Follow Your Nose

Have you ever tried to get your dog's attention when they are busy sniffing something and failed? That is to be expected! With 40% or more of your dog's brain power dedicated to odour processing is it any wonder your dog CAN NOT respond when they are fully engaged in odour processing?

Dogs live in a different world than we do. Odour is important to them on so many levels. It's how they tell time, how they know which way to follow a trail, how they find resources like food and water and delicious stinky things to roll in. It is also how they find out more about the animals or people. Sniffing is the key to understanding the world.

When they find an odour they are processing you will see them fully engaged with it. This means HEAD DOWN and sniffing. During this time it is nearly impossible to get their attention. When they are so involved with the odour, everything else becomes background noise for just a minute while they sort out the smell they found.

So how do you get your dog's attention back? It is a good idea to let your dog finish sniffing and wait for the head to come up before you call them. When they are fully engaged you don't stand much chance of getting a response, but once they are finished your dog will be able to detach from the smell much more readily!

If you do manage to disrupt the sniffing process before they are done, you will be fighting with your dog if you need to pass the same area or if they still have access to it. Because they did not finish processing the smell they will try to go back and finish up. So generally it is easier if you let them get it out of their system the first time around.

That's not to say you shouldn't be vigilant as they sniff, after all, they could be thinking about eating something they shouldn't, and you may need to intervene if that is the case. Or in the case of boy dogs, they may be contemplating peeing on something. Sniffing is a TRULY DOGGY thing to do and it fulfils so many needs and natural instincts for them.

Setting up times where your dog can fulfil their needs and follow their nose is beneficial to both you and your dog. You can use sniffing as a reward for good behaviour (like walking on a loose leash, then rewarding with a sniff break). You can also set up sniffing adventures by hiding treats or scattering them in the grass.

Sniffing is one of the things dogs do best! It is a great way for them to destress, learn about new objects/people/animals, and fulfil those natural instincts and desires. It creates calmer, fulfilled and more accepting dogs. Sniffing is the key to 40% of their brain power! Time to look at it from their point of view!

Error-Less Learning

While no attempt to learn is ever completely error-free, we can of course tailor learning sessions for our dog to be error-less. This means we structure the learning in such a way to help them be MORE LIKELY to succeed, even to the point where it seems so simple anyone could get it right.

Why make it so simple? Because knowing how to solve a problem or do the right behaviour BUILDS CONFIDENCE. If I were to ask you to solve a complex mathematical problem (without a calculator) and your knowledge of math is limited to the basics you would struggle or fail to make any headway. This would leave you feeling useless and frustrated. You would likely give up even if I told you there was a candy bar for a reward.

Dogs learn from success very well. They don't need to fail in order to learn. In fact, since we can't explain to them what they did wrong, it is just confusing and frustrating. So why should we allow our dogs to feel this way when we know there are better ways to learn and grow skills?

Things you can do to help your dog succeed:

1. Teach new behaviours in LOW DISTRACTION environments, where they are MORE likely to focus and LESS likely to be distracted by people, animals and smells.

2. Work in small steps moving in the right direction of the final behaviour. It doesn't need to be the entire problem solved in one go.

3. Set up for success! Remove or distance yourself from distractions when first working on a new skill.

4. Focus on your dog! If you are distracted when training, your dog will likely be distracted too.

5. Reward your dog with the things they want most for doing the things we are asking of them. The value of the reward makes a difference in the performance of the behaviour. If you reward with low to no value you will not build a behaviour any time soon. Keep in mind it is your dog that determines what has value to them and this may change from one moment to the next.

6. Work in short training sessions of about 2 minutes so you don't frustrate or nag at them!

7. Be patient, they are thinking creatures that DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH. It may take them a little bit of trial and error to figure out what we want.

8. Once they understand the skill, generalize the behaviour. Work in one room, then another, then your back yard, front yard, down the street, at the park etc. This means they can learn to produce the skill anywhere and under different levels of distraction. But it takes a little time to build up!

The key is to be a little more understanding and help your dog to succeed. The more they succeed and are rewarded for their success the stronger and more reliable the behaviour you are training will be.

What is the leash for?

It's a question I recently asked my students and a good one too! What is the leash for? Is it for training your dog? Forcing your dog to come with you? What is its purpose and why do we use it?

The leash is the EMERGENCY BRAKE. When all else fails, you couldn't get your dog's attention by calling, or luring with a treat, and you are in a dangerous or potentially escalating situation it is the way we can make sure you can get out of trouble asap.

You should always work cooperatively with your dog and your training should reflect that. There is no need to push, pull, drag or pop the leash. In fact, by doing these things you are actively training yourself to perform bad habits, instead of building cooperative behaviour with your dog.

How can you manage your leash handling skills better? Let's evaluate the image above.

1. Put a smile in your leash (yes a smile between you and your dog) This means you are not pulling and the dog is not pulling. The more tension you add to the leash the more likely your dog is to pull and react poorly when greeting other dogs!

2. Put your leash in your hand OPPOSITE your dog (not like 1st the photo). This frees up the hand that is closest to the dog for cues and signals as well as delivering a reward when they make good choices.

3. Reward with the hand closest to the dog! This way they are not crossing in front of you to get to the treat in the other hand. We really want to focus our reward delivery along the seam of your pants. In this position, the dog is neither forging ahead nor lagging behind. This makes it the ideal placement for reward when walking on the leash.

4. Carry your reward pouch behind you if possible. This again helps minimize the desire for the dog to forge ahead.

Remember to WORK THE DOG, NOT THE LEASH. You are building a relationship with your dog, not the leash! It is there for safety and for leash laws. It is your back up in case all else fails, but do your best to get your dog's attention first!