Creating a monster (persistance pays)

Why would anyone want to train their dog to misbehave?

They don't want to, but they don't think about what they are actually teaching the dog. In many cases the worst monster dogs were carefully taught to be that way, by a person who was trying to teach them to be good dogs.

It's partly laziness and partly a lack of understanding. I can help you with the understanding part but you'll have to take care of the laziness part yourself. It may help to remember that a dog that rarely or never misbehaves is much easier to care for. A perfect lazy person's dog.

Dogs learn easily, but they often learn the wrong thing. It's amazingly easy to teach a dog the opposite of what you intend to teach him. I found myself doing that in one memorable example. Max was a very strong, completely unsocialized young labrador retriever. I wanted to teach him not to rush through a doorway without invitation. He was strong enough that I couldn't stop him from coming into the house with me. My intention was to tell him "stay" then open the door and go in without letting him in with me. Each time I tried he'd push and shove, almost always managing to get in, while I yelled "STAY" at him. After some very frustrating trying I finally stopped to analyze the situation. What was I teaching him, and what was he learning? I'd say "stay", He'd force his way in, and have the reward of being in the house.

Congratulations to me. I had managed to teach him that "stay" means force your way into the house. Hmmm. Not the way I planned it.

Another example was something I watched many years ago. It involved a mom with her 6 year old kid, but the same principles apply to dog training. The kid was misbehaving, I don't even remember what he was doing. The mom told him to stop, and he kept on doing it. Instead of smacking him she started counting down from 5. When she finally got down to one he stopped and she thought she had done well. She thought she had made him behave. I thought she had reinforced that he could misbehave for quite a while before he had to stop.

The same thing applies to any command you give your dog. If he always waits for you to repeat the command before he obeys it, you've clearly taught him to ignore you the first time. Did you really want to teach him that? I didn't think so.

When you teach any behaviour to your dog you should use a conversational tone. So many people think they have to yell at their dog to get it to obey. Yes, if they teach it to obey only when they yell, sure enough, they'll have to. Again, what do you want to teach your dog?

The only time you should have to raise your voice to your dog is when he can't hear you otherwise. If the noise level is high, or he's far away, sure, yell at him. But don't try to get his respect by yelling. It won't work.

Creating a monster that begs at the table:

If he begs and you don't want him to, you'll probably scold him and ignore him, until the begging gets so annoying it's easier to just give him what he wants. The very first time you give in he'll know that persistance pays. So next time he'll beg longer. And he can stand it longer than you can. So when you give in again he's again learning how well it works to keep trying. When you decide to use my method and not give him anything no matter how persistant he is, he'll be very persistant. He's learned it eventually pays off. Don't blame him, you taught him that yourself. Or maybe someone else taught him.

Creating a monster that noses your elbow while you're trying to work:

You're busy trying to type, or write, or knit, or whatever. He wants you to pet him so he bumps your arm. You're busy so you ignore him, and maybe even tell him to stop it. He really wants you to pay attention to him, and after all he's got nothing better to do. So he noses you again. By this time you've come to the end of the paragraph, or the chapter, or whatever. So you go ahead and pet him. You're not thinking about teaching him anything, or maybe you think you didn't do anything wrong, since you didn't pet him until you were ready to.

From your perspective you didn't stop what you were doing because he nosed you. From his perspective you did. He had to nose you several times and ignore a bit of scolding, but it worked. He got the petting he wanted. So he's learned that persistance pays off. Next time he'll be prepared to nose you even more times before he gives up. And when you finally stop whatever you were doing and pet him it will reinforce his belief that persistance pays off.

What does your dog frequently do that annoys you? Try to look at it from your dog's perspective. Did you teach him to do it? Can you stop teaching him to do it and start teaching him not to?

Sister sites:
Auntie Donna's Dog care and training tips

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