Bindi Teaching Ch 11

 

CHAPTER 11.

YOU DIDN’T WANT A GUARD DOG?

BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE.

To get your dog to bark ,  here is what you have to do...

What?

You don’t want your dog to bark?  Does your dog bark at a lot of  things? Well, They will do that. Did you not know when you got a dog that most dogs bark? 

Of course we have an expectation our dog will have a voice.  We often just expect a certain amount voice and the ability for pup to control that voice.  Urban life has enough stress from  living close to neighbours without your dog barking too much, at the wrong time of day and too loudly and of course persistently.  Non-stop barking is totally unacceptable behaviour.

There are a few trigger causes for a lot of voice, those can include excitement, fear, uncertainty and territorial protection or all of these.  The solutions, in order, are introduction, company, explanation and exposure.  I will come back to these as there are tools you can use, after you have put some basics in place.

I think the first thing you have to get your dog to understand is that it is barking...

I know you think that will be obvious, the dog knows it is barking.  But honestly, maybe it doesn’t know what barking is but is using a fantastic tool to gain attention or to get the feeling that it is coping with not being happy.  Barking can generate feel good endorphins in pup. 

Please note I am not talking about yipping or yapping while in play with other dogs, that is dog communication and carries more meaning for dogs than we need to know about, that’s dog to dog business.

The bark to action is pup trying to tell us things.  If a bark gets lots of attention from us then pooch will use it to get our lots of attention.  Pup is just getting our attention without knowing it is annoying, it just wants our attention.

Initially, ignoring any low level barking so pup does not get your attention for barking is a nice effective if subtle tool.  But only if pup does not continue and escalate the barking until you respond.  I never said this was going to be easy but if you know your pup’s triggers, best treats, highest desires... You can use people smarts to decide a course of action.  Ignore barking only if it works and you are in a space where continued barking can be ignored without impact on neighbours. 

It should always be in your mind that ignoring a bad behaviour will ensure that particular bad behaviour is not going to generate attention as a reward for pup.  Any owner attention is a pup-reward by the way.  Even bad owner attention is still attention and a pup-reward.

Counter intuitively, the best way to stop a dog barking too much is to teach it to bark on command. 

If you have a dog that barks easily it will be easy for you to sit with it and catch it barking when you have eye-to-eye.

This is a fun game.  When pup barks, give a command like Speak. As soon as it barks, reward and give the command ‘speak’.  The treat will give a mini break from the barking while it munches and swallows. Repeat.

If it barks without the speak command, no reward.  Wait for a pause and give ‘speak’ command, if a bark follows, give reward.

I am sure you can see how this goes.  Your job is to pace the game, introducing a hand signal, maybe a flat vertical, fingers  open hand at the same time as the speak command.  You can work towards only giving the signal and getting pup to bark when the open hand is flashed. Then Reward. Bark without hand signal, no reward, ignore.  Repeat until you are sure pup has got the understanding of the signal and that it means a single bark.

So now you have a dog that obviously will still bark when you don’t want it to, but as well, barks when you want it to. I can hear the neighbours saying, ‘That’s just great , that is’. 

At every stage of this book I have said persistence and patience are key to Urban Dog Training.  Regrettably the above lesson comes with an onerous stage that really can’t be avoided as we really must get the pup to understand what the bark/speak command/signal is, and until you are sure it gets it, we can’t go on to the step you obviously want to do, stop the barking.

I will say that if you practice the bark command for a few days you may well find pup’s other barking reduces... You may also not find that, but, hey ho.  Do not panic. Persist until pup regularly barks when it’s told or signalled to speak.

If you are confident pup understands, then the next day when you are playing the speak game, introduce a new action, like closing the open hand to a fist, folded fingers towards pup. And the word shush, quite, shaddup, or whatever word you like but make it a crisp and short command, that can be used in public. 

Now you can use the practiced open hand action-reward system to get pup to bark, reward, again give the open hand signal and reward.  Now at the quiet time between barks, give the close hand signal and use the quiet word, and while pup stays not barking, reward.  

Repeat the bark, open hand sign, reward, while quiet, give closed hand sign and quiet command, tiny pause, reward if pup stayed quiet.  Try this for say 5 minutes a day, thinking of your neighbours.  Over time increase quiet time and increase reward as appropriate for longer quiets.  Make it fun with praise and nice touch.

Is that clear? I hope I explained it well enough for you but it must be repeated until pup understands the hand signals and words and associates them with the required bark response. 

Remember all these hand signals must be given when pup is looking at you, not when looking at the treat. Get pup to look at you for the bark/speak/open hand, and for the pause/quiet/closed hand.

In the course of a normal day do not fall into the following trap.

BINDI:  Hey Dad! There is a cat outside

DAD:  Shut up,

BINDI:  Its a BAD cat

DAD:  SHUT UP!

BINDI:  Okay, Just saying....

DAD:  FOR SH*T SAKE SHUUTT UPP!!!

BINDI:  OH YEAH!  IT’S A BIG EXCITING CAT

DAD:  SCREAMING ABUSE!!!!

BINDI:  YEAH THIS IS GREAT!! LETS BOTH BARK AT IT MORE!!!

It happens. Things get ugly.

 

Okay let’s go back to why dogs bark and discover some tools to use.. 

In the first place a bark is a communication so we don’t want pup to think it can’t communicate. Which is why I strongly object to things like shock collars. Sometimes if you search google they are called, laughingly, Dog Training collars.  I mean, really?  Aversion or pain training is just wickedly cruel and animals have no clue what is happening to them.  Imagine your enemy or worse, your dumped ex-lover, imagine giving them a remote that blasted you with a debilitating shock to your head, at any time they felt like it.

 

I think we teach pup how to communicate more effectively if we observe what the barking is and when it happens. I said before there were a few common reasons for barking. Excitement, fear, uncertainty and territorial. And a few solutions, introduction, company, explanation and exposure.

 

Every barking incident really as much as possible has to be dealt with from your deepest reservoir of calm space. I know being calm when your pooch is barking is not the natural human response.  A dog bark is a primordial warning to us as humans and our immediate response is attention, adrenalin, and action.  Knowing this, knowing you have a dog that barks, hopefully you will be able to suppress the animal part of your physiology and access quickly the ‘No, I have to be calm’, part of your people smarts.  Keeping that in mind, let us proceed with some tools.

 

Excitement barking is obviously triggered by a stimulus like being kept away from fun things, visitors, a prey target, a doggy mate, a car trip, that sort of thing.  It will be indicated by a wide arc tail wag, head up ears up, high pitched fast barking. Use distraction by treat or toy if you think you can do so to get pup to look at you, break focus on the trigger and be calmer.  If practical it is then best to allow pup to meet the trigger with a calm approach if possible.  Maybe this will be possible at some time after the excitement is past, re-introduce the trigger in a different place where trigger can be approached calmly.  In the worst case, try distraction by throwing a favourite thing in the opposite direction and getting a return.  This should reduce the initial intensity and may be a sufficient distraction for you to get pup attention and redirect onto another command response. Or retreat from the trigger and remove the intensity.

 

Fear barking can be triggered by something beyond pup’s understanding or a previously experienced negative, like firework surprises, sirens, loud street noise.  Ears down, head down, growls and low pitch bark, perhaps a retreat is also in the fear response.  A calm response from you here is the best path forward, comforting tone while gently keeping pup close to you. Calmly move away from the event to a safe place, sharing the experience in retreat without forcing pup to get more exposed.  If you are always consistent in doing this pup should trust you are a safer place to be and you can, over time move pup away from the trigger to a lesser and lesser extent until pup feels just being near you brings enough safety to allow the fear to pass.

 

Uncertainty barking comes from an unknown trigger, noises in the dark, a surprise, a passing dog suddenly reacting, a new sight like a floating balloon or windblown debris.  This can bring guard response, protection response, but all with a fear-like response of hackles up pointed ears, maybe lips up teeth showing, making pup look strong.  The task for you is to identify the trigger and show that is it not harmful again by showing the trigger to be safe.  If you can hold the balloon touch it, or enter the dark place calmly and return to pat pup.  Depending on the situation you can assess if appropriate to guide pup away from the surprise or greet the surprise calmly.  Whatever you can do to show the pup you are happy and calm to be near or with the uncertain thing, no fuss.  

 

Territorial barking is pure guard-protect response, a response saying this is my space, stay away. Full teeth display, high hackles extending down back, loudest bark from a full chest, head high, ears forward as big and brave as it is possible to look.  With this barking, knowing your pooch and having spent time building trust is critical.  If your pup is likely to nip at this time is very important you do not expose yourself to unintended injury.  You do need to defuse and distract focus. Guard barking is the toughest emotional event to break.  Again an unlikely approach often is the best way forward.  Pup is guarding against a threat so if you say, ‘good pup!’  ‘Who’s a clever pup’ ‘good pup’ in a calm gentle tone it will not be the expected result pup thought it would get.   After all if you have a dog that wants to protect its environment that means it is happy in its environment and does not want it invaded.  Warning us that something is not usual is the thing dogs have done for millennia. So. Our pooch barking is the basic act of telling us something is happening near their safe place.  We need to see that as a good thing, 

We just want it to be controlled.  By giving the calm praise, pup should relax a bit and allow you to share what it has seen.  As long as you continue to be calm, and then, if appropriate ignore and walk away, pup may relax and calm down where it is or it may follow you and look to you for guidance.  If so, you can distract or redirect activity with toy play or treat, go find, any fun thing you two do.  

 

Some things that may help with this is having to hand a favourite toy to fetch. Consider blocking the view by standing between pooch and the interesting thing. 

If calm establishes in the short term, then a gentle introduction to the threat may be appropriate when pup has settled. 

If front door guarding is overly enthusiastic, you will need to employ every friend or neighbour you can convince to help you.  Have them, at different times on different days, approach the front door while you teach pup that it is appropriate when you go to the door for pup to sit on a mat or in a place behind you while you open and deal with the door person.  This you just have to be calm and firm with and not embarrassed to be battling pup while your friend stands patiently outside.

Block pup access to the door while you open it, firmly but calmly returning pup to the safe place and a reward for staying there.  As you repeatedly try to open door to the person waiting outside, stop and return calmly to place pups bottom on the safe place. It really does not matter how many times you have to repeat this.  By constant repetition and lots of patient friends over some days, pup will understand the territory of the door is not to be bark protected if you are there.  Eventually by ensuring pup stays on the safe place, people are allowed to come in and pup must stay on mat until released to calmly greet.  A closed hand when appropriate will enforce the no barking, if used when pup is looking of course, and if you feel it will be obeyed. 

Do no repeat any command that is ignored by pup, save it for another time.  I know from experience this training requires the biggest commitment in patience and persistence.  And many willing, patient friends.

 

Once again I want to remind you to acknowledge the dog you have.  Some barking behaviour is breed specific, yipping barks in a terrier to scare out prey, guarding barks from Rotties, Dobermans, Shepherd dogs.  Gentle consistent persistence is always the way forward but breeds will be breeds and the trust between you and pup will grow over time as you move away from unthinking barks towards learned behaviour.

 

I repeat, you yelling at a barking dog is like throwing petrol on a fire.  You cannot yell loud enough to out shout a dog barking.  Like you can’t drown a fire with petrol, shouting just makes for more barking. 

 

As much as it sounds strange, now you know pooch is barking because in some way it is uncomfortable, that provides you with an alternative.  The calm praise your pup likes, the good-pup vocal, and the nice fun of return for treat or touch. 

 

If pup is excited and barking, your calm strong praise and memory of reward can be the key to make a crack in the frenzy.  It is those early bonding lessons if well entrenched in the owner-pup relationship that will be most effective in helping you minimise the barking.  

 

And remember you didn’t get a dog so you could bark yourself.  A dog will bark, for you, at you and with you, but you can control and guide the dog if you observe and persist with calm patience.

 

Bindi Teaching ch 12

 CHAPTER 12.

 

IS EVERYONE HAVING FUN?

 

URBAN PLAYTIME

 

I started this whole thing saying how important play is for you and pooch.

 

Playtime is fun time, can be excitement time, but is also the best time for caring, bonding and training.  Below are a few ways we include play in a day.

 

So much of what comes before in this book can be included in playtime so the training does not get too focussed on seriously addressing things that may happen in the very short times you are out and about with your urbanised pooch.

 

Consider making Brushing, health checks, cleaning and daily pooch maintenance part of a gentle play session.

 

BRUSHING PUP

 

In our household when the ‘Brush’ command is given it is delivered as an enquiry, ‘jawanna brush?’ By using no other training tricks than saying that every time and going to where the brushing place is,  pup gets a reward and happy voice praise on arrival and when brush is introduced and again after brushing the first and subsequent strokes.  If at any time pup retreats, we remain calm and await the return, if it comes.  There are treats in play so pup will probably return. 

 

After a bit of persistence brushing is understood to be nice.  Pup knows what is coming and ours often beats us to the brush place to nose the brush before we have even finished saying the brush command.

 

Brushing is a calm time of gentle stroking and calm chatter, pup is not constrained and if an exit is performed mid session, we wait for the return, reward, and continue calmly.  It is a lovely part of the day, and for a hairy dog most recommended as a frequent activity.

 

MAINTAINING PUP

 

We use this approach for things like our ‘clean eyes’ command.  This is helpful for when pup has sore, scratched or mucky eyes, something every pooch will get some time or other.  Good to have a ploy in place to help when it happens.

 

We start the de-sensitising lesson for this at a time when pup is nearby us and in a calm state.  When pup looks at us we praise, we stare back, and say ‘eye’ at the same time gently cradling the mouth from beneath while holding the eye-to-eye contact.

 

On frequent opportunities we repeat this action and slowly bring the other hand towards the eye, retreating if pup shows uncertainty.  After a few progressive attempts over some days or straight away depending on pup, you will able to touch the edge of the eye and drag out the corner muck. (ours licks it as a treat for some reason, never taught that)

If this is not within your sensitivity to touch eye gunk with your finger then do all this but have a cotton bud to hand as you de-sensitise for proximity to the eye using the bud to familiarise.

 

I don’t need to fill pages by repeating the exact same process for getting access to clean the ears, feet, cut nails, squeeze anal glands (yuk), check teeth, open mouth or holding up tail  (for temperature checks). 

 

Sufficient to say the calm, make-it-feel-good slow approach and familiar action is a great way to embed a desired behaviour and save yourself anguish at some future time when you need to remove a burr from fur, get grit out of an eye or clean an ear to stop endless scratching.   I may have said before, it is about building trust.

 

You practiced many ways that trust can be shown and rewarded for different actions.  Now, when one point of trust is thwarted, like if pup resists or refuses, if perhaps you fail to reward excellent behaviour, if you give a wrong command, get cross, yes it does happen, then the wide blanket of other trusted behaviours you share will quickly help heal the small tear made by that little slip-up.  Don’t beat yourself up for a training fail and similarly, show endless forgiveness if pup slips up.

Bindi Teaching ch 13

 

CHAPTER 13.

 

ARE WE THERE YET?

 

THE URBAN TRAVELLER.

 

As much as this book has concentrated on learning urban skills, at some time it will be desired or necessary to have pooch travel further than a walk around your local streets.

Whenever you or I leave our homes for an extended time we know it is probably a good idea to quickly visit the toilet prior to departure.  As owners we should also ensure pup has prepared for their journey too.

If the journey is either by car, bike, bus, train or cab the same thing applies. You want a calm travelling companion. Full bowels and bladders do not make for calm travellers.

Just like you should not get pup all excited jumpy and playful just before a walk and you shouldn't tease it by squealing ‘walkies’ repeatedly as you search for your hat, bag, coat or shoes, then go looking to find where you left the poo bags and lead...  You don’t do that do you?  You don’t get pup all bouncy and then wonder why it won’t behave on lead do you?  So.  Calm diffused preparation and,

WE’RE OFF!

There are three default positions for pup and travel when it comes to machines.  There is the calm desired position, then there are the pups who can’t contain their excitement to get into or onto any transport thing, or it’s the pup who will refuse all attempts of entry to the machine.

So let us understand and work to get the desired position.  What is desired is for the pooch to be willing but not excited to enter the ‘going somewhere good’ machine.  Calmly. 

Again, it is up to us not to prioritise this change in motion.  Entering the car should not be a major event but just another daily or frequent thing we do. 

I guess though I should cover the best way to reduce excitement or fear in pup if it develops into more than a passing issue. 

We simply have to start the process of entering and leaving the car without going anywhere.  Make this activity part of every day, get pup’s car equipment or harness on, get in car, strap in, praise, let pup settle. You can sit in the car for a while as pup settles, then un-strap, exit and go about normal daily activity.  Calmly repeat a few times a day.

Once you are both entering into the machine with no emotional excess, start the motor, pause, see that pup is settled, turn motor off, release pup, exit.  Continue this exercise over a few repeats. 

When pup is comfortable with the motor sounds, move on to making the machine move.  Maybe only to end of your driveway then reverse and exit, over a few days leave the driveway and work towards increasing the distance the car goes, but not allowing pup out of car anywhere until you get back home. 

Pup always stays in car until released and told to exit.  Given possible future adventures when you will never know what, where or when pup will be required to enter and exit the car, it is responsible of us to ensure pup is trained to be calm and acts on command at entry and exit.

What this elaborate process is trying to do is desensitise any excitement that getting into a car or transport may engender.  For example, pup should be in sit and must wait calmly for the command to enter and exit the transport.  This comes with practice and is best repeated to boredom without actually going on a trip.  In and out commands should not generate excitement or anticipation but we want to work towards them being a normal daily routine command with a pleasant consequence for pup.   I have mentioned having patience and persistence before, so I won’t again.

To help with the tedium of training consider if you will what any transport offers an urban pup. One, it’s a different and thrilling or fearful sensation of movement, speedy smells, new noises and seeing many things pass by very quickly. Second, and most likely the cause for future excitement, is every time pooch enters the transport it knows not what exciting sort of place it will end up at!   Anticipation of all this movement and destination can make future entries into the car a trigger for unwanted excitement.

Hence calm gradual introduction perhaps anchored with a settle command is best for urban pooch and a less stressed us.

 Travel is another time to observe your pup.  The solution to help your particular pup is going to be an adaptation of these advices.  It is going to be your choice from your observation of your pooch as to how you implement any training.  Always at the pup’s speed and ability.  

If pup is curious about the new thing you are directing it to enter, a car, bus, train, shopping trolley, whatever, then ensure you remain calm and show it the way in and again show it the way out of this contraption. We do this without any plan to go anywhere, it’s just about getting in and out, first without closing off the exit and then entering, closing, opening and exit.  We are ensuring pup does not associate the space with being trapped in a noisy moving box.

If pooch resists the new space then the use of tempting treats, actions or voice for entry and subsequent distraction by look or touch once inside, followed swiftly by a calm exit, reward and pause, then repeat.  Take a couple of days if necessary until entry is not subject to any stress markers being evident in pooch’s demeanour.

I am currently dealing with Bindi’s excitement when in transit.  She’s a clever girl and knows, from the myriad of micro signals we give off unintentionally, the type of trip we are going on and if the likelihood is we are going to the river walk, dog park or beach. Knowing this and being a gobby little bitch, she whines, yaps, yips and generally makes the journey a pain.

I am trying the following things to reduce this behaviour, I am still learning on a daily basis.

As well as doing the above things I ensure, as much as possible that there is not a toilet needed prior to a long trip. In fact it is not a bad idea to walk pup for a short time before any trip.  Some pups will understand and perform the necessary as a precursor to a trip, other pups will need to be distracted. 

I also make sure that if I am taking the car for a quick shopping journey for milk , bread or a few rapidly acquired necessities, maybe a refuel, then pup comes with in car, sits secured with windows open while I am in shop and comes home without getting out.  This is not teasing the pup, it is showing that being in a car is not a reason to get excited. 

It is critical again we don’t fall in to the trap of telling an excited pooch to shut-up in the car.   Ignoring bad behaviours or a very low-key response with a calm command is best.   Use of hand signal for quiet, stopping the journey until calm ensues, exiting car for a calming sniff walk or returning home without doing the planned dog outing event are all tools of differing impact we have at our disposal.

Of course, just because there has been a toilet opportunity prior to the journey, there may be another required due to stress or excitement, so provide that opportunity if pup is being irrational. 

From experience I know these tools are variously successful but your training armoury is extensive with diverse tools we can use when appropriate, calmly and with persistence.

It is also very likely that you and pup may just get in the car and go, you may experience no poor behaviour and travel will be a non issue.  To be honest, this is just as likely as having an issue so, as always, observe and respond to your pup with appropriate actions for your pup.

I have not yet covered too much about fear of travel as this has not been a common thing in my experience so I have only theory not experience to recommend.  Obviously you will know if pup is frightened of transport. 

My theory for getting an unsure pup into transport is again to use a very gentle and reward-focussed introduction to the process of getting entry into a vehicle.  Much like for the excited pup method above.  In as much as you will still calmly take the kind and gentle step-by-step progression towards a short happy journey away from and back to home.  You can use high value treats and encouragement to temp pup into the vehicle but do not rush the pup to enter.  You may choose to sit in the vehicle, on your phone or whatever until pup enquires or maybe wants to enter and join you. When pup eventually does enter, give proportionate calm praise and comfort and encourage it to stay inside the vehicle by giving some treats, toy or touch.

There is no hurry.  Getting pup over a fear may take many days until you see a change and understand what pup was fearful of. It may fear being tangled in a rug you have laid out for it, the gap between the machine and the pup is too great, the step too high, any number of things that will be evident if you observe. 

You don’t need to practice every day or even multiple times a day for a fearful pooch but you may include the entry game when doing other training or when play is going well and pup is happy, trusting and relaxed.  Timing can be as important as observation and persistence. Excited toy play could include getting pup to jump into machine to retrieve a toy or follow you or chase a treat.

Either way, controlling pup’s entry into transport is the issue, we want to stop enthusiastic entry at pace, and we are going to tempt entry with grace. 

Sometimes if pup checks on entry it is sufficient to calmly lead pup into the space with authority and firm resolve.  Pup will follow if it trusts and you are calm and a safe place to be.

For all urban pups some form of transport will be a part of their lives.

Not for one minute do I think transport is a problem for the majority of urban pooches, in most cases it will be just part of a normal day as that is how pup was introduced to travel from an early age.  When we first got her we put Bindi into a convertible sports car and drove 4 hours from breeder to our home.  She whined for the first hour on my wife’s lap then squirmed off and collapsed exhausted into the passenger foot well.  This was not the way she should have been introduced to her first machine obviously.  I do not claim to always have been informed, smart or even correct.

What I do know from experience though is calm travel behaviour is not the default and it is up to you as an owner to notice the signs of unease in your pup relating to travel and to gently implement these tools as appropriate.  I hope these tools will allow you to address behaviour before it becomes an issue for pup and a problem for you.   

 

Bindi Teaching ch 14

 

CHAPTER 14.

LEAVE ME ALONE

URBAN DESERTION

Dogs don’t need us.  At the very base of every canine soul is a world-wise cunning hunter and survivor.  Well, perhaps that is a bit overstating the case, we have sort of softened their survival instincts and made them a bit dependent on us.

The reality is, that left to their own devices they do have rather good survival and coping tools. This is a good thing as the demands of our urban existence means it is highly likely that we will need to leave our pups unattended and alone for some time periods.  

There is a thing called guilt and a thing called separation anxiety.  Both these things are not real to the pup and are only feelings, they are not real things.

GUILT.  

This is an emotion experienced by owners who feel the obligation of dog ownership includes permanent presence with the dog.  This is not only falsely based emotion but totally unrealistic. 

One of the greatest gifts we can give our pooch is time alone.  I have mentioned before safe places and calm times.  If a pup has been fed, has access to water, safe rest places, is given well timed toilet breaks or access to open space it will be happy to let you go about your business away for many many hours. 

If pup is without company then your time together becomes more valuable to both of you but requires no more from either of you than if you were together all day. 

Left alone, pup will either go into a peaceful doggy torpor until you return or will happily interact with its domain, amuse itself and rest. 

To teach this relaxed alone state you are simply required to leave the pup alone for short periods and then return, with a calm, even a nonchalant greeting and gentle praise. 

You should start doing this by leaving pup in a room and returning after a few seconds, quietly acknowledging its presence on your return and over time, vary the period you are apart always calmly acknowledging the pup on your return.  If a very young pup, you may like to leave your old sock or an old worn T-shirt with your scent in pup’s safe place.  Over time, you can leave the home without pup and again return at varying times repeating the above practices.  Pup will learn and understand that you will always return and it will be pleasant when you do.

Do not feel guilty about leaving pup alone, pups are fine with their own company and your absence provides a no-action-required time for pooch.  You have taken the time to show pup you always return, if pup is fed watered and toileted, has some optional activity for play provided then you have no reason for guilt. 

 

 

SEPARATION ANXIETY

Canines by nature will rest for more hours than they are active. If your absences are gradually increased in the daily routine, pup will not be anxious.  Urban dogs do adapt to routine and if the routine includes some peaceful quiet hours alone then that will be their normal urban routine.

My urban pooches have all been left home alone for at least 8 hours a day.  Their habits varied, the Great Danes just turned off and lazed away the day, my mongrel Shepherd used to visit the local kindergarten kids for morning tea, the retailers for conversation and occasional treats and then returned home to be there for my return.  I was unaware of this for years until the kindergarten kids grew up and started to greet my lad in the street with great familiarity so the story was exposed and the secret escape tunnel discovered. 

Every dog will have its own solution to your not being there, you may well be the most important thing in its life but, really, pup can cope if given the tools.

Even if you do leave pup alone it is not necessary to jamb hours of play, training and walks into the few remaining hours of your day.  What is critical is your morning and evening time together is enjoyable, rewarding and calm.  Most important is that you do not have separation anxiety worrying unnecessarily about your pup resting at home.  

I do accept that circumstances do not always allow for sufficient training time to pace the period of separation.  If a sudden requirement takes you away it is up to you as a loving owner to provide pup with some interim support.  That may be a neighbour, friend or family member providing human contact at the appropriate time.  Not always do things go to plan but we do have the tools and the ability to solve these problems.

Gentle persistence, calm caring and loving rewards will always resolve. 

      

Bindi Teaching ch 15

 

WHERE DID IT ALL GO RIGHT?

PUP IS ALWAYS RIGHT.

It is worth remembering, 

although sometimes you may doubt it, we are smarter than our dogs. 

We are more able to adjust our emotions than a dog.  

We are more important to our pups than they are to us 

and our reactions to their actions are always felt.

And, the biggest difference is that pup lives in the moment and we reflect on the past.  Pup does not remember why we were angry at a thing they have done, they just know at a deeper level they like to be with us more than they like being away from us.

I know none of these things seem evident at all times or even at any times but it is worth remembering, because at all times you are the superior being and pup needs to be in touch with a superior being to allow it to remain happy and calm and safe.  Safety is a lovely gift to be able to give pup and your pooch will truly be a happier little soul if you always remember you are more able to control your environment and emotions than pup can ever hope to be.

If you have a pup that is locked solid into coming when called in every instance, congratulations and hopefully this is because you are a happy safe place for pup to want to be.  Lovely.

If you have a pup that sometimes comes when called, when it has nothing better to do. Congratulations, your pup does come and does so because it likes you. 

On the occasions that it does not come on command, ensure when you are eventually reunited that the coming together is a pleasant thing for both you and pup.  It doesn’t matter if pup has been chasing, digging or eating something you don’t like.  It is fine to let pup know that you don’t approve of the action by stern reprimand while in the act or a sharp corrective lead pull away or your usual admonishment but that should pass quickly and as soon as pup looks to you or sits or any of the good things pup knows to do, praise immediately.  If pup then does something like walking beside, sitting or looking, then it has left what it was just doing, it is now being good and you must acknowledge that appropriately and clearly.  Being with you is a constant safe place and your role as safe place owner is to make that true all the time.

Pup is always right if it is with you, being with you feels like a good, calm, safe place to be. 

I started all this by saying it is almost impossible to chase and catch a dog.   While you are smarter than a dog, you are, in all likelihood not as cunning. This means that if you have the pup with you  or can see the pup as you read this, pup must at some time and on some level want you to be nearby, to guide it, physically or by command. So you are the owner of a pup that sometimes returns to you even if that return is the pup allowing you to find it and hold it.  The desire to have you near is better for pup than being away from you.

Pup will always do what feels best for it, they are selfish like that. Pup does not have the flexible emotional capacity we do to provide a constant happy place for itself so it reacts to stimuli and impulse.  Pup will always look for the safest, happiest or most excitingest place to be.  While there will be many times we will be frustrated, disappointed or upset at pup’s choices, we are smarter than pup, we can control our emotions.  We can adjust our demeanour to ensure when good pup behaviour eventually is displayed, we reward and calmly encourage it.  Pup will learn togetherness is best.

We can teach pooch our approval is a lovely and constantly available thing.  All pup has to do is be right.  All we have to do is reward pup for being right, no matter how fleeting that moment between other moments may be.  Everything is hung on this simple thing.  Be a safe place, be rewarding.

The result is calm happiness, for pup and us.