Giving pills to dogs (and other animals) frequently turns into a battle. Sadly, a lot of “advice” found on the internet calls for aversive methods to “win” it. You probably heard that one person should grab the dog, the other force their mouth open, push the medication in… I’ll spare you the rest.
Unsurprisingly, the situation gets worse and worse and in the end both dog and human hate it. As a result, owners start avoiding giving medication to their dog. And let’s not even talk about what happens to their relationship…
In this blog post I will share tips and tricks that will make giving medication to your dog if not fun, then at least much, much less stressful or all parties involved.
Have you ever heard of the name game? You can use this game to teach your dogs:
that the treat comes after their name,
and that everyone will get their share,
so they don’t have to be impatient.
It also comes in handy when you have to wait around with a couple of dogs or if you want to distract them from something.
What does it look like?
Two or more dogs are around you:
four feet on the floor
they look at you or at the food
There should be no barking or whining. When dogs vocalize it usually means that the exercise is too hard and you need to modify it.
The order
Say the dog’s name.
Turn your body towards the dog and look at that dog.
Give him/her the treat.
If necessary use your body so that the dog standing next to the eating dog can’t disturb him/her
Repeat this process with each dog, then start from the top. Always change the order in which you call their names and don’t forget the release cue at the end!
Other tips
If one dog is especially impatient, start with him/her and treat them more throughout the game.
You can work with low value food. In group (“competitive”) situations food tends to gain more value and we don’t want to increase arousal.
In the beginning play fast. Once the dogs are familiar with the process you can start dragging out the time between each name.
If one dog is prone to stealing food or tries to chase other dogs away from the source of food, it’s worth working with a helper. At first this dog is treated by the other person (as a part of the game though) and you gradually decrease the distance, until he/she can be integrated into the group.
You can also play this game with one dog
Many dogs get frustrated around food (bark, lick the hand, mouth, whine) even when they’re alone. There are many possible causes for these behaviors, such as:
it’s unpredictable to the dog where and when treats are available
our use of event markers (clicker, verbal marker like “yes”) is inconsistent
our body language is confusing
we have not reinforced the behavior of “waiting calmly”
we take away the treats a lot (negative punishment)
the breeder fed all the puppies from one plate and the puppies learned to associate food with stress and frustration
Obviously you can’t solve this kind of a problem with one exercise, but the name game can be quite helpful here.
Meet Mr. X
Your dog is close to you, four feet on the ground, pays attention to you. Now there are only two players – your dog and Mr. X:
Say your dog’s name, turn towards them and look at them, deliver the treat.
Say “Mr. X.” (or anything else you like!), turn away from your dog and put a treat in a bowl or into your other hand.
At first it should frequently your dog’s turn and Mr. X gets treated only from time to time. Once your dog understands the game, you can increase the amount of treats given to Mr. X and start dragging out the time between each name.
Don’t forget to give the release cue at the end of the session and yes, you can give your dog all of Mr. X’s treats 🙂
thank you
To the Donau Dogs trainer Philip Engelman (first video). Check out their website for more dog training tips.
This is the short answer: because positive reinforcement is a humane, science-based method of training animals that focuses on rewarding desirable behaviours. It is safe for everyone to use and it strengthens the bond between you and your animal.
It is humane and safe because it does not involve punishment (be it verbal or physical). Animals have different levels of sensitivity and even though many dogs tolerate punishment, for others it may be a trigger to bark, bite or hide, ultimately escalating the situation instead of solving the problem. Therefore, using punishment is not safe. Secondly, punishment damages the bond between you and your animal, teaching the animal that they cannot trust you or even should fear you. (I also think that punishment is plain wrong and useless but it’s a matter for a different post).
It is science-based because it mostly uses the principles of classical conditioning and operant conditioning that have been well documented over the last hundred years. There has also been research into positive reinforcement itself that showed that animals trained by this method learned faster and retained the new skills much longer than classically trained animals.
It is a method because once you learn the principles you can yourself train your animal. Of course what you train them to do and how long it will take depends on many factors (the animal’s age, experiences and predispositions, your skills, the amount of time you’re willing to invest…) but you definitely do not need to be a ‘dog whisperer’ to use it to your advantage.
Positive reinforcement…
is not a quick fix. Like all successful training methods positive reinforcement requires us to think about our goals, plan ahead and manage the animal’s environment so that we can set them up for success. Most problems consist of multiple “bad behaviours” and each of them has to be fixed individually. (For example problematic greeting behaviour may involve barking, lunging and uncontrolled running. All separate issues for training.).
does not mean that you have to use treats (or any other kind of reward) all the time. Yes, initially you treat each time. But once a behaviour is stable (reliable) you can gradually wean the animal off treats and only reward them from time to time. Unless it’s something that is really hard for them. Speaking of which, why are we so opposed to rewarding our dogs? No one ever asks when they can stop punishing their dogs… Without delving deep I’d like to make an argument for treating our dogs lavishly: most of the things we ask them to do are contrary to their instincts and obeying all our requests is hard work. In my opinion hard work deserves pay. Full stop.
does not equal permissiveness. The difference between positive reinforcement based training and “traditional” training is how we react to the unwanted behaviours. Where a ctraditional trainer might opt for correction1/punishment, the positive trainer opts for telling the dog what they want (instead of what they do not want)2because really, just expecting them to “know better” is plain unfair. Example: your dog wanders off the sidewalk. Instead of yelling/jerking the leash, one way would be to teach your dog the cue “sidewalk” and reward them for getting back onto the sidewalk.
There is a myriad of things you can teach your dog and a myriad of ways to do it. What often gets lost in the equation is: why do we want to train our dogs? and what do they need to know?
Once you start thinking about it it’s pretty obvious that what they need to know and what we want them to know are not the same. What do we want for them?
For me it looks like this: I want my dog to be safe. I want my dog to be happy.
To be safe she needs to be able to:
stop when I ask her,
come back when called,
not rush into new situations (=no running out of the door, jumping out of the car), and
comply with medical exams.
To be happy she needs to be able to do things that she likes. For that she needs me to learn about her, observe and listen so that I can provide the opportunity to her.
Does any of that require fancy trick or obedience training? No.
Can dogs enjoy tricks & obedience? Probably, maybe – people are actually really divided on that one.
This blog aims to explore ways to teach dogs to be safe in a non-violent way and to investigate all the ways we can make them happy and their best possible selves. Maybe we can become our better selves in the process as well.
