#Dogthoughts: Say NO to "NO", Ignoring and Yes to Alternative Behaviours
Whenever I begin the first lesson of any dog training course or consult, I always start by teaching each guardian how their dog feels during training. The guardian gets to be the dog and act like a fool. It’s a fun but enlightening game as I ignore them, tell them no for doing things wrong, say yes but ignore all the bad things and then teach them marker words and alternative behaviours. Almost every student says that when I ignore them and use “No” that they feel uncomfortable, insecure and that they don’t know what I want them to do. When I use marker words and ask for alternative behaviours they say that they feel that they have more direction and clarity in what I am asking.
We want clear communication and so do our dogs. Every day our dogs communicate to us through their body language and expressions and us to them, through our body language, expressions, words and actions. What you say and do counts.
Part 1: Why you shouldn’t use the word NO!
Source: Mighty Dog Graphics
I’ve seen individuals who say “oh no”, “eh-eh”, “try again” and “oops” when their dog does something wrong during training, these are called no reward markers. Using “NO” with a deep tone can be a secondary punisher or even punishment, which will stop your dog in that instant out of fear, stress, or in other cases pain but will not teach them what is the desired behaviour. Your dog may learn a negative conditioned emotional response (-CER) to this specific cue, situation or trigger, which can then lead to emotions such as fear, frustration and aggression.
Think about how times a day you say NO or a NRM to your dog? 5 times, 10 times, 20 or innumerable times. I’ve had some students say before they begin training with me that they don’t know how many times a day they say NO to their dogs. Imagine hearing “No” or a NRM all day every day, how would it make you feel? How would it affect your confidence? The aim of positive reinforcement training should be to set your dog up for success, to create confidence by providing choice, consent, specific confidence building activities, and problem solving.
According to the BC SPCA Position on Animal Training “Humane (force-free) training is defined as training or caring for an animal without using pain, fear, or physical or verbal intimidation techniques. Animals learn best when training follows the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviour’s recommendations: “focus on reinforcing desired behaviours [positive reinforcement], removing the reinforcer for inappropriate behaviours, and addressing the emotional state and environmental conditions driving the undesirable behaviour.”” For more information on their position follow the link below
I make mistakes, you make mistakes, and your dog makes mistakes. No one or thing is perfect, even Siri and Alexa make mistakes! Your dog is not a robot, they’re emotional sentient beings. Using “NO” and NRM consistently can create emotional shutdowns and decrease your dog’s motivation to learn. You and your dog are a team, and you want to encourage your teammate, not discourage them.
Remember everything you do is a deposit, savings or a withdrawal from your dog’s life bank account. Deposits are positive experiences, which can be; using positive reinforcement methods, paying attention to details like check-ins, praising right behaviours, sniffaris or even gentle handling. Savings are an accumulation of the deposits such as training in incremental steps varied locations and situations so your dog can succeed. Withdrawals are negative experiences which can be; anything that causes stress, fear, pain or frustration to your dog like going to the vet or groomers, thunderstorms, poor health, a poor diet, painful equipment, triggers, forceful handling, punishment and the list can go on and on!
Let’s positively add to your dog’s life bank account, bond with you and increase their confidence by saying NO to “NO”.
Part 2: Don’t ignore
I’ve read many articles and heard many say to reward a dog’s good behaviour and ignore a dog’s unwanted behaviour, but like many things in real life, including my laundry and dusting if you ignore it, it doesn’t go away. Ignoring your dog is like ignoring debt in your own bank account, it doesn’t go away and needs to be paid off.
Your dog’s unwanted behaviour like puppy nipping, counter surfing, barking at strangers or jumping are self-rewarding or attention seeking behaviours, which adds deposits of the wrong kind into your dog’s bank account! These behaviours are then strengthened/reinforced and are more likely to continue. This is why at the beginning constant repetitions with a high value resource (like beef liver, chicken or cheese treats) are required to train alternative behaviours as they need to have a higher motivator/reinforcer than that behaviour provides them.
What’s more rewarding, the steak from the counter or the kibble??
In some cases, if you ignore your dog, such as jumping, this can escalate your dog’s behaviours due to frustration. This is called extinction burst in dog science lingo language. But forcing your dog to this point of frustration won’t help them, it’ll be withdrawals from their bank account as a negative experience. It can be counterproductive and will affect your bond with your dog.
Instead of ignoring you need to be proactive and redirect.
Part 3: Be proactive
All too often on walks, I see dogs, who are natural predators, zero in on the fluttering bird or bouncing rabbit or freeze in fear when they see a trigger that scares them such as another dog walking down the street. Your dog isn’t not listening to you, they’re invested in their emotional state.
Countless times I’ve seen, pet guardians shout at their dogs, leash jerk them, or call COME over and over and over which then teaches their dog not to come. Who wants to go back to someone who’s angry? Shouting and punishment may negatively catch their attention, but will create even more fear, frustration and aggression when faced with that trigger next time. So, what to do?
You need to be proactive by positively interrupting with games, kissy or fun noises they know, reinforced cues, use your body as a visual blocker (but not ever pushing your dog out of the way) and help your dog go to a place where they won’t react and can calm down.
To redirect and decrease your dog’s arousal levels you can show your dog what you want such as a stuffed KONG for nippy dogs or something for your dog to hold in their mouth like their favourite toy as a way for them to calm themselves down. You can redirect that rabbit fascination with a solid find it and sprinkles, which if you did repeatedly in low-distraction environments would be savings in your dog’s bank account.
Don't ignore. Be proactive, teach how to positively interrupt and redirect in increasing environments and situations of distractions, so your dog can use those reinforcement deposits as savings for life.
Part 4: Teach Alternative Behaviours
To add those reinforcement positive experience deposits and savings to your dog’s life account for all situations and environments, you need to teach them positive interruptions, redirect and alternative behaviours, reinforcing these behaviours with something AMAZING. These amazing reinforcers will create a positive conditional emotional response (+CER) in your dog to that cue. To get +CER you need to clearly communicate and show your dog what you want and reinforce that.
Good things = increase in the behaviour reinforced
For example, a dog who loves jumping! if they get a tasty beef liver treat (good thing!!) every time they have four feet on the floor instead of jumping, that behaviour will increase. For many dogs, especially those dogs with arthritis or hip dysplasia, sitting can be painful so I always encourage four feet on the ground as an alternative. For some expert jumpers, I reinforce in less exciting times and train in small incremental steps using the 3D’s of training; duration, distance and distraction. This can mean training four feet on the ground when walking normally around your home, your backyard, then when doing low intensity playing and finally when you come home.
Don’t ignore any behaviour as this can be self-rewarding or create frustration, teach the alternative behaviours that you want so that you’re positively depositing and creating savings for your dog.
Every moment is a moment for multiple deposits to be made, but it takes time. Don’t rush or push your dog too fast, work on confidence building activities, respect their emotional states and always set them up for success so that you have deposits and savings ready for moments of life’s withdrawals like that fearful vet visit, random scary person or thunderstorm
For more on how you can transform fearful vet visits into happy vet visits you can view my webinar with The Barket Place here https://barketplace.uk/shop/low-stress-fear-free-veterinary-visits-with-ruby-leslie/?ref=rubyleslie
For more information on my courses, online training or in-person training contact me at ruby@welfare4animals.org or look at WFA courses here https://www.welfare4animals.org/our-courses