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.
Hi ShibaShake,
Firstly this is a wonderful site! So many useful articles!
We have a 6 year old Shiba Inu and just now have an 8 weeks old Siberian Husky. We are struggling with our Shiba Inu floating between aggressive, depressed and overly focused. Even when the husky is not in the house, he will not eat because he is constantly looking around for her. Then when she is around he is constantly growling (or a low grumble). I have tried rewarding him for not growling when she is close, training them together, walking with both of them and even just sitting with one of them on either side of me – nothing seems to make him any more comfortable or responsive to me. Did you face any of these struggle with your Shiba Inu? Any tips on breaking the single focus? Any help is amazing!
Hello Shibashake,
A few weeks ago I responded on the post about a shiba getting stressed when getting a treat. My shiba Suzu (10 months) did the same and still does, haha! Even when I give the treat and put him in his cage. So now I say: that is his problem. But since a week or two Suzu causes a much bigger problem, for me!
When I (or another family member) wants to put on his harnas to take him for a walk, he gets aggressive. He knows when we go out when I put my muddy shoes on the door mat so he silently slips away under the dining table. When we call him, he will never come anyway so we go and get him, what he does not accept. Suzu is a very “lazy” dog. He loves to be at home and sleep or snooze in his dog bed. When he is outdoor finally he also likes that. I have to say that he is doing very well then. It is not that he listens perfect but I can let him from the lead. On training he is one of the best in his class and he got his puppy certificate this week.
So what to do about this. He gets really aggressive with biting and growling. I already noticed that the more “aggressive” I get, the more he gets. So I trie not to get angry but when he really bites I give him a little slap on his nose. Have to do something…. Luckily no one of us is very impressed or afraid but it is no fun. Also he can never go to sitter when necessary.
It is time for his last walk now (CET), there we go again…. And it gets worse each day…..
Hi there, what a fascinating site!
I have a 3.5 year old Golden Retriever who has never been able to see and is epileptic. His mum picked up a kennel virus when in pup and all puppies died at birth except Paddy but he never gained eyesight.
I could walk him no problem when he was younger and less strong. I trained him to accept a harness as well but as he gets older he get’s stronger and stronger and more fearful of meeting even hearing other dogs about. I have had very difficult situations as he really spooks and tries to run away and I can’t physically hold on.
His epilepsy doesn’t help because he seems to “shut down” and just panic. He can’t have medication because he has sooooo many allergies so all I can give him are Herbals.
Now all this sounds like a disaster but actually he is a very content dog and I am determined to treat him to a normal life, he is gorgeous very clever and funny, however I am now fearful to meet other dogs when we are out, he picks up on it and starts going crazy.
Any advise as to how I can break this circle and what to do would be most appreciated.
P:S: I have spent a fortune on a professional who didn’t make a difference just confused Paddy with clicker training and made it worse…..
I have a 2 + year old female siberian husky. She is well behaved and socialized with other dogs. I walk her off leash 2 to 3 hours each morning and 45 min at night in leash. She is fairly calm. However, when she turned 2 years, she started correcting young puppies. It sounds and looks agressive, but she doesn’t hurt them. Once they turn 6 to 7 months old she plays with them and everything’s fine, they’re best friends. Most people are fine with it and some are not. I have 99.9% recall with her and leash her when needed. She is an awesome dog, but why do you think she is doing this. Is this a natural instinct and should I train this out of her? She is absolutely fine with small dogs.
HI
I have a 9 month old white German shepherd puppy Kelle. I Have had the dog from 8 weeks old from a great breeder. She is fantastic with other dogs and people off the leash very friendly but once she is on the leash she is like anther dog. She pulls, barks, growls and lunges and nips and bites at my other German shepherd but as soon as the leash if off she brilliant and is well known for being friendly and playful . What can I do to stop this before it gets worse or it turns to something else ? She has had no bad experience while being on the leash she has just started this the last couple of weeks and the vet says she has no medical condition that could be causing her to be like this. I have tried making her sit and stay to calm her while people pass us as she barks and carry’s on this worked for a while but she wised up to this. I f you have any advice on what I can do to stop this I would be very grateful as my other German Shepherd I have never had a problem with.
We have a 14 week old siberian husky and we’ve had her since she was 9 weeks old. She’s been a fantastic dog so far. The issue I’m having now is she’s starting to growl at our elderly dog and our two year old daughter. She often play fights with our other dog and the elder dog has no issues with playing back most of the time. Our two year old daughter is learning how to behave around a puppy (she’s great with our elderly dog) so she can be a bit rough with the puppy sometimes but we always correct our daughter’s behavior when she does something we deem inappropriate. So..the issue comes to when both dogs are in our bedroom (both dogs sleep on the floor in our room at night)…a few nights ago our puppy started growling at our elderly dog when the elderly dog went to settle in on their bedtime blanket. As well a few night ago (seperate nights..seperate incidents) I was in my bedroom with our puppy and my two year old daughter came in to see what I was doing and my daughter seemed to have gotten too close to the puppy so the puppy ggrowled at her. Is my puppy starting to show aggression or is she telling us that she requires her own space in our bedroom? She’s never growled at us in our room..only the elderly dog and two year old. I’m just not sure what exactly I should be doing or what the puppy is trying to say!
Hello Shiba Shake,
Awesome site. Thank you for all the information.
I need your help. I have a 2 year old gorgeous female Shiba named Miss Shirley (MS) and an equally handsome 1 year old male Shiba named Mr Moose (MM). I got them both as pups. I have spent an enormous amount of time socializing them with both people and other dogs. I take them to work. I take them walking. We have the hidden fence and they get to frolic all day long in the yard. I love and love on them throughout the day. I make them sit and shake for treats. Sometimes sit, shake and lay down for treats. I work them in my opinion, very hard to be good dogs.
One of my friends has a little dog, Lola. Papion (incorrect spelling). This little dog was like a little sister to both of my dogs. The three of them have spent many hours together socializing, several nights a week and at least once if not more on the weekends.
Miss Shirley bullies Mr Moose. I figured this was normal as she tries to dominate him. This behavior continues however, is becoming less and less as he is now twice the size she is. However, Miss Shirley has attacked her best friend Lola twice now – both times drawing blood. The second time was more severe than the first. Both incidents I was within an arms reach of the dogs, MS was unprovoked, and I can think of NO reason why she would do this. All three of the dogs were frolicking in the yard, once in mine and once at Lola’s home. But now that MS can’t be trusted, we are no longer allowing the dogs together for no reason other than protection.
Just to sweeten the pot, MS snarls at MM all day and at night. Actually, even at night during sleep – MM moves around and MS will snarl at him. This will happen through out the day and several times a night. MS will snarl at me if I get in her way at night. If she were a human I swear she is a teenager and is just ugly.
I am perplexed. Sick actually. MS is a lovely dog. Loves people and up till now, loved all dogs she was around.
Why is she so very snarly and what can I do to help her?
Can you help me?
Are the dogs spayed and neutered? When did the bullying and snarling behavior start? Did this behavior develop gradually or did it appear suddenly? When did the dogs last visit the vet? Physical issues can cause a dog to feel more vulnerable, and this can lead to sudden aggressive behavior.
Studies (e.g. Polsky) show that hidden fences can encourage aggression in dogs. More on shock collars and hidden fences.
With my dogs, I set up clear dog-to-dog interaction rules, I supervise closely during times of interaction, and I make sure that everyone is following my rules. As soon as I see the *start* of any undesirable behaviors, I interrupt and redirect, before it escalates into something more. Prevention is best with my dogs. I set them up for success, manage their excitement level, and I do not allow any stealing or bullying. In this way, my dogs know exactly what to expect from each other, what to expect from me, and what I expect from them in return. This creates certainty and certainty helps to reduce stress and conflicts.
More on how I help my dogs get along.
More on dog socialization.
http://www.badrap.org/smart-socializing
http://www.badrap.org/dogdog-tolerance
However, dog behavior is very context dependent and there can be many reasons why conflicts arise between dogs. Given what you describe, I would get help from a good professional trainer as soon as possible. When I had problems with my Shiba, we did dog-to-dog desensitization training under the guidance of a good professional trainer, and with trainer chosen dogs. We found an experienced trainer who had a good understanding of the desensitization process, as well as operant and classical conditioning principles. Personally, I would stay away from aversive based trainers and aversive based techniques.
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/finding-professional-help
https://apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
Pain and dominance based techniques (e.g. choke collars, shock collars, alpha rolls) did not work well on my Shiba. Such techniques made him lose trust in me, and worsened his behavior in the longer term.
http://shibashake.com/dog/my-shiba-inu-story
http://shibashake.com/dog/3-dog-training-techniques
What do you do when this happens? What is MS’s response? What type of training is she used to? Has she been to training classes? If so, what kind of classes?
Hello – I recently used your article to make a simple guide to reward training for young homeless people who are having trouble managing their dogs. The need for a guide arose pretty suddenly, so I did not have time to contact you for permission ahead of time.
Basically, I know a young man who sleeps outside near my apartment, and I saw him hitting his dog after she nipped at a jogger. The dog is a very sweet and good-natured animal, and has always been quiet and friendly when approached gently, but she’s probably pretty stressed out, and when she sees someone running toward her she takes it as a threat. He tells me the dog has been jumping at nearby joggers and he’s afraid she’s going to bite someone, and then get taken away and ‘put down’ by animal control. The owner is reacting out of his fear for her, and she’s probably reacting to the joggers because she’s trying to protect him. And life is pretty rough for both dog and owner.
I thought it might be helpful to talk with him about how to manage the dog’s behavior in a nonviolent way. I ran to my office, found your website, simplified the language in your article for a more basic reading level, and printed it to give to him.
I think it could benefit a lot of dogs/owners in the same situation, so I would like your permission to distribute more copies. I fully attributed you and included a link to your website, but I don’t know your actual name. I’m happy to send you a copy of the adaptation, and to keep in touch about how things go with implementation, if you like.
Thanks very much for your excellent articles, and your understanding for animals – and thanks for considering this request!
Warm regards,
Sarah
Hi Dear,
pls send me a copy of your compilation.
Thank you.
Hi! I love your blog and I’ve done my best to follow your techniques, but I have a pit bull mix rescue he’s 4 months old. He has what I think are intermittent episodes of aggression. Sometimes when I try to control him with time outs and reach for him he growls a low deep growl, this scares me because I don’t want him to be a mean dog. I’ve tried bite inhibition training, but he bites harder when I do the yelp technique. I feel like I’m always putting him in time out which works for a while, but then his bad behaviors return which includes biting ankles, hands, jumping up on people while we’re eating dinner or on the couch. Barking loudly and showing his top teeth when he doesn’t get his way or doesn’t like something going on. I try to remain calm and be consistent, but I feel like I’m losing the training battle. Any guidance especially with the aggression would be appreciated.
With Sephy, I put a drag-lead on him during his early days. In this way, I can effectively control him with the lead and quickly take him to timeout when necessary, without having to lay hands on him. Laying hands on him usually makes him more reactive, and worsens his behavior. I only use a drag-lead under supervision and only with a flat collar or harness. Absolutely no aversive collars.
Controlling my energy is also very important with Sephy. If I am frustrated, stressed, or afraid, Sephy will pick up on my energy, get stressed himself, and become even more reactive. After I learned how to control my own energy, Sephy’s behavior also improved.
More on my experiences with Sephy.
More on being afraid of my dog.
When training Sephy, timing, technique, management, and energy are all very important. In the beginning, I had a lot of troubles with Sephy because I was training him with stressful energy, my timing was off, and I wasn’t applying the techniques very effectively. In addition, I wasn’t managing his environment properly, so he kept getting into trouble, I kept having to correct him (not very well), and his behavior worsened.
After finding some good trainers, they coached me on all of these things. Management is very important, because I want to structure my dog’s routine and environment in such a way as to minimize bad behavior. It is always best to set my dog up for success and prevent bad behaviors before they occur, rather than punishing after the fact.
In addition, I always start small and give my dog many chances to change his behavior. I only escalate my responses if my dog escalates his behavior. One of the important things I learned when training Sephy is that the details are very very important. It is not just putting him in a timeout, but I need to use a timeout at the right time, with the right energy, and with the right technique. Sometimes, a timeout is not the right response and may make things worse.
More on what I do when my dog bites on me.
More on setting up structure and teaching my dog self-control.
Dog behavior is very context dependent, so the temperament of the dog, past experiences, routine, surrounding environment, and more will all play a very big role. For example, one technique that was suggested in class to calm my dog down, was to hold him until he calms down. This totally did not work with Sephy because he gets extremely stressed when restrained in this manner. Therefore, I always listen to my dog, first and foremost, and I adapt techniques to suit my dog, our routine, and our environment. Some dogs may get startled or more reactive with sharp loud noises and yelps, in which case I would calmly no-mark instead and then followup with something else. For example, when I do bite inhibition exercises with my dog, I stop hand-feeding him for a short while when he bites too hard. In this way, he learns that-
Soft-mouth = food keeps coming,
Hard-mouth = food stops.
I would *not* do bite inhibition exercises with a dog that has a bite history or has food aggression issues.
Based on what you describe, I would get help from a good professional trainer as soon as possible. The dog training field is not well regulated, so it can be a challenge to find someone who knows what they are doing and talking about. We went through a bunch of so-so and not very good trainers, before I learned enough to filter-out the inappropriate ones. These articles have more information on what to look out for when searching for a trainer-
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/finding-professional-help
https://apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
More on where I get my dog training information.
I also use safety and management equipment as necessary, including baby gates, leashes, and a basket muzzle if necessary. I desensitize my dog to the muzzle first before using it. A trainer can help with management techniques and help to create a safe training environment.
Hi, I need some advice! I’m “babysitting” my friends lab x spanish pointer for a couple of weeks. She is 8 months old and is generally very good and obeys commands, apart from when we go walking!
She is an absolute nightmare to walk with… As soon as I let her off the lead she basically goes ballistic. She chases runners and cyclists, jumping up on them (not in an aggressive way, just in a playful but annoying way) ignores my calls and is basically the opposite dog she is at home. She is young and has a lot of energy and I want to be able to run her off her leash as she stays at home while at work.
I’m sticking to the routines her parents have taught her, along with the same commands that they use as well. Her life is basically the same as it is with her parents. I would love to know your thoughts and recommendations.
Thanks
Doing recall training is tough in a very high stimulus environment. With my dog, I start small and do training in my backyard first. Once she is really good with that, I very slowly increase the environmental challenge. For example, I take her to a quiet enclosed field during off-hours, and I may use a long-line during training. In this way, I set her up for success and she learns good recall habits.
This ASPCA article has some good pointers on recall training-
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/teaching-your-dog-come-when-called