of using play as a way to connect and communicate with my puppy. I don’t want to cheat him or tease him; I want him always to trust me to communicate clearly and directly with him, the way another dog would. Therefore, I wait calmly… one or two minutes, the first few times … until he sees that I am absolutely not going to give up. Voluntarily, he then gives me the toy and walks away.
Some people may want to add a command to the exercise, such as “Drop it,” or “Give,” or the noise I use, “Tssst,” which simply means “I disagree with what you are doing right now,” but it’s important to remember not to repeat that command over and over while the puppy is still figuring out what you want—he may come to associate those words and sounds with holding on to the toy. Instead, say the command only at the moment the puppy releases the toy; then reward him with praise, affection, or a treat. Your dog may test your resolve, but if you practice this exercise on a regular basis, he will come to understand that you are the one who controls all the objects in your household. Toys on the floor don’t necessarily mean he can play with the toys.
Setting limits in this way works as a preventive measure against creating a dog that snatches and destroys forbidden objects throughout your home. If Mr. President shows this much determination at such an early age, just imagine how much that will intensify as he reaches adolescence and really starts pushing those boundaries! With bulldogs or other powerful-breed dogs, you must start young, do this and other “ownership” exercises repeatedly, and have a lot of patience. By having the resolve to wait him out now, in puppyhood, I avoid having a power struggle with him when he’s an adult that’s capable of doing much more damage. This is exactly how I raised Daddy and Junior to be polite and respectful dogs that just happen to be wearing pit bull outfits.
Communicating “Leave It” Without Words: The Concept of Owning Your Own Space
1. Claiming space means using your body, your mind, and your energy to “own” what you would like to control. You create an invisible circle of space around a person, place, or thing that belongs to you—a space that the puppy cannot enter without your permission.
2. When you want to claim space, commit 100 percent to projecting an invisible line around the space or object you do not want your dog to go near. Say to yourself, “This is my sofa,” or “This is my ball.” You are having a verbal conversation with yourself and a psychological/energy conversation with your puppy.
3. Never pull your hand or any object away from your puppy, and never pull your puppy away from a place, person, or object. When you pull things away from a puppy, you’re either inviting her to compete for it or you’re inviting her to play. This only increases the puppy’s prey drive and ups her excitement level. Instead, step calmly and assertively toward the puppy, making firm eye contact, until the puppy sits back or relaxes.
4. In order to get your puppy to drop an object, you must first claim it with your mind and your energy. You cannot be hesitant, and you must be totally clear about your intention. Don’t negotiate or plead with your puppy, either mentally or verbally. Do not repeat a command such as “Leave it!” if it is not heeded the first time. Your puppy will not take it personally. She shouldn’t have a problem giving you what she now knows belongs to you.
Tug-of-War
Tug-of-war seems to be a game that all puppies like to play, so what’s the harm in it, right? Personally, I never play tug-of-war with my dogs. Whether it be a Chihuahua or a mastiff, I don’t want any dog to think that she can engage in a contest of strength with me, even if I know I can win every time. If you have a bulldog or a powerful-breed dog, I strongly urge you not to get into this habit, no matter how cute your puppy looks as she tries to tear your favorite sock from your grasp. Dogs love these games, but they can often bring out a predatory drive in them, and this can create obsessive behavior that you may find hard to tone down in the future. Sure, you can easily win a tug-of-war with a small puppy, but by the time that dog is six months old, each time he prevails, he will grow to realize that he is able to control you. This nurtures dominant and obsessive behavior in the puppy, which is exactly the opposite of the calm-submissive dog you want to create.
You also never want a dog that thinks it can “own” something that belongs to you. In your puppy’s world, you own everything and you give him permission to play with certain things. If your dog is holding an object and you want it, he has to know that he must drop it the moment you ask for it. This is the rule of law you should set down at an early age, so it will continue throughout your dog’s life.
In their natural pack, however, puppies will frequently engage in this kind of game with their littermates. If you have more than one dog, supervised tug-of-war games between puppies can fulfill your puppy’s desire to engage in this kind of sport without teaching him any bad habits that will come back to haunt you later. Dogs love challenges, and competition is always challenging. Anyone who has spent any time among a group of dogs (or preschool kids, for that matter) knows that no matter how many toys are on the floor, all the dogs (or kids) will be interested in the one toy that another has in his possession.
At five, six, and seven months of age, I allowed Blizzard the Labrador to play supervised games of tug-of-war with Junior, to the benefit of both of them. For Blizzard, the benefits were enjoying the game, the sense of excitement and competition, the challenges to his mind and reflexes, the sensation of the rope toy in his mouth, and the ability to “lose gracefully”—in human terms, knowing when to “cry uncle.” For Junior, the benefits were learning how to play gently like a Lab and not at the full intensity of a pit bull—though at one and a half years of age, Junior was already far more “dog” than “pit bull.” Junior also gained the wisdom that comes from teaching rules, boundaries, and limitations to a younger member of the pack. I always intercede in any dog-dog tug-of-war games, making sure everyone knows that the minute I arrive, the toy is surrendered to me. That way I always have the ability to stop or start a play session in a split second if I sense it is getting out of hand.
CONDITIONING
Training and Commands
The connection and communication skills we develop with our puppies through structured walks, setting boundaries, and playing games lay a solid foundation for what is called conditioning, or dog training. In this book I am more concerned with your puppy’s overall psychological balance, with preventing her from developing issues, and with her understanding of rules, boundaries, and limits than I am with her ability to answer to the words come, heel, sit, or stay. I have raised all my dogs by using energy, body language, touch, or very simple sounds, in that order. One advantage to the “less sound is more” approach that I apply is that it automatically limits overexcitement. Many people confuse a dog’s “excitement” with her “happiness,” but the truth is, if a puppy is in a hyperactive, overstimulated state to begin with, she will have a much harder time retaining anything you are trying to teach her. That’s why too much excited “Good boy, that’s a good boy!” praise from a trainer can actually be a less effective reward than the quiet reinforcement of happiness and approval. The other advantage of being quiet is that I am communicating with my dogs in a way that is much closer to the way they communicate with one another. I am always able to recognize the subtle signals they are sending me, and I respond by telling them with energy and body language, “I hear what you are saying” and either “I agree” or “I don’t agree” with it. When we humanize our dogs, we tend to miss these important signals they are sending us every minute of every day. They are trying to communicate with us all the time, but too often we are not listening. When a dog feels you are not listening to her, she is not going to listen to you. By being aware of and responding to all the tiny, seemingly insignificant cues your puppy is sending you, you are opening up the door to a great possibility—the possibility of having a really intimate relationship with her.
Still, most people want to be sure that their puppy can answer to some commands, or at least to sounds. After all, your dog is not always looking at you. As she grows, she may range far away from you, to the other side of the yard or the dog park. She can’t sense your energy or read your body language if you aren’t nearby, so you will have to use sound in order to communicate what you want. I like to begin with two simple sounds—one to signify a behavior I like (for me, it’s usually a “kissing” sound), and the other to call attention to a behavior I don’t agree with (my trademark “Tssst!”). I add the puppy’s name as a “come” command later on. Some people use a clap or a whistle as a “come” command. Others prefer to use human language.
As Florida dog trainer Martin Deeley says,
To dogs, words are noises. The words do not have to be specific words. If you choose to get your dog to sit to the word Christmas, then “Christmas” becomes the cue for the dog to sit. Any words we use with dogs must come easily to the tongue and we must be consistent in their use for specific actions required. Also it is better to use one word rather than a sentence or even two words because often the dog will hear only the last word. That is why if we wish to use his name, we say, “Ben,” to catch his attention. Then a second later, “Sit.” Not “Sit, Ben.” If we put the name last with every command, all he hears is his name and really that means nothing.
How early should you begin conditioning your puppy to commands? The Grogans were offered some questionable advice by friends who watched the couple’s still small but rapidly growing Labrador puppy, Marley, drag them up and down the pedestrian path of Florida’s Intercoastal Waterway. “Our friends who were veteran dog owners told us not to rush the obedience regimen. ‘It’s too early,’ one of them advised. ‘Enjoy his puppyhood while you can. It’ll be gone soon enough, and then you can get serious about training him.’”
If you have read this far into this book, you will immediately recognize the illogic of that statement. Can you imagine saying of a six-to ten-year-old child, “Let him enjoy his childhood; don’t worry about teaching him to read and write until after he’s a teenager”? Puppyhood—birth to eight months—is the most intense, compressed period of growth your dog will experience, both physically and mentally. Between eight and sixteen weeks, your dog’s brain is at its peak rate of growth. The results of many behavior studies and EEG measurements demonstrate that eight-week-old puppies function at nearly an adult level in terms of learning ability. However, as puppies mature—in fact, by about sixteen weeks1—the ease with which they learn noticeably begins to decline. That’s why, when you start early by conditioning your puppy to respect limits, take on new challenges in the form of games or tasks, as well as to respond to signals or verbal commands, you are actually helping the puppy’s brain develop to its fullest potential.
“Training is not repressing,” says my colleague and veteran Hollywood animal trainer Clint Rowe. “It’s developing and shaping an animal’s awareness and access to its brain. I think it develops an animal’s self-awareness because, to learn willingly, they have to be aware of their thoughts and associations and then focus their awareness. The most important thing when training is to be consistent and have a goal in mind. If you don’t have a goal for your training, then the animal won’t either.”
If you have first developed a connection with your puppy, then she will automatically want to please you. Martin Deeley lists enjoyment of the training session as the number one motivator for a pup.
Having fun and being helped clearly and concisely to do what is expected, rewarded with a smile and a happy face. A puppy does not come into this life wanting to be a leader. She looks for leadership and guidance, she looks for a kind yet firm hand that shows her the right ways to do things and rewards her with a nice touch, a smile, an acceptance into the pack. She even expects reprimand—firm but not harsh—and learns from it. Motivation to do an action or behavior is not always prompted by a potential reward but may also come about by a wish to avoid danger, conflict, and what we may call a nonreward.
Even learning her limitations is actually satisfying to a puppy, because it’s in her program to internalize rules within a social structure. A peaceful life in a wild canid pack depends upon every member’s learning and respecting the group’s restrictions and boundaries. A happy puppy is a puppy who clearly understands what behaviors will best ensure approval by the rest of the pack.
SILENT TRAINING
Angel Learns the “Down”
Angel’s blue blood—his lineage as the scion of prize-winning show dogs—has already given him a genetic head start in the obedience process. Miniature schnauzers are often regarded as among the most “trainable” of dog breeds. I easily taught Angel how to sit by using a one-finger hand signal almost as soon as he returned home with me. Sitting down is an automatic response for a puppy when he is undecided about what to do, so it took me only a few days of consistently rewarding (giving a treat at first, then just praising) Angel’s correct response to my raised finger before he understood it completely. This is exactly how I have conditioned Daddy, Junior, and all the other dogs I have raised to sit on command. By four months of age, his overnight visit with Melissa proved that he had internalized this behavior, as she was easily able to ask him with her finger to sit, and was instantly able to set spatial boundaries using one hand. This is another advantage of early “silent” command training—it is easily transferable to another human who might be caring for your dog.
The “down” is a little more complicated response for puppies to learn, because lying down can feel unnatural to them if they aren’t tired. When Angel was just under four months of age, I brought him to the Dog Psychology Center to begin conditioning him to lie down on command. The gesture I wanted him to learn was a finger raised in the air, then lowered, meaning he was to do the same movement with his body.
My only tools were some training treats and three long folding tables, set up end to end. Setting up a “runway” of tables is a wonderful way to work with a puppy, because you can maintain eye contact with a small dog without having to bend over and strain your back. It also forces the puppy to stay focused on you, because you are his only way back to the ground and because he can’t wander off the tables if he becomes bored or distracted. It’s important that you use the “teamwork” approach to getting the puppy up on the table; use either a ramp or steps and lead him forward with scent or a treat (palmed behind your hand so he won’t grab at it but must sniff or lick) or, as I did with Angel, lift him by the scruff of his neck, putting only his front legs on the table so that he can figure out how to get his back legs up by himself. This keeps your puppy an active, willing participant in the exercise.
To begin the session, I chose one end of the table and engaged Angel’s nose with a treat in my hand. I let him smell the treat but not have it, then I squatted down, holding it in my hand just below the table surface. I made eye contact with him, and slowly moved my finger from a high to a low position. Then I waited for him to figure it out. I could easily have pushed his rear down to create a lying position, then given him the reward, as a way to illustrate what I wanted. This is the “rush” method that some training facilities promising “instant” results for your dog will use, and there’s no saying that it doesn’t work. But it is my belief that if the dog comes up with the strategy on his own, it imprints on his mind in a deeper way and he remembers it more profoundly. It also raises his self-esteem because I have given him a challenge and he has come up with a solution by himself. This will empower him to try and solve any other problems I give him.
Once again, I made eye contact with Angel and then asked him to watch my hand as I mimed the motion of lying down. He sat and yawned—as I’ve mentioned, a yawn is often a sign that a puppy is frustrated, mentally taxed, or working something out. I let him lick my hand but did not give the treat. I was silent and patient. Finally, Angel’s lightbulb moment arrived—he lay down and I gave him the treat. To me it felt like forever, but when I looked at my watch, it had taken only just over four minutes for him to get it!
Next, I walked to the far end of the table to repeat the same routine. This time, it took him just a little over forty seconds to lie down and earn the treat! I decided to push the envelope and put him through the exercise a third time, but after about a minute, he began to get distracted and wandered to the other end of the table. This is typical for puppies—ten minutes of focused training is a very long time for them. “In the beginning,” says Clint Rowe, “keep training sessions from one minute to five minutes long. Puppies get mentally tired. They need to rest afterward. In my thirty years of training experience—and there’s no empirical data I can come up with for this—but during resting, I swear, connections between the brain cells are actually growing and new connections are being built.” I could recognize Angel’s mental exhaustion in his more frequent yawning. What he was communicating that day was “Right now, I can only give you this behavior twice.” This told me I could work with him on it again twice the next day, then add one more time the day after that, and so on and so on, but at that moment, I couldn’t end the exercise by letting him fail, because that would be the lesson he would remember. We have to overcome our own impatience and always wait for our puppies to finish with success.
To give Angel his big finish, I made my “kissing” sound, which immediately called him back to my side of the table. When he arrived, I rewarded him with a treat for answering to my call. Then we took one more stab at the down. Angel sat in front of me, yawning and sighing at first—he was one tired, bored puppy at that point. But exactly one minute and ten seconds later, he completed the behavior. I not only rewarded him with the treat, I gave him an overabundance of affection. The little trouper deserved it!
This training session, as short and sweet as it was, turned out to be very meaningful. We created the blueprint of the motion for the down, plus we reinforced commands he already knew—that moving my finger forward means “Sit down,” that moving my finger to the side means “Follow me,” that my “kiss” sound means “Come.” That’s four lessons on one table, in one ten-minute session. If a puppy takes off running after a session is over, you know you’ve pushed too hard. I knew I had been successful and not overworked him when Angel gravitated right back to me after I took him off the table. The tables now have a positive association for him. “This is the place where I get to spend focused time with my human, where my mind gets challenged, and where I get delicious treats.”
METHODS OF TRAINING
While setting limits for a puppy often involves some sort of correction—whether through energy, sound, spatial body language, or a touch—training or conditioning needs consistent reinforcement to keep the dog enjoying the behavior it’s performing. Clint Rowe has taught animals from dogs to wolf hybrids to bears to perform all kinds of conditioned behavior for movies, using a wide range of different tools, depending on the animal. When Clint taught Wilshire, an eight-week-old Dalmatian puppy adopted by a Los Angeles firehouse, the behavioral combination of “stop, drop, and roll,” he started by rewarding with treats, using a clicker as a signal that Wilshire had successfully completed his task. Eventually, the treats get phased out, and the sound of the clicker becomes the reward. “A clicker is just a cue to them that what they’ve done is correct and a reward is coming. Saying ‘Good’ acts as the same thing, or even not saying anything and not cueing them can act as that. Remember, they are artists at watching your body language—they know when you are happy. What eventually happens is, the state of mind is shaped by the reward and doing the behavior eventually becomes part of the reward.”
There are many different approaches to training, so do your research, use your best judgment, and, most important of all, know your puppy. Several excellent books on puppy training are listed in the appendix. “What works best is a good trainer using the right tools to gain the right behaviors on the dog he is training at that time,” Martin Deeley insists. “No matter what the tool or the approach, the aim is always to have a well-behaved dog that responds to commands willingly and understands limits and boundaries in everyday life. The tools can change depending upon the dog, the trainer, the situation, the owner, the task being taught, and the complexity of the task, so the best way is the one that works.”
TWELVE TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL CONDITIONING
1. Remember that everything you do or say around your puppy is “training.”
2. Start shaping your puppy’s desired behaviors as soon as you bring her home.
3. Set a clear goal for what you want from your puppy and stick to it.
4. Remain consistent in the commands, signals, or body language you use.
5. Keep sessions short and sweet and learn to recognize when your puppy is overtaxed.
6. Leave your puppy wanting more!
7. Master the art of patience and waiting; your puppy won’t learn from a frustrated leader.
8. Be a “partner” in your puppy’s learning; let her figure out solutions on her own whenever possible.
9. Don’t overstimulate your puppy with excited outcries or too many treats; she may lose the lesson in the confusion.
10. Find the rewards that work for your puppy.
11. Always end a session with a success.
12. Keep training sessions fun and joyful for both of you!
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