Expert: Lee Charles Kelley - 1/24/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi, my name is Lawrence, and to start off, I'm a 16 year old boy, whose family has recently adopted a 9 month old golden retriever mix from the local shelter. We adopted Ace about 2 weeks ago. He's a male, neutered, and was labeled as a stray. They told us they didn't have much more information on him other than the fact that he was stray. My parents won't allow him in the house so we keep him in the garage where we keep his doghouse and toys, food, etc.

My first question is about training him to do basic commands. When i first began training him, he picked up pretty quick and now he is able to perform sit, down, stay, play dead, and shake hands. I was thinking that it would probably be wise to have him master the sit, down and stay commands before teaching him new things so i began to experiment. I had him stay in one spot and i walked about 5 or so feet away and from there I asked him to sit. He stared at me as if he didn't understand my command and when i told him again to sit, he walked up to me before sitting down. Same thing happened when i asked him to sit. Why does he have this tendency of coming closer before obeying the command?

My other question is sometimes Ace would be perfectly calm and suddenly he would jump up start growling at nobody and running around in every direction he can, doing nothing but running and growling in a aggressive manner. He then stops, sits down and starts panting and breathing fast and if we try to pet him in this condition he would try to put his mouth over our hands, not quite biting, but still quite fearful. I'm not sure if this is a problem but it's quite startling.

My last and final question is also about leash training. I've been training him in a way that shows him I do not want him walking ahead of me by stopping and asking him to sit every time he starts pulling on the lead. I've seen results but, they haven't been as good as i had hoped. He will walk by my side for about 2 seconds perfectly before he starts pulling again and asking him to sit doesn't seem to help him get the idea across. Would it be a good idea to have him use up some of his abundant puppy energy before taking him on walks? I've considered that but how can i use up that energy? I've thought of playing fetch but isn't that more of a reward? I also wanted to know if there was anyway i could train him to run beside me because I've tried a slow jog while walking but he tends to run in front of me of just to fast and pulling on the lead too hard. I could use a jogging partner but how can I run with him if he keeps getting in front of me? Should I just wait until he masters walking by my side first? Or can i train both at the same time?

Sorry for the length of this message, but I really want him to be the fun, obedient dog I've always wanted now that my parents finally got me a dog. Thanks so much for your time and help!

-Lawrence.

P.S. Around when will he mature and be more calm? And we've started feeding him adult food just recently, does that affect the rate at which he matures?

ANSWER: Hi, Lawrence,

Thanks for the questions. You sound like you're really committed to this dog's happiness and training.

When you train a dog to obey any command, they first learn it as part of a gestalt, a whole package. When you trained Ace to sit, for example, you were standing next to him, probably offering him a treat. When you tried to get him to sit when he was at a distance from you, it didn't make sense to him. "Okay, but how am I going to get the treat from over here? I'll go over there and sit." It's good that you're trying to teach him to generalize, that the word sit means to sit down, no matter what the circumstances. But you kind of skipped ahead a few steps. You need to go back and give him an easier task, say sitting when you're two feet away instead of five, would be one example. A better way would be to train each command as part of high energy game, like fetch or tug, where the payoff is that the dog gets to bite a toy. Play increases a dog's ability to generalize behaviors. Here's a link to an article which explains this: http://www.tiny.cc/playbenefits

As for the odd, semi-aggressive behavior you described, from what little you've told me it sounds to me like it could be one of two things: some kind of medical problem, or that he's not getting enough opportunity to use his prey drive every day through playing fetch and tug-of-war. If you start playing fetch and tug with him a lot more, to the point that it really wears him out, and the odd behavior still persists, let me know.

Finally, the method you're using to teach him not to walk ahead of you only works by using boredom as a motivating factor. I don't know about you, but I'm rarely motivated to do anything but walk away from people who bore ME!

Here are two walking exercises from my newsletters:

"Kiss-'n'-Treat"

To me a tug on the collar is no different than taking someone's elbow as you're walking together, or saying, "Hey, we're going this way." It's very different from the leash corrections of old. Plus I like to do an exercise (with pups starting at about 5 mos.) where I tie a kissing sound to the tug. This is for teaching a relaxed “heel” (or walking “in the pocket”) and it goes like this:

First, always let your dog do his business before you start doing any leash training.  Once he’s done, and you’re walking him, have a treat ready in whatever hand is not holding the leash.  If the dog moves slightly ahead of you, or even if he just loses focus on you, make a kissing sound. With some dogs you may have to do it a few times before they respond. Don’t worry about it, just keeping doing it.  (If you’re a brass musician it may interfere with your embrasure, but only if your dog is deaf.)  When the dog does respond, pop the treat into his mouth immediately.  (By the way, for the behavioristically-minded the kissing sound technically acts as an aversive or a punishment here because it stops the pup from doing something he was already doing quite happily.)  The best way to do this is pay attention to where the pup’s nose and shoulders are.  

If you do this successfully a few times it won't be too long (depending on the dog) before he starts to look at you on his own, without needing the kissing sound as a stimulus. When he does he should immediately get a treat then as well.

After doing that for a few sessions you can add some variations. One is what I call the "kiss-n-tug" where you give a tiny tug on the collar, followed by the kissing sound, which is followed by a treat.  You can also do a "kiss-n-heel" where the kissing sound is followed by the word, "Heel!" Then you can start doing both of these exercises together. Pretty soon the tiny tug on the collar is a signal to the dog that walking next to you, and focusing on you, is a pleasant experience. (This is not a real, obedience-level "heel" by the way; it's just one way of keeping the dog walking in the pocket.)

I also talk to and praise the dog continuously while walking (at least in the beginning). And if he stops to sniff something, I let him. If he keeps sniffing and I want to keep moving, I'll say, "Oooh! Is that a good smell? Oh, you like that smell! What a good doggie! You're such a good smeller!" Then I change my tone slightly, and say, "Okay..." and he'll immediately start walking with me again.

and...

"Stop Pulling on the Leash!"

First of all your dog isn’t really pulling on the leash so much as she’s being pulled by things in the environment that stimulate and attract her instincts.  Of course, all dogs are different, so each dog will have her own motives for being pulled toward any specific stimulus, but the underlying reason is always the same: it feels more natural for a dog to move toward something that attracts her instincts than it does to walk next to you, unless walking next to you also attracts her instincts.

Now that you know why she pulls, what can you do to stop it?  Again, we have to look at it from the dog’s viewpoint.  It’s much easier for her to learn a new behavior than it is to try to get rid of an old one, particularly if the old behavior already satisfies her instincts.  So, instead of thinking “how do I get my dog to stop pulling?” you need to think “how can I attract her instincts?” which means that what you do has to make sense to the dog, even if it doesn’t make any sense to you.

So, start with a game, toy, or activity the dog loves.  It doesn’t matter how impractical or silly you think the game is, in the long run it will help teach her to walk next to you, as long as it arouses strong, positive emotions.  That’s the key.  

Then take her somewhere with few distractions and start playing.  If she’s still too focused on the environment, tie her up and walk away, about twenty feet or so.  Don’t talk to her or even look at her, just keep a watch on her out of the corner of your eye for any signs that her focus is shifting away from the environment and back to you.  

Once it does, wait about thirty seconds, then come back and tease her with the toy.  Make her crazy to sink her teeth into it.  Then untie her and get her to chase you around—change pace, zigzag, stop suddenly then take off again, throw in some stutter steps, even fall on the ground and jump back up.  Do anything you can to build her desire to connect to the toy, praising her the whole time.  

This may not feel like “training”, but remember that the initial goal is to make yourself more interesting and attractive to her instincts than the environment is.

After a few days, refine these zany moves into one behavior: getting her to run or walk next to you, on your left, in the heel position.  If she moves out of position, bring her back using the toy as a “lure”.  If she keeps trying to jump up on you, that’s good!  She’s connecting!  Don’t correct her; just remind her, “Heel!” (in a pleasant tone), and move the toy down to her level.  Start making about turns, to the left or to the right, keeping the toy just out of reach.  Any time she loses focus remind her, “Heel!” and get her back in the game.  Be sure to make the word “Heel” sound inviting, and say it whenever she moves out of position.  You’ll only need to play this game for about thirty seconds or so.  Then as soon as she’s “heeling” fairly well, give her the toy and praise her so she’ll know that being in the heel position is what gets her the toy.  Take a break then do it twice more.  

After a few days, or maybe a week, it should carry over to her regular walks. Of course, you won’t be able to do the zany moves you were doing, but the about turns and the pleasant sound of the command word should help her remember her lessons.  


Finally, Lawrence, if you're really motivated to turn Ace the dog into the ace of doggies, I'd get a copy of NATURAL DOG TRAINING by Kevin Behan. It's the best training manual ever written.

I hope this helps,

LCK

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for the AMAZING advice, taking it slower really helped his response to commands and I'm seeing less of that crazed 10 seconds of random running in circles by playing fetch but it'd be easier if i could get him to give me the ball after he brought it back. He would bring it back and lay down next to or in front of me and start gnawing on it and I would have to take it from him to play again. Do you have any methods on getting him to give me the ball? Also for the "kiss and treat" method of walking, can i use his name instead of the kiss sound? And once he gets the hang of responding to the kiss sound and better at walking at my side, how do i get him to not expect a treat every time i make the sound and say heel? Thanks again for the amazing advice, I haven't gotten any kind of answer like this from anyone on allexperts and I'm really grateful you don't treat me as "just some kid" like some experts do.
Thanks again,
-Lawrence

Answer
No, don't use his name. Use the kissing sound. After a few days, make giving him the treat more intermittent so he never knows if you're going to give it to him or not.

When you play fetch, have two balls that are pretty much exactly the same. When he brings the first ball back toward you, praise him, run away slightly (either backpedal or do a 3/4, over the shoulder run), tease him with the second ball, and when he drops the first one, immediately through the second one right past his line of sight.

You'll have to work on your timing of this, and I highly recommend you copy, paste, and print this advice so you can have easy reference to it.

Good luck,

LCK