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Why your first driving lesson wasn’t on the M25 – and why that matters to your dog

 Why your first driving lesson wasn’t on the M25 – and why that matters to your dog

Here’s the way the story goes... I’m in a consultation in the home of an owner whose dog shows reactivity to other dogs when on the lead in the street. While it no doubt started because Boris was scared, the behavior is now a habit and he ’s confident about doing it and the effect that it will have – on both his owner (who will move him away) and the other dog (who will move away too!). Naturally, the owners have been finding the behavior very difficult to deal with, as the dog is large and they live in a busy urban area where they are now developing something of a reputation. 
We’re in their home, and I’ve explained that we need to help the dog by teaching him an alternative behavior so that he chooses that option rather than his more overt display when he sees another dog.
So, to kick this off, I do a rather sexy bit of training, teaching Boris to turn towards me and take a toy in his mouth, and then hold on to it. This is a truly snazzy incompatible behavior – after all, he can’t lunge and bark if he’s turning away from the other dog and holding his mouth closed over a toy, can he?
It’s going really well, and on the third go, the dog practically whips his head around when I ask him to grab the toy. I’m ecstatic, and I honestly expected the owners to be, too.
But when I stop and look at them, they aren’t smiling as much as me.  “That’s great,” they say, “but
how’s that going to stop him barking at other dogs in the street when they suddenly appear round
the corner?” Ah, the M25. It’s crazy busy, that road. That’s why your driving instructor didn’t start your lessons there. No, instead she took you to a quiet area, with wide roads and very little traffic. She let you build motor patterns first, as you discovered you have to work your hands and feet together. Yes,  together, at the same time. She let you practice road positioning, the feel of the accelerator under your foot. She helped you build habits so that you didn’t have to think
about which side the indicator was or checking your mirror before
you set off – all those things were second nature by the time you even went on an A-road, let alone a motorway.
In other words, your driving instructor didn’t expect you to be an expert, experienced driver after just one lesson. He or she knew that you needed time and practice,  and many, many repetitions of the same, safe, comfortable behavior patterns in a non-distracting environment before ever putting them into a more emotionally stressful situation.
And so it is with training – and most especially retraining – our dogs. We need to set them up for success by teaching them a new behavior well away from any kind of emotionally difficult triggers. We need to help them practice in quiet, distraction-free environments so that they can get the new behavior ‘in the muscle’ and become not only proficient but perfect to the point that they can replicate the behavior anywhere and everywhere, no matter what else is going on.
And all this needs to happen well before we ever think of asking them to use that new behavior in an ‘old’ situation, one where there are known emotional triggers, or anywhere that might be overwhelming or challenging.
So, my job in this situation is to explain to Boris’s owners that he needs time, space and practice to get this behavior down pat. He needs to be able to get it right in multiple opportunities where nothing else is going on and no other dogs are present.
Once this is happening reliably, we then need to gradually – and I mean gradually – increase the distractions in the environment, by changing where we get him to perform the behavior and what else is going on while it happens.
This needs to be controlled.
Having firmly established the behavior in the front room, we might take it into the kitchen or the hallway. Having mastered it there,
the garden might be next. Once the behavior is reliable outdoors in a quiet place, we will probably need to add in some other movement, sounds, or sights – at a very, very low level, so we can practice and reward Boris for getting it right even in the presence of slightly distracting stimuli. We need to build on solid foundations and take things at his pace, not ours.
MOTORING ON
What we don’t need during this critical training phase are any surprises. Why? Because if at any point Boris is suddenly startled by something unexpected happening, my guess is that he will immediately resort to the coping strategy that he has already practiced – and that’s his lunging and barking. Instead, we need to manage and control the environment, our own responses and – wherever possible – the environment, to ensure that Boris has every chance to get it right.
My mantra here? The training situation is not a crisis situation! For some people, this part of the training experience is hugely enjoyable and rewarding. They like the step-by-step progress that they can see is part of a well-defined structure and get great satisfaction from the chance to retrain the dog to do something else well and reliably over a period of time. They can see and feel and understand the process of progression, and they appreciate the importance of it.
These people would make great driving instructors! They know that practice makes perfect and understand the need to get new behaviors solid before making them more complex or putting them into more stressful situations.
Then there are others that just want to get to the destination, never mind the journey. These folks are keen to make the new behavior work but are sometimes in a rush to get there and don’t understand that the old behavior probably took multiple repetitions to be practiced, and so the new one does too. They will need hand-holding and support in order to build the new behaviors up, and lots of chances to see that it’s working, is successful and they are genuinely moving towards their goal. They will get to drive on the M25, the goal is there; they just need to build the skills, experience, and confidence that it requires in advance.
Of course, when you start to think about it, this analogy is all-pervasive. It’s not just for dogs with behavioral issues but is relevant any time you want to teach your dog (or yourself!) something new. Whether this is just for fun, such as a cute trick that you want to get on cue, or because your dog’s safety and welfare rely on the task, such as a recall, it’s vital that you establish the behavior brick by brick. Build up the levels of complexity, distraction, and emotional intensity. After all, the M25 will then be just another road.  

Why your first driving lesson wasn’t on the M25 – and why that matters to your dog

Why your first driving lesson wasn’t on the M25 – and why that matters to your dog

 Why your first driving lesson wasn’t on the M25 – and why that matters to your dog

Here’s the way the story goes... I’m in a consultation in the home of an owner whose dog shows reactivity to other dogs when on the lead in the street. While it no doubt started because Boris was scared, the behavior is now a habit and he ’s confident about doing it and the effect that it will have – on both his owner (who will move him away) and the other dog (who will move away too!). Naturally, the owners have been finding the behavior very difficult to deal with, as the dog is large and they live in a busy urban area where they are now developing something of a reputation. 
We’re in their home, and I’ve explained that we need to help the dog by teaching him an alternative behavior so that he chooses that option rather than his more overt display when he sees another dog.
So, to kick this off, I do a rather sexy bit of training, teaching Boris to turn towards me and take a toy in his mouth, and then hold on to it. This is a truly snazzy incompatible behavior – after all, he can’t lunge and bark if he’s turning away from the other dog and holding his mouth closed over a toy, can he?
It’s going really well, and on the third go, the dog practically whips his head around when I ask him to grab the toy. I’m ecstatic, and I honestly expected the owners to be, too.
But when I stop and look at them, they aren’t smiling as much as me.  “That’s great,” they say, “but
how’s that going to stop him barking at other dogs in the street when they suddenly appear round
the corner?” Ah, the M25. It’s crazy busy, that road. That’s why your driving instructor didn’t start your lessons there. No, instead she took you to a quiet area, with wide roads and very little traffic. She let you build motor patterns first, as you discovered you have to work your hands and feet together. Yes,  together, at the same time. She let you practice road positioning, the feel of the accelerator under your foot. She helped you build habits so that you didn’t have to think
about which side the indicator was or checking your mirror before
you set off – all those things were second nature by the time you even went on an A-road, let alone a motorway.
In other words, your driving instructor didn’t expect you to be an expert, experienced driver after just one lesson. He or she knew that you needed time and practice,  and many, many repetitions of the same, safe, comfortable behavior patterns in a non-distracting environment before ever putting them into a more emotionally stressful situation.
And so it is with training – and most especially retraining – our dogs. We need to set them up for success by teaching them a new behavior well away from any kind of emotionally difficult triggers. We need to help them practice in quiet, distraction-free environments so that they can get the new behavior ‘in the muscle’ and become not only proficient but perfect to the point that they can replicate the behavior anywhere and everywhere, no matter what else is going on.
And all this needs to happen well before we ever think of asking them to use that new behavior in an ‘old’ situation, one where there are known emotional triggers, or anywhere that might be overwhelming or challenging.
So, my job in this situation is to explain to Boris’s owners that he needs time, space and practice to get this behavior down pat. He needs to be able to get it right in multiple opportunities where nothing else is going on and no other dogs are present.
Once this is happening reliably, we then need to gradually – and I mean gradually – increase the distractions in the environment, by changing where we get him to perform the behavior and what else is going on while it happens.
This needs to be controlled.
Having firmly established the behavior in the front room, we might take it into the kitchen or the hallway. Having mastered it there,
the garden might be next. Once the behavior is reliable outdoors in a quiet place, we will probably need to add in some other movement, sounds, or sights – at a very, very low level, so we can practice and reward Boris for getting it right even in the presence of slightly distracting stimuli. We need to build on solid foundations and take things at his pace, not ours.
MOTORING ON
What we don’t need during this critical training phase are any surprises. Why? Because if at any point Boris is suddenly startled by something unexpected happening, my guess is that he will immediately resort to the coping strategy that he has already practiced – and that’s his lunging and barking. Instead, we need to manage and control the environment, our own responses and – wherever possible – the environment, to ensure that Boris has every chance to get it right.
My mantra here? The training situation is not a crisis situation! For some people, this part of the training experience is hugely enjoyable and rewarding. They like the step-by-step progress that they can see is part of a well-defined structure and get great satisfaction from the chance to retrain the dog to do something else well and reliably over a period of time. They can see and feel and understand the process of progression, and they appreciate the importance of it.
These people would make great driving instructors! They know that practice makes perfect and understand the need to get new behaviors solid before making them more complex or putting them into more stressful situations.
Then there are others that just want to get to the destination, never mind the journey. These folks are keen to make the new behavior work but are sometimes in a rush to get there and don’t understand that the old behavior probably took multiple repetitions to be practiced, and so the new one does too. They will need hand-holding and support in order to build the new behaviors up, and lots of chances to see that it’s working, is successful and they are genuinely moving towards their goal. They will get to drive on the M25, the goal is there; they just need to build the skills, experience, and confidence that it requires in advance.
Of course, when you start to think about it, this analogy is all-pervasive. It’s not just for dogs with behavioral issues but is relevant any time you want to teach your dog (or yourself!) something new. Whether this is just for fun, such as a cute trick that you want to get on cue, or because your dog’s safety and welfare rely on the task, such as a recall, it’s vital that you establish the behavior brick by brick. Build up the levels of complexity, distraction, and emotional intensity. After all, the M25 will then be just another road.  
matters to your dog

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