Raising the Perfect Dog; The Secrets of Law Enforcement K9 Trainers (4 page)

Second myth: You should always win if you play tug in order to show that you are the alpha-male, the dominant member of the pack. Also completely false. Beating your puppy in tug is not something that will teach your dog that you are the leader. What it
will
do is give your puppy low confidence. Think about it—imagine if you and I were to play a game of pool at my house every day after work and I always beat you. How confident would you be in playing pool? Imagine if my friends came over and they always beat you, too. Where would you be on the confidence scale of 1 to 10? That is where your puppy’s confidence would be, as well. Now, think of the same scenario but reverse the roles. Now imagine that you always beat me, every one of my friends, and all of my family members. How high would you be on the confidence scale then? In your mind, you are unbeatable. Losing isn’t even an option, right? Welcome to the world of how police, military, and personal protection dogs think. Your pup should always win in the game of tug!

When you start playing tug with your puppy, make it fun, engaging, and exciting. You should get into it as much as he does, if not more. While playing tug with your pup, pet him, lightly tapping him on his sides, head, and chest as he tugs. If you scare him off, encourage him back on, repeat the same process, but just don’t do it as much or as hard. This gets your puppy in the habit of being touched while he is tugging and he will become immune to the contact. This is good for when he gets older and possibly works a bite sleeve. Even if that is not your intention for your dog, it is still good to do this drill in order to build confidence while playing tug.

Next, we start incorporating noise desensitization while playing tug with your puppy. Earlier, we talked about desensitizing them to noises in general, now we are going to apply those same concepts to desensitizing them while playing tug. Start small with something such as two spoons that you bang together as you play tug. Again, if the puppy gets scared and backs off the tug, encourage him back on, then make the same noises but not as loud. Then start to build the noise back up. Once he gets used to this, find something louder, such as banging on a saucepan with a metal spoon as you play tug. Again, if he comes off, encourage back on, and make the noise quieter, then build it back up. Once he adapts, find something even louder, and then repeat this process over and over. This is how we build dogs up to the point that they bite on a sleeve and we can shoot a gun over their head and they do not even flinch. Again, this is huge for their confidence.

Another good thing for confidence is praising the dog for barking when someone is at the door. When your puppy gets to be four or five months old, he may run to the door and bark when someone knocks. Some people take the unfortunate step of quickly telling their dog to be quiet or yelling at him. Remember, you got a big dog for a form of protection around the house, even if it was just to put on a good show for a would-be robber. So, I tell everyone they should praise their pup for this behavior. If you always quickly stop them or quiet them down, they will do exactly as you wish—eventually, they will never make a noise if someone is breaking in because every time they tried to give you a verbal warning that someone was outside, you quickly shut them up. Remember, dogs aim to please, so if you always stop your dog from barking at the sound of someone outside, he will do just that—never bark.

The key is to praise the behavior, but be able to silence them on command when you wish. We always let our protection dogs bark for a few seconds, praise them, and then give them the “quiet” command. That way, you are getting the best of both worlds. You have a dog that is alert, gets his confidence up by being praised when he gives you a verbal warning, and you can control it so it is not over the top or annoying. The key is you do not want to teach them not to bark, you want to be able to control their barking.

If you follow all these steps, you will have a highly confident pup that is comfortable in any situation.

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hat is socialization? It is getting your puppy acquainted with as many different animals, people, and circumstances as possible. In my opinion, socialization is one of the most important things in young puppies’ lives. If I were paid every time we received e-mails or calls about people-aggressive or dog-aggressive dogs, I could have retired by now. Almost all of these cases stem from a lack of socialization at a young age. When you get any new puppy, it is extremely important to get him to start interacting with other animals and people.

To get your dog well socialized with people, try having everyone your puppy meets give him a treat. Imagine if everyone you met gave you $50. You would quickly grow very fond of people; your puppy will, too. Your pup will start making the association of “people equal great things for me.” You should make it your mission for your puppy to meet as many people and animals as possible. Not only as many people as possible, but as many types of people as possible—male, female, children, infants, and even different races. He should have complete exposure to as many variations of humans as possible.

Socializing your puppy with other dogs and animals is also extremely important. Again, most cases of aggression result from a lack of socialization. As I write this paragraph, there is a dog in our facility on its first lesson who is extremely people-aggressive. When I asked the owner how the dog got that way, he replied, “We never really had him around anyone other than our family.” With this particular Lab, you cannot even touch him without him trying to bite you. This is why socialization is so important. This should be something you start doing almost immediately after you bring your puppy home. This teaches him to properly interact with other dogs at an early age. Ensure you are socializing your dog with other dogs that are very friendly. Initially, we recommend this socialization should be with only a few dogs at a time. Also, it should be supervised to ensure it stays safe play.

Do not take your puppy to dog parks for socialization. Yes, you read this correctly, dog parks are a bad idea in my opinion. Again, we receive many e-mails from people whose dogs are now aggressive toward other dogs after being bitten at a dog park. People do not realize that this happens all the time, and they just do not hear about it. Only attacks on people make the news, not attacks on other dogs. The dogs at dog parks come from a wide variety of backgrounds and their owners often know very little about their own dog. Unlike a doggy day-care, in a dog-park environment, there are no trained supervisors walking around, ensuring the play is safe. Also, no evaluations are done in order to accept the dogs into the dog park. Essentially, you are taking a big gamble by exposing your dog to other dogs you know nothing about.

Usually, the dogs in dog parks are of various sizes, backgrounds, and levels of training. Essentially, they are a pack of dogs. Dogs usually consider themselves a pack when there are four or more dogs present. As you know, any time there is a pack, there
has
to be a pack leader. In order for a dog to become the pack leader, he has to assert his force onto other dogs to show them he is in charge of the pack. The end result is a dog getting bitten. Now, your dog that you have done so great with is now dog-aggressive because he was bitten by another dog at a dog park, and now he associates dogs with being harmed.

There are numerous other ways to socialize your dog without the use of a dog park, such as taking them to a doggy day-care. As I mentioned above, doggy day-cares evaluate dogs before admitting them into their facility, drastically reducing the chances of a dominant dog being there. Additionally, they have trained personnel constantly monitoring the dogs’ behaviors. In the event that a dog does start displaying any dominant characteristics, they are immediately corrected or separated from the group. Another good way to socialize is one-on-one with other known dog-friendly dogs. Or take them to a pet store on the weekends so they can interact with other dogs and people.

A big misconception many people have is something along the lines of “I want my dog to protect my family; I don’t want him to be friendly with everyone.” Unfortunately, most people don’t know that socialization and a protection dog have absolutely nothing in common. In fact, almost all trained protection dogs are extensively socialized. They love people, kids, animals, and other dogs. They are friendly with everyone, and are taught to bite only a specific individual on command. An under-socialized and low-confidence dog is more prone to bite a person at random (a family member, child, neighbor, etc.).

Regardless of what your goals are with your new dog—show, protection, detection, search and rescue, or just a regular household pet—socialization is one of the most important things you can do with a new puppy. A well-socialized dog is a much more confident dog, as well. It is confident around all people and animals. This is an essential step to ensure you have a happy, confident and well-trained dog.

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hat does it mean that dogs are pack animals? This means they always roam and stick together in a pack. Lions are the same way; you will very rarely see a lone lion because they travel in packs. Anytime you have a pack, there has to be a leader in charge of the pack. Think about a pack of dogs like a small business in America. There is no successful business that does not have someone in charge of it. There has to be someone in charge in order to make the decisions, ensure the employees are taken care of and have everything they need, reprimand an employee when he or she does something that goes against the policy of the company, and ensure the overall success of the business. The pack leader, or “alpha-male,” of a dog pack essentially has those same responsibilities.

It is imperative that you become the pack leader in your household with the addition of the new member of
your
pack (i.e., your puppy). It is important that you teach your new puppy that you are the pack leader. You must teach him that you are the one who is in charge of the pack; you make the decisions; you have the best of everything; you decide when to play with him; and out of your entire family, you must demonstrate to him that he is the lowest member of the “pack.”

Many people wonder why this is important. This is another very important process to ensure that you have a happy, confident, and well-trained dog. Dogs are much happier and stable when they know their place in a pack, and there is no question about who is the dominant individual in the house. As some of you may have already experienced by having dogs, people often say, “My dog listens to my husband really well and does not listen to me at all.” Or “My dog will listen to my husband and me, but he will not listen to the kids.” Again, this is because your dog knows whom the pack leader is, and listens to him or her. Generally, the person the dog listens to the best is the one who has displayed the best pack leader characteristics and he knows that person is in charge. We are going to discuss many things you can do in order to show your dog you are the pack leader.

One of the most basic things that I always stress to people during their puppy consultations is: Do not let your dog get on the furniture. This is something a lot of people do not like to hear. However, this can and often does lead to major problems in the future. One of the problems with letting your dog get on the furniture is you are bringing them to your level. Essentially, you are teaching them they are on the same level as you and your family. Remember, dogs should be treated as the lowest members of the pack, not as equals. Having them sleep on the floor and on their dog beds is just one more thing to reinforce to them that they are lower members of the pack. Hence, they get the lowest and worst spots to sleep and lie.

Another problem that can be caused with letting them get on the furniture is territorial aggression. I have talked to many clients who tell me that if they try to get their dog off of the couch, he will growl and snap at them—again, because now the dog sees this as an invasion of
his
space. I have talked with numerous people who tell me that when they try to get into bed with their significant other, their dog will growl at them. Again, by bringing them to your level, you can create numerous problems with the order of your pack. You are demonstrating to your dog that he is equal to you; this can lead to many problems.