E75: 낸시 터커(Nancy Tucker) - "현관에서의 더 나은 행동"

5:24

Is it possible to just kind of manage it forever without actually working on it? Yeah, for sure. You know, and in some instances, I'd even recommend it if the circumstances make training and new behavior more challenging than simple management. You know, my goal is always to find a solution that will make life better for both the human and the dog. So yeah, you know, if management is the best way to obtain that result, then I think it's perfectly fine. On the other hand, polite door greeting is actually a fairly simple behavior to teach. It can take some time, especially if the dog has been practicing an unwanted behavior for a long time. But once we've got some polite behaviors in place and we continue to reinforce them, oh man, it's so nice to not have to worry or scramble when someone comes to the door. As folks kind of progress from management to training, what are the options? What kind of alternative behaviors do you like to teach? Well, contrary to popular belief, reducing a dog's access to the door area is not the most effective approach. And I talk a lot about this in class. You know, we get the feeling that we need to control our dog's access to the door and to get him to stay somewhere else and to stay quiet. And that's actually really hard. So, you know, my goal is never to create robot dogs who stay away from the door and give all visitors a really wide berth. I want to allow dogs to check out who's coming into their home. I want to encourage interaction. But I also want to help people teach their dogs more appropriate interactions in that context. So while we do cover some behaviors that essentially send the dog away from the door area when someone walks in, because that can be really handy at times, we'll also be teaching our dogs that one of the most effective ways for them to get access to visitors is to, you know, to keep their paws on the floor or to carry something in their mouth. This one's really good for happy barkers or dogs who get mouthy when they're excited. And we'll use nose targeting and other fun games that allow the dog to regain some composure before he actually interacts with someone at the door. So it's not about reducing access to visitors. It's all about adding a little finesse to their greeting behavior. Now, I'm going to guess that some of those things are initially taught away from the door, at least. After all, you know, kind of with all dog training, we want to start small and then build up. So how do you go about making the door small? How do you break something down like that? Well, you're right.

8:01

We'll start by working on all the new behaviors in a more neutral area of the home with very little distractions. You know, just like any behavior, new behavior. And then we move the whole thing over to the door area, but with nobody coming or going. We're just helping the dog generalize the new behavior to a new location. And then we'll start introducing the door into our training sessions by, you know, first we're just opening and closing it with no one else around. And again, it's all about adding an element of difficulty very gradually. And then we'll go out and come back in and practice the new behaviors, which really, when you think about it, is not at all exciting to the dog. You know, he's thinking, I just saw you two seconds ago. This is boring. And this is what we want. We want the dog to be able to practice the new behaviors when he's not excited. And then when the dog is able to offer those new behaviors in that context, we'll start asking someone else to practice the exercises with us. And, you know, someone familiar to the dog and who's already greeted them, spent a little bit of time with them prior to practicing these exercises. Again, we're trying to make it least exciting possible for the dog. And then we'll gradually make our way to having a stranger enter the home. You know, that's the holy grail. And I know that it can be very difficult for people to find or they think it can be very difficult for them to find somebody to help them with these types of exercises, especially if they live in a more rural area, for example. But, you know, in the past, people have asked neighbors to help play this role or they've invited a co-worker to stop by. And people are generally really happy to help. So you're also covering multi-dog households, right? That's right. Yep. How does kind of adding extra dogs into it further complicate all of it? Yeah. Well, you know, when you have a door greeting issue with a single dog, that's usually a pretty basic situation to handle. But when you have multiple dogs, you sometimes need ninja level management and handling skills just to even get to your door. So, you know, we'll be handling multi-dog households the same way we train any other behavior with multiple dogs. And that means one dog at a time. So in the lecture that introduces multi-dog households, I talk about the instigator dog. And every multi-dog household has one of those. He's the one that usually sets the others off by being the first to respond to a sound or other stimulus.

10:32

And anyone who has more than two dogs can probably already recognize which one of their dogs I'm talking about here. Anyway, we'll be working with one dog at a time. And ideally, we'll start working with the instigator dog first. And then those handlers can work with each of their other dogs also individually, just like any other training session. And then once each dog has learned the new behaviors and they're doing well with them, we can start working with multiple dogs at the door. But that's an advanced level of difficulty. And there's no rush to get to that point. So it's always best to work systematically with one dog at a time before putting them all into an exciting situation where they can't possibly succeed. So it feels like you kind of got lots of different pieces in here. You also covered door dashing, right? So personally, I think door dashing is super frustrating in addition to being incredibly dangerous in some situations. So, you know, any thoughts on why dogs do that? Why they kind of build a habit of dashing out the door? Yeah. And in most cases, dogs push past us at the door because they're in a terrible rush to greet whoever's there. You know, and those that run out for an unauthorized adventure, even when there's no one there to greet, they're simply getting out there to have a good time. You know, whether that means exploring the neighborhood or going into the yard down the street to meet up with their buddy. You know, sometimes it can be sometimes it can be a sign that maybe the dog is is a little bored or, you know, his needs aren't being met. But, you know, most of the time, as long as we're not talking about a dog who is aggressively running out the door. And we'll talk about that a little later as well. But most of the time it's just to have a good time or because we're taking too long to open the door. They want to get there quick. Mm hmm. So how do you kind of approach that? How do you start to work on door dashing? And, you know, what do you want the dog to do instead? Yeah, well, I like to teach the dog that an open door is not an invitation to step outside. And I make it really attractive and rewarding to stay put even while the door is wide open and they can see or hear or smell the outside world. So naturally, you know, we get there gradually through a series of exercises, but it really doesn't take that long to teach. And I've got a couple more exercises that I like to add to the end of this process that makes it even more likely that a dog will stick around close to the door, even if he does manage to step outside.

13:02

But you have to take the class to know more about those. So some dogs may have years of practicing bad door habits. I mean, you mentioned this kind of in passing earlier. Do you find that it can take a really long time to retrain? You know, and obviously every dog is different and people should move at their dog's speed. But still kind of over the course of six weeks, what kind of progress, you know, can people kind of expect to make? You're right. You know, how long a dog has been practicing a behavior can affect how long it might take to change his behavior in any given context. But generally, you know, once we get rolling with practicing the new games and exercises, people begin to see a shift in their dog's response to the usual signs that someone's at the door. So within a few weeks, you know, they often see reduced barking or a faster response to the simple cues that they'll be working on. And for some people, they'll get a handle on the door greeting part pretty quickly. And then they'll spend a few more weeks after the class is finished to work on the dog's interaction with guests after they've come inside and are visiting for a while. You know, you get the dogs that stay excited and happy and are constantly trying to get visitors' attention. But by then, you know, the students have lots of tools and ideas to work with to tackle that part of the problem. So it's kind of outside of the scope of the class. But the things that they learn during class will definitely help with that as well. What if we kind of, you know, secretly like that our dogs are so excited to see us when we get home? Is, you know, training control in the situation going to change that? Yeah. Yeah. You know, if you've ever taken a training lesson for me or followed one of my classes, you'll probably have figured out that I actually like normal dog behaviors. And I'm far from wanting to create super quiet robot dogs. And I use the term robot dogs a lot. And I like natural dog behaviors. So, you know, I think dogs should be allowed to greet guests. And so my goal here is not to take the fun out of it for them, but to at least take the chaos out of it. And if by the end of the class, your dog is running to the door to greet you or your guests with a super wiggly body and a toy in his mouth with four paws on the floor, and nobody's tripping over each other, and the door can be left wide open and nobody's running off, then I will consider that a massive success. It sounds like my idea of success. Yes.

15:33

I know you've got a note at the bottom of your class description about who is and isn't appropriate for the class. So I wanted to ask you about that. And can you kind of share it along with a bit more information on who might want to consider signing up? Yeah, right. This is a super important note. I want people to recognize that this class isn't for the dogs who are fearful of strangers coming through the door or dogs who might bark and lunge aggressively towards guests. Those dogs that bark at someone walking through the door and at the same time they're backing up or they're avoiding eye contact, they're not happy to see or greet somebody. And that's a whole other topic. That's not what we're addressing in this class. This class is for the dogs who are so excited about greeting someone and their behavior is a little over the top and they don't know what to do with themselves when someone walks in. Or they push past you when you go to open the door or they knock you out of the way or they're jumping up on the door before you even get a chance to open it. These are dogs who are happy to greet someone, not fearful or upset about seeing somebody at the door. So this class is for those happy, excited dogs. Gotcha. So one last question here, my new last interview question. What's a lesson you've learned or been reminded of recently when it comes to dog training? Aha. Well, this summer I was reminded about how training a behavior in one context, like in one location maybe, doesn't mean that our dog will know how to behave in a different context. Um, it's funny you bring this up because this just happened, uh, uh, happened again last night, but it's a pretty simple concept. And you think that I wouldn't know this by now, but when the summer weather arrived and we started eating our meals outside on the deck, I realized that I had to teach Benny table manners all over again. So he knows what's expected of him when I'm eating at the kitchen table or, uh, you know, on the, on a coffee table in the living room, or even when I'm sitting at my desk in my office, because we've practiced those, um, you know, I eat all over the house basically. And we've practiced those behaviors and he's really, really polite. Now he's got this down pat. But when I sat down, um, on, we have an outdoor couch with a, with a table. And when I sat down on the outdoor couch to eat my first meal on deck this summer, Benny had no manners and he was all up in my face. So, uh, you know, it only took us a few repetitions to straighten this out, but it really

17:58

reminded me about the importance of not assuming our dog knows something just because he can do it in another context or another location. And it's easy for us to forget that and to get frustrated with our dog because he's, he's, uh, you know, he's doing a behavior that we don't like. And we think, well, he knows this, he knows he shouldn't do this, but, but, you know, the context has changed and it's, it's a good reminder that we just need to brush up on our training when we change the context or location. For anybody who is thinking about signing up, class registration closes on the 15th. So that should be in just a couple of days. This will come out, I think on the 10th. So you've got just a couple of days, uh, before things close. So if you want to hop in, go over there, go ahead and do that. Also, we are going to be back next week with Helen Marie to talk about a topic that gets asked about a lot, uh, hurting in an R plus way. So using positive reinforcement to trade herding behaviors. So thank you so much for coming back on the podcast, Nancy. This has been great. I'm glad we got to chat through all this. Oh, this is so much fun. I love chatting with you on podcasts. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. If you haven't already subscribed to our podcast and iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in and happy training.