You try your best to feed really great things to your dogs for doing great things – but then the treats spoil because you forgot them at the bottom of your training bag and now everything smells. Man, I hate that.
Pictured above, Momo’s alter ego.
I’m going to talk about another kind of bad treat, the kind that makes your dog’s behaviour unpleasant. Momo was suspicious of new people so our first point of training action was to use food to make people great. Greet people and get a treat. Weeks go by and he’s using strangers – the dog trainers at our puppy school – as a food machine. Great, it works! Until Momo decided he still didn’t like people (very close with direct eye contact), but he did want the food. A new behaviour was born – get the food, and then show that person how uncomfortable they made you. The conflict was now set. Get the food, make the person go away.
Why is my tiny puppy trying to bite people? Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy 😦 Puppy why 😦
Big feelings + conflict. Antecedent [people’s direct pressure], Behaviour [aggression], Consequence [people move away, conflict is resolved]
The solution – no more food from strangers.
In full transparency, this was not the only situation where Momo would act aggressively. If he was over stimulated his arousal would hit maximum intensity and he could bite objects as a re-direction. On a cold September evening he was over-faced at a dog park and re-directed to a person. Thinking back I feel very blessed that my good friend Amie was there to help me through that moment. I went into shock, put the puppy on the leash and left. Cried in Safeway as I picked out some vegetables.
I had been speaking with Amie prior on who I should seek professional help from. It was clear that Momo and I needed more information than what I was currently working with. I reached out the next day and found a Calgary trainer that has years of experience and mentoring from a top obedience trainer. The “sport” aspect of high arousal was a requirement for the both of us.
Over the next few weeks I learned how incredibly difficult it can be for people to not want to approach your puppy or feed them. It feels like the only thing I’m missing in my training bag these days is a samurai sword to get well-intended folks to back away. To their credit, it’s an unusual concept – this puppy doesn’t like you. But he accepts your presence and for now, that works for me.
A bit of decompression after a busy day.
Up next: when treats work good – how to reinforce without conflict. Stay tuned!
Reach Higher 