My Christmas gift to you – my answers to some of the training questions sent in by subscribers to my newsletter!
My dog has learned to walk really well on the lead with me, but they still pull when my partner/neighbour/dog walker takes them out. Why is this, and what can I do to fix it?
This is a very common issue! Dogs are not particularly good at ‘generalising’, i.e. they may struggle to perform a learned behaviour in contexts other than the one in which they originally learnt it. So in this case, although your dog has learned to walk on a loose lead with you, as far as they’re concerned walking with other people is a whole different ball game! The good news is, once a dog has practiced a particular learned behaviour in a few different contexts, they can often generalise it to all contexts after that (unless the environment is too hard, e.g. there are lots of distractions).
In addition, loose lead walking is a behaviour that can only be taught through consistency. If your dog is sometimes allowed to pull and sometimes not, it is impossible for them to understand what you expect of them. In this case, it is likely that the different people who walk the dog have different ‘rules’ – you may stop every time your dog pulls and only start walking again when the lead is loose; another person might do that some of the time but then let the dog pull them over to greet other dogs; another person might let them pull a little bit but stop if they start pulling really hard. All the dog knows is that sometimes they are allowed to pull and sometimes not…and since that is the more natural behaviour that is usually what they will default to!
So what can you do about it? First of all, I’d draw up a clear set of ‘rules’ and make sure that everyone who walks the dog sticks to them. This could be as simple as saying that as soon as there is any tension on the lead, the person walking them must stop and call the dog back to them and make sure the lead is loose before continuing. Secondly, I would encourage you to go out together with the other people who walk the dog a few times so you can show them exactly what you do and so they can practice – the first few walks might be a bit stop-start, but reassure them that it will all be worth it in the end! Finally, I might have the other people who walk the dog do some easy focus exercises at the start of each walk to ensure the dog is ‘tuned in’ to them, like Leslie McDevitt's Up Down Game as demonstrated in the video below.
My dog has started peeing indoors when we take them to other people’s houses. Why is this happening and how can I stop it?
There are a number of reasons why this might be happening. Firstly, it is important to figure out whether the dog is actually urinating or just scent marking. If they are releasing large amounts of urine, they may genuinely need to empty their bladder. Perhaps they are a bit over-excited about being in a new environment and feel the urge to pee; or maybe they don’t know how to ask to be let out in this new environment so they find somewhere else to do it. To rule this out, always take your dog for a little ‘wee walk’ before going in anyone else’s house, and take them out at regular intervals while you are there.
If the dog is just depositing small amounts of urine in multiple places or – in the case of male dogs – is peeing on vertical surfaces like walls and furniture, this is more likely to be scent marking. Although scent marking may originally have been a dog’s way of marking their ‘territory’, when pet dogs start marking indoors it is often a sign of anxiety – we think dogs may pee in new places so that it smells like them and feels more ‘familiar’. So I would encourage you to watch your dog closely for early signs of stress – as illustrated nicely in the graphic shown below. If you do notice any of these signs, you might want to reconsider whether your dog is really enjoying being in that environment or whether they need a little break outside to calm down.
For dogs who scent mark in their own home, an effective strategy can be to change their association with the locations where they normally mark by placing their food bowl there. However, this isn’t really possible when you’re at someone else’s house, so instead I would recommend careful management. Make sure your dog is restricted to the room you are in and doesn’t have free rein of the house so you can keep an eye out for signs they are about to mark and interrupt them before they do by calling them to you and perhaps rewarding them with a small treat. I would also teach them to settle on a mat so that if they are getting a bit too over-excited you can ask them to go to their mat for a short while – if they’re lying calmly on a mat they can’t be scent marking! Mat work is key feature of my Perfectly Calm and Collected package as it’s such a useful skill.
One final note: if the behaviour continues, gets worse or starts happening in other environments, a trip to the vet may be called for. There are a number of medical issues that can cause dogs to pee in unusual places, such as UTIs or even cognitive decline (i.e. doggy dementia) in older dogs, so it’s worth getting them checked out.
How do I stop my dog from stealing other dogs’ tennis balls at the park?
First thing’s first – limit your dog’s access to tennis balls! It might sound mean, but excessively playing fetch with a ball can cause dogs to develop an unhealthy obsession with them, especially high-drive working breeds like Border Collies and dogs bred for retrieving like Labradors and Cocker Spaniels. The more you play with them in general, the more obsessed they will become, so it’s best to remove them altogether. Instead, choose toys that you can play with together, like tug toys.
I would then gradually start re-introducing balls in the context of impulse control exercises. This is another situation where mat work can be really great: can your dog settle on a mat while you hold a tennis ball in your hand? How about when you toss it up and down? Or if you roll it slowly along the floor? Gradually build up the level of difficulty until you can throw the ball right past them without them leaving the mat. I would also practice recalling my dog away from balls – again, start easy with just stationary ones on the floor and gradually work towards calling them away from moving balls as well.
My dog sometimes stops halfway through a walk and won’t go any further. What should I do?
Your first port of call should be your vet. Refusal to walk is commonly associated with pain; your dog may be experiencing joint or muscular pain, for example. Once that has been ruled out, you can start considering other explanations for the behaviour. Try and keep a diary of when it happens, noting every detail you can think of such as how long after starting the walk it happens, what surface you were walking on, what the weather was like, what sounds you could hear, what you could see and so on. You may find there is a particular trigger for the behaviour – like walking on gravel or walking near to a noisy road – in which case the easiest route is to simply avoid that trigger! If your dog is older and it starts happening towards the end of a walk, they may simply be tired, so consider shortening your walks a little.
If they start refusing to walk more frequently or start showing other signs of stress, I would strongly recommend contacting a certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist.
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