9
The Good Pack Leader: Providing Space, Activity, and Scent
Dogs are intensely curious about the world they live in, and they investigate its breadth relentlessly with all their senses.… Checking out an irresistible scent in the grass captivates them as much as gnawing at a treasured bone in the yard.
Space is both the most difficult and the easiest aspect of your dog’s life to control. It is the easiest because dogs are genetically programmed to understand how to occupy space and also how to yield it. It is the most difficult because space is everywhere, and to control it, you must consistently be aware and focused on many factors that dogs think about but that humans rarely do. One thing is for certain, though: Either you will control your dog’s space or he will control yours.
So what does space mean to a dog? Well, two things. First, it’s the place where he puts his body. Second, it’s any spot he wishes to control. Controlling space comes naturally to dogs since they, like their wolf ancestors, are territorial. They have the instinct to patrol and protect large tracts of space. Dogs are also social animals that interact in close proximity to one another and also to humans.
If you watch two dogs meet for the first time, you’ll notice that most dogs do not greet each other face-to-face immediately. To walk frontally into a strange dog’s space would be considered an invasion and, therefore, a challenge. So dogs will often approach each other obliquely. They tend to sniff each other’s rears before going eye to eye. Partly this is because dogs relate to one another more with their sense of smell than with their vision, but also because they are negotiating their proximity to one another. They are figuring out how to share space. Dogs that are sociable need to make the introductions and then move on to the next phase of the relationship, which usually is to run and play. Dogs who are not sociable might take a little more time to interact, and some never do.
Whether you realize it or not, you are in constant spatial negotiation with your dog. Every time your dog rests his head on your lap, he is invading your body space. When you reach out to pet your dog on the head, you’re invading his space. In a healthy and respectful dog-human relationship, this type of interaction is just fine—the dog feels confident enough to approach his human and also confident enough to allow his human to approach him. There is nothing wrong with permitting your dog onto your lap or on a couch so long as you control the invitation and so long as she gets off of you or the furniture when you want her to without any objection.
Dogs don’t greet each other face-to-face. Initial meetings are more about scent than eye contact.
Here’s a little secret. You’ve been successful at training your dog when (1) your dog comes when you call; (2) your dog moves away, or off, when you ask; and (3) your dog does nothing heinous in between.
But sometimes the relationship doesn’t go as easily as one, two, three. Owners of dogs with behavior issues need to consider their dog’s space more than other dog owners. If your dog invades your space by jumping on you, he is treating you as he would another dog he wants to wrestle with. Sure, it seems playful. But it’s also devoid of the necessary respect you will need in other areas of your relationship with him. Besides, if you happen to be living with a ninety-five-pound Bernese mountain dog, the habit could get old pretty quickly.
Ideally, your dog respects your body space, permits you to move freely in your own home, and does not guard this valuable resource called space from you. If a dog misunderstands his role in the family, he may believe that he is the pack leader and that he has an obligation to determine how you use space, rather than the other way around. If he growls at you when he is on the couch, on the bed, or walking through narrow spaces, he is exercising authority over you.
Guarding is an instinctual behavior for dogs. It is useful to us when dogs warn strangers who intrude on their (and our) territory. One of the earliest benefits dog provided to man was to serve as an early warning intruder alert system. In this regard, barking is verbal territoriality. It is the dog’s way of saying: “This space has value and it belongs to me and my pack.” In fact, dogs guard all sorts of things, some tangible, such as food and toys, others intangible, such as space. Dogs also guard tangibles and intangibles from one another. You shouldn’t expect to see a submissive dog take a highly valued bone or scrap from a more dominant dog. Should he try, he’ll face a swift warning. But that’s rarely necessary in the structure of a healthy dog pack, where it is clearly understood who is entitled to what and when.
But what happens when the dog doesn’t have a clear understanding of what he can and cannot guard? The results can be disastrous: a dog that guards something from his owners. We use the following example in our training seminar.
We have clients with a 125-pound Rottweiler. The family has had the dog since puppyhood, and the owners, a young professional couple, have always let the dog sleep in the bed with them. One night, the husband returned home at about 10:30. So as not to awaken his wife, he came quietly into the bedroom. The Rottweiler was asleep in the bed. When the husband tried to get into the bed, his dog met him with a low, guttural—and very scary—growl. Although the husband was able to defuse the situation (he turned on the lights and awakened his wife), this scene could have ended much, much differently.
There is perhaps no more serious occurrence in the dog-human relationship than a dog attacking its owner. Unfortunately, it does happen, and it usually happens when the dog is guarding a resource he shouldn’t have had dominion over in the first place.
Side note, while we’re on the subject: Although we’re not proponents of the practice of sharing a bed with your dog, we understand how much it means to some of our clients and how popular it’s become. According to some surveys,* nearly half of American pet owners allow their dogs or cats to sleep in bed with them. Whether you do or not, however, should depend entirely on what else is happening in the relationship. If your dog is not aggressive with you or with anyone else, then, usually, no harm will come from sharing space with your dog in this way. We know many trainers who sleep with their dogs. (We don’t.) But the reason they do is because the pros know how to control resources for their dogs.
For your dog, your bedroom is the most important room in the house. Your scent is strongest there because you sleep for eight hours in one place. Think of the bedroom as the throne room, and your bed as the throne. Only powerful advisors to the king and queen are permitted in the throne room. Sleeping in your bed is a way of sharing the royal chair itself. With respectful and willing dogs, it is a way of sharing intimacy and affection. Dogs with challenges, however, assume that you’re ceding some (or maybe all) of your royal powers to them by letting them into the bed.
As we’ve written extensively in our other training books, having a dog sleep in his own bed in your bedroom is a wonderful and low-maintenance bonding opportunity. It also inhibits behavioral problems. Of the dogs we see with behavioral problems, the majority of them sleep either marginalized outside of the bedroom or coddled in the bed.
If you decide to let your dog share your bed, it’s important that you show him it’s a privilege; otherwise, even well-behaved dogs can develop issues. But if your dog gets it that you’re in charge of this prized resource, then, by all means, go ahead and snuggle away.
Back to the Pack
In the dog pack, if the top dog wants to walk from point A to point B, he may do it even if he has to nudge a lesser member out of his way. If the more submissive dog protests, what he is typically doing is challenging the authority of his leader by trying to guard the space he occupies. If the leader is a true pack leader, this isn’t allowed to happen.
The very same dynamic occurs between humans and dogs. Say your dog helps himself to a place on the sofa. You sit down next to him or you try to remove him, either verbally or, perhaps, by the collar. If your dog growls or snaps at you, he’s guarding space. Moreover, he’s stating in dog language that he believes you’re taking liberties reserved for the pack leader.
This may also occur when you push past your dog through a doorway, pass him in a narrow hallway, or get very close to him while he’s lying in his favorite spot.
Many times, the human occupants of a home do not realize that their dog is guarding space until the dog becomes aggressive and something bad happens. One of the main reasons for this kind of bad behavior is that we fall back into the same old habits, applying human standards to canine behavior. For example, say your dog is sitting on the spot where you usually sit. You’re aching to watch America’s Got Talent, but you don’t want to be impolite and ask your dog to move. Although you think you’re being considerate, your dog interprets this quite differently. For him it’s a conquest. This is my space now, he’s thinking. And while you’re up, pass me the remote. I want to watch The Real Chihuahuas of Beverly Hills.
Among our species it is impolite to pull someone out of a chair or to shoulder him aside when you want to watch your favorite television program. So if a dog growls when his owner sits near him on the couch, many people wrongly assume the dog is just being grumpy, or that he was too comfortable to be disturbed.
Clients have told us that they have actually chastised their children for being impolite by sitting close to a dog or nudging it aside. People subconsciously try to accept guarding problems as quirks of the dog. Many owners try to work around a dog defending space by not disturbing him no matter how inconvenient that may be.
In doing that, however, you’re telling your dog that he is the pack leader and is therefore entitled to guard the space in question. Guarding problems can escalate and, in fact, often do. It may begin with the dog growling under very limited conditions—say, when being nudged aside on the sofa—but then it often reaches the point where the dog begins to growl as soon as you approach him.
Dogs instinctively guard with more intensity as the opportunity allows for it. For some dogs, dominance is a self-rewarding behavior. You want to remove your dog from the couch. He growls. So you back off. To your dog, his behavior worked. Eventually he might growl even when you just look at him on the couch. They don’t seem to get it, the dog is thinking. This is my space. I’ll have to warn them earlier.
Such behavior can become very problematic for pet owners, particularly those with young children.
MARC Willy was a three-year-old German shorthaired pointer. His owner, Lisa, called us one day very concerned. Willy had been growling at her eleven-month-old baby every time the child approached him in his dog bed. Sometimes Willy guarded the couch in the same way: The baby would come close, Willy would growl. What made matters worse was that Willy had started growling at Lisa whenever she sat near him on the couch. Lisa was confused because Willy had never acted this way before. But it had been going on for a month now and seemed to be getting worse.
We had our suspicions about why this was happening. Lisa’s baby had begun to walk a month earlier. To Willy’s mind, this impudent little human was intruding on his space, and Willy believed he had higher status than the baby. After all, Willy slept in Lisa’s bed, while the baby was relegated to a space (the baby’s room) far away from the pack leader—a sign of lower status. In Willy’s eyes, even Lisa’s position as pack leader had begun to wilt. After all, she had spent an entire month showing him how dominant he could be by not addressing his space-guarding behavior. The unintended message to Willy was that he was dominant. That’s why he began to guard space from Lisa, too.
Not every dog is like Willy, but when such a situation is left unaddressed, some dogs that guard space will eventually scare or even bite their owners. This can have disastrous results—the dog might be removed from the home or even put down. What makes this so tragic is that often the behavior is easily fixed.
With Willy, we had our chance: He came to stay with us for two weeks. In that time, we showed him that space was not a resource he should guard from his humans. We started this lesson with the walk.
The walk is the most important time of the day because it is when you, the pack leader, and your dog patrol your territory together. Normally, Willy pulled hard on the leash. We showed him that pulling was not effective. When Willy strained, we held the leash and briskly turned around the other way. As soon as Willy was walking by our side again, we praised him, turned around, and resumed the walk. In short order, Willy learned that walking on a loose leash and allowing us to control where he put his body meant that he could continue the pleasant journey.
In the process, Willy made an unexpected discovery. Of course, he resisted at first because he was accustomed to making his own decisions about where he walked and what space he occupied. But once he allowed us to make that determination for him, Willy found that walking alongside his pack leader felt great. He felt protected and calmer.
There are a variety of products that can help you teach your dog how to walk alongside you. Head halters and training collars are among your choices. Use any tool gently. If it’s not working effectively, you may need to seek the help of a professional trainer.
Crate training was Willy’s next lesson. As we’ve mentioned, although some owners are reluctant to place their dogs in crates, the confines of the crate are actually very healthy for the dog’s state of mind. The whole idea behind crating is to have a place where you can regulate the stimuli that normally surround your dog so he can relax. Dogs are born in a calm, quiet space such as a whelping box. In the wild they were born in dens. Instinctively, dogs can learn how to enjoy this private space. A dog that calmly permits you to crate him respects your authority. To help your dog learn to enjoy the crate, never place him in it as punishment. Instead, toss a treat into the crate and allow your dog to consume it in his own master bedroom. Your dog will learn to enjoy his space even faster if you feed him his meals in the crate.
By tossing a treat into the crate, we accustomed Willy to placing his body into space we selected for him. The pack leader sometimes decides what space a dog will occupy. Eating meals in his crate helped Willy enjoy this space rather than merely tolerate it. We knew we were making important progress when we could point at the crate and Willy would enter voluntarily.
After teaching Willy to walk at our side and to enjoy his crate, we began to walk occasionally through his space, gently nudging him aside. When Willy moved out of our way, we praised him. We also called him to us and then praised and petted him, so Willy would understand we didn’t want him to avoid us but merely to yield space to us when we needed it.
In the course of this training, Willy was banned from human furniture. He had developed a history of guarding furniture from humans. Dogs that have growled when guarding space on furniture should lose the privilege for at least thirty days while you work on establishing your role as pack leader. Dogs that have bitten when guarding space should permanently lose furniture privileges. This is not punishment. Rather, you want to set the dog up for success instead of failure. We want your dog to remain safely in your home, and a sofa ban is a small price to pay.
So, for Willy, we removed the furniture privilege and instead gave him jobs at which he could succeed, such as practicing and reinforcing sit stays inside the front door while a family member outside rang the doorbell. All Willy really needed to know was that he wasn’t Little Lord Fauntleroy anymore but rather a treasured pet. Once Lisa walked him more regularly—while insisting on attentive leash manners and not allowing him to sniff and pull the whole way—things improved. Jobs for a dog can be quite simple, such as performing the occasional come command at opportune moments. But such moments can present themselves when the dog might prefer not to do to the job, such as when he hears a car door slam and what he really wants is to run to the window and bark. Willy’s owner began to take advantage of some of these opportunities throughout the day to give her dog something to focus on other than his own desires.
Willy began to understand very quickly. Space wasn’t worth guarding anymore. In fact, each time we asked Willy to give up space, he became willing to do so at once and calmly. At the conclusion of our training, we reoriented Willy to his family and his environment, and we explained the behavior modification techniques to his owner. Then we left.
Lisa called us two days later. She reported that Willy was leaving his dog bed as soon as the baby approached. We were happy with this report. At least Willy wasn’t growling at the baby. But Lisa was concerned. She wanted Willy and her baby to be friends and she worried that the dog was now fleeing from the baby.
We explained that this was progress given that Willy had modified a major behavior and was now yielding space rather than guarding it. We advised her to give it some time to see whether Willy would eventually find pleasure in sharing space, time, and bonding with the baby in his new role as follower. We warned Lisa that not all dogs bond with all people, but that there was a distinct possibility Willy would. We also asked Lisa to carefully supervise all contact between her child and Willy to ensure that neither was unfair to the other.
Two weeks later Lisa called again, and she was very happy. Willy and the baby were interacting appropriately. Apparently, Willy had come to realize that while he was no longer able to guard space, there was a wonderful pleasure in sharing it.
Willy has been home for several months now, and all the reports bring good news. Here is a dog that was at severe risk for rehoming and that might possibly have injured a child. Now he is bonding with his little master.
Dogs and Babies
The trust between small children and dogs is something that grows over time and with experience. Dogs often tend to see children as peers rather than pack leaders because children are usually affectionate or rowdy with dogs, and do not control their resources. Although most of us want to trust our dogs, we must also carefully monitor the relationship and interactions between our pets and children.
A fair number of clients come to us shortly after a baby is born with concerns about the relationship between their child and their dog. It’s common practice for parents-to-be to carry around a doll before the baby is born to get the dog used to the sight of a baby in her master’s arms. After the birth, but before the baby is brought home, many dog owners give the baby’s blanket to the dog so the dog will become familiar with the baby’s scent. Although we see no harm in either of these practices, we are not sure how much they contribute to the dog’s adjustment to the presence of a new baby.
The reality is that dolls don’t cry, coo, or make any other baby noises. Some dogs don’t give a fig for such sounds, but others are captivated for reasons that run the gamut from bonding, on the desirable side, all the way through to prey drive, on the very worrisome end of the scale. A very important but is that if we do all the right things, the vast majority of dogs will learn to get along just fine with our children, as they have for millennia.
Although we see no harm in the baby doll and blanket routines, allow us to add a simple idea or two to your arsenal that might be even more useful. First, recognize that once the baby comes home, your dog takes a step back in your household’s hierarchy. This is hard to imagine for many people who have raised or rescued and loved a dog. In fact, we have noticed that during pregnancy, both men and women psychologically preparing for being a parent may actually increase the amount of attention paid to the family dog. Expectant parents tend to talk to and pet their dog even more than normal.
With birth, however, that changes. Quite naturally, the dog assumes a different role because the new child will occupy such a large amount of your mental and emotional focus. If you’re not careful, you can take a dog that is used to a certain amount of fussing before pregnancy, get him used to even more attention during pregnancy, and then—from his perspective—suddenly draw back to what seems to him like being ignored.
As longtime breeders and trainers, we can assure you that the dog doesn’t understand the situation as you do. Mother dogs do not readily present their puppies to the father dog or even female pack mates. They’re naturally protective and concerned that the other dogs may confuse puppy noises for prey. The mother dog will actually discourage other dogs from approaching her nest for quite a while. Eventually, after the other dogs get accustomed to the scent, sounds, and sight of the baby dogs, momma dog will begin to permit a careful approach.
We can learn from this by making baby and dog introductions into less of a presentation and more of a non-event. Tethering your dog, and teaching your dog the go to bed command—teaching methods and skills we will cover at length in the coming chapters—can help indoctrinate your dog to the changes in the household.
It’s important that your dog learn your baby falls under the gentle protection of the pack leader and that he should focus on the job you give him: sit-stay, go to bed, etc. Over the first couple of weeks, you’ll notice that your dog, while interested in your baby, will get over the initial rush of excitement. That means he’ll get used to the scent, sound, and sight of your little one. At that point you might start to allow your dog to approach you while you’re holding the baby, but you should avoid holding the baby out to him as though presenting your dog with a new toy. Just like a mother dog, you’ll be giving him time to understand that your new baby is special to the pack leader, and therefore treated accordingly. In time, you’ll see your dog making correct decisions on his own about how to react to close encounters with the new arrival.
Activity: Come On, Let’s Play!
“Do you want to watch Downton Abbey or Animal Planet?”
It is a profound and simple truth in the realm of human existence that all power lies in the hands of those who hold the TV remote. In the dog-human relationship, it’s the human who should hold the remote. Within the healthy pack, decision-making is often fluid, with each party having input, but it’s the pack leader who has the last word.
Although it might seem cute that your dog brings you her leash as if to say, “Come on, let’s go for a walk!” or drops a ball or some other toy into your lap when she wants to play, what she is really doing is seeing how much she can get away with. We had one client whose dog would pick up his dinner bowl and drop it at her feet if he was hungry. Who says dogs are poor communicators? Adorable as the dog’s actions may be, what many dogs are really saying is: “I think you’re my maid. Let’s have some room service. Now.” It’s fine sometimes to go along with what your dog is asking you to do. But if you always do so, if you never contradict, if you rarely have your own agenda, then you’re creating layer after layer of miscommunication that tells your pet he is the decision maker, the one who determines what happens and when. This is problematic at any time, but especially so when situations change, such as when a new baby comes into the home and your priorities shift.
If your dog is clear on the chain of command—that you’re the one in charge and that you make all important decisions—then change won’t be so hard for him to accept. Dogs who think they have final say in the decision-making process live in a state of anticipation, which can exacerbate the anxiety that comes from change.
MARC My Scooter is a rat terrier that doesn’t like to be ignored. Like most terriers, persistence has been genetically engineered into her nature. She has a method of challenging me when my choice of activity does not please her: It’s her “Pet me, pleeeeeaaaasssseee” dance. She stands on her hind legs as tall as she can, extends her front feet way over her head, spreads her toes, and paws rapidly at the air. If I walk away, Scooter will dance after me. I have to admit, sometimes the dance gets to me and I have to stop and pet her.
From Scooter’s point of view, her little dance is randomly and intermittently rewarded. She never knows when I will reward her with some activity—like taking her for a walk—but she believes that sooner or later I will. We understand from decades of science experiments that random, intermittent reward is the most psychologically powerful form of reward on earth.
It’s how casinos make all their money. Even the most naïve gambler knows full well he’s not going to win every time he pulls the lever on a slot machine. In fact, he knows he won’t win on most pulls—that’s why they’re called one-armed bandits. But all it takes is a win once in a while to keep the gambler playing and paying. The casino programs the machines, and the percentage of winning pulls is predetermined. Of course, the odds always favor the house, and nothing is left to chance. What the casino is counting on is the player being in the powerful state of anticipation, and it’s the same emotion that prompts Scooter to do her dance.
The state of anticipation can work for or against your relationship with your dog. When it leads your dog to be attentive to your guidance, to work for what he values, an attitude of anticipation is a very good thing. For example, after you teach your dog a skill, such as going to his bed when the doorbell rings, he might start anticipating the command as soon as he hears the bell ring. This is good anticipation.
A lack of patience coupled with anticipation, however, can lead to belligerent behavior. For example, if we pick up a leash and the dog jumps in anticipation of the walk, and we rush to get the dog out the door, we’ve reinforced the frenzy. A walk that starts with an excited, out-of-control dog, especially one that is aggressive by nature, is likely to end in aggression toward other dogs or people. So, instead, interrupt the frenzied behavior with a sit-stay. Make sure you don’t open the door until your dog is calm. Before you know it, your dog will understand that in order for the door to open, he must be calm. Chances are, if you start the walk calmly, it will continue calmly and end calmly.
Tip: Tethering your dog will teach her patience and will counterbalance her frenzied anticipation of the walk. Although at times beneficial for the training process, anticipation can become constant excitement. Obviously, that’s not what we want from our dogs. While their persistence can be entertaining, remember that you never want to reward a behavior that you don’t want your dog to repeat. Instead, interrupt the behavior and guide the dog to a behavior that you can praise, such as a down-stay.
Dogs, especially active breeds such as retrievers or Jack Russells, need mental and physical outlets for their energy. Even excitable dogs can be taught to relax, but young, energetic dogs need plenty of activity. Doggy day care and less formal or impromptu playgroups for dogs are a great way to run off energy. We have a client who is lucky enough to live near the ocean on Long Island. She and about thirty other dog owners meet on the beach each morning for a pack walk. Not only has this provided a valuable outlet for her dog’s energy every day, it also has created a reliable social environment with other dogs. If the ocean isn’t an option, a local park or field will do fine.
It’s important to remember, however, that the pack leader dictates how and for how long the dog gets to play. Allowing your dog to pull all the way to the dog run, or not teaching her to come to you when she’s playing with other dogs, doesn’t do your relationship with your dog any good. There must be rules, or these moments turn from playtime to work very quickly. One way to set the rules is by establishing calm on the walk to the dog run or play space. If your dog starts to pull or bark when she senses where you’re headed, turn immediately around and return to the car or house. Do this until your dog gets the message that she will get what she wants by being calm.
Maybe the most important part of your dog’s daily activity is your playtime with her. Nothing builds the human-dog bond better, or brings more joy to the relationship, than playing a game with your dog. Like all resources, however, you, as pack leader, have to be in charge of not only when you play but also how you play.
Even though fetch, played correctly, can bring you and your dog moments of pure bliss, too often owners allow fetch to turn into a game of keep-away: your dog coming tantalizingly close to you with the toy, then darting out of reach just as you are about to take it. The problem usually isn’t that the dog doesn’t like a proper game of fetch. He simply doesn’t know how to play. What he does know, most likely, is that if he gets close to you with the toy, you’re going to try to snatch it away. Besides, your dog finds it great fun to run circles around you and to watch you hop up and down while he gets to possess his favorite throw toy. Of course, this game barely resembles fetch, which, when played right, teaches all sorts of wonderful lessons, such as cooperation and impulse control. (Think about asking your dog to wait calmly in his doggy bed while the pizza delivery guy is at the door and having him comply. Is that the kind of quality you want in your dog? Everybody does.)
The following is a simple suggestion that could help you change the game from keep-away back to fetch. Put a long leash on your dog and hold the end. We prefer a twenty-foot length. Find two toys your dog really likes. Hide one toy, preferably a squeaky toy, in your pocket. Wiggle the other toy as you show it to your dog. Toss it only a few feet away, and the instant your dog goes out to it, whip the hidden toy out of your pocket, kneel down, and make it squeak. Most dogs will happily trade toys. This is how you begin the pattern in which your dog returns to you with a toy.
Play like this for several consecutive days. Once your dog’s got the idea, you can begin to let go of the line and throw the toy farther. Kneel down, inviting your dog back, but this time when your dog gets to you, take hold of the line so he can’t run away. Do not jerk, but rather hold the line loosely, and pet your dog and praise him for returning with the toy. Do this while your dog is holding the toy in his mouth. Pet him for a moment, then present the other toy and trade him for the toy he returned.
Fetch is a great game for both of you, but only if your dog comes back with the toy. Use a long line and a second toy to encourage a quick return.
The next step is for you to layer on additional controls over this activity. When your dog returns to you with the retrieved object, pet him, then take the object and ask him to sit. As soon as he sits, toss the toy again. Until he is reliably returning right back to you, continue to give him encouraging body language by kneeling slightly to welcome him back. Spreading your arms open wide is another signal to the dog that you are a friendly target and he should return to you. Then stand up straight and ask for the sit. Gradually extend the duration of the sit between retrieves until your dog will wait thirty seconds between throws.
After a few days of practice, you may be able to eliminate the line altogether. If your dog takes advantage of you after the leash is gone, substitute a lighter, shorter leash until he plays the game your way. You can also take the line in hand to help your dog sit as you ask. The game of keep-away—an activity you never selected—has now become a fun play-and-learn session that you have selected and that you control. It consists of sit, fetch, return, give back the toy, sit, and do it all over again. This is a fun game for both of you, and best of all, you’re controlling activity for your dog in a way that he’ll love.
The ideal number of tosses will vary from dog to dog. The key point is to quit while your dog still wants to play. Some dogs will play this game until they drop. Others have only two or three happy play retrieves in them at a time. Always leave your dog wanting more and looking forward to the next game.
One last thought about fetch: Some dogs just won’t take no for an answer. They’ll drop the ball at your feet and then bark and bark and bark while they’re looking at you, as if to say, “Hey! Do your job!” That barking can sometimes turn even more aggressive if you ignore the dog.
The fault here doesn’t lie with the dog but with you. You’re acting like a human tennis-ball launcher rather than a benevolent pack leader who sets the agenda. If your dog is overly insistent while playing fetch, or any other activity for that matter, here’s a simple trick: Start to view those demands as though your dog has just volunteered for a little bit of homework. Use your sit command, or a simple trick like give-paw or down-stay. Once the task is completed, go along with your dog’s original demand, but now you both can view it as a reward for a job well done.
Heaven Scent
Bloodhounds can track people who have been lost in the woods for days. Jack Shuler, a well-known bloodhound trainer, told us about one of his dogs that worked for the FBI. An agent set fire to a gallon jug of an accelerant and then traveled to a location more than a mile away. The bloodhound was brought in a full twenty-four hours later. The dog sniffed the ashes, picked up the man’s scent, and was able to trail the agent to the location where he was hiding with little trouble.
All dogs are literally born to sniff. Puppies’ eyes don’t open until they are ten to fourteen days old. Their ear canals are sealed until shortly thereafter. But the puppy’s nose works from birth, and it is far more sensitive than ours. The very first action a puppy takes is based on using his nose. Blind and deaf, he sniffs his way to his mother’s nipple.
Deep inside the dog’s nose reside olfactory sensors that detect scent. The dog has one of the most brilliant noses found in nature. His powers of scent observation are many times greater than our own. What we call fresh air is broken down by your dog into thousands of elements, almost to the molecular level.
Just one drop of human blood in five gallons of water? Your dog knows it’s there. A rabbit hopped by sixteen hours ago? Your dog not only knows it was there but also whether it lingered or raced along. By sniffing the air or the ground repeatedly, your dog is able to concentrate the scent. The smell doesn’t fade; in fact, the more effort your dog puts into smelling, the stronger the scent becomes to him.
Ned Rozell, in his article “The World According to a Dog’s Nose,” writes: “Lurking behind those textured, damp nostrils are sensitive membranes that allow a dog to distinguish smells—molecules of odor that emanate from every living or once-living thing—at least one thousand times better than humans.”
In The Language of Smell, Robert Burton tells us that while humans’ sensitive membranes, or olfactory receptors, are the size of a postage stamp, dogs’ membranes “can be the size of a handkerchief.”
Dogs sniff our luggage at airports looking for drugs. They protect our cities scenting for bombs. Of all dogs’ wonderful senses, smell is the most powerful by far. It is therefore one of the most powerful resources to control.
Dogs love to use their sense of smell. In fact, they are genetic computers in sorting smells. In other words, they can’t help themselves. But in the wild, if five different pack members are following five different scents, then the pack is drawn in at least five different directions. This is why only one member of the pack decides which scents to follow. That pack member, as you might have guessed, is the pack leader.
Once you control this sense, you possess the keys to your dog’s heart, mind, body, and soul. Your dog was born to sniff, created to both want and need to analyze the world around him with his nose. And you’ll permit him to do so… on your terms. We must always be fair to the nature of the dog. We do not suggest that you keep your dog from sniffing the air, ground, other dogs, or people—in the same way you wouldn’t prohibit your children from running, playing, or investigating their world. But it should be up to us to determine when a child is to focus on schoolwork and when he may blow off steam on the playground.
You can do the same for your dog. Start during your leashed walks. Set a rule that you are the one who decides when it’s okay to stop for a sniff. Many people complain that their dog constantly becomes distracted by smells, stopping at literally every tree or lamppost. This is a natural desire, of course (Marc calls it reading their peemail), but by deferring to your dog, you’re ceding your power over him. Did you slow down or pause so he could partake of the smell, or did your dog just stop dead and yank you to the tree? We’ve seen little rat terriers stop three-hundred-pound men in their tracks because a smell caught their attention.
Sniffing interesting smells on a walk is part of being a dog, but smells are also a privilege given by the pack leader. Have your dog concentrate on the walk by not letting him sniff during the first few minutes. Then, when he’s walking attentively, allow him the occasional opportunity to sniff. The point is, walking your dog means just that: You are walking the dog, not the other way around. Should your dog have to relieve himself, by all means give him the opportunity. But if he fiddles around, take charge by resuming the walk. One of the biggest complaints we get as trainers is that the dog takes too much time to relieve himself. Well, if you let the dog sniff at everything before he decides where to go, the dog figures he might as well take his time. Watch your dog. He always thinks the next place is the best place. That’s part of what makes dogs great: their unbounded enthusiasm. The truth is, however, there is really not a whole lot of difference between pee places! So, please, take charge. In the very short run, your dog will not only get it and adhere to your wishes but also realize it’s easier on him. He doesn’t have to keep all that urine in reserve while he searches for the perfect spot that never comes.
Why is this important? Why should you deny your dog the pleasure of sniffing every leaf and every bush and every tree and every pole on your walks? It’s not really about denial; it’s about providing. If your dog takes the liberty to sniff everything, then you really haven’t given the dog anything, have you? You’ve just thrown him in the candy store, where he can have any and all of it if he wants and he doesn’t even have to say please.
Now, there are plenty of times when your dog should be allowed to sniff to his heart’s content. That’s what a walk in the park, a romp in the woods, or a turn out in the backyard is for. Your dog should be given those pleasures frequently. But not on the morning and evening walk. Think of those times more like an exercise mission, both mental and physical. Get your business done and then power walk to the best of your ability. If your dog has done a good job of it, when you get to that one bush you know he loves more than all others, by all means stop and let him have a moment. See? Now you’ve given him a gift, and he’ll know it came from you.
Attitude
Dogs can tell from your body posture, pace, and leash handling whether you are determined to migrate purposefully through your territory or if you are indecisive and lacking willpower. Pack leaders never lack willpower. They always exhibit determination.
When walking, find your ’tude, your inner wolf, the “great champion” spoken of by Rick McIntyre. Hold your body upright, with your shoulders back and your chest out. Walk proudly, looking ahead in the direction you have chosen. You are in charge of the pace, and the best speed is one that requires your dog to trot. Normally that is a fast-paced walk for a human—it will be good exercise for both of you! The key is for you to be the pack leader with a defined agenda. Your dog must realize that you are on a mission, just as the wolf pack leader selects a quick trot during the hunt for prey, which is serious business with no time for foolishness such as random sniffing. Dogs love to walk at this pace—they think they’re headed someplace special.
One of the things we continually emphasize with our clients is the pace of their walk. Too often, clients project tentativeness and indecision by walking slowly. The dog reads this immediately and often begins to forge ahead and control the pace of the walk.
A good pack leader stands upright and walks forward quickly and with purpose, looking not at her dog but in the direction she has chosen for the walk.
If you’ve ever spent any time in New York City, then you already know how to walk like a pack leader. People in Manhattan pour out of the subway and off buses with a focused determination. They achieve this attitude by walking at a brisk pace, their eyes set with a great certainty of purpose.
Try to emulate this position of strength and power when you walk your dog. This will keep your dog at a trot, and he simply won’t have time to sniff the ground. The air contains plenty of scent, and you cannot take it away from your dog, but you can keep him moving so he doesn’t have time to concentrate on it. A simple exercise we often advise in conjunction with a quicker pace is making a series of quick turns (either 90 or 180 degrees), which makes the dog focus its attention on the owner. This helps counteract the owner’s initial lack of confidence and enables the owner to experience a new feeling of leadership.
Your ability to take your dog on a focused leash walk in the real world—which means your dog walks calmly next to you in spite of all distractions, with the leash having a bit of slack (this excludes, by the way, all retractable leashes)—can have perhaps the biggest impact on her overall behavior. Does this mean you always and forever have to march with your dog as though you’re a drill instructor? No, but when your dog realizes who’s in charge of the walk—and of what she smells along the way—then walks can become a leisurely and enjoyable stroll for both of you.
Again, controlling resources like space, scent, and activity serves the relationship you have with your dog. It doesn’t make you unlikable in your dog’s eyes. Your dog will not resent you. Rather, you’re elevating your importance to the dog by establishing yourself as the provider of all things good.