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

Dunbar advocates putting the 8 big behavioural problems on cue, and then training the opposite.  The idea is that you can cue the ‘opposite’ (non-problematic) behaviour when the dog is displaying the problem behaviour.  The problem behaviour should be taught first, as he thinks dogs are more likely to display ‘the most recently taught’ behaviour.  These 8 behaviour problems, and their opposites, are:

 

1. Jazz Up / Settle Down

Often dogs can be over excited, over stimulated, or generally ‘worked up’ and this can be problematic for owners.  For this reason it is useful to have a ‘settle down’ cue, but Dunbar of course suggests that you teach the opposite, too – a ‘jazz up’ cue.  You could turn this into a class game where the winner is the person who settles down their dog the fastest, or meets a 3 second deadline.  Teaching a dog to ‘jazz up’ is also easy, and often inspires and motivates class members to train.

‘Settle down’ is useful when trying to prevent problematic behaviours, such as excitement at the front door, or fence-fighting behaviour.  ‘Jazz up’ could also, potentially, be useful reward in the obedience ring.  Diane Baumann, in her traditional training book Beyond Basic Obedience, encourages owners to have an exciting cue (like ‘jazz up’) to mean an exercise is finished.

 

2. Woof / Shush

Dunbar went through a long description of teaching his malamute to ‘shush’ through repetitive reinstruction.  Basically, he told his dog to ‘shush’ and ‘good boyed’ him when he was quiet, and ‘shush’ again if he continued to bark.  Dunbar also advocated sin binning and removal from the stimulus causing barking to help reduce barking.  Teaching a dog to bark on cue allows the dog opportunities to display their natural behaviour of barking, when you decide it’s appropriate.  I will explain ‘fixing barking problems’ in more detail in a later post.

 

3. Hug (jump up) / Sit

Owners often have problems with dogs jumping up, and Dunbar believes that sit is the opposite.  Dogs often are punished for jumping up, but controlled hugs are fun and enjoyable for both parties.  Dunbar encourages a default behaviour of a sit be taught for greetings.

 

4. Pull on leash / Walk nicely on leash

Many dog owners have problems with their dog pulling on leash and, again, Dunbar suggests training ‘pull on leash’ as well as ‘walk nicely on leash’.  He does explain that sometimes pulling on leash is hard to train, but can normally be obtained with a lure.  This pulling on leash can act as a reward, as many dogs do enjoy pulling on leash.

(On a personal note, I don’t think I would advocate teaching a dog to pull on leash unless they were already practicing the behaviour. I think pulling on leash, if the dog hasn’t figured out how to do it, is probably a blessing!)

 

5. Take it / Let Go

I think this is one of the most important lessons for dogs, and is the first behaviour I teach puppies.  That is, training puppies to ‘grab something’ and also ‘let go’ on cue.  I use “Get it” and “Give”, Dunbar suggests “Take it” and “Thank-you”.  Regardless, I think this is a crucial skill. (You can see me teaching this to 6 week old Myrtle.)

 

6. Go Slower / Go Faster

I am not quite sure why Dunbar thinks a dog going slow or fast is a problem.  My only suggestion is potentially in the house if over-exuberance could lead to knocked over items, or similar settings.  Regardless, he advocates teaching ‘slow’ and ‘fast’ by walking slower and faster with the dog, and allowing them to associate the word with the pace. (In this scenario, the lure is the person.)  He suggested that ‘slow’/’fast’ may be useful for heelwork (instructing the dog to speed up or slow down) or for slowing a fast dog down on agility contacts.

 

7. Runaway / Come

Many owners have problems with their dogs running away and not coming back.  Dunbar suggests teaching dogs to run away on cue, and the “Murphy’s law” is that this will improve your recall and attraction to you.  One way in which to teach running away is to chase the dog (provided the dog enjoys being chased!).  Again, this behaviour of running away could be used as a reward.  Dunbar also detailed tips on improving off leash reliability.

 

8. Look away / Pay attention

Dunbar explained that this was a ‘new one’, in that he has only recently added it to his list of problem behaviours.  I like his willingness to change things as he goes!  So many owners have trouble with their dogs not paying attention, so Dunbar suggests training look away and pay attention. Both behaviours are very useful.  Looking away can form foundations for the “Look At That!” game (from the book Controlled Unleashed), but looking away is also a calming signal and could be useful in diffusing tense dog-dog situations.  Then, paying attention is obviously useful when cuing behaviours and when undertaking formal training exercises.

 

Another benefit of putting problematic behaviours on cue is that they are potentially made less rewarding.  That is, if a dog learns to “woof” when cued and receive a reward, but then woofs uncued and gets no reward, the dog is effectively learning to put the behaviour under stimulus control due to the reward schedule.