Category Archives: Dog Training

03/27/12

Praise Kongs!

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

You didn’t have to be at Ian Dunbar’s seminar long to understand that Dunbar had a pretty big crush on Kong toys!  To me, I think he was a bit biased – I think there’s a bunch of other chew toys highly appropriate for a similar purpose.  But Dunbar mostly focused his attention on Kongs.

He suggested that every household, especially puppy households, should have Kongs, and advised that the largest dog in the household should determine the size of the Kong.

Brittany chewing a toy.

Photo © Ruthless Photos.

Why use Kongs?

Dogs who eat Kongs will automatically perform a bunch of desirable behaviours (and cease to display undesirable behaviours) by being given a Kong that serves as a distraction of sorts.

When dogs are eating from a Kong, they can’t be barking, they’re normally laying down, and the motion of eating decreases their stress.  Eating from a food toy increases a dog’s confidence in being alone.  Basically, they reduce behaviour problems by training your dog to create ‘good habits’.

Dunbar also argues that Kongs increase food drive, and encourage the dog to only chew ‘food wielding items’ (summed up in, “Why would I chew the furniture? It doesn’t have food in it.”). Continue reading →

03/21/12

Long Term Confinement Area for Puppies

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

New puppy homes need to have a long term confinement area set up ready for their puppy’s arrival.  The idea is that, by using a pen setup in this way, the puppy will self-toilet-train and self-chew-toy-train.  It also helps to teach the puppy to be alone.  Long term confinement areas are designed so puppies learn where to pee and where to chew, and how to be alone.  Basically, a pen like this allows a puppy to make correct choices, and so be successful in achieving appropriate behaviours.

 

Long term puppy confinement area, Ian Dunbar

Dunbar advocates for puppy pens to be set up with the bed far away from a toileting areas, as puppies are naturally inclined to toilet away from their sleeping area.

 

This pen has several features:

  • The edges of the bed can (and should!) be taped down to prevent the puppy chewing the bed.
  • Kongs should be used to distribute food in the middle.  The Kong could be tied to the edge, to prevent it entering the toilet area, or you could raise the toilet area in a litter box so the Kong can’t roll in there.
  • The toilet area should be turf and as far from the bedroom as possible, as puppies naturally want to eliminate away from their bed.
  • The toilet area should have faeces removed as soon as possible, but the urine should be left so that the odour attracts puppies to return to eliminate in the same spot.
  • The water is near the sleeping area.
  • There should be plenty of Kongs! Puppies should only be fed from Kongs.

Continue reading →

03/18/12

Bringing Home a New Puppy (Dunbar)

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

When a person buys a new puppy, they need instructions on what to do right away.  Any delay means that mistakes will be made and, potentially, the puppy will begin to display ‘bad habits’.  Within 3 days these bad habits can form, and these type of habits are normally the behaviour problems that result in dogs being surrendered to rescue later in life.

Photo © Ruthless Photos

Dunbar has produced two great publications called Before You Get Your Puppy and After You Get Your Puppy.  Dunbar allows these materials to be freely distributed, and even has options to brand these materials (for example, with a dog training business name) before distribution – so both business owners and puppy buyers (and puppies!) benefit.

When a puppy buyer brings a puppy home, they should have ready for them:

 

The puppy should be confined to the long-term confinement area when their owner is not home, and be crated when they are home (or directly supervised).  Every hour the puppy should be taken to a toileting area, where the owner stands still and waits for the puppy to elimination.  The puppy should receive 3 treats after elimination, and then take the puppy for a walk (as a reward).  The puppy should not be taken inside immediately, as some puppies find this punishing.

 

What can breeders do?

Breeders should begin toilet training and chew-toy training puppies before they go to their new homes.  Breeders should distribute the Before and After You Get Your Puppy resources to new puppy buyers, and ‘quiz’ them in their content before they take their puppy home.  Breeders have a responsibility to say, “No” if a puppy buyer is not ‘ready to go’ as soon as they bring their puppy home.  If not, the breeder runs their risk of one of their puppies developing behavioural problems that leads to their shelter intake.

 

More details on the long term confinement area’s setup will be described in the next post.

03/15/12

Puppy Classes (Dunbar)

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Dunbar-style puppy classes aim to teach puppies bite inhibition, allow one (of many) venues for human socialisation, and teach owners to control their dog off leash.  They should be conducted offleash, inside on hard (sanitisable) floors, and with big and little dogs in the one class.

 

Dobermann puppies playing together offleash

These dobermanns are playing offleash – an important learning experience for them and their owners.

Bite inhibition

By puppies playing with one another, they are learning rules for dog-dog interactions and also the appropriate force of bite while playing.

 

Socialisation

Puppy classes only form part of the socialisation picture.  While socialisation happens in puppy classes, it is too little too late.  There is a lot of work the owner needs to do before puppy class, and puppy class won’t make up for undersocialisation.

 

Control Offleash

Often the lead can become a ‘crutch’ for dog owners, and they cannot get the behaviours they want without this level of control. By training off leash from the outset, the puppy and owner learns to work with distractions and use them to their advantage. Our control needs to be independent of a collar and lead.

 

Dunbar is often credited as the father of puppy classes, but he has become concerned about how puppy classes are currently run.  Particularly, most puppy classes are on lead, and most puppy classes use too much food and never phase the lure.  To Dunbar, 10 minutes of offleash play is simply not good enough for a puppy class.  Puppies need to learn to remove themselves from play, and humans need to learn how to engage in dog play and make dog-dog play a valuable reinforcer.

Of course, we use food to train puppies, but the food should be faded immediately.  Furthermore, off leash behaviour will allow an experience trainer to note puppies with problems and start to address them sooner-rather-than-later.

Dunbar stressed that puppy classes are only part of the socialisation picture. The next post will talk about what puppy buyers should be doing immediately on bringing a puppy home.

03/11/12

Puppyhood: The time to rescue shelter dogs

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Welcome to the first post in my Ian Dunbar seminar series. This, as well as many other posts, will be updated as I make more posts. So let’s start!

Ian Dunbar very seriously believes that puppyhood is one of the most vital periods of a puppy’s life. He believes that appropriate training and socialisation will mean that common behaviour problems can be prevented and, ultimately, the dog will not end up in a shelter facility. (In the handout, he called common and precitable behaviour problems “the #1 terminal illness for adolescent/adult dogs.”)

Labrador puppy

Photo © Ruthless Photos

With puppies, training should focus on:
• Stopping behaviour problems from occurring,
• Teaching bite inhibition,
• Socialising puppies to people and therefore reducing the likelihood of bites (from fear or aggression).

In terms of behaviour problems that should be prevented in puppyhood, this includes:
• House soiling,
• Inappropriate chewing,
• Biting,
• Barking,
• “Temperament problems”
These behaviours are easily predictable, and easily preventable during puppyhood.

Dunbar made some pretty firm statements. He says that puppies with insufficient socialisation suffer “massive permanent damage”. He thinks that puppies are pretty much ‘made’ by 3 months of age, though socialisation does continue. It is only at 2-3 years that you can finished your puppy a finished product – you can relax and enjoy your dog and not worry about further socialisation.

Making the most of puppyhood is a dual effort between breeders and puppy buyers. Breeders have duties, as do puppy buyers. One of puppy buyers duties is puppy classes, and we’ll look at puppy classes in our next post.