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Hello, and welcome to the forums. Dogs must have an odd relationship with the phone. If we try to think about phones from a dog’s perspective, it makes us wonder what they must think about us when they see us hold that rectangular device to our ear and start babbling away like it’s the most normal thing in the world. It’s sort of like living in a sitcom! If we think about it, phones make lots of different noises: rings, pings, bleeps-you name it. Dogs understand that we are very responsive to every noise the phone makes. It must feel like living with a human who’s obsessed with squeaky toys! On the other hand, with a dog’s fine sense of hearing, we must consider how rings and notification pings must feel to them. Perhaps they feel very unsettling, like nails on a chalkboard. Then, there’s the mystery of voices coming from the other end. Are people trapped in there and need help getting out? Is that Uncle Martin stuck in another world? Perhaps that explains why owners rush to the phone when it rings; they’re on a mission trying to rescue them! And let’s not forget how humans go bonkers when looking for a lost phone. The relief felt upon finding it must feel like digging out a buried treasure. But the real kicker? Dogs witness us engaging in animated conversations, laughs, giggles, cries, maybe even shouting. They pick up all our vibes and may want to bark or howl to join these emotionally charged conversations. So yeah, dogs have many good reasons to act suspicious about our phones. They are noisy, we spend way too much time on them, and they are not chew toys. No wonder why countless dogs are always trying to swipe that phone out of our hands! Why Do Dogs Act up During Phone Calls? The reasons why dogs may act up during phone calls may vary from one dog and another. Paying attention to the dog’s body language and the context that evokes the dog’s behaviors may help provide insights into the underlying causes. Of course, until the day dogs can talk, we may never really know with 100 percent accuracy what’s going on in their minds, but these are just a few possibilities. They Are Seeking a Connection At the top spot of possible causes for dogs barking during phone calls is the need for interaction/attention. Many dogs may experience negative feelings when they see us get on the phone or plop onto the couch and watch T.V. In particular, they may feel ignored. “Every time my human starts talking on that device, they forget I exist! Maybe if I do something to grab their attention, they’ll remember I’m here.” The connection-seeking behaviors dogs adopt may vary from one dog to another. Here are several potential connection-seeking behaviors: Pacing back and forth Whining Nudging Barking Pawing Licking Chewing Nipping Biting As mentioned, phone calls can be emotionally charged events. Your dog can sense your feelings, and the voices on the other side could trigger feelings of excitement, reactivity or arousal. Some dogs may recognize voices of people they know, and this may excite them as if they’re about to show up to the door-but then, they do not. Other dogs may get aroused or startled by the sudden movements we make to get to the phone. Some dogs may find the sound of the phone ringing or the vocal interactions as cues for play or social engagement, leading to heightened energy levels, and all that energy must go somewhere, triggering the onset of impulsive behaviors such as barking. They’re Bothered by Noises Some dogs struggle with noises emitted by phones, whether it’s the beeping or ringing or any sound notifications. If you are using a speakerphone, consider that the pitch of the person coming through the speakers may be uncomfortable to the dog. They’re Feeling Confused Since dogs don’t understand technology, when they hear us talking on the phone, they may not know that there is someone on the other side who is listening. Even if the dog hears the other person, it’s still confusing because that person is not present. All this talking can cause dogs to feel confused. They may think we are talking to them, but we aren’t really connecting with them. It’s normal for dogs to feel unsettled, and this can make it a stressful situation that prompts them to act out. They’re Feeling Frustrated Some dogs struggle during phone calls because they perceive them as a disruption to their routines. It may be possible that dogs also grow frustrated when they sense the phone as a barrier preventing them from receiving the attention and interaction they crave. Such dogs may vent their frustration by engaging in nuisance behaviors that may include barking. “Attention-seeking behaviors—also known as demand behaviors—start for a variety of reasons, including anxiety and uncertainty. But regardless of why they start, these unwanted behaviors are always maintained by learning.” explains Stephanie Borns-Weil board-certified veterinary behaviorist. There is one major problem with dogs who bark, whine or bite as a way to seek attention: their attention is often inadvertently reinforced. This reinforcement teaches the dog that their behavior works, and this causes the behavior to put roots and repeat. Here’s the thing: with attention-seeking dogs, every little sign of attention reinforces the behavior (making it more likely to repeat and strengthen over time). Just looking at your dog, talking to your dog or touching your dog qualifies as attention. Even attention of the negative type, such as scolding your dog or pushing him away, qualifies as attention nonetheless! It’s therefore super easy to fall into the trap of giving some form of attention to these dogs, especially when their needle-sharp teeth are used to prompt a reaction from us! Beware of Extinction Bursts An extinction burst is a phenomenon that is important to be aware of. When dogs try to get attention from us, they will often try with some mild behaviors. Let’s say they try by barking. Barking often gains some type of reaction from us, considering it’s an ear-piercing sound. We may look at our dog or tell them to shush. Soon, the dog is satisfied with the response and may start barking more and more during phone calls. At some point, the owner may decide to try to ignore the barking in hopes of it decreasing. Bark after bark, the dog may notice that the barking is no longer working, so he’ll often try barking louder. This intensification of the behavior in response to no longer getting attention is known as an “extinction burst.” On top of barking louder, the dog may also try something else in hopes of getting the owner’s attention again. Barking may work at getting the owner’s attention back, considering that it’s very difficult to ignore a dog’s barking. Soon, the barking behavior establishes and becomes the dog’s default behavior to engage in in the context of phone calls. Make Safety Top Priority! If your dog’s barking morphs into biting, play it safe and consult with a dog behavior professional. Of course, in the case of a dog biting, for safety, it’s best to have the dog wear a muzzle and have a behavior professional present to help during the assessment. What to Do to Stop a Dog From Barking During Phone Calls? Stopping a dog from barking during phone calls often requires a multi-modal approach. The behavior intervention plan may often involve a combination of management strategies and behavior modification. A dog behavior professional can guide you through the process and suggest the most appropriate, custom-tailored approach. Preventing Practicing of the Behavior Undesirable behaviors in dogs are practiced because they lead to some form of reinforcement (a desirable consequence). In the case of a dog barking when the owner is on the phone, the consequence that keeps the behavior alive is often attention, whether it’s positive or negative. To prevent the dog from being put into the position of repeatedly practicing the problem behavior and garnering attention, it’s important to take several preventive steps. Following are several possible preventive steps: Keeping the dog in a separate room during phone calls Going outside to make phone calls Placing the dog in a confined space during calls (crate, exercise pen) Keeping the dog behind a baby gate Behavior Modification While the above measures prevent the dog from practicing the problem behavior, it’s important to take steps to change the dog’s emotional response to phone calls. The type of behavior modification involved may vary based on the underlying emotions at play and the ultimate function of the behavior. Identify the Exact Triggers When a dog barks during a phone call, it can be helpful to identify the exact triggers that cause the dog to act out. If we are able to tease out an exact trigger, we know exactly what we may need to be worked on, and in some cases, the solution may be as simple as no longer exposing the dog to such a trigger if feasible. Does the phone ring evoke the barking? This can be teased out by testing whether the dog still acts out if the phone ring is muted. Does your walking back and forth during calls evoke the barking? This can be teased out by testing whether the dog doesn’t act out when talking while sitting. Does hearing other people on the other line evoke the barking? This can be teased out by no longer putting people on speaker phones, using headphones or pretending to talk to somebody and watching the dog’s response. Does your dog react only when you talk on the phone? This can be teased out by having another person talk on the phone and seeing if the dog acts out. Does your dog react when you suddenly leap to answer the phone? This can be teased out by getting up very calmly and nonchalantly to answer the phone. While the above are just some examples of triggers that may cause some dogs to act out, it is not uncommon for the behavior to have started in response to an initial trigger, but that trigger has generalized and caused other events to piggyback. For example, oftentimes, as in the case of attention-driven dogs, the dog may have started acting out in the middle of the phone call as the dog started feeling anxious about not being given attention, but then through repeated exposures, the behavior started happening earlier and earlier into the phone call, to the point where the mere phone ring could cue a barking episode. Turning Triggers into Positive Happenings A plan involving desensitization and counterconditioning may be a good place to start to change any negative emotions into more positive ones. Desensitization involves exposing the dog to their triggers presented at a lower level of intensity so as to reduce exaggerated responses that cause anxiety. In the context of a dog barking during phone calls, this may involve putting the ringer on a lower setting, not using the speaker phone, letting the phone ring at a distance (like from another room), and initially engaging in shorter phone calls. The phone calls should be as neutral as possible (not emotionally charged) to lower the chances of evoking arousal. Counterconditioning involves pairing the triggering stimulus or event with something positive. In the context of a dog barking during phone calls, this may involve feeding the dog treats when the phone rings and then while talking on the phone. Treats (or even the dog’s kibble if the dog really enjoys it) can be kept in the pocket or treat bag during the day so that all phone calls are turned into positive behavior-change opportunities. The Best of Both Worlds Desensitization and counterconditioning are often used in combination as they work in synergy, potentiating their effects. In a nutshell, the ultimate goal is presenting the trigger/event at lower levels of intensity while creating positive associations with it. Initially, it may help to create systematic set-ups so that we have better control over the situation. This could mean arranging with a friend to have him/her call you so that the phone can ring several times in a row (with the ringer on a lower setting) so that you can toss your treats immediately after every ring. It should look like this: Ring/toss treat, ring/toss treat, ring/toss treat repeated several times so as to start creating a positive association with the ring. You may find it helpful to toss the treat initially simultaneously to the first rings just so that your dog gets a feel of what’s happening before moving to tossing the treat right after the ring. The goal is to obtain what’s known as a positive conditioned emotional response where your dog starts actually looking forward to the ring because it means great things happen. Advancing to the Next Step (Raising Criteria) Raising criteria simply means moving to the next step once the dog shows signs of improving, leading to a dramatic reduction in reverting to the barking behavior. Ideally, criteria should be raised when there are no more barking episodes taking place. Once the dog does fine with hearing the ring and shows even signs of looking forward to hearing it, you can start with having the phone ring and you picking it up and tossing a treat. Ring, pick up phone/toss treat, ring, pick up phone/toss treat. Once your dog does well with that, very brief conversations can be started. It’s best to keep these as short and neutral as possible, and treats should be tossed frequently to prevent any barking. What If There Are Setbacks? If there are still setbacks where the dog reverts to wanting to bark, it’s important to carefully evaluate what may have gone wrong. Was the ringer tone too loud? If so, the volume will need to be adjusted. Is the dog less enthusiastic about the treats? If so, it may be time to invest in some higher-value treats. Did the dog show signs of wanting to bark before the treat was tossed? If so, faster treat tosses may be necessary so as to preempt the behavior, but it would also be important to carefully evaluate what may have gone wrong. If, for example, the dog did well hearing the ring but then struggled when the phone was picked up and brought to your ear, you may want to take a step back and go back to giving treats for hearing the phone ring and then finding an intermediate step to picking up the phone and bringing it to your ear, such as just touching the phone and then lifting it up a bit and then more. Training an Alternate Behavior It is common to get upset with dogs (and give them negative attention) when they engage in problematic behaviors, but what if we train them to engage in an alternate behavior to replace the unwanted one? Then we can at least give them some attention for engaging in a desirable behavior! A good cue to train in these cases is the “go to your mat” cue since being on the phone involves a certain level of duration. I would suggest having a plan in place by keeping some long-lasting treat on a tall, impossible-to-reach surface near your phone and having a mat nearby. This way, as soon as the phone rings, you can cue your dog to readily go to his mat and then reward him by giving him a long-lasting treat to keep him occupied. If you want a quicker solution, you can use an indoor pet fence and place the long-lasting treat already on the mat, and close the pet fence so that as soon as the phone rings, you can readily open the pet fence and cue your dog to go to his mat. The dog should readily go inside if he has noticed the treat on the mat. This may work if your dog isn’t prone to getting too frustrated by seeing the food in an enclosed area he cannot reach. Consult With a Professional When dogs bark or show concerning aggressive behavior, seeking the guidance of a professional for safety and the correct implementation of behavior modification is paramount. Working on behavior problems comes with risks, and every dog will need an individualized plan. Here are some professionals to reach out to: Board-certified Veterinary Behaviorists (DACVB) Here is where to find one near you: Find a Diplomate. Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) Certified Dog Trainers/Behavior Consultants Please ensure that the professionals used are committed to humane training and behavior modification methods. Frequently Asked Questions The process of changing dog behavior is always variable, and several adjustments/changes may need to take place. Every dog is an individual, so a cookie-cutter approach won’t cut it when it comes to behavior change processes. What If I Don’t Have Time to Cue My Dog to Go to His Mat? If you are expected to get several phone calls and you don’t have the time (or desire) to work on the behavior, it is best to use management and keep your dog away from the phone and confined with something to do (chew toys, Kong Wobbler, Licki-mat). Are There Other Ways to Keep the Dog Busy During Calls? If you know when you’re expecting a phone call, you can set up a treat dispensing toy that you can activate with the press of a button using a remote control. The phone ring will become a cue for the yummy treats to be dispensed. I personally like to use the Teach & Treat remote dispenser for keeping dogs out of trouble because it will dispense kibble or premium treats from up to 30 yards away. How Important Is Timing? It is always best that you work quickly to preempt the problem behavior; therefore, you want to intervene *before* your dog has the opportunity to bark. If you are late, it may be difficult to distract your dog once he has latched on; plus, you are allowing your dog to practice the behavior. If you know a phone call is coming, it’s best to have a plan in place and have a stuffed Kong or a Licki-mat ready so that you can provide it to your dog in his confinement area. What If the Phone Rings Unexpectedly? If the phone call rings unexpectedly, be ready to grab a handful of kibble or a few treats from your pocket to toss at a distance as you leave the room and close the door. Alternatively, you can even keep a flirt pole next to your phone on a desk to escort your dog into his exercise pen where you can then close him and provide him with something to happily chew on. I have used flirt poles with success in some critical cases, such as puppies not wanting to come back inside the home before being taught to come when called. Can I Just Toss Treats/Kibble When I Am on the Phone? Technically, you can, but if you decide to toss treats rather than cue your dog to go to his mat to chew on a long-lasting edible, be prepared to do so repeatedly throughout the call to keep your dog’s mind focused on chasing treats. You can’t get distracted here, as you will need to have your dog yo-yoing back and forth. If your dog loves this game, you can insert some obedience training into the mix by asking your dog to sit before you toss the treat/kibble. This way, you are also teaching some desirable behaviors on top of draining some energy, providing some mental stimulation and preempting the barking. Since you are on the phone, you can teach your dog to attend to hand gestures rather than verbal cues. The hand gesture for “sit” can be an upward hand movement with your palm open. Once your dog gets the hang of this, he may even default to sitting on his own before the treat is tossed. On top of sitting, you can also teach your dog other cues, such as to lie down, spin or hand target before you toss the treat. Watch for signs of your dog tiring. Dogs may revert to nipping when they are tired and don’t know how to communicate it. If you are expecting the phone call to get long, you can always cue your dog to go to his mat and enjoy a food puzzle. What If the Treats in My Pocket Are Finishing? It’s always best to have a backup plan and keep some extra treats/kibble that can be reached quickly on a nearby shelf or table so that you can toss your last few treats at a distance and go grab a new supply of treats. If you have one last treat and it is soft, you can always split that into several pieces and use those to buy some time as you go grab some extra “ammo.” What if I Am Worried About Calories or Don’t Want to Spoil My Dog’s Appetite? No worries, there are several options. If your dog loves his kibble, use it! Food bowls are only for our convenience. Just think how many opportunities for reinforcement you can hold by using your dog’s breakfast. If your dog responds better to treats, you can ask your vet for some low-calorie treats. What If My Dog Isn’t Interested in Eating? Some dogs may be anxious about the phone’s ring or the voices they hear. When dogs are in an anxious state, they may struggle to focus on anything else. In these cases, it may be important to consult with a vet and discuss whether some calming aids may be helpful. Will the Behavior Ever Stop? While no guarantees can ever be made on the outcome of training or behavior modification, the good news is that eventually, most dogs lose interest in you talking on the phone once they have found more interesting things to do. The chances of this happening are much higher if you provide your dog with enough exercise and mental stimulation during the day and ensure all your dog’s needs are met. The less dogs get to practice the problem behavior, the more they’ll gravitate towards the new, potentially more rewarding activities. Dogs with a long rehearsal history may require more time and effort. Does Ignoring the Dog Work? Oftentimes, when dogs engage in attention-seeking behaviors, the common advice is to ignore the dog in hopes of extinguishing the behavior; however, there are problems with this approach. While it may be easier to ignore a dog who is barking when we are on the phone, ignoring the dog for biting is more difficult because it hurts! A hand or leg movement may be interpreted as a form of interaction nonetheless. Furthermore, ignoring a dog’s behavior that has worked in the past in getting attention may trigger an extinction burst that may involve stronger biting. Unless we wear tall Wellington boots, it will be difficult to endure. Giving any type of attention during an extinction burst has a deleterious effect because it means we have reinforced the dog’s persistence, making the behavior more established and resistant to extinction. Should I Punish the Dog for Biting Me During Phone Calls? No, punishing the dog for biting can potentially make matters worse. The dog may perceive any intervention as a form of attention, or if corrected through a muzzle grab, alpha roll, or scruff shake, the dog may react defensively or become hand-shy. Punishment also doesn’t help in addressing the behavior. In many cases dogs acting up during phone calls are seeking a connection. Even something seemingly minor, such as saying to the dog “no” doesn’t address the root cause and provides no information about what you want your dog to do. There are many side effects associated with the use of punishment, which is why it is not recommended. The Importance of Addressing All of a Dog’s Needs While it’s important to manage the dog’s environment and take steps to encourage the dog to engage in an alternate behavior, it’s also paramount to address the dog’s underlying needs and emotions and take a “holistic approach.” Following are some extra tips. Provide Exercise/Mental Stimulation While in the past, most dogs were selectively bred to carry out certain tasks (herding, guarding, hunting, sniffing, etc.), nowadays, they are often left with nothing to do and depend on us to keep them entertained. It’s therefore important to meet a dog’s needs for exercise and mental stimulation. Make sure your dog receives daily exercises and enrichment so his body and brain are kept busy. If you must use the phone at set times during the day, it may help to ensure you have met your dog’s needs before getting on the phone. Walk your dog, ensure he has eliminated and play with your dog before putting him in his confined area with something to do (food puzzle, bully stick). Establish a Routine Dogs feel reassured when they are provided with a routine. Establish set times during the day for walks, training, play, exercise, feeding and elimination. Introduce verbal cues so that your dog knows what to expect and can anticipate safe and non-threatening interactions. *Make sure your dog has eliminated before getting on a long phone call; some dog may start barking as a way of communicating their need to be taken out! You may find it helpful to teach your dog the go potty on cue command. Lower Arousal Levels Many dogs struggle with strong emotions such as arousal and frustration. Impulse control training can be introduced so as to help a dog develop better coping skills in a positive way.. Lower the Anxiety Many dogs who display behavior problems are fearful and anxious dogs. These dogs need a routine and may benefit from anxiety-reducing products. There are many calming products on the market nowadays, from DAP sprays and diffusers to calming supplements and foods. Ask your vet for specific recommendations. If your dog is anxious on a daily basis, your vet may even prescribe medications to take the edge off. Ensure Your Dog Gets to Relax/Sleep Dogs who don’t receive enough sleep during the day tend to be more easily aroused and “on edge.” It’s important to teach dogs how good it feels to be calm and how to relax. It’s important to praise them for engaging in these desirable behaviors. You may need to take steps to create an environment that is conducive to relaxation and sleep. I hope this helps! Happy training! Best, Adrienne

Caught this one yesterday. Esther's (yellow pup) normally very quiet, but here she's having quite the tantrum. Seconds after this she walked off and took a nap with that fast puppy breathing that sets new pet parents on edge.

Hi there! Congrats on your new addition! So it sounds like we can try a multifaceted approach here: 1) Prevent rehearsals So we want the pawing behavior to extinguish, and one way to do this is to make it become less and less common so that it is eventually dropped from the dog's behavioral repertoire. Practice makes perfect, so a little bit of management goes a long way. So if we can predict when the pawing is likely going to happen that gives us some level of control over it so that we can preempt it. So if pawing happens when in the bathroom, let's make a habit of closing the bathroom door. If pawing happens when we're having a meal, let's have our pup enjoy a stuffed Kong or a treat in her exercise pen/crate. Also, let's avoid feeding any food at the table which is a common cause for dogs pawing when we're eating a meal. 2) Be mindful of extinction bursts When we ignore a behavior that has been given some type of attention in the past, the dog may feel the need to escalate. This escalation is known as an extinction burst, https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/what-are-extinction-bursts-and-how-do-they-impact-your-training/ which can be difficult to endure, especially when the behavior encompasses biting or scratching which hurts! So we have two options here, finding ways to make the pawing les hurtful/damaging or adding a twist to ignoring. We can make pawing less hurtful by: Trimming the dog's nails Having the dog wear nail caps Wearing extra layers of clothing Wearing something that we don't mind getting damaged when around the pup If you are caught unprepared and your puppy manages to start pawing, you can provide a consequence for it by getting up and leaving the room. It sounds like you are doing this already, so keep doing this for those times the pawing still happens. 3. Train another behavior. In the background, it may help to train another behavior that is more acceptable and that earns rewards and our attention, like a sit. We can train the dog to sit prior to being pet, sit prior to being fed, sit prior to having the leash on. She may eventually start defaulting to a sit and it may replace the pawing at some point. 4. Preempt when getting ready to sit Pawing often takes place when we are sitting as it's easier for the puppy to reach us and many puppies struggle with when we sit because it often becomes a cue of us becoming inactive and watching TV or reading a book, or using our laptop. During this time, it may help to provide pups with food puzzles and activities that encourage independent interaction or play (a stuffed Kong, Kong Wobbler filled with a portion of the dog's daily kibble) 5. Make it hard to paw With clingy, pups who like to paw, I often like to place my laptop on my lap so that it becomes hard for them to paw. It makes it easy to ignore them and creates a sort of barrier. A big book may help too. I like to keep these handy on the couch so that I can reach out for them as needed. Of course, we can do this after ensuring that all the pup's needs have been met (exercise, mental stimulation) and are sure the puppy is not trying to communicate something important (such as needing to go potty outside). I hope this helps, this is likely just a phase that will pass once your pup gets older and less needy. The adolescent stage is around the corner, and she may start acting a little more independent. Here are some exercises to help make dogs a little less clingy: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/following-owners-around-house/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/exercises-to-prevent-separation-anxiety-in-puppies/ Happy training! Best, Adrienne

Hi there, welcome to the forums, I assume in this case, you are struggling with your GSD jumping on you? Dogs typically like to jump up on their owners as a way of saying "hello," especially after not seeing them for some time. Many dog owners unknowingly encourage jumping or try to discourage the jumping. Some methods are downright wrong, while others may even encourage jumping behavior. We know that dogs are opportunistic beings and engage in behaviors that provide rewards. So, if you are scolding your dog for jumping, why is he/she still doing it? Let's take a look at some common mistakes we may knowingly or unknowingly make when trying to stop dogs from jumping. -Don't Scold, Push, and Yell If you have been away from home all day and Rover has been alone, it is normal for him to be super excited once you step in the door. Let's say, however, that you ignore your dog's greeting because you have a million things to do—you need to take a shower, cook a meal, lay down on the couch, and watch your favorite show. While you are walking around, Rover decides to jump on you and bark. "Down!" You scold him as you push him off, but within a few seconds, he does it again. What gives? For many dogs, negative attention is better than no attention at all! When you tell your dog "down," you often make eye contact and may even push them down. Some dog owners even knee their dogs in the chest, please don't do that! In the least bad scenario, it just won't work, in the worst case, it will harm your dog and evoke defensive behaviors. Here's the thing: for a dog that has been isolated all day with little mental stimulation, being looked at, talked to, and touched is often perceived as reinforcing. In the dog training world, punishment is defined as something that suppresses the animal's behavior. Since scolding is not working and instead intensifies the behavior, we are likely not punishing but reinforcing! Of course, this does not apply to all dogs. Reinforcement is in the eye of the beholder, meaning it's up to the individual dog deciding what is perceived as reinforcing. For a shy dog, scolding may suppress the behavior in the long run, but there are better ways to train a dog not to jump. -Don't Allow Jumping in Select Circumstances There are some dog owners who assume that it is acceptable for the dog to jump on neighbors who know the dog, but discourage it on people that the dog does not know well. In a similar fashion, some dog owners discourage jumping when they come home and then reward it when they are distracted by the phone and start petting the dog while it stands up on two feet. Dogs need black and white rules; shades of grey confuse them. A dog cannot be taught to discriminate who can be jumped on from who cannot, and allowing inconsistent rules sets dogs up for failure: it puts the behavior on a variable schedule. A variable schedule takes place when you reward your dog at certain times and not others. A variable schedule is a great way to maintain a behavior and prevent it from extinguishing. It is similar to the addiction of playing the lottery where you feel more like playing if you win random rewards. So be consistent and don't get stuck in this trap! -Don't Move Away It is often an innate behavior to move away when a dog jumps. This action often triggers more jumping because dogs are attracted to movement. The same applies to petting a dog that tries to playfully nip the hand; the quick withdrawal of the hand will attract the dog more than us staying motionless and simply going limp. Suddenly moving away from a jumping dog will therefore often trigger more jumping. If you carefully observe dogs playing, you will notice that the dog that moves away is often more likely to be chased because it is seen as an invitation for action. When teaching recall exercises, it helps to walk backwards to attract the dog to follow! This also explains why kids are often jumped on as well—their fast withdrawal movements attract dogs to action How to Train Your Dog Not to Jump Up on People? Now, let's talk about what you can do to decrease this behavior. We now know that dogs jump up on people to say hello, that they are opportunistic beings, and some may prefer to be scolded than given no attention at all. We also know that hitting, kicking, and pinching is the best way to make your dog fearful of you and is considered abusive. If Rover was alone and bored all day, it is normal for him to enjoy a bit of negative attention (scolding, pushing), and we all know he enjoys positive attention (petting, eye contact, talking to him), so there appears to be little space for improving the situation. If you cannot get mad at your dog and you cannot touch, look at, or talk to your dog, there is not much left to do, so what do you do? Simple: NOTHING! And then make sure to follow some extra tips. Do: Ignore the Behavior Your first step, therefore, is to completely ignore your dog when he is excited and jumping. Come home and act aloof as best as you can. If he jumps on you? No deal. Simply turn your back away and go on with your errands. This process is called negative punishment. Punishment, in scientific terms, has nothing to do with harsh aversion-based corrections. It simply means subtracting something. Punishment simply refers to reducing unwanted behaviors and possibly extinguishing them over time. In this case, we are removing something the dog likes (attention) for the purpose of suppressing the unwanted behavior. This means not looking at the dog, not talking to the dog, and not touching the dog. The only thing you should do is to turn your back to your dog the moment he jumps on you. This way, you are removing yourself and giving your dog the most boring part of yourself. If your dog still jumps on your back as you have turned away, it may be worth it to briefly leave the room until he has calmed down. Do: Be Persistent Remember how Rover decided to jump up after the owner ignored him coming home? This is a behavior you must anticipate. In dog training lingo, it is called an "extinction burst." In other words, if Rover is used to jumping up on you and getting attention (either the positive or negative type), he may feel more compelled to jump because his jumping behavior is not working! For example, imagine you get into your office each day effortlessly by opening the door. One day, the door does not open. What do you do? You will likely push it, force it, and try harder to make it open. The same thing applies to your dog. He is most likely thinking, "Hey owner, what is going on? Usually, I jump on you and you pet me or you get upset at me! I will try harder and jump more just to get you to react!" Stay as firm as you can on the training program and you will see results. The jumping behavior should start fading. It is best if you ignore the jumping dog and give your dog an alternate behavior. Do: Give an Alternate Behavior So, if your dog learns that jumping yields no results, wouldn't it also be great to teach an alternate behavior that yields results? The power of positive reinforcement will be your best friend. It is scientifically proven that behaviors which are rewarded are likely to be repeated over time. Edward Thorndike's "Law of Effect" claims, "responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again." So, if jumping is ignored, then why not reward the dog for a default behavior such as sitting and provided attention once the dog successfully sits? This is a win-win for everyone! Watch for Behavior Chains! Ideally, you should catch your dog before he has an opportunity to jump and ask him to sit, this important detail will prevent you from getting into a sticky situation known as a behavior chain, where dogs will jump and then immediately sit and the jumping never extinguishes because dogs think it's part of the exercise! Do: Involve Everybody Your behavior modification program cannot be effective if you do not involve the participation of all people. Have guests turn their backs on your jumping dog. Then, once the dog has calmed down, have them ask for a sit before your dog has the opportunity to jump instead. Once sitting nicely, your guests can then go ahead and pet your dog, or if this is too exciting, you can ask them to toss a treat to your dog and ask for more sits, or ask your dog to hand target and toss a treat. This helps discourage jumping and also rewards the dog for demonstrating good manners and self-control. Everyone needs to participate in this training for it to be successful. It is helpful to organize sessions with other people or join a training center that focuses on teaching good manners. Set up sessions with friends, family, and other dog owners. Dogs do not generalize well, so it helps to have many people implement this training in different scenarios and places. The more you work on this, the more your puppy or dog will learn the rules of good manners. I hope this helps! Happy training!

Hi Caitlin, Welcome to the forums, please see my observation under your bold statements: I just purchased the brain training class and am new to the forum. We're still in preschool, obviously. I have a 3 month old Australian cattle dog/Labrador mix that we just adopted about 10 days ago. She was found on the side of the road with her sister and taken to the shelter. We're in puppy hell right now... but determined to get through this. We have a 7 mo. and 11 mo. kitten as well and I've been reading the forums and courses on what we can do with that. Thank you Adrienne for the wealth of information available! I'm so excited to start working with her on impulse control and teaching her to go to her mat, etc.! She's crazy smart. We were able to teach her in the first two days to sit at the door and wait for us to invite her inside and she learned "leave it" her second day with us as well. She learned sit after just 2-3 tries! It's so sad when people just dump these precious pups on the side of the road. I am glad though that this has a happy ending. Your Aussie/Lab mix is very fortunate to have found you! She is very smart to have mastered leave it and sit after 2-3 tries and that she was ready to apply that at the door waiting for you to invite her out! Kudos to you too! However, we are struggling with massive tantrums and I didn't see any posts about puppy tantrums. Now that she is comfortable with us, whenever she doesn't have our constant attention she will chew anything in sight and cry or bark - and if we ignore her, she throws a tantrum. I don't have an official post about tantrums in the course, the term can mean different things depending on who you speak, but there's a read on impulse control and frustration tolerance that covers tantrums: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/ "Tantrums" have also been discussed on the forums several times, as you can see you are not alone! https://braintraining4dogs.com/forum/search/?q=tantrum&quick=1 However, there are tantrums and tantrums and their approach may vary based on the underlying cause. I realize I should not give her attention but what do we do about the tantrums while she learns? We can't exercise her until she is vaxxed and she doesn't know how to play with anything (our previous dogs liked to fetch and just always knew how). We just have her chew things and give her kongs stuffed with kibble At 3 months, your pup's window of socialization is about to close, but these pups should still be granted ongoing socialization in a safe manner. Puppy classes are a great way to allow this, although with the pandemic, these are now organized a tad bit differently. There are still though a bunch of other activities that can be added, such as car rides, just watching the world go by a window or from the porch (LAT is great game to start forming positive associations https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/) and playing dress-up where family members can wear hats, sunglasses, take turns walking with a cane, an umbrella, wearing last year's Halloween costume etc. Also, don't forget to provide tactile sensation (walking on a variety of surfaces) It's interesting that you mention she doesn't know how to play. Have you tried tossing her kibble for her to catch? Or her chew toys? How about using a flirt pole? I would expect a pup of this age and breed to have some prey drive. Did she get a check-up from the vet just in case? But when we want to tend to the cats or go take a shower, or are in a meeting for work - she will start crying and then if we ignore her she quickly starts to bark and screech which literally send shocks up my spine. We also have a shared wall with a neighbor (we live in a duplex house so one shared wall touches all the rooms except the living room/kitchen). So ignoring her tantrums is hard to do as well because I feel bad for the neighbor. (He hasn't complained and we introduced him to her so he would know what the ruckus was but still, I want to be considerate of him). They happen once or twice a day and I struggle with my patience. I hear you! I am familiar with those ear-piercing screeches that make your spine chill. Actually, interestingly, there is a reason why we exhibit such a visceral reaction to certain ear-splitting sounds. Researchers have found that our response to the sounds of a crying baby or a human scream is ultimately as well tied to survival. This because these frequencies may prompt us to rescue a crying infant sooner, improving the baby's chances for survival. In a similar fashion, hearing a puppy vocalize may prompt in us similar alarm responses that make us want to step in and make it stop. Most likely, this goes both ways. Puppies instinctively screech as a survival mechanism. Being an altricial species, dogs as young puppies are very vulnerable, and being left alone is a scary experience. Those ear-piercing vocalizations are meant to attract mother dog and attend to her puppies. Most likely, your pup's screeching is also what may have grabbed the attention of humans by the side of the road so this instinctive screeching has been ulteriorly reinforced. Now, if this is induced by anxiety, we need to tread with caution, taking baby steps and gradually helping these pups learn to be less dependent on us. However, what to do though in the meanwhile considering that this is not an overnight process. This is a good question, also because it may seem like if we use one approach or another we are a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place. If we give the puppy attention in these cases, we may risk that, over time, she may eventually learn that her behavior works in getting what she wants, but ignoring would trigger an extinction burst (Jennifer already pointed you to some sources that discuss this term, but we'll cover more about that below) and the occasional spontaneous recovery-not great if you have neighbors who share a wall. Also, if this is triggered by anxiety, more and more behavior professionals are concerned that, the more a puppy experiences the trauma of being left alone and acts panicky, the sooner panic will set in next time and may even predispose to separation anxiety. So in these cases, it may be best doing everything you can to prevent the excessive crying from occurring in the first place. If you puppy has a tantrum at a certain time of the day or in a specific situation, you have a big advantage: predictability. If you can say, "my puppy misbehaves when....." or "my puppy misbehaves every time he sees xyz..." you have more control over the situation because you know when or in what context the undesirable behavior presents and can take steps to tackle it. In your case, it sounds like this happens once or twice a day when you tend to the cats, go take a shower or are in a meeting for work. Since you mentioned "we" it may therefore help if some other family member can stick with the puppy while doing these anxiety-inducing things. The goal here is to prevent rehearsal of the problematic behavior (the more dogs engage in certain behaviors the more they become habit-forming), protecting your relationship with your neighbor, and preventing full intensity manifestations while we take steps to ameliorate the pup's ability to become more independent. Exercises that help foster independence can be found here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/exercises-to-prevent-separation-anxiety-in-puppies/ We want to take baby steps, and progress steadily and gradually working at the pup's pace. For instance, while you take a shower, a family member can stay with the pup, but he or she can occasionally walk around the room with very brief instances of being out of sight, always working at a level that doesn't induce anxiety-basically under threshold, more on this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ There are also calming aids that can help such as: DAP diffusers,-Adaptil offers a variety of products meant to help new puppies adapt to their new homes. Its products are made with synthetic pheromones which mimic the pheromones mother dogs produce to sooth their puppies when they're nursing. Calming music for dogs. "Through a dog's ear" is music specifically crafted for dogs, but you can find hours of music for dogs for free on YouTube. Snuggle Puppy Behavior Aid This may seem like a simple stuffed animal, but it was purposely crafted for lonely pups. It emanates warmth and also mimics a heart beat to help sooth distressed puppies. Sometimes leaving a shirt with our smell can help soothe the pups as well and covering the crate with a blanket may help some (not all). Fortunately, as puppies mature, they tend to become more independent, although we may see some challenges with some pups like those who were removed from the litter too early or puppies who who where were never left home alone or puppies with early illness. Fearful puppies may also be predisposed because they never get to learn independence and grow to be overly dependent on their caretakers. And then of course, there are other predisposing factors to consider such as the impact of change, where an owner that was always home starts working back in the office (a common scenario with the pandemic), vacations etc. Something as mentioned that may occur when we give attention to puppies crying is that puppies may learn to eventually whine/cry (add any other undesirable behavior) for attention. Often times, we fail to give attention to our dogs when they are behaving, but immediately give them attention the moment they misbehave, isn't that something? Tackling puppies misbehaving for attention is not an easy task. It requires a different approach than a dog crying for anxiety. You need to firstly evaluate whether your puppy is crying because of a truly impellent physiological need (thirsty, hungry, tired, too hot, too cold, under-exercised, needing to be taken out to go potty) and once you have ruled that out, your next step may be ignoring unwanted behaviors. This is the most difficult part because you need to ignore these behaviors totally, no looking, no talking, no scolding, no pushing, no making eye contact. No attention at all, even attention of the negative type. You would therefore have to pretend as if your pup isn't there, waiting for her to give up engaging in the undesirable behavior. As one persists in not providing attention, it's important to be aware of a particular phenomenon known as an "extinction burst." In simple words, an extinction burst takes place when you have provided your dog with attention and then suddenly stop providing it. The behavior will typically intensify or the dog may try new behaviors in hopes of getting attention again. If you endure this temporary intensification, you will eventually succeed. If you give in though and dole just about any form of attention, you will be back to square one, or may have even regressed, as you have reinforced persistence. So yes, expect behaviors to get worse before getting better, but take extinction bursts as a sign that whatever you are doing is working! Often, puppies may rebel to being confined, often under the form of strong protesting in the form of barking and whining along with chewing the bars when crated or enclosed in a play pen. A well-meaning concerned owner may inadvertently reinforce this behavior by either attending to the puppy or, releasing the puppy from his confinement. This paves the path to a strong history of reinforcement since the puppy learns how his behavior works in granting him the freedom. However, it's important to rule out anxiety. There's a difference in the body language/ vocalizations of a puppy crying simply because of being cranky and one crying from full-mode anxiety panic. Ideally, breeders should get puppies used to being confined when in their care, but it's unfortunate that many do not. If not, we can help pups get used to confinement gradually, here is a guide: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/ This is the ideal approach, in the case of puppies crying in the crate because they're not used to being confined. Shoving a puppy who was never crate trained in a crate and letting him/her cry will only make matters worse, as that's flooding rather than gradual desensitization/counterconditioning. Having said that, back to pups just rebelling to being closed and not being anxious, ignoring the behavior (and it's accompanying extinction bursts) in this case can be effective in reducing this type of behavior. The puppy should soon learn that his crate is only opened when he has been quiet for some time. Special care is therefore needed in avoiding falling into the extinction burst trap or the occasional spontaneous recovery. For sake of comparison, Williams (1959) reported the case of a “tyrant-like tantrum behavior” expressed by a 2-year-old toddler every time it was time to go to bed. The family ignoring the behavior worked well, leading to several tantrum-free nights, until one night when the child exhibited an episode of tantrum behavior (spontaneous recovery) while an aunt was watching him and she attended to him. This single reinforcing event was sufficient to cause the tantrum behavior to recover, requiring another series of extinction trials, and finally the behavior was fully extinguished. Of course, this may not be very feasible in the case of neighbors sharing a wall, but it can be doable if we strategically coordinate our training with the neighbor keeping us informed when he'll be on vacation or on an extended business trip for some time so we can take advantage and make most of that time. Of course, one must factor in, that the longer one has reinforced attention-seeking behaviors, the longer it will take to extinguish and this can a pain-staking process, which is why this is far better being tackled earlier rather than later, ideally taking as many preventive steps as possible. And then my second question is about sleep. Keeping a sleep/activity journal has been helpful and eye-opening in realizing that she was not sleeping enough. Letting her nap instead of trying to wear her out has helped a lot. But sometimes when she wants to play with the cats, she will not sleep and then she gets cranky. Yesterday she only clocked 11.75 hours of sleep out of the 24. Her usual is around 15 hours. I can't get her to sleep any more than that. When she is wound up, I've started sitting near her and petting her (not when she is crying) and then she falls asleep but I don't want her to become dependent on us for sleep. How can I get her to sleep the full amount she needs? Is it ok to calm her down like that first? Thank you! - Caity Puppies may also throw what looks like a tantrum when they are cranky and in dire need for a nap and they're still overstimulated. Expect crankiness when pups start misbehaving and therefore whine, bark, chew, bite or hump more. "This can be equated to kids spending all day at an amusement park and then are unable to sleep because they are so wound up and cranky from all the excitement," says Nan Arthur in her book Chill Out Fido. While young puppies are balls of energy, but their energy drains very fast and they need sleep to recuperate. It is estimated that young puppies require around eighteen to twenty hours for sleep per day. This may sound a whole lot, but it makes sense since puppies do most of their growing while sleeping! So it sounds like your pup needs her quiet spot- that is, definitely away from the cats. Sticking to a routine can help provide structure and reassurance. You can help a cranky puppy fall asleep by reducing stimulation and taking the following steps: -Bring your puppy to a quiet place where they usually sleep (crate, exercise pen). -Remove access to overly stimulating toys, other puppies/pets or children. -Encourage calming activities by offering a chew toy or edible chew to gnaw on top of a mat/ dog bed (these can act as pacifiers). -Close all curtains and blinds (or place a blanket over the crate). -Play calming music (like Through a Dog's Ear) -For young puppies, provide a shirt that smells like you or a soothing toy like -Consider that pups may get more cranky when they are teething Teaching your pup to lie on a mat is also great and I see that you are already considering that. I hope this helps! Happy training!

I'm definitely not in the "you spoil the kid by going to it" school I'm into attachment parenting with babies! Most of her whining has been fairly low key kind of attention grabbing but can be a bit ow, ow, ow, ow, if she's got going a bit more, It's not been for more than a few minutes (unless we're eating a meal) I'm there waiting for her to stop so that I can let her out, but should I ignore her and not look at her atll while shes whining? or should I talk to her (give her attention) and try reassure her with my voice? (this is what I've done with her at night, if needed the first few nights I would go and open the crate and fuss her and stroke her to sleep again then close the door again). That's a great mindset! Thank so you much for sharing the pictures, she's adorable! I am all for reassuring the pups their first nights as it can be very stressful. I like to keep the crate nearby the bed and then dangle my arm down and talk and pet them to reassure them they are not alone. As the days go by though and the pups start adjusting, I gradually move the crate a bit farther and may use a Smart Pet Love Snuggle Pup behavioral aid for those who still struggle a bit. This is a fairly new, brilliant invention that has helped me a lot. So to your question, when I am sure that the whining stems from attention (basically, I know all her needs have been met, she doesn't need to potty, she's not hot, thirsty, stressed or terrified of being alone, and she seems OK being crated) it helps to send these pups the message that calm behaviors get us to open the crate, while impatient behaviors do not. So the concept we want to send is that "patience pays." So what I do with pups who whine like this is this: let's say a pup is in the crate in a room whining, I would wait by the door for a little break in the whining and immediately enter the room and walk her way, nothing emotional, just matter of fact. She starts to whine again? I make an abrupt turn and show my back. The whining intensifies? I manage to leave the room. The whining stops? I turn around and go back towards the crate. The whining resumes? I turn around again. Whining stops again, I walk back. I like to particularly turn around/ walk back towards the pup sloooowly almost to show that I am very tentative about what happens next. Almost to send the message "I am walking your way, but I am very carefully paying attention to what you are doing, if you keep quiet, I'll keep moving your way, if you make a sound I will turn and even the leave the room if it persists." I basically, help the pup understand how it's her choice whether I 'll get closer to the crate. After several trials, most pups get the idea that quiet gets you closer and even open the crate, while whining gets you farther away and even leave the room if it persists. Now, a phenomenon to be aware of with attention-seeking whining is the so-called extinction burst. Here's an example of an extinction burst: Let's imagine a mom who always gives in and buys candy for her toddler when she cries upon visiting the grocery store. Then, one day the child's dentist notices the candy is ruining the child's teeth. So from the next day, no more candy. At the store, the toddler therefore cries, and cries and cries in hopes of candy, and then eventually starts throwing a super big temper tantrum at the store (behavior getting worse), since the crying is no longer working as before. What happens though if, after several days in a row, the mom is super determined to not give in? After the crying has gotten temporarily worse, it eventually extinguishes just like a fire that is deprived from oxygen. Moral of the story: if you decide to totally ignore your pup's attention-seeking whining expect the behavior to get worse before it gets better. During the extinction burst your dog may whine louder and for longer or she may even try new behaviors in hopes of re-gaining attention such as mouthing at the crate or pawing at it. If you stick to the plan though and not approach when whining, after such increase, you should see the behavior gradually declining and then eventually extinguishing (other than an occasional whine here and there due to another phenomenon known as "spontaneous recovery." What happens though if during an extinction burst, you happen to inadvertently give any attention? This can create setbacks. The reason is because now, you will have reinforced persistence. In other words, back to the toddler example, what would have happened if the mom would have given in and bought candy right when the child had a tantrum, yelling and screaming to her embarrassment? This would have caused the old behavior of crying for candy to make a quick comeback, becoming even more established than before! Now, if mom decided again to be more determined to not buy candy, she would likely have to go through more intense yelling and screaming behaviors because the toddler has learned that if she insists, and reaches mom's breaking point, she can finally get what she wants. Sure, dogs may not intently think in such a way, but extinctions bursts are a real thing and we are destined to encounter more hurdles if we inadvertently reinforce a behavior during this delicate stage. Now, here's where things get complicated. If we recognize attention whining, and work hard on reducing that, that day we are late from work and our pup is crated and urgently needs to potty and is whining and we go open the crate door, we may risk having a comeback of whining for attention, even though in this case the underlying motive was the urge to potty. Inconsistencies aren't much our friend in training dogs because they create confusion, just like dogs who are allowed sometimes yes and sometimes no on the couch. It's the power of an intermittent schedule So there are three things we can do: 1) wait to work on attention-seeking whining when inside the crate later on, once the puppy has better bladder and bowel control, has been accustomed to being in a new place and does fine in the crate and is a little more independent, or 2) work on it from the get-go but being super diligent in doing our best of not putting the pup in the position of having to urgently be let out (which can be a bit of a challenge in the case pups have diarrhea or urinary tract infections), and ensuring the crate remains a positive, great to be in or 3) work on it intermittently-going with the flow, basically trying to tackle attention-seeking whining when it seems to stem from attention, and getting the pup out when we suspect something may be amiss. As we familiarize with our pups more, we may be able to differentiate the different types of vocalizations, although some smarty pants pups learn that if they vocalize a certain way they get us running and it may become a part of their extinction burst strategy fooling us. So it's not very easy and we need to consider several variables such as age, how well the pup is potty trained, how well the puppy does in the crate, how long the pups has been in the home, how far away the crate is from the person etc. Some great breeders are now getting really really good in getting pups used to the crate from a young age and potty training them early so that once they're in their new homes a lot of the major work has been cut for the new owners. There's a new program that has come out for educating dog breeders and many breeders are starting to teach puppies from an early age to learn the art of "manding". Pups learn to politely sit quietly in front of the crate to be asked to be let out. So in a young pup under the age of 4-5 months we can certainly introduce the pre- concept of quiet and calm gets you out of the crate (breeders have now started this as early as 4-5 weeks), although we can't be super strict about it because young pups may have their moments of being too over threshold to be able to think about sitting when they need to potty badly or are scared of being left alone or are super excited to see us etc. However, if all needs are met and we keep at it and work though the occasional extinction burst, once the pups is 5 months old and has aced potty training for the most part, and is more independent, and by now the crate feels comfy like his second home, we will have established a nice foundation and now the pre-concept has sunk in as a solid concept and can be even turned into a rule. So I guess it boils down to this, introducing the pre-concept of "patience pays" when pups are young, and then as they develop, making it more of a concept and establish it then as rule that we expect from them now that their bladders and bowels are fully developed and they have all the necessary hardware for more serious impulse control training.

Hi Diane and Cosmo, Thank you so much for the extra details, they are very helpful! Please see your statements in bold and my observations below. She has always exhibited this behavior with me sitting at the dining table far as I can remember. Sooo....if she has been performing this behavior for as far as you can remember, we are dealing with a strongly established reinforcement history. In other words, the behavior has been rehearsed for quite some time, and the more they are rehearsed, the more ingrained and established they become. This makes them more difficult to overcome, compared to behaviors that have recently started from fresh and can be better nipped in the bud, so to say. So it's not going to be easy. I do not believe that there is any specific sound or smell that bothers her. I am either doing diamond art or paint by numbers but it doesn’t matter which one I’m doing….Cosmo’s response is the same There can still be some issue associated with smells although, we may really never know, so speculating on this won't get us much anywhere but thought to bring it up as a possibility. Just to share some anecdotal evidence: when cooking lamb meat, I use high oven temps and the meat tends to make a lot of smoke due to its grease content, so it would turn on our smoke alarm. Our Rottweiler Petra, hated the sound of the smoke alarm, but I think it was for a good part also because my husband upon hearing it, would get up with a sense of urgency and go open all the windows and doors. It took a couple of times for this scene to repeat, that Petra started acting anxious whining and pacing anytime I was cooking lamb meat even if the smoke alarm never went off as we took precautionary measures such as opening all windows before or covering the alarm with towels. This just to say, that some dogs can quickly learn to associate a particular activity with something they dislike, even if what they dislike doesn't always present itself. I know some dogs who get anxious in response to certain smells such as solvents, strong glues or paints. Einstein used to get anxious upon smelling skunks after being skunked once. Single-event learning. He never forgot. Once I sit down the pacing seems to start fairly quickly and just doesn’t stop. I think one time it went for over an hour because I was trying to fully ignore her to see if she would calm herself down at all. Ignoring works well for behaviors that are reinforced by attention. However, when ignoring a behavior that has established, it would take some time for it to extinguish and you must be aware of the phenomenon of extinction bursts. Here's the thing: our attention can be very reinforcing to our dogs, and that includes attention of the positive type (praise, petting, food, toys, caringly making eye contact, sweet talking to our dogs) or attention of the negative type (looking at the dog sternly, scolding the dog, pushing him away, getting any type of angry/frustrated reaction from us. With this in mind, in order for ignoring to work, you would need to therefore be totally unaware of your dog. This takes a certain skill, and be even not feasible, especially when the barking is sustained and very loud and we live in a tight-knit neighborhood You may need to wear headphones to endure the barking and remind yourself to not look at your dog or interact with her in any way when she is barking. All family must be consistent and on board in not giving the dog any attention of any type when the dog is demand-barking. When a dog has been receiving attention of any kind for many weeks, months or even years, and now you are totally ignoring, an extinction burst will often take place and this may at first appear as if ignoring is not working. An extinction burst in dogs, is the phenomenon of behaviors getting worse before they are getting better. As bad as this sounds, it's actually a good thing if you know how to tackle it. For sake of an example, a mom who always gives in and buys candy for her toddler when she cries upon visiting the grocery store. Then, one day the child's dentist notices the candy is ruining the child's teeth. So from the next day, no more candy. At the store, the toddler therefore cries, and cries and cries in hopes of candy, and then eventually starts throwing a super big temper tantrum at the store (behavior getting worse)., since the crying is no longer working as before. What happens though if, after several days in a row, the mom is super determined to not give in? After the crying has gotten temporarily worse, it eventually extinguishes just like a fire that is deprived from oxygen. Moral of the story: if you decide to totally ignore your dog's barking expect the behavior to get worse before it gets better. During the extinction burst your dog may bark louder and for longer or she may even try new behaviors in hopes of regaining his attention. If you stick to the plan though, after such increase, you should see the behavior gradually declining and then eventually extinguishing. What happens though if during an extinction burst, you happen to inadvertently give any attention? This would be a recipe for disaster! The reason is because now, you will have reinforced persistence. In other words, back to the toddler example, what would have happened if the mom would have given in and bought candy right when the child had a tantrum, yelling and screaming to her embarrassment? This would have caused the old behavior of crying for candy to make a quick comeback, becoming even more established than before! Now, if mom decided again to be more determined to not buy candy, she would likely have to go through more intense yelling and screaming behaviors because the toddler has learned that if he insists, and reaches mom's breaking point, he can finally get what he wants. Sure, dogs may not intently think in such a way, but extinctions bursts are a real thing and we are deemed to encounter more hurdles if we inadvertently reinforce a behavior during this delicate stage. Now in your dog's case though, the behavior may not be necessarily attention-driven, there may be some element of anxiety at play. Pacing and whining sounds more like anxiety versus a more confident demand-barking. So an ignoring-the- dog strategy may not work well, and even if it would, I wouldn't recommend plain ignoring as a stand alone method as it's likely to cause lots of frustration. "As soon as I sit on the couch she stops and lays down" This seems to prove that there's something about your activity that is disturbing her. If she were to want attention, we would expect her to also do so when you sit on the couch. However, if you have been petting her and giving her attention on the couch and ignoring her when crafting that can bring attention-seeking back to being a strong possibility. So I have further a questions (sorry, this is quite a puzzle, but the more puzzle pieces the better!) -What do you do on the couch differently? Are you petting her, giving her attention when there? Many of us have an established habit of petting dogs automatically when we sit on the couch. It soon becomes a desired routine, so there could be chances a dog may be whining/pacing in anticipation of us sitting on the couch, especially if we always sit on the couch after crafting or at the same times every day. -Have you ever tried working from a different table? I don't suggest trying to do the crafts on the couch because we don't want her to associate it with that since she settles so nicely there. Just trying to exclude a possible issue with a certain table. -Do you wear different glasses when you work at the table? Anything that changes our appearance can sometimes upset dogs. -Do you do crafting mostly at a certain time of the day? Is it a set routine? What do you right after? Like if you feed her meal right after, she may be whining because she may want to be fed earlier. Even if you keep on crafting and then feed her, she may think that her whining worked in getting you to feed her. If you sit on the couch right after, she may also think she has gotten you to join her thanks to the whining. -Have you tried crating her with a stuffed Kong at a distance from you (in case there's some smell that bothers her). Have you tried placing a blanket on the crate? In case there's something visually bothering her. -After how much time of her whining and pacing, do you sit on the couch? She may be tired/exhausted by the time you go there after all the pacing and whining. -Can you sit on the table without her whining when you don't do crafts? Like for eating? Thanks again!

Hello and welcome to the forums! Jennifer gave you wonderful advice and many great interactive toy ideas. Gotta love Chewy, they are a wonderful resource and bless their hearts for their generosity (they even once told me to keep a bag of dog food my dog didn't like when she got super picky from having cancer and they reimbursed me the amount and told me to donate the bag to a shelter). Please see my observations/tips under your posts. Hi there! I have a 1 1/2 year old husky/terrier mix who can be very demanding. At this age, we are at the adolescent stage, and yes, this can be a challenging phase to deal with. You can read about what happens during this time here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/ He will bark non stop to get his way. Whether he needs to go outside, eat, play, or just wants a pet, he will bark in my face until I do what he wants. It sounds like your dog may benefit from a plan where he gets all the good stuff contingent upon acting calm and not barking. For example, when you catch your dog acting calm and not barking, reward that. Be careful though to avoid a behavior chain (more on this explained below), so you need to wait that enough time has elapsed from his last bark before you reward his calm behavior. For example, if your dog barks as a way of begging to be petted, pet him when he is in a calm state of mind. Call him to you when he is calm and not barking, ask him to sit and pet him telling him what a good boy he is. When you are done, say ''all done!" (add a hand signal to it for more emphasis) and get up to do something else. Make sure to be very consistent with this, all done means all done. If your dog keeps trying to demand more attention ignore and leave the area if he persists. Also, train him to sit before you toss him a ball rather than him barking for you to toss it. Train him to sit before being taken out, train to sit before he is fed his meals, train him to sit when you put the leash on. More about this is covered here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance If you are about to do something you know your dog badly wants, but he manages to bark, provide a consequence for that barking by making the likeliness of it happening decrease. For example, if you are preparing his meal and he barks as you pour food in his bowl, put the bowl away and return once he's been quiet for some time. I like to emphasize this a lot, like I strategically plan to prepare food when a dog is calm and in a non-barking state. If he barks though when I start, I put the bowl away. If he keeps barking I even leave the area. If he is quiet for a bit, I will go back to meal preparation, but if he barks again, it's the bowl away and me leaving the room again. Then, I try again. If he is quiet, and I am able to pour the food in the bowl, I may next walk towards the dog, but if he barks, I will turn around, and even think about walking away if he persists. Once he is quiet again, I will try again to walk towards him. If he finally manages to stay quiet until the end, I will put the bowl down (I like to ask for a sit and then release with an "ok!" once the bowl is on the ground) Your first meal preparations may seem to take forever the initial days, but most dogs catch on quickly if you are very clear in communicating that quiet gets you to advance in meal preparation, while barking slows you down. The goal is therefore to teach your dog that calm behaviors unleash all the rewards, when barking and acting impatient does not. He barks even more if my husband and I sitting together. Like, he is mad he is not the center of attention. We have separated ourselves from him, ignored his barking, given him interactive toys, and pretty much do everything we can to keep him mentally stimulated, but then, it's like he remembers that he needs to bark at us and won't stop once he starts. I am trying to figure out what I can do to help ease him of this habit. This sounds like a form of attention barking mixed with some frustration. Of course, before assuming this, it's important first to ensure all the dogs' needs are met (he was fed, has water, has gone potty, and has received enough exercise and mental stimulation for the day, more on this is discussed below). Now, the biggest hurdle with dogs barking for attention is that any type of attention (even attention of the negative type) constitutes a reward. This means that you can't shush your dog, laugh at your dog, look at your dog, smack the dog (never recommended) or even ask you dog to do something else because all of these things ultimately qualify as a form of attention! So what's left to do? Ignoring seems to be the only option. Ignoring means just that, not paying any attention to the dog as he barks while you're both sitting on the couch, and even walking away and leaving the room if the barking persists. I know you said you tried to ignore, but in order to work well, the ignore program needs to be super strict. Here's the thing: when ignoring a dog who has barked and received attention for it in the past (even attention of the negative type), this situation paves the path for what's known as "extinction burst." An extinction burst causes the barking to intensify (louder or for longer) and the dog may even try new behaviors (like pawing). When we see this happen, we often assume the ignoring is not working, but if we are very adamant in ignoring the barking or any newer secondary annoying behavior (leaving the room may help with this), the barking may eventually stop, although more bouts of extinction bursts are expected in dogs with a strongly established history. For sake of an example, it's sort of like kids that when they don't get candy at the store and they start whining. And when they see that whining doesn't work, they'll escalate to crying and screaming and putting up a tantrum (extinction burst). If we stick to our plan and don't give them candy despite all the drama, they'll learn to stop pushing it and the behavior will eventually extinguish, but if we give in though and buy it-even just that one time-, they'll always try to ask for candy because by buying the candy we have reinforced persistence. Now enduring an extinction burst is not easy. If we end up giving the dog any attention during this time (because neighbors may complain or we just can't take it anymore), we would yes, reinforce persistence allowing the behavior to become even more stronger than before. However, if we have no close neighbors or live out in the boonies and are able to endure the cacophony of sounds, chances are the dog may eventually give up, however, we need to consider though that the dog may still have unfulfilled needs despite what me may think. So does ignoring solve a dog's attention seeking barking? If we can endure the extinction bursts and stick to the plan, yes, it can help, but let's consider that, barking is also a self-reinforcing behavior. This means when your dog barks, he's also venting his frustration feelings so it still feels good to bark to some extent (just as it feels good for us to talk to others when we are upset about something) Ignoring a dog that attention barks, can therefore, yes, help a specific situation, but it's more of a short-term goal. We must remember that, our ultimate goal is to get to the bottom of the barking behavior, and pre-empting it as much as possible since barking is an outward sign of an internal emotional turmoil that needs addressed. This brings us to the need of multi-modal approach to use on top of the ignoring approach. Here are some tips: Make Sure Your Dog's Physiological Needs Are Met Before sitting on the couch for the evening, make sure that your dog has been fed, that he has access to a clean bowl with fresh water. Also, make sure to take him out to pee and poop. With your dog's basic needs to eat, drink, pee and poop met, you know that at least you have all of that covered. Make Sure Your Dog's Exercise Needs are Met Most dog breeds were crafted for specific tasks, and this required often a good level of energy and stamina. Retrievers were collecting downed birds, spaniels were flushing birds out of bushes, scent hounds were sniffing trails, sighthounds were chasing hare, small terriers were hunting vermin, huskies were pulling sleds etc. etc. Nowadays, most dogs are unemployed, so they are very prone to getting bored and frustrated. So before sitting on the couch, it may help to go on a nice walk, relax and enjoy the present and every now and then, don't forget to let your dog sniff around as a reward for walking nicely. Just loosen the leash and tell your dog "go sniff." Sniffing can be a tiring activity too as it requires concentration. Make Sure Your Dog's Needs for Mental Stimulation Are Met After taking your dog on nice walk, and ensuring all his basic physiological needs are met, before sitting on the couch, make sure to provide your dog with some activity. The activity doesn't have to necessarily include you (although it would be great if you could play with your dog for a few minutes each day). You can encourage independent play by providing some entertaining food puzzles and brain games for him to enjoy using a portion or your dog's entire meal this way (no food bowl!) Nowadays, there are many food puzzles on the market. Snuffle mats, Licki-mats, Kongs, Kong Wobblers, Nina Ottoson puzzles are just a few of the many. Jennifer has provided links to some of these. Brain games such as fun treasure hunts, bottle games, muffin games, encourage dogs to use their seeking system which promotes focus, confidence and self-control. Make Sure Your Dog's Needs for Chewing Are Met After being walked and provided with a cooling down brainy activity, there's nothing better than chewing on something to end the day. Chewing is a potent stress reliever for dogs and helps release pleasurable endorphins into the body. Providing your dog with a safe, edible long-lasting chew (ask your vet for recommendations) can help your dog feel happy after he has walked, "hunted for his kibble" and now that he has "killed his prey" he can enjoy chewing on it, so to say. Chewing helps dogs release some stress and frustration, and at the same time, it provides dogs with something to do in alternative to barking. Make it a habit of providing the chew on a your dog's doggy bed placed nearby the couch. Your dog can learn to lie on it for it and will look forward to his new routine. Make Sure Your Dog Has a Quiet Place to Nap By now, your energetic dog should feel quite satisfied about his day. He was walked, was given opportunities to sniff, he was played with and given fun food puzzles, and now he has a nice long-lasting chew to enjoy. By the time he is done with his chew, he should be relaxed enough to feel like it's time for him to take a nap. You can provide the perfect setting for a nap by dimming the lights a bit and refraining from talking in too exciting tones. Another thing to consider is that, if your dog has been walked, exercised, played with and given enough mental stimulation, it may be your dog is tired and getting a little cranky. You can help a moody, cranky dog by reducing stimulation so to help him settle down, relax and nap. You can do this by taking the following steps: Bring your dog to a quiet place where they usually sleep (crate, exercise pen dog bed). Remember though that dogs being very social, are always happiest being near you. Remove access to overly stimulating toys. Provide a chew toy or edible chew to gnaw on top of a mat/ dog bed (these can act as pacifiers). Talk in a quiet, soothing tone of voice. Act calm. This will help dog calm down too. Close all curtains and blinds. Turn lights off (or place a blanket over the crate). Play calming music or keep a fan on so to cut down on any residual background noise. Watch for the Onset of Behavior Chains! This is worthy of mentioning, so to cover more basis. A common recommended approach that you may find in a variety of websites or dog training books is to reward a dog for moments of silence. While this approach seems to make sense, considering that behaviors that are rewarded tend to repeat and strengthen, this approach ignores the phenomenon of behavior chains. Behavior chains take place where an undesirable behavior becomes part of a chain. For example, your dog may learn to bark and then stop barking to get a reward So be careful in what you do. When you want to reward your dog for being quiet do so only after some time has elapsed since he last barked. Will the Barking Stop For Good? I am not a big fan of the word "stopping." Dogs have a voice and we can't just stick a mute button on them for the rest of their lives. We can reduce barking though. In a similar way, we aim to reduce a baby's crying in the night by changing diapers before they cause irritations and ensuring the baby is fed, but we can't expect a baby to stop crying once and for all. Of course, dog barking can be super annoying, especially when ear-piercing and getting out of hand and when he have neighbors. However, they were selectively bred for this from ancient times and it used to be a blessing back in time when we needed them to alert us. We also need to factor in other phenomena. For instance, while teaching a dog new routines and desirable habits, it takes time for the barking to reduce. You may therefore encounter here and there, a phenomenon known as "spontaneous recovery." In other words, along the path, the barking behavior when you're sitting on the couch will eventually come back. It's as if the dog remembers the behavior out of the blue and thinks about trying it again. If you stick to your new habits, this too shall pass. As new routines are established (dogs love routines as they give them a sense of security), you should see a gradual yet steady reduction of your dog's barking behavior while you're sitting on the couch. Hope this helps, Happy training!

You might try looking for "extinction burst." Puppies are highly prone to these just before crashing. It can be a delicate balance between getting enough play and calling it quits before the tantrum occurs. Great that you introduced her to the neighbor! Letting him know that you're aware of her outbursts and are working on it can go a long ways towards keeping things civil. I've always talked to my neighbors and asked them to let me know if the noise got to be too much - I had no idea if Momo was quiet or not during the day. They all reported he was quiet as could be unless someone, or something, else made a loud noise. He'd bark for a minute, then stop. You could even try some humor and buy him ear plugs (I recommend Mack's silicone ear plugs, lol). Are you crate training her? Or do you have an area you can gate so she can be easily separated from the cats? Having a constant stimuli within reach can perpetuate these outbursts. I think of kids at the table with their phones and how it's often difficult for them to ignore the phones. If the phones are not allowed at the table it's easier for them to resist. Hang in there! I'm one who loves dogs but can't stand their shed hair, drool, whining (the Worst - drives me nuts), and barking, lol. Like . . . everything dog. My husband comments Often, "how are you a dog person?!" There's a jazz up, settle down game in the training that might be good for helping her find her "off" button. Definitely brain games for her because she's so smart. I have "Quiet Moments" spray from NaturVet as well as Lavender Zum Mist (it's lavender oil, water, and a carrier). I alternate them with the girls. When I know there's going to be a time that they're going to get wired I spray one or the other and keep things calm for about 5 - 10 minutes, then go on with the thing that's going to stir them up. Routine is my best tool. If I follow a routine throughout the day then everyone is on board and can settle, for the most part. Esther is a tough nut to crack, and I don't have time like I did with Momo and Gertrude so she hasn't gotten a fair shake. If I ever want to rock her world all I have to do is deviate from the routine. From my observations, dogs appreciate predictability. Poor Gertie has been Really confused the last 2 weeks because Esther chewed up the floor in her own kennel so we've been using Gertie's kennel for Esther. Every morning Gertie tried to go into her own kennel, but there was an Esther there. Gertie is normally Valium in doggy form, but that one small change had her turning in circles, jumping on her bed, jumping off her bed, turning in circles, bowing . . . and so on while I got her food ready. Now that her kennel is fixed, order has been restored and mornings are calmer. Having said all that, routine does take a bit of time to build and learn so be forgiving of her, and yourself (!) as you're forming it. I've had to really tap into my patience with Esther and I haven't always been able to keep it. Sometimes I still put her in her kennel when I need a break. She's grown to accept it, though it did take some time. That's the most recent post for extinction bursts aka tantrums. I did a search for "extinction" and found a wealth of information. Here's the search to help because I know you have your hands full! :) https://braintraining4dogs.com/forum/search/?q=extinction&quick=1

When she was younger and would bite me, I would yip like a dog and she would immediately go after me even more. As if it set her off or she was thought it was a game but leaving me bleeding everyday Yelping can work for some of the mellower dogs, but in others, it can actually increase their arousal levels making us sound like a squeaky toy and they indeed, can come to think it's all part of play. And much of the time outside, she suddenly begins jumping on me and biting at me. I have tried to turn away and ignore her and she bites my legs or tears at my clothes. The only way to stop her is to try and grab hold of her and drag her into the house and into her pen and ignore her until she calms down. At 6 months she is already 65 pounds and 25 " at the shoulder so she is a challenge. She's fine sometimes and always when playing ball but I don't want to have to play ball every single time we go outside. Many puppies and young dogs associate yard-time with time to act hyper. The extra space is inviting for stretching those legs and throwing a party. Owners of two dogs know this well based on how they automatically start romping and playing rough when they open the door that leads to the yard. For many dogs, the yard is the canine equivalent of an amusement park, where they get to do their favorite things. Many puppies get a case of "zoomies" when they're taken outside. They'll run around and try to engage their owners in rough play. It's not unusual for them to suddenly launch on their owners and nip in hopes of some interaction. This can start early in puppyhood, but it can exacerbate once adolescence is around the corner if not tackled early. From 6 months upwards, teenager dogs are bigger and stronger so they may appear more intimidating than a small puppy tugging at your pant legs. In particular, puppies and young dogs may launch themselves against their helpless humans when they have pent-up energy and don't know what to do with it. This may be the case when dogs haven't been exercised enough or haven't received enough mental stimulation after days of being confined at home due to bad weather. Many puppies and young dogs also crave interaction and attention. If you go out in the yard and start attending to your garden or sit down planning to read a book, your puppy may try to get you to interact with him. Puppies who deeply crave attention may do anything for a little attention, even if, as mentioned, that happens to be attention of the "negative type." In other words, just looking at them, scolding them or pushing them away qualifies as attention to them. And the more you try to push them away, the more they'll engage with you. And if you decide to ignore them, you will have to expect a full blown 'extinction burst.' Which is the behavior getting worse (rougher nipping, more jumping), before getting better. For example, if a dog was used to pawing at the owner to be petted and the owner complied most of the time, once the owner stops petting, the pawing may increase considerably. This is an extinction burst, which is the dog’s way of saying “hey, I am here, don’t you see me? I guess I must increase my pawing and nudging behavior since it is no longer working to get your attention.” How do you deal with an extinction burst? By continuing to ignore the behavior and not rewarding it in any way. Rewarding at this point would undo all of the hard work. However, this may not be easy to endure if the dog bites hard and if you try to leave he attaches to your leg. So how to tackle this behavior? Here are some ideas/tips. In most cases, you will need to take a multi-faceted approach, tackling the issue from a variety of angles. -Prevent Rehearsal of the Behavior Dogs are quite routine-based animals. They like to know what's happening next and they can quickly settle into new habits if we don't nip things in the bud. The more your puppy rehearses out-of-control behaviors involving you in the yard, the more ingrained and habit-forming it will become. Soon, getting out that door will become a cue that "wild play" is on. It therefore helps to prevent undesirable behaviors from establishing, and if they have already established, taking a variety of steps to provide outlets and suitable replacement behaviors that dog finds more satisfying than engaging in rowdy play. -Provide Outlets for Pent Up Energy Make sure your puppy receives enough exercise and mental stimulation throughout the day. During the day, offer brain games, food puzzles, durable toys to chew, walks, play productive games that don't involve nipping you directly (fetch, tug, flirt pole). -Ensure Enough Sleep Also make sure that your puppy gets enough sleep during the day and night, at 6 months, your pup has still a lot of growing to do. Not sleeping enough is one of the main causes of pups acting cranky and misbehaving. You want nice and deep REM sleep with the body twitching to consolidate what he has learned during the day. -Create a New Yard-Time Routine On top of the above activities provided during the day, you also want to have a plan in place for when you need to take your dog out of the yard so that your dog has something else to do rather than just think about nipping. Following are several options involving the use of kibble/treats. If you are concerned about calories and your dog loves her kibble, you can use kibble only. This is a great way to put your dog's food to good use rather than just letting your dog wolf it down within seconds from a food bowl. Keep some extra kibble in your pocket just in case so that you're ready to redirect your dog as you see her approach you with an intent to bite! -Turn Yard Time Into a Treasure Hunt Game Strategically hide around the yard a variety of kibble/treats so that once out, your dog has a fun treasure hunt game waiting for her. It may not be easy initially getting her mind off of nipping you, but you can introduce this game by grabbing some kibble as you head together outdoors and tossing some around the yard in a sprinkler manner, as you point and tell her happily to "go find em!" Once your pup is done, the moment you notice her approaching you, you can toss more around for her to find. End the session by opening the door as your dog is searching those last kibbles, and then toss some kibble indoors so that you can both re-enter together without any nipping involved. At some point, once your dog learns the ropes of this game, you can also hide the kibble in the yard in many places *before* taking your dog outdoors so once you both head out, you can just tell her to "go find em!" and watch her go on a longer treasure hunt. Here is a guide on treasure hunt game: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-treasure-hunt/ -Turn Yard Time into a Treat Toss Game This is a more dynamic game which allows your dog to also get a little workout. As in the treasure hunt game, grab some kibble as you head together outdoors and toss some around the yard in a sprinkler manner, as you point and tell her happily to "go find em!" Then, when your dog approaches you, ask her to sit, and toss one kibble far in the yard. Once she eats that, she'll likely come back to you. Rinse and repeat several times so that your dog is yo-yoing back and forth between sitting and chasing kibble. When it's time to go inside, as she catches that last kibble, open the door and ask for a final sit and toss the treat indoors. -Provide Independent Activities Of course, we can't always be out there tossing balls or treats for our dogs, so it can help to encourage independent activities that don't involve us. You will need to find activities that surpass the reinforcement your dog gets from interacting with you though, so this may need some experimenting. You can try the following: -Provide a stuffed Kong with goodies to keep her occupied. Freezing the Kong provided longer entertainment. -Provide a durable and safe edible chew like a Bully stick or Himalayan chew. -Try a Bubble Making machine for dogs. These make bubbles that are bacon-flavored. -Try to use remote chasing toys such as Play Bone or Wicked Bone. Supervise to ensure the toy isn't chewed. I am not sure how these fare with outdoor play and powerful chewers. -Swift Paws is on a very pricey side, but it has many owners enthusiastic about it, especially for rainy days or if owners can't exercise their dogs as much due to recovering from a surgery/mobility problems. You'll need to allow your dog to take breaks and talk with your vet before use if you have a developing puppy as you don't want to cause damage to developing joints due to all the fast turns. -Since your pup is part herding breed, she may enjoy herding balls. The sport of Treibball keeps many herding dogs happy. At home, you can try a product like Jolly Pets Push n Play, but check with the vet as well. Games That Keep the Mouth Busy -Tug is a good game, but it needs to be played by the rules. -Flirt pole poles are great to divert you dog's attention from you to the flirt toy. I use them to train good impulse control as well putting the cues take, drop and wait on cue. Make Nipping Less Fun/Reinforcing -Avoid shoes with laces -Avoid necklaces, put your hair up and avoid wearing loose clothing that invite dogs to tug (like pant legs and long skirts). -My favorite option for leg nippers is to wear tall Wellington rubber boots when heading out. There are hard for them to grasp so at least your feet, ankles, lower parts of the legs are no longer attractive. -Stick nearby the door: as soon as she shows an intent to nip, "timeout" by removing yourself rather than removing her. Most dogs want us to be out with them. If repeated several times, while offering them alternative things to do, they may get the idea that we don't appreciate this kind of rough interaction. General Bite Inhibition Games: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/bite-inhibition-games/ To lower arousal levels: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/jazz-up-and-settle-down/ Impulse control games; https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/

Thanks for the video and extra info. The barking directed towards you (and maybe somebody sitting next to you?) in that way looks like he's expecting a response or some type of interaction. If there are no noises around he's attending to, and triggering this, this type of barking can be seen in dogs who are in search of reassurance/ guidance/interaction and struggle with changes in their environment/idle times. So in these cases, we may need to take a multi-pronged approach, and also try various things and see what works best. These cases can sometimes be tricky; some dogs may just need a little tweaking with more exercise/activities, while others need considerably less. Balance is key, but getting there, may take some experimenting as each dog has different needs. So with the provision of exercise/activities there can be too main issues: Too little exercise/mental stimulation. This doesn't sound like your case, but just pointing it out for readers. This is often the case of dogs left home alone for a good part of the day and then they are fed and owners watch TV without providing enough exercise/activities. However, it can occur as well when working at home where not much time can be dedicated to the dog. Maybe the dog is walked, but it's just a walk around the neighborhood, the dog just gets exercise and very little mental enrichment or the dog is just let out in the yard to rehearse problematic behaviors most of the day. A yard doesn't cut it for meeting a dog's needs for exercise and mental stimulation. Too much training/exercise/activities. I can see this as a possibility, since you are so committed. When we do too much, we risk over-compensating and the dog may get used to all the attention, that, the moment it's lacking the dog gets lost, and looks for something to do. Even distracting the dog can be perceived as a form of attention. These dogs may need to learn to cope with just doing nothing and enjoy downtime that doesn't involve direct interaction with us. Balance is therefore key and sometimes finding that right balance can require some experimenting to see what works best. For example you can try: -Making some little tweaks to his routine so that puzzle toys are given during TV time and his nap shortly follows. -Providing activities that don't involve you directly. It may help to let your dog "find these remotely" rather than showing your dog that you are giving him something to do at the lightest sign of him getting bored/seeking interaction. For instance, you can take him out in the yard or let him explore a room he's not around much, while a helper prepare in advance a Muffin Tin game, stuffs a Kong or Kong Wobbler or hides kibble around the home/some of his favorite chews so that when you sit down to watch TV, he finds his own activities that don't personally involve you. -You can try "overlapping" so to prevent the barking. For example, if one of you is cooking, the other can take him on a sniff walk or ride in the car and then come back home when the whole dinner preparation is done. Or during TV time, one starts watching and the other takes Finn out and then returns and lets him find several things to do prepared in advance that not involve you (bubble making machine for dogs that emits bacon flavored bubbles, automatic treat dispenser set to toss a kibble at set intervals). -Barking can be reinforced if we provide any type of attention to a dog seeking interaction. That involves looking at the dog, talking to the dog, even scolding him or pushing him away. Even giving him something to do qualifies as attention. Inadvertent attention is one of the primary causes of attention-seeking barking. This can be worked on by becoming "professional ignorers", staring at a blank point, acting like a statue when the dog barks, but there are extinction bursts to be aware of where the behavior gets worse before getting better in hopes of getting attention. The behavior worsening is sign that ignoring is working. For sake of an example, imagine a mom who always gives in and buys candy for her toddler when she whines and cries for it upon visiting the grocery store. Then, out of the blue, one day the child's dentist notices the candy is ruining the child's teeth. So from the next day, no more candy. At the store, the toddler therefore cries, and cries and cries in hopes of candy, and then eventually starts throwing a super big temper tantrum at the store (behavior getting worse), since the crying is no longer working as before. What happens though if, after several days in a row, the mom is super determined to not give in? After the crying has gotten temporarily worse, it eventually extinguishes just like a fire that is deprived from oxygen. Moral of the story: if your dog barks for attention, food or for you to toss a ball and you decide to totally ignore your pup's attention-seeking/demand barking out of the blue, expect the behavior to get worse before it gets better. During the extinction burst your dog may bark louder and for longer or he may even try new behaviors in hopes of re-gaining attention or out of frustration such as pawing at you or chewing something nearby (remove expensive rugs). If you stick to the plan though, after such increase, you should see the behavior gradually declining and then eventually extinguishing (other than an occasional whine here and there due to another phenomenon known as "spontaneous recovery.)" What happens though if during an extinction burst, you happen to inadvertently give any attention? This can create significant setbacks. The reason is because now, you will have reinforced persistence. Back to the toddler example, if mom decided to purchase the toddler some candy to just shut her up and avoid the momentary embarrassment, this would fuel the behavior even more than before, turning it into a bigger fire that is always more and more difficult to extinguish! Next time, you can bet when the child doesn't get candy, she'll be turning into a scaled down version of the Incredible Hulk! Now, if mom decided again to be more determined to not buy candy, she would likely have to go through more intense and sustained yelling and screaming behaviors because the toddler has learned that if she insists, and reaches mom's breaking point, she can finally get what she wants, but after that hurdle the behavior should eventually extinguish. I am not a big fan of ignoring as a "stand-alone approach," although it can and does work. The reason for this is that it can cause major frustration in some dogs (sometimes frustration may turn into aggression, so in dogs prone to this, it's important working with a behavior professional) and it also fail to tackle the underlying cause of "demand barking". So I usually suggest taking note of when the barking occurs and trying to take steps to prevent it from happening in the first place (antecedent control), while also taking measures to tackle any underlying anxiety/ unmet needs etc. So we need to consider whether his behavior is an underlying sign of stress/anxiety and that root cause needs tackled. Pay attention on whether he struggles with certain noises, sights etc. It sounds like he needs help to learn how to cope with idle times and not being involved in certain activities. Some dogs also have a deep fear or missing out (FOMO). We may need to take baby steps in teaching coping skills always taking measures to not push the dog over threshold/repeatedly rehearsing the problematic behavior. There are many calming aids nowadays on the market that can help too take the edge off. There are calming sprays, diffusers, supplements and even diets and probiotics that are crafted to help dogs cope. -Helping him relax during TV time through petting is another option, but *only in case* we are sure his evening barking is due to being cranky and tired (you mention he usually naps after his tantrum). The objective is making a new routine where the TV turns on and you sit on the floor or couch, call him to you (before he has a chance to bark) and ask him to sit and lie down (I like all dogs to learn to say "please" by sitting or lying down for petting so to not inadvertently reward nudging, jumping up or pawing) and pet him/massage him in a soothing way in hopes of him relaxing enough to fall asleep. However, a disclaimer is warranted here: this may or may not work. If he's too hyper he may try to nip or be rough in which case it won't work (we can lower these chances by draining some of that excess energy prior in low-impact ways discussed earlier). On top of this, this option comes with some "side effects." You may be stuck with a dog who wants to be pet every evening this way. Einstein turned out being this way, but hubby has always loved to pet him for long while watching TV so this turned out being a win-win, although aging caused him to ask for less pats. With my female, I pet her a bit and then gave her a "that's enough" cue because she could have gone all night long," pretending to fall asleep" and awakening if I stopped petting and then ask for more. So I just left it to a few pats, that's enough and then she would plop on her bed and lie down chewing her toy. Hubby instead has found the evening affection time with Einstein very relaxing. As a plus, research has found that when we pet our dogs, our cortisol levels drop and there's the whole oxytocin thing going on. so it became the routine. In the best case scenario, the dog relaxes and eventually falls asleep and you can return to sitting on the couch. The worst case scenario is that, he will not accept petting, or will awaken when you stop petting and start demand barking to resume. In which case, a consequence is needed for the barking, and that may involve, rather than taking him into another room, you leaving the room until he is quiet and then return once quiet and rinse repeat until he gets the idea that barking makes his owner leave. However, when in doubt, it may be best to just use management, which involves also teaching him more how to chill. So rather than putting him in timeout when he barks while watching TV, he can be placed in his crate/exercise pen/ behind a baby gate with toys and chews *beforehand.* So these are just some options worthy of trying.

At 18 months, your GSD is still at the adolescent stage. Just like Rottweilers, GSD adolescence is quite long, lasting up until they are 3 years old. In general, large youngster dogs as such tend to lack to exhibit that level of maturity, restraint and impulse control seen in older dogs. This can be a trying time, but with exercise, training, lost of mental stimulation (brain games!) things tend to smoothen out as these dogs mature. It is not unusual to encounter some odd behaviors during these times, but it's good to nip them in the bud. You can read more about the adolescent stage here: (you will have to be logged into the course to read the links) https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/ Tackling jumping and mouthing behaviors requires a multifaceted approach. Following are some guidelines: 1) Preventing Rehearsal of Undesirable Behaviors When dogs perform undesirable behaviors (such as mouthing and jumping), these behaviors become more and more ingrained the more they rehearse them, making them more difficult to overcome. Soon, these behaviors risk becoming default behaviors that dogs perform because they have such a strong history of rehearsal. If this is a new behavior and it's happening every morning, there are chances it is already a behavior that is establishing. Preventing rehearsal of undesirable behaviors is therefore important and this is done through management. The goal of management is to prevent rehearsal at least until the dog has been given the opportunity to learn alternate, more appropriate ways to behave. Management often takes place through mechanical measures such as through the use of barriers. It sounds like you are on the right track by keeping him downstairs in a room, but it sounds like you are missing some important elements on what should be done when you come down from downstairs. I will tackle some options in the next paragraphs. 2) No attention when behaving inappropriately Mouthing and jumping behavior in dogs are often fueled by attention of the positive and negative type, but also other more subtle forms of attention that are often perceived by dogs who are very sensitive to movements and slight bodily cues. Positive, active attention involves interacting in a pleasant manner with the dog when the dog is actively jumping or mouthing. These forms of interactions involves talking to the dog in friendly tones of voice (Hi pup, good morning!), touching the dog or even playing with the dog as the dog is mouthing and jumping. It doesn't sound like something you may be doing, so let's scrape this off the list, but I thought to just bring it up in case attention has been provided in the past this way or for other members reading this and with a similar problem. Negative attention involves interacting with the dog in ways that we may perceives as negative, but that the dog finds still reinforcing, as negative attention is better than no attention. Ever seen a toddler throwing a tantrum while mom is one phone, just for the sake of being yelled at and gaining some attention? Scolding the dog (bad dog!) or shouting (no! stop it! or other things that dogs don't understand) or physical interventions such as pushing the dog off, may still be perceived as reinforcing to dogs in need of attention and explains why these behaviors often don't work to stop the behavior. If your dog is overly excited in the morning and happy to see you or in a playful mood, then he may be eager to receive any form of attention, or he may be too over threshold to care about it. Read about threshold here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ And then, there may be more subtle forms of attention at play. Dog owners may feel as if they are not reinforcing the behavior, when they are, but in subtle ways that the dog still perceives as reinforcing. A classic example is dog owners turning away giving the back to a dog who is jumping. Often, this turns into a game of turning, with the owner turning some more when the dog jumps again, and then facing the dog, then turning again when the dog jumps again, then turning some more, etc. To a dog particularly eager for attention or play and who finds movement entertaining, this may turn out being an engaging game of "getting my owner to move everytime I mouth or jump." Indeed, the biggest proof of engagement is the fact that the dog is still sticking by the owner after several reps when he could do so many other things. If the dog is truly seeking attention, it helps to turn the back only once and stay completely immobile like a lamppost, while ignoring any mouthing, jumping or barking. Dogs are naturally inclined to lose interest in lampposts and eventually leave. While an owner can never become as neutral as a lamppost, the dog should eventually grow bored and disengage by losing interest and moving away or engaging in another behavior (like sitting, which should be reinforced with food or attention.) 3) A Word About Extinction Bursts A word of caution is needed in regards to extinction bursts when attempting to ignore attention-seeking behaviors. What are exactly extinction bursts? Extinction bursts are dog behaviors escalating before dwindling, and then, eventually extinguishing. Ignoring the extinction burst is fundamental, otherwise the behavior has a comeback and it becomes even more established than before since it's put on a variable schedule. Back to mouthing and jumping in dogs. When dogs have a history of being reinforced for mouthing or jumping (either purposely or inadvertently), the moment the owner ignores them, they will feel compelled to escalate those behaviors. This means, they may mouth harder, jump with more intensity and possibly even try new behaviors such as barking for the purpose of getting their owners to interact. This is somewhat similar to what people do that day the vending machine fails to deliver that favorite snack they look forward to consuming every day. They will push the release button repeatedly, and perhaps even punch or kick the machine in hopes of it dropping the snack. Caution is therefore needed during extinction bursts in not giving in with any attention or movements, and dealing with rougher or more intense behaviors. A little planning ahead may go a long way. If dogs mouth a lot, they may mouth harder, so it may help to wear extra layers of clothing and gloves if the mouthing is often directed towards hands, fingers and legs (horseback riding chaps, tall boots). For rough mouthing dogs or dogs who jump very vigorously or engage in aggression when frustrated, dog owners should enlist the help of a behavior professional to play it safe and for correct implementation of behavior modification. 4) Other Potential Causes Now, it's important to emphasize here the importance of knowing why a dog is mouthing and jumping in the first place. Sure, many dogs jump and mouth in hopes of getting attention or getting their dog owners to interact with them and in these cases, not providing attention as described above is the way to go, but what if a dog is mouthing and jumping to stop a person from walking? If so, stopping could be reinforcing the behavior. Hence, why it's important identifying what's the function of the dog's behavior with accuracy which can only be done through careful behavior history taking and observing the behavior take place with an in-person assessment. Is the dog jumping and mouthing for attention? Is the dog jumping and mouthing because he wants the owner to stop doing what he is doing? Is the dog jumping and mouthing because he feels anxious or overly stimulated by something? Is the dog mouthing and jumping because he has too much energy or perhaps he wants to play? Sometimes, it is not possible to identify the exact underlying cause and only assumptions can be made. In such cases, it may be helpful to just jump straight into behavior modification and train the dog alternate behaviors and highly reinforcing them, so that it becomes a no-brainer for the dog to pick to engage in such behaviors. I will provide the beefy part of behavior modification in the next post.

Hi there! Welcome to the forums, What makes one dog patiently wait for his meal lying down on his mat while another one is pacing, barking and whining in anticipation? Most likely, it's the dog's level of impulse control in other words the amount of training the dog has received. After all, if we think about it, training a dog mostly encompasses teaching a dog to better control his impulses. So just as you can train a dog to heel and control his impulse to forge ahead and pull, you can train your dog to calmly wait for his meal and then sit before you provide it. Being that your puppy is young, this is a work in progress, but we can take a proactive approach to teach Ollie that "patience pays." You may have to dedicate some time for the purpose of teaching him this concept, but it's worthy for the long run, and after all, the same principle applies to us humans as well (taking time to train, pays us too in the long run with a nice return on our investment!) One question that comes to mind is: if meal preparation continues while he's barking that means we'll be rewarding the barking for food behavior as he does get fed at the end, so how can we put a stop to it? We still need to feed our dogs food, so it's not like not feeding them is an option. Getting upset about it and scolding the dog won't also help and most dogs may find this approach confusing and intimidating. How about instead, informing your dog that his barking doesn't expedite you, but rather makes you work in slow-mo or even stop? Let's therefore take a look at how we can extinguish this type of barking. Barking Makes You Stop! So on a day when you have time, start preparing your dog's meal. Have him watch you. The moment your dog barks, stop in your tracks. Just freeze like a statue and wait for about 8-10 seconds of quiet. Once he has been quiet for those seconds, resume preparing his food. Keep doing this: freeze when he barks and resume and expedite when he is quiet for at least those seconds. If he persists on barking, you can even walk away from the food station and come back only once quiet for at least 10 seconds. To make the first sessions easier, have some of the meal preparation work cut out for you. In other words, have the kibble already premeasured in a baggie and the fresh food in another one. You can prepare these while your dog is out in the yard or is out for a walk. This will help both you and your puppy succeed so that you can build up on that, and gradually raise criteria by adding further steps. Training a dog who has barked during meal preparation for quite some time will take some time and it's normal to encounter certain problems. For instance, if your dog's barking seems to be increasing rather than decreasing, this may signal what's known as an "extinction burst," but no worries, this is a good thing! Basically, what's happening is that your dog is increasing his barking in hopes of getting your attention since it no longer seems to be working, so your dog may at some point try to bark louder or longer than before. It's as if your dog is saying " Hey, what's up with you today? Usually, when I whine you speed up and feed me, today instead you are slowing down and even stopping! Don't you hear me? Bark, bark bark, I am even jumping higher too!" There are also chances that your dog may try another behavior, a different one, such as pawing at the pen. If your dog goes through such an extinction burst, no worries! It's actually a good thing, signaling that your training is working! Just keep stopping food preparation during barking and resuming when your dog has been quiet for some time. If you keep it up and persist, your dog will get the point and reduce whining, but be careful: if you are in a rush one day and give in just to stop the barking, chances are you will end up with barking that's even worse than before because your dog will be learning that persistence pays off! So keep up the training. If one day, you don't have time to train these valuable lessons, prepare the meal in advance while your dog is in the yard, so that you have it already in the food bowl and just have to grab it and ask for a sit and then lower the bowl with the dog behaving nicely. This is a great way to call your dog and reinforce that by the way! Hide the bowl behind your back, call your dog when out in the yard, and then reinforce that by asking for a sit and then lowering the food bowl. In the background, don't forget to start introducing your puppy to some impulse control exercises: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/10-impulse-control-games-for-dogs/ I hope this helps! Keep us posted on how things go. Happy training! Best, Adrienne

Hi there, welcome to the forums, Porkchop is a super cute name! He is fortunate to be getting all the attention he likely lacked in his previous home. Two months is a relatively short time for a dog to adjust and settle into a new environment. During this time of transitioning and settling into a new home, dogs may often manifest signs of insecurity and hyper-attachment. These dogs thrive on an established routine and knowing what to expect. Aussies, as other herding dogs were selectively bred for carrying out several tasks such as keeping count of the herd, maintaining order and ensuring the safety of the flock at all times. These dogs were therefore bred for paying attention to every tiny detail. On top of watching livestock, they also had to watch for the most subtle nuances of voice, tone and bodily gestures of the herdsmen. The ideal herding dog is therefore expected to pay meticulous attention to their environments and their associated familiar patterns. They'll actively spring into action if something appears amiss. These dogs therefore require patient guidance and redirection to more appropriate responses, such as looking at us rather than barking, or attention heeling rather than lunging at cars. In regards to his behavior of jumping on a chair or bed behavior to seek attention, licking and trying to "give kisses," I would suggest taking a multi-faceted approach. Here are some general guidelines and tips. -Antecedent Control In antecedent control, we manage the dog's environment so that he doesn't get to rehearse the problematic behavior (licking/giving kisses). Here's the thing: licking is reinforcing in various ways. Dogs quickly learn that licking works great to garner human attention. Some dogs take licking to a higher level as it happens with overly appeasing dogs. These dogs use their licking in hopes of calming others down and to show their peaceful intents. The issue is, these dogs can get carried away and the behavior becomes so obnoxious it's annoying and it one gets upset by it and scolds the dog, this motivates these dogs to lick even more, in an attempt to calm us down, leading to a vicious cycle. The poster child of a overly appeasing licker who constantly licks people, is often a shy, insecure dog. In any case, in antecedent control steps are taken to prevent the dog from rehearsing the licking behavior. The more dogs rehearse behaviors, the more they gain reinforcement and therefore the more the behavior becomes habitual and ingrained. Antecedent control in this case could therefore entail anything that makes the behavior difficult or unlikely to occur. For example: Keeping chairs against tables so that they can no longer be used Placing bulky items on the couch if the dog jumps up there to lick people Not sitting down or bending close the dog's level if that evokes face-licking Keeping hands in the pockets to prevent hand licking Keeping a large pillow or other bulky item (I use my laptop) on the lap to prevent climbing in the lap. -Train An Alternate Behavior As you take steps to prevent your dog from engaging in licking and gaining reinforcement from licking, you want to work on the side on training an alternate behavior to engage in making that extra rewarding. Basically, you want to train your dog other ways to interact with you that don't involve licking. For example, you can train your dog to go to his mat (placed nearby you on the floor) where he will receive something to keep busy for some time (stuffed frozen Kong, bully stick). Here is the guide on training a dog to go to his mat: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-dog-go-to-mat/ Once trained to a fluent level, you can make it a habit of letting him go to his mat for his long-lasting chew, at the scheduled times you sit down to relax. Making this a routine can turn this into a look-forwarded to event, where sitting down becomes the cue for relax time on the mat with something enticing to chew and keep busy. Another option is training to sit for attention. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/sit/ Start by hand feeding the treat, and once the sitting becomes fluent, praise and reward your dog for sitting by tossing a kibble or treat. You can repeat this several times with your dog yo-yoing back and forth (this also provides a mental and physical workout). After several reps, with you sitting down, if your dog loves attention and being pet, you can then ask for a final sit where you pet him, but stop petting him/giving any form of attention, if he becomes pushy and tries to lick. -Praise/acknowledge any independent, non-pushy behaviors. I like the picture above where Porkchop appears chill and relaxed by the window. I would deliver praise in a calm tone (and maybe even reward by placing a kibble in between his paws, if it doesn't arouse him much) when he's manifesting relaxed, calm behaviors as such. As owners, we often miss the good behaviors and focus on the undesirable ones. What happens when we do this, is that, dogs quickly learn that undesirable behaviors get our attention, when the desirable ones are ignored. It therefore helps to provide praise and attention contingent upon noticing any spontaneous calm and relaxed behaviors that we like. -Avoid Any Form of Attention Given Contingent Upon the Licking Behavior Even with the best antecedent control plan, the dog may still manage to lick. In this case, it's important to avoid giving the dog any form of attention, and this includes even attention of the negative type such as scolding the dog or pushing him away. To an attention-driven dog, any form of attention qualifies as reinforcing and therefore with attention of any kind, you risk fueling the behavior, when you want it to extinguish. In this case, you could therefore turn your head and look away or even turn sideways, and eventually get up and walk away if the behavior persists. Make sure to do this every single time, contingent upon the attention-seeking behavior. All family members should also follow this protocol. -Beware of Extinction Bursts When you start ignoring a behavior that was fueled by attention in the past, you should expect a phenomenon known as an extinction burst. Basically, what happens is that, since your dog was likely used to getting attention by licking in the past, the moment you start ignoring him, he'll try to escalate the behavior as if saying "Hey, look at me, I am licking you, look at me! Hello?" At some point, your dog may even throw in some new behaviors just to get a response from you (or other family members) such as barking or maybe even nipping. In these cases, it's important to stick to the plan and keep ignoring, otherwise you risk reinforcing persistence with the risk of being stuck with a dog who takes even longer to stop licking and maybe starts nipping too. However, you can make the process go smoother by preventing your dog from licking in the first place by asking him to engage in an alternate behavior. *A word of caution is needed: frustration from not getting an expected response can sometimes spill into aggression. If you notice any signs of aggression, skip this method. This can be indicative of a dog with a low frustration tolerance. Consult with a behavior professional for in-person assistance. -Avoid Behavior Chains A big mistake that often dog owners make is to inadvertently create behavior chains. Behavior chains are sequence of behaviors, where an unwanted behavior mistakenly partakes in the chain. For example, let's say you are training your dog to sit and then lie down and you praise and reward by giving a kibble. At some point though, your dog licks your hand, and you immediately redirect by asking your dog to sit and then praise/reward that. By doing this, your dog may come to think that the lick is part of the chain of behaviors that generate reinforcement (either under the form of attention or treats), so don't be surprised if at some point, you'll notice more episodes of licks before sitting! It's therefore important paying attention to what is happening and avoid reinforcing any licking with any form of attention considering that even giving the cue to sit is a form of attention, further amplified by the addition of a treat. -Provide Enrichment If your dog licks you a lot, you can keep his mind off licking by engaging him with food puzzles and foraging activities such as fun treasure hunts. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-treasure-hunt/ You may also find it helpful engaging your dog in fun brain games like getting tennis balls out of muffin tin with treats hiding under and the bottle game. Always supervise your dog during such games for inappropriate chewing on things. If you need to remove the bottle from your dog, or any balls, make sure to trade them for something valuable rather than removing them directly from the dog. As an extra caution, you can take advantage of a door and toss the valuable past that so you can close the door and safely retrieve the item. More about how to do this is covered in the third link below: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-muffin-game/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/the-bottle-game/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/overprotective-of-toys/ Enrichment helps keep the dog's mind busy, while also providing him with some activities that can help boost his confidence and promotes mental wellbeing. -Provide Physical Exercise Herding dogs were selectively bred to work on farms and are still known today for their hard work and stamina. These are resilient dogs purposely built for managing rough terrains, controlling stubborn herds of livestock for countless hours each day. Being on their feet all day and rapidly responding to circumstances that required their immediate attention took lots of energy! Indeed, it can be said that herders are always ready for action and are reluctant to rest as long as there is something to do. These dogs do not want to miss out on anything. Unlike us humans, working is their passion, not their misery. Licking can also be a way to manifest boredom and seeking engagement and interaction. It goes without saying that these dogs thrive with owner who lead an active lifestyle with the opportunity to engage their dogs in a variety of activities. Walks, hikes, play, training, canine sports, Treibball, herding trials, musical freestyle, are all activities these dogs love. Consult with your vet on guidelines on how much/what type of exercise you should provide considering your dog's age so to have an idea on when his growth plates close. -Tackle Anxiety Driven Behaviors Dogs who lick due to anxiety and a deep need to appease, should be provided with the reassurance of routines and benefit from learning to trust. One can help a dog gain trust through some basic steps https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/helping-fearful-rescue-dog/ and confidence building exercises can help too: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/exercises-build-confidence-insecure-dogs/ Another thing to consider is paying attention when Porkshop starts licking and wanting to get into your laps. This behavior can be anxiety driven. Pay attention if he's doing so in response to certain noises or seeing certain things. If you notice a pattern, you will have to work on desensitizing him and counterconditioning him to whatever frightens him. Here is a guide if the licking/getting into lap behavior is induced by a noise: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/ As seen there are several approaches that can be used to reduce excessive licking behaviors. Tackling the underlying emotions and implementing management and training can go a long way. The behavior will likely not change overnight, however, by preventing rehearsal of the problematic behavior, preventing your dog from gaining reinforcement upon licking, training alternate behaviors that replace the licking, tackling underlying emotions, and providing enrichment and good physical exercise, the behavior should gradually decrease over time. I hope this helps and that I have covered several basis. Keep us posted on how things go and/or feel free to ask any questions. Happy training! Best, Adrienne Disclaimer: behavior modification/certain type of training come with risks. If your puppy or dog shows signs of potential aggression (tensing up, barking, growling, lunging, snapping, biting) for safety, please consult with a dog behavior professional who uses force-free behavior modification techniques (no shock, prongs, or physical corrections) for direct in-person guidance. Articles, videos and general info found in the forums or course (or any online source) are not meant to replace in-person training/instruction. By using this course and forum, you are waiving any liability claims or other type of claims related to any dogs' behavior against you or others.

So we had four days where she was really, really good - like I was wondering whose dog she was and even starting to hope that there was light at the end of the tunnel. But then on Tuesday and Wednesday, we had tons of extinction bursts and she was wired almost constantly. Today I realized (yes, it took a while haha) that we have to be managing her energy better. She doesn't know when to take a nap or when she's getting cranky - we have to force her to slow down and take a nap, which means we need to be more observant of her at all times. Because when she is wired/hormones raging, she can't stop pacing and crying and attention-seeking. The fact that she was so well behaved those 4 days are a sign that she's capable of acting calmer, you may see more and more of these days if you are able to find that right balance between exercise, mental stimulation and rest. This is a balancing act that we get better at, as we get to know out pups more and monitor how our pups behave on days they get more rest versus more engagement. It's often underestimated how much rest/sleep these pups need. They do most of their growing during sleep and not sleeping enough leads to cranky behaviors just as in toddlers! Remember that you have a mix of two high-energy working breeds. These dogs were bred to work in farms for a good part of the day so they have that mindset of always be on the go and never stopping. On top of this, young puppies don't have the ability to self-soothe and settle. This is a skill that takes time to master. Some pups can be very reluctant to put themselves to bed unless we help them. You can literally watch some pups acting exhausted, with their eyes almost closing, but then anything moving or any sound can have them bounce back into action, until another wave of sleeping catches them, and they then finally fall asleep. It helps to provide them with a very calm environment. Likely the fact she fell asleep when you sat at your desk versus walking in the kitchen was because the activity was less arousing to her nervous system. Those four good days she slept a TON and when she was awake, she was very calm and good. Puppies also go through growth spurts where they'll sleep more so that could also have been what you have seen. The last two days she has not slept her usual 15 hours and she has been a monster. This also means that when we walk her, we have to keep them very short. Even though she is about 4 months now, she can only handle walks around 10 minutes and not too intense or she comes home and won't relax for 2-4 hours. Yesterday, after her evening walk, she couldn't settle down for 6 hours until we gave her the calming aid chew! We only give her those before bed because I don't want her to become dependent on them and unable to fall asleep on her own. (They have melatonin in them and I know that happens with humans). is that a silly concern? I can't really answer about the supplements, but no it's not a silly question. I recommend talking with a vet before starting any supplements and asking them any questions or concerns. Every pet may react differently and may have different needs. Some vets may not know much about supplements, while others are more informed. I'm not sure how much is related to her teeth either but I got some gum numbing stuff for puppies and tried it three times but it didn't seem to change anything. When she is wired, she won't play with any of her toys for more than a minute. She's restless, demands attention, destructive, and she has started nipping at us even though we've been trying to work with her on that stuff. Frozen toys, frozen rags, kongs - none of those things are very interesting to her for long. The only thing that works are bully sticks but I'm afraid if we give her too many they will lower in value. An increase in nipping is often seen in teething puppies around this age. The types of toys offered to help teething puppies can help up to a certain point, but they can be rather boring and pups may lose interest with their short attention spans. Most pups are more drawn to interactive toys that they can chase around or work on getting stuff out. Are you stuffing the Kong? If so, make sure it's not too difficult to unstuff, but not that easy that it lasts only a couple of minutes. You can use her kibble to stuff it mixed with a little water and then frozen. Make sure to rotate toys to keep the interest alive. So, I think the only thing we can do is try and prevent her from getting to that state with shorter walks and more "relax" time where she might be able to fall asleep. Usually after both walks, I go into the kitchen and do stuff. Like in the mornings, I make breakfast which takes about 30 minutes. But by then, she is wired. This morning I was quicker and able to sit down at my desk in about 15 minutes (after a shorter walk too) and she took a nice long nap. This afternoon, instead of going to make dinner and walk around the house doing stuff, I sat down to type this out and she is sleeping now. Am I onto something here and is it normal for her age to have so little stamina? Puppies of large breeds can also go through growing pains. Basically, as pups have growth spurts at the end of their long bones they can develop shooting pains, possibly along with intermittent lameness during these bouts. Growing pains in puppies typically take place between the ages of 5 and 18 months, although it can be seen as early as the puppy being 2 months and may persist until the puppy is 2 years of age. While limping in one of the most noticeable signs, I wonder if they can still go through the pain without limping. I recall getting growing pains as a child and it really hurt, but I never limped. So this can be a factor, but definitely if you see a lack of stamina, especially compared to before, mention it to your vet to make sure there's no underlying medical cause. However, yes, pups need lots of sleep, and they sleep more during growth spurts so something to consider. On Tuesday, I did lose my temper with her. I had been alone with her for 2 hours during a long extinction burst and she had completely broken my spirit. So we were getting ready for sleep and she was back to chewing on her bed, something she had gotten much better about. I snapped and yelled "stop chewing on your bed!" and pulled the bed away from her. She looked me in the eye and then stood and peed on the mat we keep under her bed. We laughed about it later but in the moment, I was super mad (but managed to contain myself and not react). The cats like to sleep on her bed a lot so it's possible it was because of them but I suspect it was more related to my yelling. She didn't look frightened at all though and she has never peed before after I snap at her. She tried to jump on us to play, and we both just quietly cleaned it up. Was she trying to remind me that she is just a puppy? Since this peeing occurred in the context of yelling, this sounds like submissive urination, it's more along the lines of an appeasement gesture, e.g. puppy saying "please, calm down, I didn't mean to": https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/submissive-urination/ As for the cat stuff, no updates. Just continuing with supervised time where she does training while they eat treats on the other side of the gate. She does keep wanting to go to them but I've been throwing the treats to the side so she is forced to walk away from the door and that is definitely working as long as she is not wired. Sounds like a plan! We have noticed that the unwanted barking in the backyard is increasing but she is good at coming to me when I call her. If she is barking at the neighbor dogs and I come outside and call her, is that reinforcing her though? I loved the analogy with the vending machine and slot machines - it helps a lot - but I'm not sure if I'm always doing it in those sort of situations. I try to wait until there is a lull in the barking before I open the door and go out but it's not always possible. However, she has been going to the side of the yard to do it so I don't know that it matters much. (She can hear me come out though - it's not like it's super far away). Ideally, in these cases, to prevent behavior chains (e.g. when I bark at the dogs, my owner comes out- and I get attention) we would prevent the barking from happening in the first place, calling her *before* she's actively barking at them. Barking at other dogs in the yard, can easily get out of hand. It can become self-reinforcing because it fills a void when a pup feels bored and if the dogs leave when she barks, she'll come to think her barking sent them away and soon a new habit establishes. Not to mention, if it evolves into barking at many triggers/fence fighting, it can increase arousal levels causing her to become very riled up. The more dogs get aroused and (frustrated) and vent their frustration by barking, the more this behavior puts roots and becomes established. These frequent rehearsals make the behavior habitual and more difficult to overcome over time. Ideally, we want to supervise our dogs when outside and call them back as soon as we recognize signs that they're about to react to outside triggers. Do this before your pup starts reacting when she's still under threshold and reward generously. It is great she has been able to respond to you despite this level of distraction though! Not many dogs can be easily called off when they're focused on something and intently barking. Keep up the great work in your recalls!

Thanks for all the additional info! So we were having her behind the baby gate with the door open but she was doing so well we decided to progress things. When she threw the tantrum last week, the cats were roaming the living room and we were having her practice her obedience training/try to ignore. But one of the cats walks slowly around the entire room - she also played on her cat tree - and Atari was freaking out. We reverted to keeping the baby gate between them and she is completely calm and well-behaved as long as we keep actively working with her. Like we can make her sit, get up, lie down, look at us, leave it, shake, etc. and she glances at the cats but doesn't do anything. If we left the gate up but door open all the time, the cats would come to the living room and/or she would jump up on the fence (front paws on it) and cry. So we do about 15 minutes a day (sometimes twice a day but usually it's hard to find time when we're both available) and then keep the door closed the rest of the time. We are trying to do it twice a day more frequently though to speed things along. How close were they to your puppy when she had the tantrum compare to the other times? It sounds like she was significantly over threshold compared to the previous training you have done where she was able to ignore. It was going well with Atari listening to us until Kora the little one walked right up to her and was sitting on the coffee table. Kora then jumped down and walked right past Atari's feet and sat a foot away. I let her inch close to Kora but then she lunged and scared her (Kora just crouched down and put ears back) so I pulled her back a few feet and made her sit and then she erupted into the horrendous tantrum. We had to wait for her to stop before we could put the cats back behind the door because she was jumping around and we were trying to distract her with other things. Kora won't leave the room unless we lure her back with treats. First off, it's great to hear that you were able to graduate to keeping her behind the baby gate with the door open and that she was doing very well that you considering progressing! When we progress though, there is often the risk of some type of setback. Indeed, progressing is one of the number one causes of setbacks we seen in behavior modification, because the dog may not be ready for that level of closer interaction, and we get so very hopeful and we just start seeing everything with pink-colored glasses... But there are other dynamics at play. With the cats feeling more comfortable around Atari, most likely they are getting a little more confident and moving around more and doing unusual things and this is triggering your pup and sending her over threshold. In the case of cats sharing the house with dogs, a big challenge is that it is difficult to control the environment. A cat may happen to come too close or may do something unexpected and can easily tip the dog over threshold. So if she was doing OK with the baby gate with the door open, but not OK with the cats approaching the living room (causing her to jump up on the crate and cry) we may need an intermediate space buffer such as a pet fence between the baby gate and the living room where, they can see each other, but the cats are prevented from coming too close. In lieu of a pet fence, an opened exercise pen can work as well as a temporary barrier that we can gradually fade. She was barking and screeching because she wanted to be let off her harness. We were trying to get her to sit down and look at us but once she escalated, it was impossible. Has anything negative happened lately on walks or prior to walks? No, I think she was remembering the tantrum the night before and how the harness was the source of her frustration. She is ok with the harness now though since we have had four walks. Sounds like some barrier frustration. If a dog was ever allowed in the past to go meet/greet other dogs/people or chase/get closer to the cats when pulling, that time that they cannot, they'll have a little "tantrum" which can also be called an extinction burst. If we stick to our determination in not letting them achieve their goal by pulling/vocalizing -no matter how dramatic, they should soon learn that their behavior "doesn't work" and eventually stop trying (with the occasional return of the undesirable behavior courtesy of a phenomenon known as lovely spontaneous recovery). If we though allow them to pull (and get closer to what they want) sometimes yes and sometimes no, we reinforce persistence and make the behavior of pulling/displaying a tantrum more and more established because it'll be put on an intermittent schedule. Intermittent schedules, make behaviors stronger and more established. An intermittent schedule can make people addicted to certain behaviors. If we go to play the slots in Vegas, and we win every now and then, we'll likely get addicted and want to play more and more. That's what they want. They want us to have a thrilling experience making us get more and more dopamine rushes. Same with a vending machine, if it delivers a snack every time we put a dollar, and then one day it does not, we'll get frustrated that day it doesn't work. So we'll likely kick the machine.. If this works in dislodging the snack, that will reinforce our behavior, so next time, it happens again, you guessed it.... we will likely try kicking again, but that day it doesn't not liberate our holy snack, we'll likely try kicking harder, curse and get even angry ( an extinction burst). If this method stops working though, most likely we'll avoid that vending machine and stop using it altogether. So on the plus sign, consider that with time (and as she develops more frustration tolerance/impulse control), Atari will come to realize that her tantrums won't get her harness to come magically off or the leash to loosen so that she can get closer to the cats. However, we don't want her to create negative associations with the harness (glad that she was able to overcome that with the happy walks!) so we may try to take steps to better control the environment next time or maybe even train something that we can use to redirect her quickly. For example, in an area way from the cats, we can train her to make an about turn and walk quickly with us the opposite direction. This sounds like an emergency u- turn, but being in a home you may not have much space, so let's call it "giving in to leash pressure." In simple words, away from the cats, sit on the couch with your pup on the floor, and when she happens to get at the end of the leash, creating tension on it, looking away trying to get somewhere, make 2-3 kissy sounds and gently guide her back to you tugging very, very lightly on the leash and mark giving in to that pressure and moving in your direction with a yes/click and reward with a treat once she reaches you. Rinse and repeat several times up to the point where she'll move in your direction quickly without the need of your prompt-that is, the gently tugging/putting pressure on the leash. Practice this in several areas of the home (initially away from the cats) then in the yard, then on walks, and then at home at a distance from the cats. The goal is to catch her *before* she goes overly focused/over threshold upon seeing a cat and redirecting her to walk away from the cats with you and then you can toss a treat always away from the cats. Make it fun and upbeat like a game! (You can initially hold a treat at eye level to help her comply and focus on that) You can also use this when she's at the baby gate off leash, when she's looking at the cats, and you want her to disengage from them. Make your 2-3 kissy sounds and toss a treat away from the gate. As she gets better, you can put her on an umbilical cord (leash around your waist) so she's always near you and teach her to back up with you away from the cats. Always be aware of where your cats are, and don't allow her to fixate and "hard stare' the cats. This is a situation that needs to be highly managed and lots of patience is needed. It can sometimes take about 2-3 months for things to get better and when you aren't training, your pup needs to be in a place where all pets are safe and Atari doesn't get to rehearse any problematic behaviors around the cats. Dog and cats will always need to be supervised, kept separated when not, and an additional tier of safety can be obtained by providing cats with high places to retreat to as needed and having the pup drag a leash (so to quickly get a hold of the dog as needed) before allowing off-leash freedom. Neither of the cats run from her. Our fearless smaller cat walks around and when the gate is between them, she tries to play with Atari's tail (Atari doesn't react as long as we are engaging her). Kora the fearless one just circles the room or goes into her hammock and plays by herself. The other cat will lie in his hammock and go to sleep even if Atari is there but when she starts her screechy yipping, he gets annoyed and walks out. He also does not come into the living room when she is there. They both maintain relaxed body language but Crixus, the older one will either hide under couch (He's the one who escapes and then he realizes she is there and he goes under couch) or just stay away altogether. One day, he escaped, saw her, and ran under couch and I couldn't get him out. She laid down and stared at him but was quiet. I had a meeting so I couldn't do anything else but I put the leash on her and held onto it. Since she was calm, I just left her there. She fell asleep about 20 minutes later and then the cat silently came out and then went back over the gate and I could close the door. Do your cats appear scared of her or stressed in any way? Only when she is screeching/tantrum or if they escape and she chases them. We have put her on leash and let her get close to them as long as she is calm-ish. like if she gets excited she has to step back. if she goes slowly, we let her step forward. But then once she got close to them. Crixus the big one hissed and puffed up. The little one was fine but then when she started sniffing her super excitedly, she got a little scared and put her ears back. Neither of them swat her or run ever. Sounds like Crixus will be the one struggling the most, but this is often seen with the older cats. I find they are more likely to be settled in their ways and get more easily stressed. I would therefore focus on training a strong response to leash pressure to the point of it being very fluent. Also provide her with food puzzles, chews and brain games so to keep her mind busy and make the cats less interesting. During walks now, she wants to sniff and roll around on people's yards and she pulls on the leash. Until now, she was heeling all the time even though she didn't know the word yet. This is from flight stage though, right? Should we just reinforce the heel when she is calm/at home and then make her sit more on the walk until she calms down? They are more investigative during this time and want to explore more and more. Keep practicing good heeling at home and in the yard, and in front of the home and progress the walk based on how well she is heeling. You can always make some about turns if she's pulling, and if she really wants to sniff something in an area she's allowed to go, you can "Premack it" by letting her go sniff only once she's walking towards that spot on a loose leash. You can give her permission by saying "go sniff!" and then resume the walk by saying "lets go!" here is more about the premack principle: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/premack-principle/ If she's pulling towards an grassy area, you can guide her away by walking in a circle and giving her another opportunity to go sniff if, once completing the circle, she's moving on a loose leash towards the area. Oh, ok, how interesting! She also peed on the mat under her bed (bed and mat underneath used to be our old dog's who passed away in January). We think it's because it smelled like him. We washed it and she has not done it again until this incident with my parent's dog's blanket. The dog was in the other room because she wouldn't stop barking at him to play and he did not want to play with her. My dad said she walked up to the blanket (he had been separated from her for over an hour) and sniffed it and then squatted and peed on it. We happened to walk in just as she was walking away from the blanket. Was she "empty" before entering the home (peed recently)? Yes, she had been outside for a couple of hours in their yard and he said he had seen her pee. But if she drank a lot of water, that might not matter. Was this a little trickle or more like a larger puddle? It was a normal puddle. Ok thanks, we'll look for other triggers then. They have a cat as well who just ignores her but she won't stop barking at it so my parents have just been keeping her away from both the cat and older dog. Older dog is like 16 years old and a little white dog who used to live with an old woman before they took him after she died. So he's not very dog-like and just tries to walk away from her but then she paws at him and barks obsessively. My dad can't get her to stop so he just separates them. It could be she was leaving her pee to confirm her "puppy license to misbehave." Older dogs smell the puppy pee and perceive it as a sign of "innocence" and that whatever the pups do, it is just because they are socially-illiterate juveniles. The older dogs therefore should technically provide them with "license to misbehave" forgiving them more easily, although not all of them grant this. Older dogs may struggle dealing with young pups and they may have joint issues/ mobility issues and their patience tends to run much shorter and they get easily overwhelmed by all that puppy energy. The odor of "dog" seemed to be a trigger in both cases, so she's likely trying to communicate something if she doesn't normally pee on her own blankets at home.

Hi again, Ok, so now we have some new issues coming up and it sort of feels like everything is getting way harder even though Atari totally knows what we expect of her by now. I can tell she does everything for attention because she will start to chew the table or something and I will see her and she instantly stops and pretends she's doing something else (like "I was just gonna lick it, I swear"). More than attention-seeking, this sounds like a normal pup who has a natural desire to chew and stops the moment you look at her, simply because she has associated your presence with being told to stop. Sort of like a natural re-direction of "Oops, I thought I wasn't watched! Am I in trouble? Let me do something else then." With attention-seeking dogs instead we see more of them purposely going to chew things and continuing to chew just for the purpose of getting the attention. So it would be more like "Look at me, I am chewing! Hello? Don't you come to stop me? I am seeking interaction!" I would make sure she has access to chew toys (look for toys made for teething puppies) and interactive food puzzles that are rotated randomly so to keep her interest alive. Consider that, from the age of 12 to 16 weeks, baby teeth are shed and permanent teeth start coming in. This stage is particularly painful to pups sort of like babies crying from sore gums. They can get very chewy and cranky. There are also commercially available chew toys specifically designed to be frozen prior to use for teething puppies. The concept behind these toys is same as with the ice pack provided to people after a painful dentist visit. The only difference is these toys can be re-frozen and re-used. Alternatively, you can save some money by making your own frozen chew toys. All you need is an old dishrag or towel which you can twist into a long and stick-like shape and put in the freezer for couple of hours. Then, once well-frozen, give the dishrag or towel to your teething puppy. The cold relieves oral discomfort while the towel’s texture and chewiness promote proper biting behavior. Finally, you can use edible items, such as dog-safe frozen fruits and vegetables. Bananas, strawberries and carrots make excellent and tasty frozen pain relievers. Their coldness will numb the sore gums and their density may aid the removal of the already loose teeth. (Careful with carrots as some pups may swallow them whole or too big chunks of them which can predispose to blockages, this is not very common, but better safe than sorry). Make sure to keep an eye on her teeth to ensure that there are no retained baby teeth. These should be removed by the time the pup is 5 months. Here is a picture of a dog I boarded. The owner wasn't aware she had baby teeth because she wasn't very collaborative in having her mouth checked. Some things are getting a little better - car rides are getting somewhat calmer as long as we give her a chew or I pet her and talk to her. That's great! Keep up creating positive associations with the car and car rides! She waits for me to get up before she gets out of bed now in the morning. Great, we all benefit from some extra sleep! She's doing really well with the cats as long as it's supervised and controlled. However, the cats keep crying to come into the living room and trying to escape their side of the house because it's like they want to be her friend and she keeps trying to open the door to the hallway now even though we keep a gate there too. (She figured out how to open the door and my fiance calls her a raptor, haha). But without the controlled visits, she will chase them instantly. If we engage her the whole time, she will relax and ignore them. They escape once a day now, and attempt even more often. Today we tried to let them all roam and we kept the leash on her and supervised but then we both had to get back to work so it was not something we could do for long. She kept trying to chase them anytime we did not make her sit. You have a mix of breeds with strong drives to herd/chase, plus being a puppy there is this strong need to play and then you have cats who are inquisitive, but tend to flee. Lot's of things to work on! Your pup needs to learn to be better under control, and at the same time, your cats need to learn not to fear your pup because, the more they flee due to fear, the more you'll pup will feel the need to chase. And constantly working on this can be time consuming and impractical if we lead busy lives. I worked with a beagle last summer living with a cat, and the poor cat lived most of her life on the counters and shelves. I could tell she felt left out. The dog immediately would chase her and try to hump her if she ever jumped down. We had to work a lot on getting the dog under control using the leash at first, then the leash came off and we used the smacking sound,https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/the-airplane-game/the-smacking-sound/ and at some point you could tell the cat was starting to feel relief when the dog was no longer constantly trying to chase her. She started jumping on the floor more and more and gained a bit of confidence, but if the dog and cat were ever not supervised/controlled, the dog would go back to its instincts (history of long rehearsal made things more challenging). So we found a compromise of each day allowing the cat some quality time in the living room, while the dog was kept busy with a stuffed frozen Kong. After the Kong, the dog would may have tried to chase the cat again but was redirected promptly using the smacking sound and given something else to do (such as a safe bone to chew) and afterward, she would nap in the exercise pen. We also did exercises where the cat was fed a treat, and the dog a treat right after upon being asked to sit (yes, cats can be trained to sit too!) After some time, the beagle started associating the cat with getting all these goodies and also learned to *relax* (not chase) despite the cat being around, while the cat learned to be more relaxed around the dog and no longer running the moment she saw him. Gradually, they got to spend more time like this. I haven't gotten an update for some time, but last picture she sent me showed dog and cat sleeping nearby, so I guess all is good. Now, you have the advantage of having a young pup and young cats so there are better chances of each accepting each other, but problems arise when the cats are always acting fearful and they get into the habit of always fleeing. So if there is a door or baby gate that opens, get that fixed and make sure your pup doesn't scare the cats. However, it also true that there are cats and cats and cats. My cats were introduced with my Rotties at a young age so even if they were chased, they ran up a chair, but they weren't stressed by the dogs. They rather seemed to be amused, perhaps they thought it was a game, and sometimes when in the mood, they would even wrestle with my Rotties and even knead on top of them! So it's important evaluating their body language and how they really feel. Some cats seem to get a kick out of being chased and will purposely get close and try to get dogs to chase them. But if it's fear-based fleeing, there may be risks that the cats may learn to live in a vertical world. Which is not necessary a bad thing, many dog/cat owners have cats that live like that, but I feel that the cats need to have at least some time to feel included in the family and not feel as if they "were totally replaced by the dog." If you can do more and more of these leash introductions with guidance, its good so they get to know about each other and if you can feed them treats to reward them for being relaxed that can help in creating positive associations (have a helper feed the treat to the cats at distance while you treat your pup on the leash). That would be ok to live with if that is all there was - but now she is jumping on the couch for attention and chewing it up and she is throwing more and more tantrums - ear piercing ones. This still sounds like the puppy chewing phase with teething pups. Fabric feels good on the sore gums. If you don't want her on the couch, you can try to place bulky items there. If she chews, train a fluent 'leave it" https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/ (she should respond well considering that you stated that sometimes just looking at her gets to stop chewing when she shows an intent) and when you cannot supervise, you can place an exercise pen around the couch. Basically for the dumbest reasons like she wants to go for a walk in the middle of the day which we never do. We are also surrounded by houses with dogs who bark (not all the time, but probably once or twice a day- no big deal) and she always ignored them before but now she barks back - today she barked at noises at the front door that I couldn't even hear - probably people walking by at the street? She's also getting more demanding of our attention. It used to be that I could work and she would take a nap, but now if she hears my fiance's voice when he's on a work call, she will wake up and run to the door and then throw a tantrum wanting him to come out. She wants us both to be with her now. You are not alone on this, trust me, so many new puppy owners are dealing with this especially with many of them working at home. You can find several tips on this issue here: Tonight, I was the only one home and I was on the phone but she got so upset that I was not paying attention to her that she started trying to play bite my legs and jump on the furniture to get my attention. When I ignored her, she threw a loud tantrum. I kept ignoring her and she got right in my face and barked. Sounds like a big extinction burst, what happened afterward? If we reinforce this by getting up and attending to her, that would have reinforced persistence. She has also taken to trying to bolt outside the front door whenever she can - even though we always make her sit and wait before she is allowed to walk through any doors. Now that she is getting walks, she tries to rush outside even if we are going to take the garbage out or get the mail. She may be entering the flight period: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/flight-instinct-period-4-8-months/ You can outsmart her by using your body to block passage through the door. Keep the door slightly ajar and don't open it fully until you have a nice solid sit-stay and if she tries to slip through, be fast to close it. Open the door very slowly, making it clear that any of her forward movement will cause the door to close, open wide only once she got the concept and is on her best solid sit/stay and then invite her out. I thought we were doing everything right -redirecting her instead of giving attention - working on her impulse control, training her - she knows tons of commands and games. At puppy class, the instructor saw that we make her sit at the door and wait before she walked through and she commented that even the dogs in her obedience II classes can't do that yet. That's impressive! I think you are on the right track, things often seem to get worse rather than better at times, you know all the extinction bursts, and being puppy owners is a lot of work (sort of like having a baby) but also teething can cause lots of crankiness and the flight periods can cause new behaviors too. But when class starts, she gets so excited that she struggles to look at us or listen to us - we basically stop existing once the other puppies arrive. We've increased the value of her treats which helps a little but not a lot. We basically try to survive until puppy play time - but it's embarrassing when she throws a tantrum and all the other puppies are learning their commands and being all quiet and stuff. She's a social butterfly and just wants to go play with them but the first 2/3 of class are for obedience training. Discuss this with the trainer, the trainer can take steps to decrease her arousal using more distance and sometimes visual barriers that can be gradually removed once she calms down. Giving her something to chew can help too. Make sure she gets to join puppy time only once she's a little calmer and capable of listening to cues otherwise we risk reinforcing her hyper behaviors. She also gets excited and pees when she meets new people almost every time. I just don't know what to do about the excitement stuff. She walks great and we go twice a day for about 15 minutes - aside from zig-zagging, she basically walks next to us every time. We're working on heel still. I'm increasing the amount of times we train her to listen to her name at home - but once we're out in the world, it doesn't matter anymore. She has no name. For the excitement urination you can toss treats on the ground to distract her from the peeing. You also may want to have people try to ignore her. Most pups outgrow this eventually. More on this here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/submissive-urination/ So I guess I could use help on the tantrums and the over-excitement and any additional advice on the cat stuff? I don't know if we should just keep doing what we're doing and be patient... but it does feel like everything is getting harder and I worry that it's all because I'm doing something wrong. Should we do jazz up/settle down when we have friends come over? You can practice hand targeting with the guests https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ and practice her taking cues from the guests (sits, downs etc) and you can also do round-robin recalls (sit in a circle and take turns calling her and rewarding her), but also teach her to relax on a mat with a chew once she's less excited. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-dog-go-to-mat/ How do we redirect her from barking at the cats through the office window or the neighborhood dogs - when we are inside the house? Because I feel like us going outside is a form of reward but then I can't stop it without doing that. And she won't stop on her own, I've tried waiting to see if she does. Thank you. 🙂 You can try the 'hear that' method: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/fear-noises/ and also buffer the sounds with some white noise (fan, tv, radio). You can place window film on the window if feasible or do something to block visuals. I hope this helps! Best, Adrienne

If this is purely attention-seeking behavior, it tends to get worse before it gets better. Ignoring leads to what's called an extinction burst and then you have episodes of spontaneous recovery. This is the most difficult part because behaviors fueled by attention requires that we ignore these behaviors totally, no looking, no talking, no scolding, no pushing, no making eye contact. No attention at all, even attention of the negative type. You would therefore have to pretend as if your dog isn't there, waiting for her to give up engaging in the undesirable behavior. In simple words, an extinction burst takes place when you have provided your dog with attention and then suddenly stop providing it. The behavior will typically intensify or the dog may try new behaviors in hopes of getting attention again. If one is able to endure this temporary intensification, one will eventually succeed. If you give in though and dole just about any form of attention, you will be back to square one, or may have even regressed, as you have reinforced persistence. *However,* you mentioned that she really never liked the kennel and that she freaked out last time you closed her. On top of this, you mentioned her being startled by noises and fear of the kennel cover so we likely have some strong elements of anxiety at play. So we have three main solutions: take some steps in making sleeping in the play pen/crate the best place on earth, or if that is still too anxiety-inducing then, if sleeping on the bed is the only thing that keeps her calm and you are willing to make that her permanent sleeping place, that's OK too as long as you stick to that rather than swapping back and forth between crate and bed which can create confusion. I generally have no particular issue with dogs sleeping on beds as long as they aren't guarding the area or acting aggressive when moved/startled and that they don't take off at night to play and chew things. However, keep into account that, if you are are going on the camping trip, she may then suffer if she'll be sleeping in your bedroom all alone, and when dogs are anxious, they are likely to chew things and panic. Also, if you would decide to let her sleep on the bed, it would still be important getting her used to like the crate more considering that you may need to crate her when going outside. The third solution is having her sleep in your bedroom without being confined but on her own bed/mat. You may need to initially put the ex-pen around your bed initially to discourage her to jump up or place bulky items on the bed. Of course, this works well only if she's not the type of dog that in the middle of the night will start chewing on stuff. After my Rotties were perfectly potty trained and respectful of our things, I stopped letting them sleep in their crates at night in our bedroom, and graduated them to sleep one each on a mat on the floor at the side of our beds. Acclimatizing her to being comfortable in the crate/ex-pen obviously will take some time, so it's something worthy on working on for the most part once you come back from your trip. Here are some pointers to help you accomplish that: Establish a reassuring bedtime routine. For example, you can have Daisy play with you a couple hours prior to bedtime, give her a last drink and then in the next hour let her wind down with some calmer interactive toys/brain games. Then, send her out to potty a last time (making sure she goes), and bring her into the bedroom, say "crate" as you toss a bully stick/long lasting chew in the crate/ex-pen, let her in it and close it. Shut off the light, say "night-night!" and go to bed. During the day, create positive associations with being in the crate/ex-pen. Keep the crate/ex-pen with the door open and place toys and treats in there, so that your dog visits it often. Turn it into the best place on earth. Never use the crate/ex-pen for punishment. Don't yell or push your dog into a crate. Have your dog assessed for separation anxiety if she struggles being left alone. Record your dog's behavior when left alone and show it to your vet. Crating can make these dogs worse and they may even hurt themselves trying to get out. Teach your dog to follow a relaxation protocol. Teach your dog to be relaxed on a mat in the living room and then aim to practice having her relax on mat in the bedroom, adding one element at a time and trying your best in keeping her under threshold. Leave worn items of clothing in the crate/ex-pen so that your scent comforts her. Consider trying calming aids. DAP diffusers, DAP sprays,. There are also nowadays many calming supplements such as L-theanine, GABA teamed with L-Theanine and L-Trytophan, Calming Care by Purina etc. Ask your vet about these options. If the dog has had a negative experience with a particular crate it may help re-starting with a different crate in a different location. Make sure she received enough exercise, training, brain games, play and mental stimulation during the day. Don't let her nap too much during the day and see if that helps. Play calming music in the bedroom (Through a Dog's Ear, Canine Lullabies). I know a dog owner who must play Chopin for her dog, while another uses raggae (a recent study found shelter dogs respond better to raggae/soft rock). Some dogs do best if their crate/ex pen is right next to the human's bed. These dogs feel reassured by seeing well their owners. I had a dog not too long ago who struggled as soon I laid down in bed and he couldn't see me and then when I turned off the light. I had to use a night light and move the bed so he could always see me. I hope this helps! It's surely frustrating when they whine so much during the night. I hope things get better for you soon.

Hello Mike, So sorry to hear you had a rough day. There may be various reasons why you may not be seeing desired results. One main thing to keep in mind is to be patient and persistent. Your pup is very young and on a learning curve. Setbacks are normal when you are training bite inhibition. You may notice that when your puppy is over aroused and over threshold, she may bite harder. Puppy nipping is not a behavior that will go quickly away. It's been rehearsed for a while in the litter with littermates (who have stronger skin than us!) and it's strongly istinctive. If we watch puppies interact, we will see how they are constantly nipping each other in play. Puppies find legs, floppy ears and tails irrestitible to play with because they move and provide interactive fun. Play in many animals encompasses rehearsing behaviors that will later on turn handy in life. During puppy play, we may witness several play behaviors that mimic hunting. We can see the stalking, the chasing, the pouncing, the grabbing. Movement triggers predatory drive and therefore a puppy moving away and running will be readily chased. A moving tail will be nipped. The forward moving legs will be quite an attraction too with funny episodes of a pup trying to walk while the other pup is latched on to a leg with a crocodile hold. Deprived from a littermate to focus on, it is natural for puppies to want to play with their humans in the same way they play among each other. Fingers, arms and legs soon become their favorite tug-toys to interact with. And the more they move, the better! The purpose of yelping to stop puppy biting is adopted from what puppies do in the litter. When the puppies in the litter start playing, they do not have perfect control of their bites. Should a puppy bite another puppy too hard, the puppy reacts by emitting a high-pitched yelp and withdrawing temporarily from play. The scenario may repeat several times and with different pups. Yelp after yelp, the rough biting pup (hopefully!) learns a valuable lesson: rough play makes his favorite playmates withdraw from play and the yelp is a vocal marker that predictably announces such withdrawal. Humans are often advised to adopt the same yelping as it happens in the litter. As mentioned though, yelping doesn't always stop puppy biting. There are several potential reasons why yelping doesn't always stop puppy nipping. A little troubleshooting can help reveal some dynamics going on and some possible flaws. 1)First, Is it just an extinction burst? If your puppy was used to you playing with her despite his rough biting and now you suddenly decide to yelp and stop playing, this inconsistency may pave the path to a phenomenon we talked about before that's known as an extinction burst. Here's a closer insight into what happens. When puppies play with our hands, and they bite hard and we keep playing, their biting is reinforced because they associate it with continued attention and play. What happen the day though when we suddenly stop playing and ignore the behavior? The puppy may feel compelled to bite stronger and with more intensity just to get us to play with them again (extinction burst). The phenomenon is similar to what happens when you always buy candy to a toddler when he cries for candy and then one day you decide to become strict and refuse to buy it. Next, watch the toddler cry even more and possibly even progress to the worst temper tantrum you have ever witnessed on earth. Now, what happens next is very critical: if you give up and buy the candy, you will have just rewarded persistence. The toddler has learned that crying longer and louder will gain the candy. But what happens if you don't give in? Chances are high that if you stick to your plan, you may witness perhaps a couple more extinction bursts, but then the behavior will extinguish just like a fire without oxygen to fuel it. Therefore, if you are dealing with an extinction burst, it's important that you stick to your plan when training your puppy to stop nipping. If your puppy has played with you rough in the past and now you wish him to stop (as his teeth are starting to inflict pain), it's important that, should you decide to go the yelping and withdrawal from play route, that you stick to it. 2) Is the yelping causing the puppy to become more aroused? Yes, yelping followed by withdrawal from play may work with many puppies (perhaps the most mellow ones), but not all. Indeed, some puppies seem to become even more excited or aroused when they hear the yelping. I am not sure if this is an issue you are facing, as I would have to see the behavior in person. I have dealt though with a few cases like this where yelping didn't work. See my story in training a persistent German shepherd pup here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/bite-inhibition-games/ This is the beauty of working with dogs; not all dogs are created equally and therefore you can never take an approach that will work 100 percent for all when it comes to changing behavior. Now why do some puppies get more hyper and excited after hearing people "yelp?" Most likely for the same reason they love squeaky toys: yelps and squeaks trigger a dog's predatory drive. How fun is it to play with a live tug toy (you) which, on top of moving, emits squeaking and squawking noises too? Of course, that small puppy has no intent to maul you, but there are chances that those yelping sounds just might make you sound more like a hurt animal than anything. With puppies as such, it may therefore help to skip the yelping and just walk away, maybe count up to 20 and then return and rinse and repeat until the pup gets it or use an alternative method described below. 3) What if the withdrawal part is not working? This sounds like the issue you are dealing with when trying to give a timeout. The act of leaving the room for very movement-oriented pups like yours can turn problematic. The mere turning and walking to leave the room appears to encourage further engagement with the pup latching on and chasing. Now, the pup may get the the idea that he has lost his favorite playmate once you are eventually gone, but he might have had fun in the meanwhile, and therefore there is no guarantee whether the association between nipping and leaving was made (which must take place immediately). So what to do in such a case? It's great news that your smart puppy is highly motivated by treats. So when the puppy bites: 1) Turn into a lamppost. This helps to make the rough nipping at your feet, arms, legs extra boring. When you are walking and you see your puppy approach, stop in your tracks and become boring like a tree. Movement as we have seen triggers more biting and the more we resist by moving, the more a puppy will latch on and treat us as tug toys. 2) Since your dog is doing good with training and loves treats, great! Let's use this as an opportunity to ask for a replacement behavior (that you have trained prior to the point of a certain level of fluency). As discussed, you have several options as to what replacement behaviors to use (target, sit, heel). They all offer the puppy an opportunity to perform a behavior that is incompatible with biting. Teaching these replacement behaviors requires you to carry a treat bag on you during the day so that you are a ready to redirect at a moment's notice when you walk around. Kibble rather than treats can be used for pups who love their food a lot and for those owners concerned about extra calories or digestive upset. 3) When the training session is done, to prevent the nipping behavior you can get creative and try several options. a) finish up with an interactive toy/game to keep her focus off of you. Ask for a last behavior, praise and reward by giving choice of a stuffed Kong, muffin tin game or a fun treasure hunt (toss handful of kibble in several directions) as you walk away b) let your pup chase a flirt pole as you walk out the yard and let her get some steam off in the yard (most dogs will sniff in the yard rather than focus on us, c) ask a last behavior and end the session by tossing a ball the opposite direction as you walk away d) ask your pup a last behavior and have a helper call your pup away and place a toy in the crate and let the pup chill out a bit in the crate e) have a toy handy in your pocket and end the training session by redirecting your pup to play with the toy (before the nipping begins). Hope this helps! Good luck with your pup! Adrienne

Hi Adrienne! Thank you for all of this information. At 3 months, your pup's window of socialization is about to close, but these pups should still be granted ongoing socialization in a safe manner. Yes, we have been taking her on car rides. We took her to my parent's house for a play date with their dog but he is very old and was not interested - he just went to sleep and she got bored with him. Yesterday we arranged a play date with an older but not as old Labrador. He played with her a little bit but mostly they just chilled together and I am delighted because I'd rather her learn from a mature dog than another wild puppy. We're reaching out to anyone we can to schedule other play dates but it's been hard to coordinate our schedules. We're trying! I only found one puppy school that allows unvaccinated puppies and they were booked for 6 months so we're stuck with finding play dates and trying to get creative on our own. Thanks for letting me know to have her walk on other types of surfaces. We've had a few people come by our house for other reasons and she was great with them. She is submission peeing though and I saw you had a page on that so I'll read up on that. We're really worried about missing the window for socialization because we want to be able to take her everywhere with us and have her be fearless. I'll see if I can have people come by with costumes too. It's interesting that you mention she doesn't know how to play. Have you tried tossing her kibble for her to catch? Or her chew toys? How about using a flirt pole? I would expect a pup of this age and breed to have some prey drive. Did she get a check-up from the vet just in case? When we get her to the vet on Monday, I will ask her to check this. She chases crickets and flying bugs outside and she wants to chase the cats. She obsesses like a herding dog. I've tried throwing all kinds of things at her and she won't catch them though. It's so weird as our last dog did not need to be taught how to play. Most likely, your pup's screeching is also what may have grabbed the attention of humans by the side of the road so this instinctive screeching has been ulteriorly reinforced. That is so interesting! She sometimes does a single screech when she wants our attention. It seems like each day we make good strides with some things and then something new comes up. Yesterday we had some great sessions where the cats sat on one side of the gate (in the hallway) and she sat in the living room and we got her to "leave it" and "look at me". This lasted about 10 minutes and then I didn't want to burn her out. We also did that this morning for about 5 minutes, twice. The cats are dying to play with her and we have to give them treats and pet them to stop them from jumping the fence to get to her because then she chases them and they get scared. It feels like we're making baby steps with that but then I noticed that she is barking more outside which she never did before and now she is chewing everything in the house like the curtains, furniture, rugs, etc. We've moved a lot of the throw rugs out of reach, our shoes and things like that - but I don't want to take down the curtains and I used anti-chew spray on the furniture but she doesn't seem to care. We had success keeping her busy with the kong for two days but then she got bored with the kibble/peanut butter plug (puppy pb not human) and so I put wet food inside with it and then she went and buried it in the back yard and we can't find it. When we give her high value treats like bully sticks or pig ears she wants to bury them instead of eat them, or she gets really wired and hyper. It feels like any solution is not long-lasting. This is a good question, also because it may seem like if we use one approach or another we are a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place. If we give the puppy attention in these cases, we may risk that, over time, she may eventually learn that her behavior works in getting what she wants, but ignoring would trigger an extinction burst (Jennifer already pointed you to some sources that discuss this term, but we'll cover more about that below) and the occasional spontaneous recovery-not great if you have neighbors who share a wall. This helps and I'm going to read all your material on extinction bursts. Yesterday I had a personal meltdown when I was trying to focus on a meeting for work (early in the morning) and she was wild and the cats were scratching to come into the living room and she was obsessing on them. But then I read the other responses to this post and started doing the airplane game (she aced it immediately) and separation anxiety games (did pretty well) and noticing that her behavior was attention-seeking so that helped me to be patient. Now things are much easier with her HOWEVER, I'm worried that I am reinforcing it. She is extremely well behaved when we give her our whole attention. But if we do other things, she starts chewing the furniture, the two rugs we have down (all the rest we put away until she's older), and this morning she even started chewing on my arm. I have given her every type of toy possible and we froze an old dish towel and had her chew that in case it's related to teething. They help her but not when she wants attention. If I sit near her on the floor, she is an angel. I don't have to pay full attention to her but just sit nearby. But obviously, I don't want her to depend on me not to mention that obviously I cannot do this all the time. I have a full time job and while I am home a lot - I do have a lot of other stuff in my life that have gone to the back burner since we got her. Tackling puppies misbehaving for attention is not an easy task. It requires a different approach than a dog crying for anxiety. You need to firstly evaluate whether your puppy is crying because of a truly impellent physiological need (thirsty, hungry, tired, too hot, too cold, under-exercised, needing to be taken out to go potty) and once you have ruled that out, your next step may be ignoring unwanted behaviors. This is the most difficult part because you need to ignore these behaviors totally, no looking, no talking, no scolding, no pushing, no making eye contact. No attention at all, even attention of the negative type. You would therefore have to pretend as if your pup isn't there, waiting for her to give up engaging in the undesirable behavior. I've been rewarding her with petting and verbal praise when she chews on her toys by herself (without me sitting nearby) but that is never for long. When she starts chewing on everything in sight, shouldn't we be correcting her so she stops doing it? How do I find the balance between not letting her be a wild dog who destroys the house and reinforcing her attention seeking? When she cries, I look out of the corner of my eye to make sure it's not a physical injury and ignoring it. The little whimpers are reducing and we have not had a tantrum since Tuesday evening. I feel like she knows we don't want her jumping on the furniture or chewing it - if we ignore it for a few days, will she stop dong it for attention or will she think she is allowed to? I don't want to confuse her about "the rules" either. I have been trying to stimulate her with training (and we tried to teach her to "find it" but that didn't go well at all). So when she's acting calm, I'll sit with her and train her and pet her. I will stay on the floor while she chews alone and then go back to my desk. She'll chew on her many toys for a while and then about 10 minutes later, she gets bored and wants attention. Without fetch or going on walks, I don't know what to do without overwhelming her with more training. We go outside to the backyard and she runs around there but never enough to do anything. I feel like my whole day is stopping her from chewing on things she should not. However, it's important to rule out anxiety. There's a difference in the body language/ vocalizations of a puppy crying simply because of being cranky and one crying from full-mode anxiety panic. I suspect she does get anxious but I cannot figure out what triggers it yet. She definitely has no frustration tolerance - when she wants to see the cats, she obsesses. Like I said, leave it and look at me is definitely helping and I think she's going to desensitize at some point but it's hard to tell what is frustration vs anxiety. The car gives her anxiety but we're trying to push through it with some car rides. When she cries, we ignore it and then when she stops, my fiancé pets her and rewards her. However, the last car ride resulted in almost nonstop screeches that made my spine literally jump. We'll try ear plugs for the next drive and maybe shorten the rides. I did just order some calming chew supplements and we'll see if that helps. Of course, one must factor in, that the longer one has reinforced attention-seeking behaviors, the longer it will take to extinguish and this can a pain-staking process, which is why this is far better being tackled earlier rather than later, ideally taking as many preventive steps as possible. I definitely want to get this tamped down and resolved ASAP before she gets any habits! While young puppies are balls of energy, but their energy drains very fast and they need sleep to recuperate. It is estimated that young puppies require around eighteen to twenty hours for sleep per day. This may sound a whole lot, but it makes sense since puppies do most of their growing while sleeping! So it sounds like your pup needs her quiet spot- that is, definitely away from the cats. Sticking to a routine can help provide structure and reassurance. You can help a cranky puppy fall asleep by reducing stimulation and taking the following steps: We do keep the cats in the other half of the house almost all the time. At night, we let them roam and she goes in the bedroom with us. But we have not crated her - we don't have space for a crate. Yesterday I got her back up to 15 hours of sleep in the 24 hours but I can't seem to get her to sleep beyond that. Do you think it is important we crate train her? I realize everyone says it's great and helpful but I read about Aussies that they can't handle a crate for long because of their energy. I'm open to figuring out how to make it work if it will be life-changing but we would have to rearrange our furniture to keep a large crate and I would rather not. We did try the puppy music youtube station yesterday and I think that helped her sleep longer! Oh and today I have been able to leave her alone for a few minutes at a time but only if she is calm. She sits or lays in the living room and stares at the door waiting for me. I praise her when I come back. I think the peekaboo game helped yesterday. But when she was hyper this morning, it was not going to happen. I gave her a peanut butter chew stick when I had to leave her alone for 2 minutes and she was fine with that. Seems leaving her alone is about timing. Thank you for all the help. I am so burned out. My fiance and I take turns watching her but since he works in the office (side of the house with the cats) and my work station is in the living room, most of the puppy time has been on me. After work, we can take turns but we're both exhausted and sick of it. We love her and know it will get better some day but anything we can do to make this happen faster will help our sanity.

Thanks for the update! A few extinction bursts are normal and quite expected, take them as a sign that whatever you are doing is working and stick to your plan. The worst mistake is progressing in meal preparation/ feeding when the dog is actively barking. For sake of an example, imagine kids who when they don't get candy at the store, they start whining. And when they see that whining doesn't work, they'll escalate to crying and screaming and putting up a tantrum (extinction burst). If we stick to our plan and don't give them candy despite all the drama, they'll learn to stop pushing it and the behavior will eventually extinguish, but if we give in though and buy it-even just that one time-, they'll always try to ask for candy because by buying the candy we have reinforced persistence. Dogs who are barky and impatient, benefit from learning more impulse control and frustration tolerance: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/ Keep us posted on how things go moving forward, Happy training! Adrienne

2) "She bites when you try to take her toy." You puppy must be taught how to trade. Left untreated, this can lead to serious resource guarding in the future. Here is a read about trading: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/overprotective-of-toys/ 3) "She bites after a cuddle session when you stop petting her." I tend to see far more puppies who bite as they are being pet rather than after the petting has stopped. However, it sounds again, like in the case of her biting after tossing a toy, that she is seeking more engagement and doesn't seem to come to terms about things stopping. She bites when she grows bored of a toy, she bites after chasing a tossed toy. It appears that she goes into frustration mode when activities or movements stop and goes on to biting to seek re-engagement. It's important to break this chain and find ways to prevent this biting. There are several ways to accomplish this: -When done petting, cross your arms and make a point of not moving one inch. This may be possible with puppies who do not bite hard. Now, with a determined puppy like a heeler, there is a chance the heeler will bite persistently just to get you moving or to provoke any reaction. Now, if your puppy was used to you or any other family member playing or interacting with her despite her rough biting and now you suddenly decide to stop moving, this inconsistency may pave the path to a phenomenon known as an extinction burst. An extinction burst is not really a bad thing, actually, it's a good thing, but you really need to know what to do about it to prevent the biting from getting worse. Here's a closer insight into what happens: When puppies play with our hands, and they bite hard and we keep playing, their biting is reinforced because they associate it with continued attention (puppies may enjoy even attention of the negative type) and play. What happens the day though when we suddenly stop playing and ignore the behavior? The puppy may feel compelled to bite stronger and with more intensity just to get us to play or interact with them again (extinction burst). The phenomenon is similar to what happens when you always buy candy to a toddler when he cries for candy and then one day you decide to become strict and refuse to buy it (let's say a dentist reported too many cavities). Next, watch the toddler cry even more, and possibly, progress to the worst temper tantrum you have ever witnessed on earth. Now, what happens next is very critical: if you give up and buy the candy, you will have just rewarded persistence. The toddler has learned that crying longer and louder will gain the candy and will keep using this strategy at full intensity. But what happens if you don't give in? Chances are high that if you stick to your plan, you may witness perhaps a couple more extinction bursts, but then the behavior will eventually extinguish, pufffff... just like a fire without oxygen to fuel it. Therefore, it's important that you stick to your plan when training your puppy to stop nipping when you stop petting her. Crossed arms, no talking, no looking at her, no scolding, become the human personification of a lamppost. Perhaps some planning in advance wearing extra layers of clothing and gloves to withstand any harder nipping may turn helpful if possible hard biting is an issue. Your objective is getting her to give up and understand that when you stop, you stop. You want her to lose interest and move away or find something else better to do. Several of these "lamppost sessions" should be held, and at some point, it is possible to even add a "that's enough" cue to inform your puppy when you are done, cross your arms and zero interaction. If there are chances for rough bites or it becomes too difficult to implement this consistently with all other family members on board doing the same, alternatively, you can try a different training strategy altogether. Please note: if you have small children or your puppy ever exhibits or has exhibited aggression consult with a behavior professional for guidance. An alternate option is trying this: When you are petting, give a signal that it is ending. Say something like "that's enough" remove your hand and simultaneously with your other hand toss an interactive toy from your pocket before your puppy has a chance to realize you have stopped petting . Anything to break this "stop petting and biting" cycle from repeating and prevent building a strong rehearsal of the problematic behavior (the more the dog practices certain behaviors, the more they become habit-forming and ingrained). With a working breed, I find it important to to instill a strict "say please" or "learn to earn" program from early puppy hood. So have your pup sit before petting, sit before placing the food bowl on the floor, sit before opening the door, sit before tossing a ball.

It sounds like he's very routine-oriented, and likely his stomach juices are getting ready for the meal and he's much anticipating that. I used to have a horse who would strategically start scratching the floor in protest if I was just a couple of minutes late. It was as if his stomach worked like a clock! If the barking starts as early as 30 to 40 minutes before it's time, a good approach would be to preempt the barking from occurring in the first place. This can help on several levels. 1) It helps prevent rehearsal of the behavior. The more a dog rehearses a behavior, the mores established it becomes, so if you can prevent it from happening in the first place, that would be great. This is is a good approach for behaviors that take place in a predictable pattern when it's feasible. 2) It helps establish a new routine. With the dog busy in some other activity, the chances for barking can be significantly reduced and being distracted, his stomach juices may not start activating. So it would be great if you could have a helper like a family member or friend who can walk him *before* he starts the barking behavior and until it's time for his meal. This way, in the meanwhile you can start preparing his meal in his absence and when he comes from the walk you can work on the exercise described above. Another option is keeping him indoors. Keeping him out in the yard may be exacerbating the barking, compounding it with him not liking to being left out of family activities, and possibly thinking you are preparing his meal when you are not. Being indoors, he may better see what you are doing and how his barking affects you. If he barks, he should be given no attention, no trips to the kitchen or nearby his food so he doesn't think his barking is working. Just play it boring, watching TV or reading a book and use earplugs if necessary. Something to be aware of is a phenomenon known as an extinction burst. In other words, the barking behavior increasing in intensity. This may seem like what you are doing is not working, when it actually really is, only that it goes through a worsening stage before getting better. This is more likely to occur if you have been reinforcing his barking by feeding him in the past. Ignore the extinction burst, and things should get better afterwards as long as you stick to the plan. With time, he should get bored of barking with nothing happening. Then, as mealtime arrives, wait that he's quiet for at least half a minute before you get up and start the meal preparation process as described in the exercise in the previous post.

When Tosti gets frustrated, he seems to turn his frustration towards me. He jumps up at me, bites me (leaves me with bruises and really hurts me). I've learned to (not harshly, but tightly) grab him behind his ears and to let go when he calms down. It works, but I have to do this 3 or 4 times before he 'gives up'. I really would like to understand where this behavior comes from. Sometimes it happens during a walk or after he ate. It's making it hard to feel connected with Tosti and sometimes I feel like a hostage in my own home. Because when I go upstairs, he'll bite the cushions or destroy his bed.. I go on daily bike rides, I go on training walks (where he has to pay attention to me), I play with him, I challenge him with Brain Training.. But we can't seem to overcome this behavior. Any thoughts? Frustration is a negative emotional state that has been associated with behavior problems in dogs including aggression. This negative emotional reaction is seen when a dog’s expectation is violated (such as when access to a reward is prevented, reduced or delayed), in presence of barriers that prevent access to a resource and in face of intrusions into their personal space/territory. Frustration may accompany fear when a dog’s escape option is thwarted. Frustration may also arise when dogs become overstimulated. Some dogs can cope well with increased levels of stimulation, while others may become stressed and frustrated especially when they haven’t attained sufficient coping skills. We may therefore expect dogs to act frustrated in these particular circumstances/contexts: ⦁ When they are on leash and unable to explore/meet other dogs or people ⦁ When they see something behind a fence and can’t reach it ⦁ When they see a squirrel they cannot chase ⦁ When they play fetch and the owner doesn't toss the ball ⦁ When they are being trained and don’t understand what’s expected from them ⦁ When they don’t receive enough exercise/mental stimulation or they receive too much of it and not enough rest ⦁ When they are playing and are interrupted ⦁ When their personal space is invaded by people/other animals ⦁ When their access to safety/autonomy is thwarted ⦁ When they’re undergoing behavior modification involving extinction protocols with too abrupt removal of reinforcement ⦁ When they can’t reunite with their owners ⦁ When they are not given owner attention (and will vent by engaging in undesirable behaviors, which are often reinforced by attention-even if the negative type) ⦁ When their routines are disrupted (dog is not walked at usual after coming back from work) ⦁ When they fail to “get things their way” (like seeing another dog or person on a walk and not being allowed to greet) In dogs who have little frustration tolerance, frustration can lead to displacement behaviors, repetitive behaviors (stereotypies) and may even morph into aggression, including redirected aggression. When dealing with frustration, it’s important to determine whether a dog struggles with it in a specific situation, or whether it's a more general behavior trait that needs a generalized training plan to help the dog learn how to manage his/her frustration in different situations (impulse control training). Signs of Frustration in Dogs When dogs undergo frustration, they may often whine, bark, growl and lunge as they try to make an effort to reach their goal. When the goal cannot be achieved, affected dogs may engage in displacement behaviors (sniffing, scratching, licking, tail chasing, mounting, chewing) which may lead to repetitive and sometimes even compulsive behaviors. Sometimes predisposed dogs may also redirect their frustration on something else (biting the leash, biting an owner, attacking another dog). Stopping the Biting In order to stop these attacks, a multi-modal and integrative approach will be needed, tackling the dog’s excess arousal, preventing exposure to full intensity frustration-inducing events, teaching alternative behaviors and coping skills, and mastering the art of better self-control and relaxation. The Power of Prevention If you can predict when your dog is likely to get frustrated and bite, you should take steps to prevent this occurrence because as it happens with humans, practice makes perfect. In other words, the more your dog gets to practice the biting behavior, the more this behavior will establish. Dogs are always in a learning state. With every undesirable interaction, your dog is learning to vent his frustration more and more, while you are likely learning to become more and more unhappy about being around your dog. You can prevent Tosti from biting by carefully managing his environment. You already seem to know some triggers. Here are some general management options: ⦁ Let your dog out in the yard after he eats. Many dogs get a bout of zoomies after they eat (stay behind a door to watch him). ⦁ Use an exercise pen to keep him away from you after he eats ⦁ Using baby gates to keep him away from you after he eats ⦁ Keeping an eye on what triggers his biting on walks and avoiding those situations. If a trigger is approaching, you can do an emergency U-turn before your dog gets aroused. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/emergency-u-turn/ Pay Attention to When Your Dog Gets Frustrated on Walks The biting may often appear when a dog wants to go in a certain direction and is prevented The dog is trying to access some food on the ground and is prevented The dog sees an animal he would like to chase and is prevented The dog wants to meet another dog or person and is prevented The dog doesn't want the walk to end The dog is bored from the walk The dog is overstimulated In these cases, it's important to find ways to preempt the behavior before it occurs and providing alternate behaviors to engage in. Implementation of Behavior Modification Behavior problems in dogs can be tackled passively (by using management to prevent the problem behavior from surfacing) and both passively and actively by working directly on the problem. To work on this type of problem, the goal would be increasing your dog’s tolerance level of frustration by starting exposures to minimally arousing/frustrating situations and giving your dog an alternative behavior to engage before the frustration sets in. Let’s take a closer look at some examples of the process (these are just examples of behavior modification, every case may need an individualized approach based on triggers, level of training, discretion of the professional you are working with). Systematic Reintroduction of Triggers If the triggers that evoke your older dog’s attacks are clear, a first step after using management would be gradually reintroducing them in an attenuated, low-intensity version. This low intensity version must be attenuated enough so as to not provoke the undesirable behavior. Once the dog is fine with the lowest version, the intensity of the trigger can be gradually increased, always in a way that the undesired behavior is never fully evoked. For example, if seeing other people on walks is a trigger, it is best to avoid areas with people at first and then presenting them from a distance that doesn't evoke the nipping response. It's important to keep the dog under threshold as much as possible. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/ To maximize the effectiveness of behavior modification, on top of avoiding triggers, and then presenting in a lower intensity version, it helps to train an alternate response (response substitution) using positive reinforcement training. Response Substitution Response substitution consists of substituting the undesirable behavior with a desirable one. The desirable behavior should first be trained in a distraction-free area, around no stimuli first (quiet room) and then around stimuli of low enough intensity. Then, gradually more and more distractions can be added. Once trained at a proficient level, the behavior can be cued when in presence of locations or contexts where the problem is most likely to arise. Some Examples of Response Substitution If your dog gets into a nippy state after eating, consider that many dogs are prone to getting zoomies after they eat, (they're called post-prandial zoomies) you can make a routine of letting him eat by the porch area and then scattering several treats or kibbles around the yard for a fun treasure hunt or you can put a portion of his meal in a bottle so that he has some alternate productive activities to engage in to replace the nipping. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-treasure-hunt/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/high-school/the-bottle-game/ Alternatively, you can drain some energy by playing a structured game such as the kibble-toss game. Have him sit and toss a treat to reset him, then again sit and toss a treat. Rinse and repeat to drain that frustrated energy and replace it with desirable behaviors. Or you can try engaging him with a flirt pole and using that to engage him and polish his leave it, drop and take skills. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/take-leave-it/ With his mouth busy in trying to catch the toy, he should think less about nipping. For biting on walks, as soon as you notice a trigger, you can do a U-turn and then toss a handful of treats mixed with kibble to the ground and tell your dog to "go find them!" as you point at them. The redirection needs to be long and valuable enough so that the dog doesn't think about nipping as the trigger passes by or you walk past it. Sometimes, one may have to do several reps in a row to get the dog back to baseline level. It's crucial to interrupt the behavior before it escalates into biting. If one interrupts the behavior once the dog is biting, it will be more difficult to redirect him, and on to of that, one risks establishing a behavior chain (dog bites on purpose to get treats) which can be difficult to eradicate once stablished. Learn Body Language 101 Another important step when working with frustrated dogs is to learn as much as possible about a dog’s body language. Prior to nipping, you may notice in your dog some precursor signs such as a wild look on his face, a high-held tail and the body position leaning forward. Recognizing early precursors is important as it can help you predict when he is about to bite and use swift intervention by redirecting him the earliest signs. It’s important to note that quick intervention may become difficult in those cases where triggers that evoke problematic behaviors are random and unpredictable or when the biting take place quickly with very few warning signs. Interruption at the Earliest Signs In the best situations, through management and a carefully implemented behavior modification plan, the dog is prevented from engaging in the problematic behavior or it takes place in a minimal form, however, even in the best plans, an occasional exhibition of the problem behavior may still unexpectedly occur, what to do in such a case? In such a case, it’s important to intervene at the earliest signs (like just the mere crazy look ). Physical intervention needs to be avoided as much as possible as this can cause increased arousal and eventually even defensive biting. Determining the safest and most efficient plan to achieve this is something that may vary on an individual basis. Options to prevent escalation may consist of a sound like a whistle, smacking noise https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/the-airplane-game/the-smacking-sound/or a verbal cue (such as a sit followed by a tossed treat toss as explained in the treat toss game) delivered in a neutral tone. Always keep kibble or treats in your pocket so that you're ready to reinforce these alternate behaviors. It’s important to therefore have a plan in place for quick redirection at the earliest signs of arousal moving forward by training responsiveness out of the frustration-inducing context at a fluent level and then gradually working around more and more distractions. If you dog gets to engage in problematic behavior, it’s important to evaluate what went wrong and take future steps to prevent such setbacks from reoccurring. Impulse Control Training Impulse control refers to a dog’s ability to manage their impulses and restrain themselves when it comes to their desires and reactions. A lack of impulse control leads to dogs who react with impulsivity. Their struggle to regulate their emotions leads to potentially problematic and even aggressive reactions in certain circumstances. Lack of impulse control is often seen in untrained puppies and young, adolescent dogs. It’s therefore important to teach dogs better impulse control which is achieved for the most part through training. Impulse control exercises can help dogs learn the virtue of delayed gratification and that “patient pays.” Here are important reads: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/impulse-control-frustration-tolerance/ https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/10-impulse-control-games-for-dogs/ Acclimate to a Muzzle Dogs who bite out of frustration are often in a hyper-aroused state and this often means that they'll bite harder than if they were calmer. You will need to take steps to prevent your dog from potentially hurting you and others around you. Muzzle training your dog is therefore important so that you have a back-up in case your dog happens to be exposed to a trigger that causes him to go over threshold. Here is a guide: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-your-dog-to-wear-a-muzzle/ In your case, a strong basket muzzle will be needed as this allows your dog to pant and take treats. Please note: Just because your dog wears a muzzle, doesn't mean you are free to expose him to his triggers. You still will need to avoid full intensity exposures as if he wasn't wearing it. Capture the Calmness Teaching frustrated, over aroused dogs the art of calmness is paramount. Many dogs who are overstimulated and quick to become overly aroused, are dogs who don’t receive enough sleep, especially sleep of the most restorative type (deep REM sleep). This is vitally important. Too much of exercise and overstimulation (busy places, barking at triggers) without breaks and opportunities to wind down and sleep, can backfire. It's important to create an environment that is conducive to relaxation and prevent your dog from rehearsing overly aroused, excited/reactive behaviors. Praise your dog in a calm tone when you notice he is calm and relaxed. Work With a Professional Some cases can be complex to treat. It may be difficult for you to interrupt your dog's behavior, or maybe he bites too hard and you are starting to fear him or feel frustrated which makes him more likely to bite (when in fear or frustrated we may move a lot and dogs can sense these negative emotions). You need to make your safety and the safety of others around you your top priority. If your dog shows signs of aggression, dog's hesitate to consult with a behavior professional. This is for safety and for correct implementation of behavior modification. Look for a reputable dog behavior professional (like a board-certified veterinary behaviorist) or a dog trainer with years of behavior consulting under the belt and using force-free methods. Sometimes, dogs may need medications to be under threshold enough to allow them the opportunity to learn better coping skills and better frustration tolerance. I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions and feel free to post updates. Happy training, Adrienne

Hi Angie, I am glad to hear your Chi seems to like them to the point of warming up to them and voluntarily snuggling with them. Here is a guide for attention-seeking whining/barking: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/behavior-training/whining/attention-seeking/ Basically, dogs who bark for attention typically do so hoping for the owner to interact/engage in some way. When your roommates look at your dog, talk to her or check what she wants, they are reinforcing this barking since attention fuels this behavior. Even if they scold your Chi for barking, it doesn't matter. Scolding still qualifies as a form of attention--even if it's of the negative type! So ignoring is the way to go, but your roommates need to be all on the same page and they need to be very consistent! Now, during the process, be aware of extinction bursts, that is, the phenomenon of the barking increasing or morphing into something else (like pawing at your roommates, nudging them with her nose) in hopes of generating a response. It's important that they ignore the extinction bursts as well. If they give attention to any of these behaviors at this crucial time, they'll have reinforced persistence. If instead they ignore the barking (and any other attention-seeking behaviors piggy-backing it), it should gradually subside. However, make a mental note and find ways to strategically prevent these episodes of barking from occurring in the first place. For instance, if your Chi barks at them in the evening when they sit on the couch to watch TV or read emails, make sure to walk your Chi first, play with her and then strategically give her something to enjoy (like a stuffed Kong) while they're busy. The goal is to have her tired enough so that her needs for interaction have been exhausted while also giving her something productive to do. The barking when entering/exiting the room can be attention seeking, but can also be a sign she's not too comfortable with people entering/exiting, which may require a different approach. Does she seem to settle once they have entered/exited? Do they give her attention when they come in and she's barking?