It is tempting for us to interpret our dog’s behavior using human values. We may get angry because we think our dog is misbehaving out of meanness, spite, or vengeance. We may get sad or frustrated because we interpret bad behavior as a rejection of our love.
However, dogs do not think like us, and they have different social rituals and instincts. As a result, bad dog behavior commonly arises due to miscommunication and misunderstanding between human and dog.
The best way I have found to help stop my dog’s bad behavior is to learn how to “see” and “speak” dog. The more I observe and try to understand where my dog is coming from, the more effective I am at teaching him how to get along well with the people and animals around him.
Step 1 – Identify the source of the bad dog behavior
To do this, we must stay objective and focused, even though we may not always like the answers that we find. It helps to find a professional dog trainer or a dog expert at this stage.
A dog trainer has no emotional stake in the situation and has more experience with reading dogs.
This allows him to more quickly and accurately identify the problem source. Bad behaviors commonly get intensified when owners misdiagnose a problem, and subsequently try to address it in the wrong way.
Here are some important questions I ask while trouble-shooting my dog’s undesirable behaviors.
What?
What triggers the behavior?
Is it large dogs, small dogs, dogs with long hair, dogs with floppy ears, or all of the above?
Is it just dogs, or is it also cats, squirrels, children, old people, people wearing weird hats, people carrying umbrellas, bicycles, skate boards, or something else?
Why?
Why is my dog showing this behavior?
Is it due to fear of dogs, dislike of people, excitement, or dominance? I listen to my dog by carefully observing his body posture, and what causes changes in that body posture.
A fearful dog will try to make himself look small, and shrink away into a corner, or behind objects and other barriers. His tail or head may be down, and he may be showing signs of stress. In contrast, a dominant dog will usually have ears erect, tail up, chest out, and a forward looking posture.
It can be difficult to read a dog because the change in body language may be slight (twitch of the mouth, sway of the tail), and brief.
Some dogs may switch body language quickly, and others may ramp up to dog aggression before we can react.
Step 2 – Retrain the bad dog behavior
a) Do not reward bad behavior.
Some behaviors develop because we inadvertently reward our dogs for them.
For example, when a dog jumps on us, we usually push him back with our arms and hands. This rewards the jumping behavior by giving the dog what he wants, i.e. our attention and a fun game of arm wrestling.
Similarly, we may give our dog more attention when he barks, whines, or vocalizes. This rewards the vocalization, thereby making the dog more likely to repeat those behaviors.
When my dog is showing undesirable behaviors, I either redirect him, ignore him, or put him on a time-out (i.e., temporarily withdraw his freedom).
b) Stay calm and in control during bad dog behavior.
When dealing with a bad dog situation, it is difficult but necessary to stay calm and in control.
Dogs can easily sense our inner energy through scent and sound. When we get angry, frustrated, or otherwise unbalanced, our dog will detect that, and become even more frantic. The only way to calm him down, is to stay calm and in control of the situation ourselves.
c) Redirect the bad dog behavior.
When a dog does something bad, we want to communicate to him that this behavior is undesired by us. I use a consistent no-mark such as No or Ack-ack. However, do not make the mistake of just stopping there.
We should always try to follow up the no-mark with a positive behavior.
For example, after saying No,
- I ask my dog for a Sit or Spin,
- I encourage him to play with a toy, or
- I tell him to go to his bed.
Which redirection we use will depend on the temperament of the dog, what the dog knows, and the situation at hand.
I mark (Yes) and reward my dog well with treats and praise when he stops his bad behavior, and redirects onto the new activity. If we are consistent with our redirection and rewards, our dog will learn to perform the positive behavior on his own because it gets him good results.
For redirection to work, we must stop our dog before he escalates his bad behavior.
If we let him escalate his behavior, he may get too frantic or excited to listen to us. Once in this state, it is best to remove him from the problem stimulus. Sometimes, a stimulus may be so strong that a dog escalates very quickly, and it may not be possible to redirect him onto something else.
In these situations, I find that it is best to first practice controlled desensitization exercises with my dog.
d) Desensitize our dog to the problem stimulus.
Flooding
Instead of dog desensitization, some trainers may use flooding. With flooding, we expose the dog to large doses of the bad stimulus, and force him to endure it until he stops being frantic or afraid.
Flooding is a common technique used by Cesar Millan, in his Dog Whisperer program.
The advantage of flooding is that it can bring faster results. The danger of flooding, is that it can cause a dog to totally break down and become even more psychologically damaged than before.
Imagine locking a claustrophobic patient in a small room with his psychiatrist until he snaps out of it. Either he gets better really quickly, or he totally snaps. It is best NOT to use flooding techniques because it can be risky and dangerous.
Desensitize our dog to a stimulus, by first exposing him to very low levels of the stimulus, under supervision.
For example. if my dog is aggressive toward other dogs, I can start desensitizing him with a very calm dog, that is not moving (e.g. in a Sit position), that is not focused on my dog (no eye-contact), and from a far enough distance. If my dog is reactive to the sound of thunder, I can start desensitizing him with a very low volume recording of thunder.
I only practice desensitization exercises in a quiet area, where I am in control of the environment.
- I start with a low level stimulus that my dog is able to tolerate, i.e. he is able to stay calm and listen. For example, I may position him some distance away from the “other dog” stimulus, in order to weaken it.
- I get his attention by calling his name, then reward him for giving me his attention and for staying calm. I can also ask him for other simple commands such as Sit, Touch, or Watch.
- Once I am comfortable with this, I very slightly increase the strength of the stimulus. For example, I may move one step toward the other dog.
- Then, I stop and get my dog’s attention again.
If my dog starts to react, then I have moved forward too quickly. I move back a few steps and restart the exercise.
I keep sessions short and rewarding so that my dog will begin to build confidence with each successful session, and learn to associate positive rewards with the previously bad stimulus.
e) Set our dog up for success.
Remember to always set our dog up for success and keep him from repeating bad behaviors.
I properly manage my dog so that he is not constantly exposed to stressful stimulus that cause him to act badly. The more he practices the undesirable behavior, the harder it will be to stop that behavior.
I craft my retraining process to suit the temperament of my dog. In general, I focus on one or two bad behaviors at a time, so that neither me or my dog will become overwhelmed.
Step 3 – Prevent future bad dog behavior
One of the best ways to prevent future bad behavior, is to provide our dog with many interesting, sanctioned activities and toys.
Many dogs resort to undesirable behaviors because they are bored. If we do not provide acceptable activities for our dogs, they are left to devise their own activities, which rarely appeal to our human sensibilities.
A dog who is well-exercised, both mentally and physically, is happy to just lie around and turn over for belly-rubs. A dog who is cooped up all day, with no company, and no activity, will be very frustrated and destructive. He may chew up our house, bark, charge the fence, escape, or perform a variety act from the “bad dog greatest hits album”.
This will end up costing us a lot of time, money, and emotional stress.
If we are busy during the day, consider dog daycare or dog walking. This gives our dog something interesting to do, and helps him brush up on his social skills with a variety of people and dogs. The rewards we receive will more than outweigh the costs, because instead of coming home to a chewed up house, we will be greeted by a tired and happy dog that just wants to rest beside us.
First of all, your blog is amazing! I love that you tell us about your own struggles as well as your successes!
I’ll start off by saying that our 13 year-old Lab, Elwood, died on March 1. He was happy and healthy until almost the day he died, and we gave him a wonderful life. He was my friend when my husband traveled. He was sweet and gentle, not the sharpest tack in the box, but was very sweet. When he died, I was heartbroken, but we also felt that we missed having a dog, so we adopted Tribble (as in Star Trek “Trouble with Tribbles”) a few weeks later. He has all the rowdiness that I expected from a puppy, but takes a lot more specific training than we ever had to do with Elwood. I’ve been able to learn a lot from this blog and other sites, and I’ve done pretty well, but there’s one behavior that I just can’t get a handle on, and that is biting my shoes. I’ve got it so that he won’t bite my bare feet, but if I have shoes on he attacks the laces and my pant legs. I can’t walk around the house, and this starts when we go on walks as well. I’ve heard the advice that when dogs start attacking your feet, you should just stand still, and they’ll get bored and let go, and then you should drop a treat. But when I stand still, he’s perfectly happy to just keep playing tug-of-war with my shoelaces or pant legs. He won’t let go long enough for me to drop a treat. If I try to pull him off, he growls (playfully) and lunges again. When this happens on our walks I grab his leash close to the collar and pretty much drag him home. And sometimes when I’m trying to get him home he will just plop down on the grass. He won’t come to me even though he knows I have cheese, and if I try to pull on him (which I know is totally wrong!) he just goes limp. I’ve tried just standing there with my back to him, ignoring him, but he’s perfectly happy just to hang out. So walks are starting to be really stressful for both of us. Can you give me any advice?
This is what I do when my dog bites-
http://shibashake.com/dog/how-i-trained-my-husky-puppy#bite-training
I start small, and give my dog many chances to change his behavior. However, if my dog escalates his biting, then I also escalate my response. In the end, if my dog continues to jump and bite, I put him temporarily in a time-out area. In this way, he learns that if he does not behave with people, he temporarily loses his privilege to be with people and his freedom to roam the house.
More on how I do time-outs.
At the same time, I try to minimize time-out occurrences by setting my dog up for success. I do this by –
1. Redirecting his energy into structured and positive activities with me.
2. Doing bite inhibition training.
3. Setting up a fixed schedule and a consistent set of rules. In this way my dog knows exactly what to expect from me and what I expect from him in return. I follow the Nothing in Life is Free program with all of my dogs.
4. Teaching him self-control.
5. Managing his level of excitement. Socialization and desensitization exercises also help. I start small, slowly build up my dog’s tolerance, and I do not expose him to situations that he is not ready for.
More on how I deal with puppy biting.
More on how I teach my dog self-control.
If my dog does biting during walks, then like you, I fast march him home. When I am doing this, I just go and I do not allow him to plop down on the ground. In the beginning, I would also do shorter but more frequent walks. In this way, we are closer to the house and I can get him back more quickly. I also try to do walks in a more quiet, low stimulus area, so that I set us both up for success.
More on what I do when my dog starts biting during walks.
I’m having a problem with my rescue dog who is aggressive to everyone if he is sleeping and we trip over him or the grandchildren accidentally step on him he will snap at them and that is not good. What can we do to stop this crazy behavior? He has bitten two people, luckily that weren’t bad but we don’t want to send him back, what about a shock collar or a muzzle?
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop-puppy-biting/comment-page-3#comment-631225
We have a 5 yr old Shitzu mix that we rescued. She’s a good dog overall but tends to snap & even show teeth when we tell her to get down from the couch. We tell her to get down & she acts like she is going to bite us. How do we fix this behavior?
Please help I adopted a lab mix 79 lb dog from a shelter, he is 13 years old, We were told he liked dogs and cats wrong he has attacked three cats and he has attacked our pom and another small lb dog several times , he is really smart loves to play ball 24/7, I took him to vet he has bad bacterial skin infection, and slight ear infection, He was neutered 5 months ago, My husband wants to return him to the shelter my daughter and I want to keep him but do not want our pets hurt or killed, Please help Thank You Mary Crane
I have a 6 month old lab mix and he’s crazy…..he runs through the house and jumps on furniture. He is constantly bitting us and I don’t know what else to do. He gets really excited and when I go to get him of the couch he lunges at me showing teeth and growling. I’m afraid he’s not going to get any better and it’s only going to get harder as he gets bigger. Not sure what to do. I really can’t afford a trainer to come over. any other suggestions
How I deal with puppy biting.
How I trained my puppy.
How I provide structure and teach my puppy self-control.
When I had problems with my Shiba Inu, I read up a lot on dog training and dog behavior. I also got a lot of help from professional trainers, for things like timing, reading body language, and technique. If getting a trainer is absolutely not a possibility, then I would have to get the information through books and trustworthy websites.
http://shibashake.com/dog/where-to-get-dog-training-and-dog-behavior-information
Hello! I have a 1 1/2 year old Shiba Inu that I got as a puppy in October of 2013. She is a wonderful dog, very obedient and such a character. I had found your website while I was pondering if a Shiba Inu was the breed of dog for me, and I must say, your information and articles have been most helpful! I had ask you a question a while back, when I had first gotten her, about dog to dog aggression. (And I thank you for answering! It was most constructive.) From very early on I have found her to be extremely protective of me and this is where my problem still lies.
She does well with certain dogs, she is very picky in that manner, but does not like any other animals. I live on a homestead and have lots of livestock; goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and cats. I have tried to allow her to be around these animals but she only wants to attack and is persistent no matter how much I work with her. When I tend to my animals I tie my Shiba (Rory) to a run so that she can move about and be comfortable while I do my daily tasks. However, as soon as I leave her side she goes into a vicious fit, biting at her leash, tearing grass out of the lawn, and barking consistently. She even does this at times when I am by her side and she sees the animals running in their pen. It sends her into an uproar.
This greatly surprises me because the family I bought her from lived on a large farm with many animals. They let their Shibas run around the property, off leash, and never had any trouble with the livestock being harmed by them. I wonder if my Rory has developed this aggression towards the livestock because I did not allow her to be off leash on my property? I never felt comfortable allowing her to roam off leash because she still to this day does not respond to me calling her when she is on a mission (usually after squirrels in our woods).
Do you think there is hope for her to calm down and become a good farm dog? I have often wondered that maybe if I got a companion for her, one that would be a good example; such as an Australian cattle dog, or perhaps a Swiss Mountain dog, that she would take after it and want to guard the livestock instead of harm them.
If you have any advice for me it would be greatly appreciated. If not, I understand for I know that many people would not associate a Shiba Inu as a good farm dog because of their prey driven nature. Any response is appreciated and I thank you for your time!
What is her behavior like inside the house (when you are there and when she is alone)? What is her behavior like if you leave her in the house when you are busy with the other animals?
As you say, Shibas usually have high prey drive, and visually seeing a prey animal run around will likely put it into high gear.
These two articles have more on retraining prey chasing behavior.
http://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/how-do-i-train-my-dog-to-stop-chasing-the-chickens-cat-rat
http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/chase-this-not-that
Hi great post, I think that any so called, “bad behavior”, is cause by a dogs attraction to something,.. be it a person, dog, or squirrel,.. is blocked by their owners..for example if a dog barks and begins to pull hard trying to get to a squirrel that just ran across his path during a walk, his owner most likely will tell the dog to leave it and then proceed to pull them away,.. the dog is left with blocked energy,.. which then gets stored as stress, and the dog never achieves satisfaction. What in fact happens is the dog will use that stored stress as fuel for the fire, which the dog will draw from the next time he sees a squirrel, and be even more determined not to be pulled away. If you strive to be the most attractive thing in your dogs world he will turn to you in times of great intensity to resolve his feelings about that situation. A good way to make sure your dog gets to resolve his feelings about the squirrel,.. which by the way,.. the dog wants to chase and bite that squirrel, real hard.. is to bring a tug toy with you, and when your dog starts to react to the squirrel, pull out the tug, and engage your dogs prey drive in a hearty game of tug, but be sure to let your dog win, when you do it will help your dog achieve his goal of biting something, plus he will learn that he can give you his energy, and you will have the answer to the question that all “bad behaved” dogs want to know,…what do I do with my energy?
This isn’t really Bad Dog Behaviour but I’m getting a new puppy, she’s a 5 months old Japanese Spitz and she seems to be scared of people including me touching her or getting near her, she’s been with her mother since birth and is really clingy towards her, she never leaves her side, but even so I’d like to take her home, I think that since she’s always with her mom I should have play dates with the both of them after I get her. Basically I would like some advice as to her fear, will this gradually go away when she’s gotten to me at my house or is this fear of people always going to be there?
Congratulations on your new puppy! š
I desensitize my puppy to touches, people, other dogs, etc.
http://shibashake.com/dog/hug-dog-teach-your-dog-to-enjoy-hugging
http://shibashake.com/dog/how-to-calm-a-fearful-reactive-dog#people
Puppy socialization is also very important, especially for a fearful puppy.
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/socializing-your-puppy
More on how dogs learn.
Thank you and also Thank you for the links your articles really helped.
Dear ShibaShake:
We have a 1 year old neutered male Siberian named Alexei. Very friendly. Very bright. Very stubborn.
We love our local dog park and visit every morning for about an hour: lots of play, running and tumbling with a wide range of other dogs. Owners are wise and I have learned a lot from them. A recent development is Alexei’s resistance to leaving. He won’t come when called, plays keep away when I reach for his collar and generally seems to have fun. Sometimes I can surprise him and once caught, he doesn’t resist the leash and trots out with me quite happily. I have tried using treats, but after the first 2-3 times, he won’t come for the treat or walk through the gate to get the treat.
He has not been to classes, though I have raised him with techniques learned with our first dog from a local trainer. Alexei is a lot more independent than our loving lab mix, Buster, and he is generally only reluctantly obedient. I feel like I am in a battle of wills with him and believe that he should not win.
What would you suggest?
Many thanks!
C
Sibes are very clever and they will quickly learn to associate “coming when called” to “end of fun park outing”.
With my Sibe, I usually call her over to me many times during a play session. We do some fun commands, she gets rewarded well, and then she goes back to play. In this way, “coming to me” means a brief break, good rewards, and affection. The break also gives her a chance to calm down, and then she goes back to having fun. However, my Sibe is very people and food focused.
My Shiba Inu is very dog focused. Therefore, this does not work on him because “other dogs” are a much much better reward for him than anything that I could offer. He does like following other dogs around though, so we used to go to the park with a neighbor who had a Golden. When she called her Golden back, my Shiba would follow along. However, it was still always risky because he may decide to go greet another dog instead. Ultimately, I found that he did much better in smaller and more structured play-groups, where I can quickly stop play when I need to.
This ASPCA article has some good information on recall training.
More on our dog park experiences.
Hello,
I have a 1 year old Lab/Golden Retriever Mix. He has grown up to be the most hyper dog I have ever met, which is not what I wanted or intended at all, but I refuse to give up on him. He is a very loving, friendly, and smart dog. But he is also very stubborn at the same time. When we are alone together, he is very calm and he responds to all of my commands and I can even take him off-leash.
But around other people he becomes impossible to control. He either becomes hesitant and backs away barking and growling uncontrollably, or he becomes over excited and tries to jump on you.
He is obsessed with my girlfriend, for example. She comes over about twice a week and he goes nuts every time. He always tries to jump all over her. We have tried ignoring him. And we have tried using food to encourage him to stay on all fours, but his obsession with jumping all over her somehow trumps fresh turkey or even cheese. I end up having to keep him on a leash every time someone comes over because he refuses to behave. I feel like he knows what good behavior is. He is just trying to impress people with his bad behavior for some reason. I just can seem to get him to understand that he should treat other people the same way he treats me and that they do not like to be jumped on.
I walk him frequently, play fetch, take him to the dog park every Saturday, and he goes to doggy day care 3 times a week. I am planning on doing an obedience class with him in the next few weeks, which I am praying will help. But your opinions or advice would be very welcome and appreciated.
Has he always shown these behaviors? What were his people socialization experiences when he was very young? Did he meet very many people? How was his behavior then? Does he jump on people in daycare? Does he jump on people at the dog park?
I do people desensitization exercises with my dog, and that has been helpful in teaching him how to behave around people and to be more calm around people. The key with desensitization training is to start very small, and then slowly build up my dog’s tolerance.
The more positive and calm experiences my dog has with people, the more confidence he builds and the more comfortable and relaxed he gets around people. Similarly, reactive or fearful experiences will undermine that confidence, significantly set back our training, and cause him to get more reactive in the future.
Therefore, I always try to set my dog up for success by managing his environment, and I make sure not to expose him to situations that he is not yet ready to handle.
More on why dogs jump and what I do.
Hi, I have the same problem with my adult dog adopted from a shelter. He is wonderful in all ways, very obedient, friendly with everyone, always calm, etc. (But does want to fight back if he is agressed or barked at, but not out of control.)
However…this is the problem. I have one friend who the dog just joves and get’s overly excited when that person is anywhere near by, even in another room! I can no longer get the dog to obey any command. that person seems to want the dog to misbehave by giving it commands differently, asking it to jump up on them, giving treats, etc. I’ve mentioned it, but that changed nothing. I’m about to drop the friend because it’s total chaos they they are around. hat do you think?
Hope I put this note in the right place!
If it is a good friend of mine, then I have a serious but positive talk with them, and try to recruit them into helping me train my dog. Of course, I make it clear that part of training requires that they do certain things, e.g. no eye-contact, etc. I try to explain to them what the training entails, so they understand what I am trying to achieve and feel more involved. I talk more about how I desensitize my dog to people here.
In cases where the person is totally unable/unwilling to listen or follow my instructions, then I no longer let my dog meet them. Doing so will only confuse my dog, worsen his behavior, and set back our training.
My pup is 14 weeks he barks all the time and bites all the time he drew blood
How I do bite training with my puppy.
How I trained my puppy.
With my mouthy Shiba Inu I also got help from several professional trainers-
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/finding-professional-help
Hi, I read your article on e collars. We have 3 weims. Great dogs. They have many personality traits we love them for. The 2 females have a nasty habit of eating off the counter and tables. Nothing I have tried has worked. We have the male trained to come on the e-collar using the tone and vibrate settings only. We have not shocked the dog. I am thinking to use the collar with shock only to correct the behavior of stealing food off counters. I would like to save the tome and vibrate for the “Come” command. I do not want to confuse the dogs as to what the tome and vibrate mean. Is my thinking wrong on this from a trainers perspective? I have tried many of the passive trainings to keep the dogs off the counter and had some success when I am in the room. As soon as I leave all food is fair game to these 2 females. Do you have any ideas?
As I understand it, stealing off counters is a self-reinforcing behavior. Every time a dog succeeds, she gets rewarded with something really awesome to eat, that she doesn’t get otherwise. Therefore, every success reinforces the behavior and encourages the dog to keep repeating it.
The only way that I know of to stop self-reinforcing behaviors is to make sure our dog does not get rewarded for the behavior, *very consistently*. Consistency is very important, because if a dog gets rewarded sometimes, then she will try even harder. After all, the next time she tries may be the time she hits the jackpot.
I prevent my dog from being rewarded by –
1. Being there and supervising. If they try to jump up the counter I no-mark and give an alternate command. I make sure to reward the alternate command well. In this way, they learn to Sit or Lie down to get more food, not jump on the counter.
2. If I cannot be there to supervise, then I do not leave any food or unintended rewards on the counters. Therefore they never get rewarded for going up on counters.
The third method, which I do not use is –
3. Set up an automatic aversive stimulus that gets triggered when our dog puts paws on the counter.
For example, some people may put soda cans up there so that when a dog jumps up and hits the cans, it makes an unpleasant sound that dogs do not like. Of course we need to make sure that the technique is safe, so that if the cans or whatever do fall off, they will not cause any physical harm to our dog. However, this is still an aversive technique, so it carries with it the usual risks of such methods.
Some people use a scat mat, which emits a loud sound when a dog steps on it. There is also a shock version, which is not something that I would ever use, for the reasons stated in my e-collar article. That can cause even more behavioral problems and can lead to stress and anxiety in the house.
Using a regular e-collar doesn’t really buy us anything here because we will still need to be there to supervise. Otherwise, our dog will simply learn that she can jump on counters when we are not around, and there will be no punishment. Therefore, consistent supervision is still necessary and if I am there to supervise, there are many better and safer methods to redirect my dog.