Tuesdays with Justin; Dog Training at Home: Week 3 – To Bribe or Not To Bribe?
Welcome back to Tuesdays with Justin; Dog Training at Home, Bark & Swagger’s 10-week series with training guru, author and television celebrity, Justin Silver. Justin is tackling the most common issues each week, infused with his own philosophy. He helped us so much, as well as countless others (over 500 dogs trained, thus far), so take notes! 🙂
And each week, we’ll be giving away a copy of Justin and training partner, Dave Donnenfeld’s new book, The Language of Dogs. It’s a great read, chock full of solid, easy to understand training tips, advice, lessons, training tools and more. Details to enter at the end of this post. Now, on to Week 3…is it ok to bribe our dogs?
Tuesdays with Justin – To Bribe or Not To Bribe?
by Justin Silver with Dave Donnenfeld
In Week 2, we stood up for ourselves and finally taught our dogs what we actually want from them in a given situation. What now? It’s time to tackle bad behaviors the right way.
We Don’t Negotiate With Terrorists
Treats, affection, praise and all of the positive things one can offer in exchange for good behaviors is the way to go, right? Wrong. Trick question. It is not an exchange, barter or bribe. This creates problems and contributes to nearly every issue I encounter.
When a dog is jumping all over someone or behaving in a way you would love to put an end to, what message does giving the dog a treat or cajoling them into another form of play send? Correct. “Jumping and going nutso appears to score me some treats and a good time,” thinks the dog.
Pulling a dog away from one activity to another does not make the abandoned action less tempting going forward. Au contraire. As reward seeking animals, dogs take snapshots in their mind and learn by linking these picture “shutters” together.
Hit The Ground Walking
When you want your dog to stop barking after gating them, let’s say, urgently running over to console or distract her with affection or treats is about as effective as trying to walk off a broken leg. Both parties are amped up (week one) and ideally, we should have an alternative activity (week two) to incessant barking in mind.
We need to ground ourselves first and, despite our frustrations with “insert bad behavior here,” not be in a rush to fix things. That magical, instinctual connection between man and dog is just around the corner, but…
The Motivated Monk
You’ll need the patience of a Zen monk and the enthusiasm of a born-again Christian, who just found their passion in insurance sales. Why? Because your dog needs to get learning and it’s time to make them an offer (not a bribe) they can’t refuse.
The Right Choice
First and foremost, stand your ground and ride out the bad habit. This takes the kind of patience that will make you a better person. Let your dog throw a tantrum, do the lulu dance and bark like a beagle on laughing gas. The moment the dog looks to you for anything, introduce the treat and be ready to turn dog training into the apotheosis of fun.
The reward of interacting with you is often enough to take an undesirable behavior off the menu. Wait, what? Yes! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this. Riding out annoying, habitual behaviors, grounding ourselves and engaging our dog once a calm moment presents itself, is so often the fix in itself.
It takes repetition, but can appear to be a “system restore” to a time before the habit started. Actually, the difference is dogs catch on when faced with a choice – do I really want to do X and ultimately be ignored, or do I prefer an engaging time with my owner? Once the dog recognizes what’s on the line, she will always choose you. Warning: Be ready to feel like you’re starring in Groundhog Day (ie: the repetition), and don’t be discouraged. I promise that your dog will never give up on you.
We Seek The Higher Ground
If you feel like you’re getting brow-beaten and it’s only Week 3, take some solace from the Tao – “Every day the knowledgeable man adds something and every day the enlightened man drops something.” At this rate, we’re going to be nearing enlightenment by Week 10 or least some version of doggy nirvana. See you next week.
The Giveaway
Enter to win a copy of Justin & Dave’s new book, The Language of Dogs, a great dog training at home manual that’s easy to read and chock full of practical training tips that work. I reviewed it in an earlier post here.
To enter, just join the SwagTeam! If you’re already part of the Bark & Swagger family, you’re eligible! The giveaway begins Tuesday, May 12 at 7am EST and ends Sunday, May 17 at 11:59pm EST. Each week, we’ll announce a new winner and start the giveaway again.
Week 2’s winner is Jules M. Congratulations, Jules!
To get more info, great tips and fun pictures, visit Justin on:
What’s your biggest training issue?
