Dr Dunbar's iWoofs Radio

Over the past 30 years or so, pet dog training has evolved as a specialized field of dog training. Pet dog training is one of the most complicated, challenging, sometimes frustrating, yet most thoroughly rewarding of endeavors. Pet dog training differs markedly from teaching competition dogs or working dogs, and from training animals for public shows.
In all other fields of training, the syllabus is finite, and the handler knows both the rules and questions before the examination. With pet dog training, there are no rules, the questions are unknown, and the syllabus is infinite — comprising all aspects of a dog’s (and owner’s) behavior, temperament, and training.

On January 26th, Off-leash Puppy Classes celebrated their 25th Birthday. The world’s very first off-leash puppy socialization and training class for pet dogs was started on 26th January 1982. Just 25 years ago, dog trainers only taught adult dogs repetitive on-leash obedience drills. Puppy Classes emphasized the importance of teaching bite inhibition, early socialization, temperament training, and simple solutions for common and predictable behavior problems, as well as basic household manners. Also, Puppy Classes championed user-friendly and dog-friendly dog training techniques, that were suitable for all family members, especially including children.
Nowadays, the gentle and easy, yet science-based puppy training techniques have been adopted and adapted by most progressive trainers worldwide. Puppy Classes revolutionized pet dog training. In fact, in a sense, Puppy Classes created the field of pet dog training.

Living with dogs is all about relationships. When owners enjoy their dog’s behavior and company, the relationship blossoms. When pets misbehave, the relationship sours Unfortunately, dog behavior, temperament and training problems are extremely common and utterly predictable. Temperament problems make a dog a challenge to live with. And behavior and training problems are the #1 terminal illness for pet dogs.
Behavior, temperament and training problems are the most common reason for people to surrender or abandon their dogs. Ironically, all behavior, temperament and training problems may be so easily prevented, and most may be resolved. The secret is to try to see things from the dogs’ point of view.
People often consider their dog’s behavior to be inappropriate, unacceptable and problematic. However, the dog views these so-called “problems” as quite normal, natural and necessary doggy behavior. Quite the culture clash!

Housesoiling and destructive chewing are two of the most common, yet utterly predictable, behavior problems, which cause many owners to banish their dogs to the back yard, or maybe surrender their dogs to shelters.

These two problems are so common and so utterly predictable, why don’t dog owners know how to housetrain and chewtoy train their dogs? It’s hardly rocket science. Of course it is easy to cite, “owner irresponsibility.” But for the most part, this is simply not true. As always, education is the key. And all pet professionals (including myself) have been negligent with regards proactively educating prospective and current pet owners. Hence this internet radio program!

The solution is simple. Obviously dogs need to eliminate and they need to chew. Peeing, pooping and chewing are all perfectly normal, natural, and necessary doggy behaviors. Owners must learn to teach their dogs where they should eliminate and what they should chew.

If puppies and dogs are not housetrained and chewtoy-trained during the first couple of weeks at home, then they will likely be confined to a single room or ostracized to the backyard, where they will develop additional forms of occupational therapy to pass the time of day when left at home alone. The dog will learn to eliminate indiscriminately and chew anything and everything. Also, the dog will take up digging or barking as newfound hobbies. Soon, the neighbors will likely complain about the dog’s barking and so the dog is further confined to the basement or garage…which he destroys.

Living with a socialized and friendly dog can be a dream. Living with an unsocialized, asocial, or antisocial dog can be a nightmare.

This episode explains how to train your dog to come on command every time, regardless of environment or distractions

Unless trained otherwise, dogs, especially puppies and adolescents, are noisy and active. What else is new? And so, teach them WHEN they may be noisy and active. And Teach Sit and Down Stays

Pulling on leash is a huge problem for many dog owners and they try and solve the problem by buying all sorts of specialized leashes, collars, halters, and harnesses. In reality, leash-pulling masks the real problem: What would happen if you had no leash? No dog either, right?

The presenting subjective history for most dog-dog aggression is: “He fights all of the time and he is trying to kill the other dog”. However, when we objectively analyze the facts, in most cases, we discover that the dog has been involved in several (or many) dog fights, but has yet to put any of his opponents in the veterinary clinic surgery for repair. Obviously, if he is trying to kill the other dog, he is simply not very good at it. On the contrary, over and over, the dog has proved that he is not a dangerous dog. Instead he is belligerent, bellicose, or more likely lacks confidence around other dogs because he was never given the opportunity to develop the social savvy for meeting and greeting unfamiliar dogs. Really he is not different from most people, who nag and argue a surprising amount of the time.

Shelter dogs usually have a bit of behavioral baggage and require immediate and regular behavioral rehabilitation during their stay, to make them more adoptable and ready them for a second chance in another home. Otherwise, uneducated shelter dogs will quickly develop additional behavior, temperament and training problems and will become less adoptable.

Games are motivating for dogs, owners, trainers, and onlookers. Games bring out the best performances in dogs and owners, and sometimes in trainers. Playing games (with many rules) is one of the easiest (and sneakiest) ways to get owners to pay attention to instructions and to achieve owner compliance. Most important though, playing games is the least intimidating way to objectively assess the reliability and precision of performance and the effectiveness (in terms of “time and trials to criterion”) of training techniques. Playing games increases the speed (and enjoyment) of learning and the quality of the owners’ and dogs’ performances.

When I first started teaching off-leash puppy socialization and training classes over 25 years ago, I had recently left Academics at the Psychology Department in Berkeley, California. Many of the Psychology professors were my friends and many brought their new pups to puppy class. As the word spread, many more came simply to observe the classes. Most had the same reaction, that they had never before seen applied psychology quite this way before — in the raw. The interactions between people and dogs were interesting and provided many wonderful examples of good dog training techniques. However, the family dynamics were an observer’s gold mine and provided many examples of not-so-good people-training techniques.