Anticipation & Bad Behaviour

[Stitch]

I have a dog who has a barking behaviour that comes from excitement caused by anticipation. eg. when I am putting her to bed she is madly looking around for things to bark at. when I am taking her for a walk she is looking around for things to bark at. or when I take her into any new environment, etc.

It is not a loud demanding bark but rather a soft to medium strength 'wahp' and very annoying!! It is usually accompanied by shaking with anticipation too.

The worst part is that it is very difficult/impossible to stop. I can try to distract but the anticipation at the time means that the dog is looking around on a continuous basis and doesn't actually focus on anything I say or do.

Given that this behaviour cannot be 'corrected' what would you suggest could be used to improve this behaviour.

I would like to add that this dogs mother was very similar although not as bad.

[Staranais]

She sounds kind of fun. Are you giving her a chance to work off her energy in an appropriate fashion during the day?

If this were my dog, I'd not be doing what the dog wanted until she was behaving more appropriately. If she's acting like a fruit loop when you're going to open the front door, for example, I'd just wait her out. Stand there like you're frozen until she settles down & shuts up. When she settles, mark it & open the door. If she starts to act like a fruit loop on a walk, I'd be not going any further until she settles down. You'll need to be prepared to wait for a long time the first couple of times, so pick your moment, but when she cottons on what is required, she'll start to offer it quicker & quicker. You just need to be more stubborn than your dog.

[Stitch]

Yep, I know what you mean.

Trouble is that I am always doing that - it results in that particular issue resolving but after a few steps there is another issue then another issue and it just goes on and on.

There doesn't seem to be any instance of the 'penny dropping' until the excitement level drops which can take quite a while.

When she pulls on the lead I just stop and she will come back but the next step she is out there pulling again, and again, and again. Arrrggghhh!!!

The enthusiasm for life that this dog has is wonderful but it can be very very hard to take as she can go from 0 to 100mph in 2 seconds.

I would really like her to relax a bit.

[Staranais]

LOL, she does sound fun.

I really would make sure you are giving her enough stimulation & exercise. My malinois girl is much easier to live with in the evening when she's had some exercise & training time during the day.

What have you done to train her around distractions? If you don't train around distractions, your dog won't work for you around them. I often take my clicker & my dog's dinner on walks, if something distracting comes up, we can practice our latest tricks & commands right then & there, I believe this gets her into the mindset of focusing on me on request. Start with the little distractions & work up to the big ones. I will also correct my girl physically if necessary if she ignore a known command & acts like a fruit loop at inappropriate times, some may not believe in this, but it works well for us. TOT is a good program to help with this too.

I would also say, have you taught "quiet" as a behaviour, so that she can do it on command, & you can ask for it when you want it?

Hopefully some other posters will come up with suggestions for you, but these are the things I will do with my high excitement girl, & they work well for us.

[wuffles]

I've just read the book Control Unleashed and have started the "Look at That!" exercise with my girl who is very excitable and screams when she sees dogs, people, birds, pretty much anything she deems interesting The gist is that you encourage your dog to look at the thing that excites her, then reorient to you, rather than expecting her to ignore things in her environment. It is explained a lot more thoroughly in the book, which I strongly recommend if you can get your hands on it!

[Nekhbet]

why dont you put a correction collar on her and correct her? Teach her enough is enough? Reward for calm behaviour with a reward that does not illicit the same response. It's perfectly doable but you cannot get though to over excited minds, you need to settle them. If she skittles about give her a correction, say nothing and wait to move off until she's calm. If she bolts ahead let her correct herself. If you are not confident with corrections then find someone who can use them effectively to teach you.

[Stitch]

Many thanks for all your replies.

I will try to get my hands on that book, it sounds good Wuffles.

Nekhbet, we have two kinds of collars around - the martingale and the choker chain so I am oh sooo familiar with them.

If this girl has the martingale on it is very difficult to get any attention at all from her. The choker is also ignored unless it is positioned right under her ears. I was thinking that Cesar Millans Illusion collar would be good for her but they don't seem to be available in Australia and I don't like giving credit card details out like that.

So, I use the trusty choker chain. Anyway - I get a very limited acknowledgement that I am on the other end of the lead. Very little eye contact as 99% of her attention is given to everything else that is going on around her and there is obviously not enough time in the day for her to see everything.

I have often wished that I could get her to relax more but with this one I just don't know how to teach her that as she seems to be incapable of listening which I suppose means that I am unable to find the right method of getting through to her.

[corvus]

Sounds to me like this is what she does when she's aroused and it would probably be hard to change the behaviour without lowering her arousal first. IME once you lower arousal it's easier to teach a new habit that holds when arousal heightens again.

There are a few ways I know of to lower arousal. Punishment is one of them, but I think it has to used carefully so your dog doesn't come to associate the punishment with the wrong thing (like you, for example). My dog Erik gets quite worked up pretty easily, and with him I've had the most success with massage. It's incredible what a good massage can do. If I sit down with him for ten minutes at the time of day when he's most aroused and give him a massage, he is more relaxed for the rest of the day. It is unlikely to solve any problems on its own, but I think it does calm a dog down and gives you a chance to teach them a new, more acceptable habit. You can also use food sometimes to lower arousal if the dog is really crazy wired. It can refocus them so they are in learning/thinking mode instead of reacting mode. I think that really only works if you have establishing operations for a training session. Often there are a bunch of cues a dog uses to tell them when you are training, and if they love training they will go into training mode if you use those cues outside of a normal training scenario. That IME tends to lower arousal because the dog forgets about what was so exciting and concentrates on earning a treat. They orient to you automatically and settle down to think.

Another thing that might help is addressing the anticipation rather than the arousal. You can scramble the cues the dog uses to tell them what is going to happen next so that it no longer predicts what they get so excited about. As an example, we did this with Erik's meal times because he would sit there barking hysterically the whole time his food was getting prepared and could barely manage a sit before he got his meal. So we started preparing his meal and leaving it on the kitchen bench until he was calm. It took an hour the first few times for him to calm down and stop barking at his meal on the bench, but then he seemed to realise he couldn't depend on the cues he had been depending on anymore and he stopped getting excited about his meals being prepared. Then we taught him to sit quietly while we were preparing it. We can now deliberately get him revved up by asking him if he wants his dinner and the new habit of sitting quietly to wait for it to be prepared still holds.

[corvus]

The self-control games in Control Unleashed are also excellent and help teach a dog to get excited and then calm down again in a matter of seconds. I think that helps when you are trying to change behaviour that occurs when the dog is very aroused.

[Stitch]

Where did you get your copy of Control Unleashed Corvus??

I can't find anyone in Australia that has it.

I have adjusted her routine as much as I can however there are things that have to be done as they are now eg. like going to bed.

I certainly let her wait whilst others have their turn - I can only imagine what she would be like if I only had one dog, she would be running the place!!!

Going through a doorway, I ensure I am always first - well sort of as she will wait until I am in a position that I have least control and even though she is on a lead she will zip through.

Everything is a battle of wits!!!

[Staff'n'Toller]

Opening a paypal account is a safer way of doing transactions overseas. Are you at a club or do you know any dolers up there? Perhaps if they order from clean run or dogwise they may be happy to order for you. I'm pretty sure clean run accept cheques so maybe email them and there is a way you could send a cheque by registered post.

There is a bookshop here in Aus that have those sorts of titles but the name escapes me...someone might remember it.

You may want to try to find a trainer to fit a front attach harness, it won't give you total control over the high arousal but it will give you more of the controlled walking behaviour so you can get more reinforcement in, and *may* calm the dog somewhat just due to how it fits.

Edited August 14, 2010 by Staff'n'Toller

[wuffles]

http://www.agilityclick.com/prod158.htm

http://www.wagschoolbooks.com.au/shop/book...ty/wsblmb1.html

http://scoobydogs.com/store/product.php?pr...=253&page=1

I am also in the process of reading "Click to Calm". Even though it's really targeted towards aggression, it's also useful for arousal in general.

Edited to add: I use a front attach harness on my girl when she is likely to get very excited, and although it is brilliant and saves my arms, I would be careful with a really aroused dog as my girl has done flips and somersaults and landed in many awkward positions as the harness has restricted her normal movement. It did help me a LOT with being able to reinforce good behaviour, though, as my girl was also insensitive to a martingale. Now that she has learnt the correct behaviour with the help of the harness, she responds well to martingale corrections most of the time.

Edited August 14, 2010 by wuffles

[Nekhbet]

if you have an adjustable martingale then tighten it until it sits firmly at the top of the dogs neck behind the ears. It has to be quite tight but not too uncomfortable. Now when she gets excited apply pressure gently until she settles, say nothing, then praise for focus. Get ready for a tantrum or two but it settles dogs down quickly. A check chain can also be used up that high but clip the lead to both the ring and another link close to her neck so it cannot widen. Same thing applies. Just no jerking movements, pressure when she's getting excited and release when she settles. Also, make sure she's on a short leash, almost hold your hand near the clip so you can effectively guide and quickly correct the dog.

[corvus]

Where did you get your copy of Control Unleashed Corvus??

Clean Run or Dogwise. I can't remember which, now. It was cheaper to buy it from the US and get it shipped than buy it here!

I have adjusted her routine as much as I can however there are things that have to be done as they are now eg. like going to bed.

Does she get excited by going to bed?? That is the exact situation I would use TTouch massage in. Get a TTouch dvd while you're getting CU. It does help, I promise. But I had trouble with it until I watched the dvd. I hadn't been doing it right and had limited success, but once I knew what I was doing I find it to be very useful.

Going through a doorway, I ensure I am always first - well sort of as she will wait until I am in a position that I have least control and even though she is on a lead she will zip through.

Haha, she's one of those keen beans that find the weakness because they keep trying stuff until they stumble across it, is she? Erik is like that. I thought I would never be able to get him calm enough to control himself when I was opening doors. I did a bit of self control exercises from CU with him, and got a good solid default down, and then just worked up from a momentary down. I always used a release word, which makes it easier, I think.

[Stitch]

I really appreciate everyones help with this one as there is no doubt she is a challenge!!

Staff n Toller I have a PayPal account so maybe I will be lucky and find someone in the US that sells that book and has PayPal. If I can't I will get it from Australian source.

Thanks for the links Wuffles.

What is a front attach harness??? I have various harnesses which I use in the car, never to walk with as my lot would turn into pullers very easily and yes there is a possibility that she might end up doing acrobatics. She is that type!!

Nekhbet that is a great idea with the adjustable martingale, I will try that one.

Corvus, yes she is definitely a 'keen bean' which is what makes it soooo difficult to address her issues. She seems to be constantly looking for the 'main chance' in everything I do or she has to do.

I have been trying to get her to wait as I get through the door and then allow her to follow but it is very hard going. She just will not wait - wait being the command. It always has to be on the lead and she just keeps pushing the envelope.

I can't help but feel that if I could only get through to her, find the right technique, she could be so good. Just don't know if I can find a way to communicate with her.

[Nekhbet]

harnesses are all well and good but will not decrease excitement. Try the pressure technique and some patience I find it very effective on dogs that just wont quit

[Staff'n'Toller]

Here is the best video I can find of a front attach harness, the halti branded harness is probably the most elaborate but you get the idea anyway.

The Gentle Leader Easy Walk and Sens-ible are other brands as are the Blackdog Wear Balance harnesses.

There's no guarantees that it will decrease excitement but I have certainly noticed it as a happy side effect with many dogs.

These types of manufactured harnesses are made with the same sort of idea as the TTouch balance lead, which was designed to bring the dogs posture back into 'balance' there is lots of info on google.

[corvus]

At the risk of getting flamed to hell, head collars are believed to decrease arousal. I know a few people that have noticed their dogs are much calmer when walked on one.

[huski]

I don't disagree with you Corvus, I have seen plenty of dogs shut down on head collars.

[Ms Genki]

Control Unleashed is one of the best books I've read- completely applicable to my loony dog, there are several games which are incredibly helpful and the methods make sense. Though bear in mind that training should not be when the dog is hyperactive and unable to focus at all. I usually get all my books from Book Depository, they accept PayPal, I think.