Supporting Your Human Reactive Dog

By Benah Stiewing

It’s never easy when our dogs struggle to feel secure in the world, especially when their fear is directed towards humans. We use the general term “Stranger Danger” to describe a dog that is reacting towards an unknown person in some way. This reaction could be wanting to flee or otherwise move away from the person, or directing “big behaviors” towards the person such as barking, growling or snapping. These behaviors could be directed to someone that the dog just met or someone they have known previously who suddenly appears in their environment. 

Behavior is functional, meaning that when an individual is behaving in a certain way, it is to get certain outcomes from the situation. When a dog demonstrates behaviors such as barking, growling, snapping, or other unwanted behaviors towards a person, usually this is the dog’s way of asking for distance away from the scary stranger. The dog could be feeling threatened, overwhelmed, startled, or cornered - they use their behavior in an effort to get the space that they need to stop feeling those things.

Understanding Your Dog’s Body Language

Our dogs’ primary method of communication is body language. As humans who speak a different language from our dogs, we can easily miss what our dogs are trying to communicate when they use mild forms of communication. In order to truly understand and support our dogs we need to become familiar with the behaviors that dogs use to communicate.

When our dogs are worried about something, we often notice it the most when they have big behaviors that are hard to miss, such as barking, growling, hunching over, running away, or variations of those things. However, there are typically many smaller behaviors leading up to the big behaviors that are also worth noting and understanding, because they're going to tell us about how that dog is feeling before the dog is over their comfort threshold and they feel the need to use their big behaviors to get out of the situation. Watch the video below about how to read and understand what your dog is saying with their body language. To help our dog’s reactivity, it’s critical that we are able to recognize the early warning signs that something is wrong.

Management & Training

In addition to understanding body language, there are many ways we can support our dog experiencing stranger danger! Most “Stranger Danger” dogs are using their reactive behaviors to help them feel safe. If strangers are scary to the dog, and the dog’s barking makes the strangers go away, the barking behavior has worked to meet the dog’s need of feeling safer. If interactions with strangers go a different way every single time, the dog’s one option for creating a predictable outcome is to use their undesirable reactive behaviors to make it go away. We want to create a predictable way for the dog to experience strangers, so that they can start to feel more comfortable and safe without the need to bark or growl. Instead of stranger interactions being a big question mark to the dog, we can instead create a routine where the dog knows exactly what to expect and what to do. This not only keeps the dog (and the strangers) safe, but also  builds the dog’s confidence that strangers maybe aren’t so dangerous after all. 

We want to create a predictable routine for any moments where the dog becomes reactive. This may be your front door, on walks, or in the backyard. Wherever it occurs, we want to eliminate rehearsal of the undesired behavior through a different set of practiced behaviors. For example, if your dog struggles with door reactivity, have the dog behind a baby gate away from the door (i.e. kitchen or side office or hallway) or have the dog in a crate or bedroom completely away from the door (with food puzzle or other enrichment toy) until stranger is in the home and settled. Once the visitor has settled, bring your dog out on-leash (muzzled if necessary) and have them practice their visitor routine (like settling on a mat with frozen Kong). Aim for quality over quantity - if your dog can remain calm and relaxed for 15 minutes while being in the stranger’s presence, end the session there and put your dog away.

If your dog’s stranger danger mostly presents out and about in the world, limit those to positive, structured experiences. On a weekday morning (when there will be less traffic) visit a Lowes or Home Depot. Sit outside the building, far enough from the entrance that your dog can observe but is not reacting. Bring some form of enrichment, like a snuffle mat or Kong, and just sit calmly while your dog observes. If someone tries to approach you, have a few prepared sentences so you don’t scramble to create space. Here are a few ideas:

• “My dog is really worried about new people and you could really help them out by staying right there and letting me reward them for just watching you.” 

• “Would you mind just taking a few steps back so that she can feel a little bit more comfortable about you?”

As you support your dog experiencing stranger danger, remember that your dog isn’t giving you a hard time, they are having a hard time. If you find an experience too difficult for you and your dog, try to remove yourself as quickly and calmly as possible, and brainstorm how you can avoid repeating it in the future. If you believe your dog may be at risk of biting you or someone else, we strongly suggest that you consider muzzle training, which you can find more information about by clicking here. We are always here to help, and especially love supporting teams who struggle with fear and anxiety. 

Training Support for Your Human-Reactive Dog

Supporting fearful, reactive dogs is our passion! We understand how challenging a reactive dog can be, and we are here to help. We have our Reactivity in Dogs Mini-Course which is available fully virtually. If you are local to Fort Collins, CO, we have our Reactive Dog 101 group class! Training is done in a safe, low-stress classroom environment to teach you and your dog the skills to manage and modify your dog's current reaction to the presence of other dogs and people. Private lessons are an excellent way to work on your dog’s reactivity, with an individualized training program created for you and your dog. Private training is available in-person in Fort Collins, CO, Hudson, NY, and everywhere virtually!

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Training Your Dog to Avoid Snakes

Let’s talk about rattlesnake avoidance training for our dogs!

As spring quickly approaches, we are all excited to once again begin our summer outdoor adventures with our dog! Hiking, paddle boarding, trail running– so many adventures await! However, this change in season also marks the start of snake season. As the ground thaws and the temperature rises, rattlesnakes will be coming back to trails, fields, and parking lots to soak up the sun and hunt for prey. As dog guardians and outdoor enthusiasts, we want to keep our dog safe and respect animals in their environment. To do this, we can train our dog to avoid all snakes, significantly decreasing the chances of a venomous snake bite. 

To train our dog to avoid snakes, there are two main components: a rock-solid recall and teaching a snake alert. A snake alert is a behavior you teach your dog to perform when they perceive a snake in their environment. The snake itself becomes the cue for the behavior. However, the alert won’t be strong enough if the dog doesn't also have a secure recall. Coming back to you has to have a strong reinforcement history, or else the alert won’t be reliable. A snake alert is a behavior chain, outlined below.

1. Dog perceives snake in the environment, through sight, scent, or sound.

2. Dog visually locates handler.

3. Dog runs to handler enthusiastically.

4. Dog performs their snake alert when they get to handler.

5. Handler marks and rewards.

6. Team is able to move away from the snake safely. 

In this article, we will focus on teaching your snake alert. You can click here to read our recent blog post, Building Blocks for an Off-Leash Recall!, to learn more about teaching your dog a rock-solid recall. 

To teach your dog a snake alert, we start by teaching the behavior itself. Essentially any behavior can be a snake alert, but ideally you want it to be something that your dog isn’t likely to perform without being prompted, such as a hand-touch or leg-touch. If your dog doesn’t jump, a jump-up cue could work well, while if your dog is a frequent jumper that wouldn’t be a good match. Once you’ve settled on a behavior, teach the behavior to your dog and generalize it to many different environments and contexts. Before we transfer the cue over to the snake, we want to be sure that the alert is fluent. 

Teaching a Hand-Touch:

1. Present your hand to your dog

2. Mark & reward for any engagement with the hand presented

3. In between repetitions, hide your hand behind your back and then bring it out again - this maintains the novelty

4. Gradually increase criteria until you are only mark and reward when your dog touches your hand with their nose

5. Watch the video below on teaching a hand touch!

Once your dog’s alert behavior is fluent and can be performed under a variety of circumstances, it’s time to transfer your cue over to the snake. We do this by isolating the components of sight, scent and sound of the snake cue, and asking our dogs to do their alert behavior when they perceive any or all parts of the snake’s presence in the environment.

This is just a brief overview of how we teach rattlesnake avoidance training at Summit Dog Training! If you are interested in learning more and taking your dog’s rattlesnake avoidance behavior to the next level, consider joining our virtual and in-person training options, where instructor Amy Creaven provides in-depth, expert knowledge and guidance. We are offering in-person and online practice sessions, both are available a la carte or as packages with our new online course! If you are an outdoor adventure enthusiast and want to protect your dog from venomous snakes, this course is for you!

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Polite Greetings at the Door

By Benah Stiewing & Amber Quann

Barking and excitement at the door is a very normal canine behavior. This behavior usually stems from a combination of genetics (dogs of many breeds have historically been used as guardians) and the opportunity to rehearse this behavior quite a lot. It can be very rewarding for a dog to bark at something outside and see that trigger go away – even though the UPS man didn’t actually vacate the porch because the dog was barking. Below, you will find some helpful guidance for how we can support our dogs practice calmer, quieter front-door greetings! If your dog is showing signs of aggression or fear when new people enter your home, we recommend contacting us as soon as possible to begin private training, as this is a more complex issue that requires individualized attention.

To work  on addressing reactivity or rude manners associated with front door greetings, we will approach this from three angles. We’ll start with each of these aspects individually, then we’ll string them together into a chain and work on them simultaneously.

• Counter-Conditioning for the Door Cues

• Managing Door Interactions for Safety & Success

• Teaching an Alternative Door Behavior

Counter-Conditioning for the Door Cues

Counter-conditioning is pairing something good with the trigger repeatedly so that the dog learns positive feelings associated with hearing the previously scary or arousing sound (doorbell/knock/etc.). In a nutshell, counter-conditioning requires presenting the trigger sound in a mild form (i.e. you knock quietly on the wall in your house while your dog is right in front of you) followed immediately by something the dog enjoys (treat/toy/belly rub/etc.).

Keep in mind that even if the dog barks in response to the sound (as they usually do especially when we get to working on the doorbell sound), you are going to offer the pleasant response anyways. If we only waited for the dog not barking (which is a behavior that has been practiced a LOT at this point!), the dog would never get a pleasant response to the door sound and we would miss a lot of opportunities to pair good things with the sound that triggers the barking. So right now, as you are getting started on this process, offer a treat EVEN IF your dog first barks at the trigger sound.

Common Door Cues that we can Counter-Condition:

• Car pulling into the driveway

• Doorbell sound

• Knocking

• You rushing to the door

• The visual of the person on the outside of the door

Managing Door Interactions for Safety & Success

The goal of management is to keep unwanted behavior patterns from being practiced. If you are in a rush, and can’t take the extra time to help your dog be successful at the front door, or that type of interaction is still harder than what your dog can handle, it would be better for your dog to be somewhere else in your house during the immediate door interaction. Think of a place your dog already feels comfortable. Ideally it should be near the door or the path to the front door so that it is convenient to send your dog to this area on your way to the front door. 

• Teach your dog that going into that designated space (a room, their crate, etc.) is a great thing! Toss a treat inside, have them spend time in that area with a kong or bone toy,and keep the duration short.

• Once your dog is comfortable going in and out of that area, it’s time to add a verbal cue that tells them to run there to get rewarded. 

• Examples of words other students have used: “Emergency!” “Crate” “Let’s take a break” or “Get in Your Bunker!”. 

• Once you’ve picked a word, encourage your dog to follow you to the entrance of their area. Say your cue, then toss a treat into the space. Reward your dog again when they get into the area. Repeat, until your dog is quickly moving into the safe space when they hear that word.

• Next, add the doorbell or knocking (or other door trigger) as an additional cue. When your dog first hears the sound, they might need to run to the front door in order to assess. That’s normal, especially after barking at the front door has been practiced for a while. 

• You can follow them to the front door, reward them for calm (like in our counter-conditioning work), and then encourage them to follow you to their area. Reward them heavily for going into their safe space, and keep the duration of that stay in the area very short. Repeat!

Teaching Better Alternative Door Behaviors

To shift an undesirable behavior, we first need to decide on a different behavior that we want instead. So how do we want our dog to react to the presence of a stranger at the door? Establish a routine that you and your dog can practice. Here is one alternative scenario that works well for door manners:

• Doorbell rings. You and your dog go to the door together. Your dog sits or lies down on a rug placed in the foyer area a short distance from the door. You open the front door and greet the guest on the other side. Your dog stays on the rug until you give a release cue.

To teach your dog this routine, you first need to begin with counter-conditioning as described above. If your dog is so excited by the sound of a knock/doorbell that they are unable to think and work with us, we need to first use counter-conditioning to bring down their overall arousal level. 

Once we have started to shift their emotional response to the sound of knocking, we can teach our dog to Settle on a Mat and Look at That, which will form the foundation of building the routine.

watch a video about how to teach your dog Look At That

watch a video about how to teach your dog to Settle on a Mat

watch a video about adding distraction & duration to your dog’s mat behavior

Front-door greeting is a complex behavior and it’s important that we approach it with the understanding that our dogs are simply following their natural instinct to react to a change in the environment. We cannot fundamentally change that our dogs will notice the change, but we can shift their emotional response and behavior pattern by using the above protocol. To really dive deeper into polite greetings in your home and out in the world, check out our class Nice to Meet You! - available as a self-study course or in-person as a group class in Fort Collins, CO. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re struggling with polite greetings - we are available for private in-person and online training to support you and your dog.

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!  If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Puppy Raising & Welfare

By Benah Stiewing

Raising a puppy is very exciting and also a huge responsibility - it’s critical that we, as their guardians, do our best to prepare them for a secure, confident, and stable adulthood. Puppies are born not knowing any human rules or desires - we have to prepare them for the expectations we will eventually have for them and reinforce the behaviors we desire. Below you will find some basic tips and techniques to help you prepare your puppy for being a well-adjusted dog. To dig deeper into puppy training, check out our blog posts for puppy training basics and how to handle common puppy problems. If you’d like more support, consider our webinar Adventure Puppy Basics, which gives a well-rounded, detailed approach to raising your puppy. 

Rest

Make sure your puppy is getting lots of rest! Puppies do not have the same emotional and physiological control as older dogs who will generally nap when they need to. If our puppies are getting extra nippy or loud, they may be over-tired and need to be encouraged to take a nap. By putting them in their crate in a quiet space, we can help them get the rest they need. Below is a video of Amber helping Jamie settle in for a nap in his crate. 

Confinement

Confinement is a very important skill throughout your dog’s lifetime! Whether it’s being home while you’re out running errands or crated for an overnight at the veterinarian, confinement comfort is an invaluable skill for your puppy. Our webinar Separation Anxiety Prevention is an excellent resource for giving your puppy the absolute best start with confinement! 

• Place your puppy’s crate in a quiet area of the house away from the hub-bub.

• Turn on a white noise machine so your puppy doesn’t have to hear all the fun happening without them.

• Inside your puppy’s crate, have a soft towel/bed, a toy, and a couple different options for chewing.

• Build a positive association with the crate! Click here to watch a video of Amber teaching Jamie about his crate.

• Feed all your puppy’s meals in their crate to continue building that positive relationship!

• Before putting your puppy in their crate for a nap, make sure their needs have been met to the best of your ability. If your puppy needs to potty or is hungry or thirsty, they won’t be able to settle.

• Use technology! A baby monitor can be used to keep an eye on your puppy while they are resting.

Potty Training

Teaching our puppy where to eliminate (and where not to!) is usually one of our first training goals. It sounds daunting, but with a combination of management, training, and physical development your puppy can master this challenge! Your new puppy is eliminating in the house because it doesn't know any differently yet, and it has a really small and still-developing bladder. Management is necessary to help your puppy make the right choice every time by removing most of the opportunities to make the wrong choice. Giving your puppy the ability to free-roam in your home means that they may potty indoors or get into something they aren’t meant to.

• When your puppy is awake: set a timer to take your puppy outside every 20-30 minutes during the first few weeks of a new house training regimen, even if you think he doesn’t need to go that often.

• When your puppy wakes up from a nap: Take him outside immediately! Every time!

• Puppies often potty after eating, drinking, and playing, so be certain to take them outside after these activities.

• Join your puppy outside to ensure that they have eliminated AND so you can reward them for making the choice we desire.

• If you are certain your puppy needs to potty (they just woke up from a nap, for example) but it’s just not happening, bring them back inside and put them back in their crate for 5 minutes (set a timer!) and then bring them back outside to try again. Repeat until you get the desired behavior. 

• Once you have been accident-free for a few days on the 30 minute increments, you can expand to 40-50 minutes between potty breaks.

• Never punish your puppy for pottying inside - they are not dirtying your floors on purpose, they are doing the best they can.

Biting/Chewing

Chewing is a normal behavior for dogs, especially from 8 weeks to 6 months. During this period, puppies lose a whopping 42 baby teeth and replace them with adult teeth!  Additionally, while humans explore the world through our hands, dogs explore through their mouths. Together, these two factors turn puppies into chewing machines! While this behavior is very normal, that doesn’t make it pleasant or fun and there are concrete steps we can take to help our puppies chew appropriately.

• Have lots and lots (and lots!) of safe toys and chews around your puppy at all times. Your puppy should always have access to something appropriate to chew, like Benebones, antlers, hoofs, and toys. 

• Use every meal as an opportunity to let your puppy chew! By using puzzle feeders, snuffle mats, Kongs, and Toppls, you can meet your puppy’s innate need and burn some extra energy. 

• You can use sweet potato, pumpkin, canned food, raw (if you feed a raw diet), or kibble soaked in water to stuff in the Kongs and Toppls.

• Rotate your toys/chews/feeders so that your puppy doesn’t become bored with the same items.

• Plenty of regular rest for your puppy throughout the day - puppies that are overtired are often the most bitey puppies!

• If your puppy begins to chew on something inappropriate (like your hand or the couch), simply grab an appropriate chew item and give it to your puppy.

• Teach your puppy appropriate ways to interact with your hand instead. Our favorites are teaching a Hand Target or teaching “Lick not Bite”

• Lick Not Bite: Put a small amount of a delicious lickable treat, like yogurt or sweet potato puree, on the back of your hand. Present it to your puppy to lick off your hand.  Praise them while they do this!  If your puppy changes from licking to nibbling, calmly remove your hand for a few seconds, then represent your hand for them to lick again. 

Grooming/Handling

Whether you have a poodle or a labrador, all dogs will require a certain level of grooming throughout their lives. For a poodle, that could be a full groom every 6 weeks, while a labrador may only need their nails trimmed bi-weekly. Grooming is an important part of our dog’s welfare, so we want the experience to be positive and stress-free. Building a positive relationship with grooming is something we can start from day one with our puppies. If you want to learn more about preparing your puppy for grooming and handling, check out our webinar Cooperative Care for Better Veterinary and Grooming Visits!

• Prepare for your puppy’s first nail trim by slathering a Licki-mat with some peanut butter or wet dog food.

• Make sure your puppy has recently eliminated so they aren’t uncomfortable throughout the process.

• Offer your puppy the licki-mat on a towel or blanket - once they begin licking, reinforce with extra cookies tossed onto the licki-mat.

• Start very gently touching your puppy’s back, neck, ears, legs, toes, etc.

• If at any point your puppy leaves the mat/towel, stop touching them and do not force them to get back on the mat. This is your puppy’s way of declining the touching - though we want our dog’s to be comfortable with touching, we never want to force it on them and from a young age we want the puppy to understand that they can decline by simply moving away. If your puppy comes back on the mat/towel, give them a few seconds to just lick before you begin touching again. 

• If your puppy is doing really well with just touching while licking, in your next session bring a metal spoon and gently touch it to your puppy’s nails while they are licking. This metal sensation starts to prepare them for the actual nail trim.

• Once they can tolerate the spoon well, begin actually trimming one foot. Don’t try to trim all 4 feet in one session - aim for quality over quantity. Stay very far away from their quick (the pink part of the nail closer to their actual toes) so you don’t risk hurting them while you’re building a positive association.

• Once your puppy is doing well with their nail trims, practice at least once a week until they are around 6 months old - then move to bi-weekly. This is a sensation we want your puppy to be very comfortable with and look forward to because it means lots of yummy snacks for doing basically nothing!

• To help your puppy become acclimated to bath time, start building positive associations with the bathtub way before a bath is required. 

• Put down a non-slip surface in your bathtub to keep your puppy safe and help them feel more comfortable, then practice placing them in the bathtub and immediately giving them their prepared licki-mat.

• Stay with them as they enjoy their licki-mat and periodically scatter a few extra treats as they are enjoying the licki-mat. 

• As your puppy is successful with this exercise, start to gently turn on the water and allow it to flow into the drain as your puppy eats. If they seem uncomfortable, slow down the water flow or move it farther away from your puppy. 

Socialization

Socialization is about teaching our puppy how to cope with the world around him and how to handle future adventures. Our puppies are constantly absorbing information about the world around them so it’s vital that we ensure their first few months of life are as positive as possible. While it’s important for your puppy to be exposed to different dogs and people, think about quality over quantity and what skills you want your future dog to have. If you walk your puppy down the street and allow them to pull you towards every person and dog for a greeting, you’re going to have a much more difficult time teaching focus, attention, and loose leash walking. 

• When you’re out in the world with your puppy, think about neutrality and the reaction you eventually want them to have towards a change in environment. 

• Grab a coffee at your favorite shop, get your puppy out of the car, and sit outside the coffee shop with treats and your puppy on-leash. 

• Bring a comfortable mat for your puppy to settle on and some low-value chews like an antler or a Benebone. 

• As the world passes by, reinforce your puppy for the behaviors you want (lying/sitting down, attention on you, chewing on their antler, and watching stimuli pass by) and use the leash to prevent them from approaching people passing. 

• If someone wants to greet your puppy, ask them to wait until you have your puppy’s attention, reinforce with a treat, then release them with a “Go say hi!” cue. 

• If your puppy offers attention on you during the greeting or after it’s finished, reinforce your puppy with a treat.

From 7-16 weeks of age, puppies are in a critical socialization period that offers us a fantastic opportunity to help them acclimate to our world. Remember that learning is always happening, so what goes on in our homes, backyards, and friend’s homes is just as important as the trip into town. If you are central to Fort Collins, CO, our Adventure Puppy Camp is an excellent learning opportunity for your puppy and a chance for you to take a break!

Raising a puppy is so much fun! You get to learn about this entirely new life and build a relationship together from the very start. At times it can feel overwhelming and challenging, so take lots of breaks and ask for help when you need it. If you need extra support, don’t hesitate to contact us today and get started with in-person or online training to help you feel better prepared to raise your puppy. 

---

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!   If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Management & Training for Common Puppy Behavior Problems

By Benah Stiewing

Welcoming a new puppy into your family is loads of fun, and brings laughter and joy into any household! However, puppies are also a lot of work and can often feel quite overwhelming and exhausting.

Remember throughout your puppy raising to give yourself and your puppy lots of breaks - rest is critical to everyone’s success. Check out our blog from a few weeks ago for training basics, including a discussion of why management like a crate or pen is so important to setting our puppies up for learning the behaviors we want them to learn!

Below you will find our recommendations for common puppy problems that can arise while raising your puppy.  Many of these are normal, and different puppies may face different challenges based on their unique combination of genetics, early learning history, and individuality.  Sometimes, puppy behavioral problems can be unique and require special attention, and we are always here to help if you find yourself experiencing any of these - or other - issues with your puppy. (Check out our Puppy Raising Private Program package for one-on-one puppy raising support - available both online and in-person in Fort Collins, CO!)

---

Biting/Chewing

Chewing is a normal behavior for dogs, especially from 8 weeks - 6 months. During this period, puppies lose a whopping 42 baby teeth and replace them with adult teeth!  Additionally, while humans explore the world through our hands, dogs explore through their mouths. Together, these two factors turn puppies into chewing machines! While this behavior is very normal, that doesn’t make it pleasant or fun and there are concrete steps we can take to help our puppies chew appropriately.

Management: 

• Have lots and lots (and lots!) of safe toys and chews around your puppy at all times. Your puppy should always have access to something appropriate to chew, like Benebones, antlers, hoofs, and toys. 

• Use every meal as an opportunity to let your puppy chew! By using puzzle feeders, snuffle mats, Kongs, and Topls, you can meet your puppy’s innate need and burn some extra energy. 

• You can use sweet potato, pumpkin, canned food, raw (if you feed a raw diet), or kibble soaked in water to stuff in the kongs and topls.

• Rotate your toys/chews/feeders so that your puppy doesn’t become bored with the same items.

• Plenty of regular rest for your puppy throughout the day - puppies that are overtired are often the most bitey puppies!

Training:

• If your puppy begins to chew on something inappropriate (like your hand or the couch), simply grab an appropriate chew item and give it to your puppy.

• Try not to pull your hand away quickly or sharply as that will only encourage your puppy to chase as you’ve made it more exciting. 

• If your puppy is unable to transfer from an inappropriate item to an appropriate item, ask yourself if your puppy has an underlying need that isn’t being met. Are they tired? Hungry? Do they need to potty? Excessive teething can often notify us that our puppy may have an unmet need.

• Teach your puppy appropriate ways to interact with your hand instead. Our favorites are teaching a Hand Target, or teaching “Lick not Bite”

Lick Not Bite: Put a small amount of a delicious lickable treat, like yogurt or sweet potato puree, on the back of your hand. Present it to your puppy to lick off your hand.  Praise them while they do this!  If your puppy changes from licking to nibbling, calmly remove your hand for a few seconds, then represent your hand for them to lick again. 

---

Introducing Your Puppy in a Multiple Dog Household

It’s important to remember that we made the decision to add a new puppy to our household, not our current dogs. It’s our responsibility to make sure everyone’s needs are met, and it’s not our older dog’s responsibility to babysit or parent the puppy. It’s normal for your older dog to go through an adjustment period when you bring home a new puppy, and they may not behave towards your puppy the same way they behave towards strange dogs out in the world. Below are some steps we can take to alleviate stress and meet everyone’s needs. 

Management:

• Do not leave your puppy and older dog unattended together. Puppies can be very pushy and relentless, and you might only hear the sixth correction that the older dog has given the puppy, not realizing that the puppy ignored the first five. 

• Make sure both dogs get to enjoy solo activities with you, solo naps, solo meals, and solo time in general. They should not be together 24/7. 

• Use puppy pens, crates, and baby gates to manage the space.

• Remove resources (toys, bones, etc.)  if both dogs are present in a space.

• Have a leash dragging from your puppy so you can prevent them from pestering the older dog if that’s a possibility.

• Always have treats on you to reinforce the behavior you want!

Training:

• When your dogs are together, have them simultaneously practice calming behaviors, such as sniffing. If they are struggling to relax enough to sniff, tossing cookies for each of them in separate directions (foraging) can help. 

• Simply delivering treats to your dogs simultaneously can be helpful! Have your puppy and your older dog sit in front of you and deliver cookies to them as they continue to perform the behavior. 

• Make yourself more interesting! By building value for engaging with us, we can make the older dog less exciting and have a puppy more interested in us. 

• Focus on Quality of interactions over Quantity. Give both your puppy and older dog break time away from each other, so that they are feeling positively about the time spent together. 

Resource Highlight: Our colleague Katie at Wise Mind Canine has a lot of wonderful content on creating positive introductions between a new puppy and existing dogs.

---

Resource Guarding

Resource guarding can occur on a spectrum with a variety of objects, including yourself or others. To a certain extent, all beings are protective of their resources, so it’s normal for your puppy to have some level of resource guarding tendencies. The advice offered below just skims the surface - to dive deeper into this topic, check out our online webinar Puppy Resource Guarding. 

Management:

• Remove all food and toys from a space if multiple dogs are present (this may include empty food containers).

• Use barriers and confinement to separate your dogs while they are eating or enjoying bones. This helps your puppy learn that meal times are a time for them to focus on their own meal, rather than investigating what the other dogs have.

• Don’t take bones or toys away from your puppy without their consent unless it is an emergency situation. If it’s not an emergency, think about trading your puppy for something else (high value treat, another toy) when you have to remove something from their possession. 

Training:

• Teach a Supercharged Name Cue, which will be your first response when your puppy grabs something off limits. Call your puppy and reward with a handful of treats tossed on the ground. Continue reinforcing until you are able to put your puppy behind a barrier to quickly remove the object, then let your puppy back into the space. 

• Practice walking towards your puppy, tossing cookies towards them and then simply walking away. We want your puppy to anticipate good things happening when you approach.

• Allow your puppy to enjoy a low-value chew (like Benebones), approach with a handful of cookies, toss the cookies at your puppy, and then walk away. 

If your puppy is demonstrating significant resource guarding behavior, such as growling and snapping, towards you or your family members, we recommend getting connected with a trainer for a Private Program as soon as possible so that you can start working on a quality behavior modification plan for this behavior.  Much of the common advice you may hear about how to respond to this behavior has the potential to make the behavior worse instead of better; we recommend connecting with a professional trainer for the best support on resolving this challenge!

---

Fear Reactions

As puppies physically mature, they begin to notice more in the world and be surprised by novel objects or people. A fear reaction generally presents as barking, hackles raised, front approach, and running away. During these moments, it’s critical that we support our dogs and be their advocate - do not laugh at your puppy or force them to move closer/interact with the object or person that is scaring them. We always want our puppies to know that they can trust us to keep them safe. 

Here is Jamie the Papillion working through being startled by a statue:

Management:

• Go slowly! Do not overwhelm your puppy by exposing them to too much, too fast. If you are exposing your puppy to something new, start at a distance and gradually move closer if your puppy is calm - always staying far enough away that your puppy can feel safe and calm. 

• Reinforce calming behaviors, like sniffing, rolling, and shaking.

• Keep your puppy on-leash! Do not allow your puppy to get too far away from you and run into something scary.

Training:

• Click here to watch a brief clip about training your puppy to interact with unfamiliar objects.

• Train your friends and family to ignore your puppy and sit quietly while your puppy adjusts to their presence.

• Click here to watch a brief clip about teaching your puppy the Look At That game. 

---

Confinement Stress

Throughout our dog’s life, it’s critical that we are able to safely leave them confined or behind a barrier. Whether we are out running errands or the dog has to spend an overnight at the veterinarian, confinement comfort is a critical skill. To give your puppy an excellent foundation in confinement comfort, consider our webinar Separation Anxiety Prevention Starts Now! 

Management:

• Before confining your puppy, do your best to ensure they are tired and ready for a nap, so this could be after some playtime or a walk. 

• Make sure that your puppy doesn’t have any underlying needs, like being hungry or needing to potty.

• Have your puppy’s crate or pen in a quieter area of the house with some white noise playing and a few chews available. 

Training:

• Train entering the crate to make it fun and familiar! Click here to watch a brief clip about shaping Get in The Crate. 

• Support your puppy! Stay present as they’re settling in and wait until they’ve relaxed before you start moving away.  Here’s a video of Jamie learning how to settle in his crate for nap time, with his human’s support.

• Here’s a great video from one of our colleagues on teaching puppies to love their confinement management.

---

As your puppy grows and develops, it’s normal for their behavior to fluctuate as hormones impact their body and brain. During this period of rapid growth, it’s critical that we act as their advocates and meet them where they are at with their needs and difficulties. Understand that your puppy is an animal in a world that may seem very normal to us, but is all new and foreign to them - your puppy will need your compassion and understanding as they use their behavior to have their needs met. Adequate rest is enormously important, for both you and your puppy. If you are located in the Fort Collins, CO, area, our Adventure Puppy Camp is a great opportunity for your puppy to experience positive, gentle socialization and training while you take a puppy break!   If you are feeling overwhelmed by your puppy’s behavior, don’t hesitate to contact us today and get started with in-person or online training to help you feel better prepared to support your puppy.

---

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!   If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Puppy Training Basics

By Benah Stiewing

When we bring home a new puppy, we usually have an extensive list of behaviors we eventually want our puppy able to perform. However, before we begin teaching specific behaviors, such as a recall, sit, or heel, there is a certain way we can build the relationship between you and your puppy to set you both up for success for a lifetime of fun and understanding. First and foremost, we want a relationship with our dogs that is founded in trust, positivity, and effective communication. From day one, we have the ability to begin building this bond! 

Putting genetics aside, puppies usually come to us as a blank-slate and we are able to shape their world to help them make the choices we value. We want our dogs to consider us the very best thing in the world! To do this, we want our interactions to be positive and rewarding, and use management to set our puppies up for success whenever possible . What does that look like? In general, with puppies under 6 months, we want them either:

1. In their crate or puppy pen

2. Directly supervised by you/someone you trust

3. In a restricted area with leash dragging

Here are some example puppy playpen set-ups for good management when you can’t be supervising your puppy directly!

If we give our puppy complete freedom, they are guaranteed to begin making mistakes, whether that be pottying in the house, chewing up your favorite shoes, or stealing snacks from the counter. Instead, we set our puppy up for success by preventing the mistake in the first place, so that we don’t have to be the bad guy and end the fun activity that your puppy has found for themselves. Instead, reinforce the behaviors you do want! 

How do I reinforce good behaviors? 

The very first exercise you start with your puppy should be the introduction of a marker cue. Your marker tells the dog that they have done the correct behavior and will be reinforced. We love using clickers as our marker cue, but you can also use a word, such as “yes” (if you opt for a word, be careful to keep your tone and intonation consistent).

We teach our marker cue by clicking (or saying the word) and then delivering a treat to our puppy. The delay between marker cue and treat delivery should not be any longer than 1-3 seconds. The marker cue should always be followed by reinforcement, or else the cue will lose its significance. Repeat the steps outlined above for a couple minutes a few times a day to load your marker cue. If you see your puppy begin licking their lips or widening their eyes when they hear the cue, it’s working!

Once we have established a marker cue, we can begin using it throughout the day to let your puppy know they have done something good and will be paid for it. If your puppy is jumping on you for attention, wait for them to naturally lean back into a sitting position - mark and reward. (Here’s a video of this!) If your puppy runs to you excitedly, mark and reward. If your puppy offers attention while people are walking near your house, mark and reward. If your puppy hears a dog barking next door and looks to you for information, mark and reward. If your puppy comes back inside when you open the door from the yard, mark and reward. Quickly, your puppy will begin repeating behaviors that are paid, and we can then begin pairing the behavior with a verbal cue. 

Excluding genetics, puppies offer us the opportunity to shape the adult dog we want. We want our dogs to orient to us, their handler, regardless of circumstances, location, or distraction. Upon noticing a change in environment, such as a stranger approaching you during a hike, we want our dogs to check-in with us and wait for more information. We have the opportunity to shape this orientation from the very beginning! Set your puppy up to make the decision you desire, and mark and reward when it occurs. If we want our dogs to pay attention to us around other dogs, we can take our puppy to a local park, on-leash, and mark and reward every time a dog passes us. Our puppy will begin anticipating the reward and looking at us when they see a dog passing. Armed with your high-value cookies or toys, you will be the most reinforcing item in the environment. 

We have endless opportunities throughout every day to reinforce desirable behaviors! Make yourself the most fun, rewarding person to be around, and teaching specific skills as your puppy grows will be much easier and more rewarding. To learn more about training your puppy using this philosophy, check out our Adventure Puppy Basics online class! It dives deeper into marker training and shaping our puppy’s behavior, and is an excellent resource as your puppy develops. 

And if you are looking for in-person puppy training in Fort Collins, Colorado, check out our Puppy Basics 6-Week Class at our Training Room!

---

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog!   If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Building Blocks for an Off-Leash Recall!

By Benah Stiewing

Rock-solid, reliable recalls are an incredibly important skill for you and your dog! Recall, or coming when called, is critical to you and your dog being able to enjoy the world together, off-leash. Building an off-leash recall is about managing our dog’s freedom as we cultivate a strong history of reinforcement between you and your dog. 

So often without realizing, we only call our dogs when we are calling them away from something, perhaps that delicious chicken leg that fell from a trash can, the dog who lives next door, or a very speedy squirrel. Our dog’s recall word very quickly comes to represent loss and our dogs are well aware of this. The dog hears their name or recall word and quickly creates more distance between them and their handler because they don’t want to experience a loss. 

To begin changing this narrative, we start by building value for a new recall word. Practice calling your dog using this word a few throughout the day, but only use this word if you are in an environment with minimal distractions (i.e. your living room, without any toys or other pets present) and have high-value reinforcement to reward your dog with when they have successfully come to you. Use motion and verbal encouragement to add value to the behavior. I toss a treat to get my dog away from me. Once my dog has eaten the treat, I say “Fido, come!” in a fun, light voice, turn away from Fido, and run away (short, small steps), saying “Yay! Wow!” as the dog continues moving towards me. When my dog reaches me, I click and reward with high-value treats. I repeat this game multiple times every day for a few days, and gradually begin adding more distance and choice. We begin to generalize the behavior by moving into different rooms of the house, and eventually into the yard. If my dog is unsuccessful, I need to take a step back and decrease difficulty temporarily before making it harder again. 

Here’s a video of the foundation pieces of this game!

We do not start letting our dogs off-leash out in the world if we aren’t absolutely confident of a few key things: 

1. If our dog doesn’t come back to us, they are not in danger. 

2. We have the highest-value item in the environment. 

3. Our dog is not going to have to make a difficult choice between us and something else. 

If we want to give our dog more freedom in a high-distraction environment before we feel they are ready for off-leash, we are going to use our recall transition tool, the long-line! This is just a really long leash (30-50 feet) that we would want on a back-clip harness. (Our favorite long-line is this one from Trust-Your-Dog!)  We reward our dogs everytime they offer engagement while we are out in the world, no matter the type of leash or exercise. We want it to be a reliably reinforcing behavior for our dogs to check in with us. This is especially important to practice on the long-line as we begin to increase freedom. 

Go slowly with your recall training! It takes time to build value for coming back when called, and know that it’s impossible to spend too much time on each expansion of freedom. We want coming back to us to represent the absolute best time with food, praise, or toys. Use your environment to reinforce! Recalling your dog away from their best canine friend? Reward with food, then release them back to playing. Remember the fundamental principle of what recall should represent, and don’t use your recall when your dog has to do something they may not fully enjoy, like being leashed and directed to leave the fun activity. 

The skills I describe here are just the beginning! If you and your dog want more guidance as you build this behavior, we have a webinar just for you! Check out the Off-Leash Hiking Prep webinar here!

---

Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses and online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog! If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.

Our Facility Cleaning Routines for Puppy Wellness

Written by Meredith Decker & Amber Quann

When you bring a new puppy home, you want to make sure to protect them from anything that may hurt them. It can feel daunting to bring them into a space like a training room that many other dogs have occupied.  You may have gotten recommendation from your rescue, breeder, or trusted veterinarian to wait until your puppy is fully vaccinated to take them out in public.

Early socialization is so important to healthy puppy development, and there isn’t time to waste! The optimal window for early puppy socialization actually closes before puppies are fully vaccinated, so avoiding socialization opportunities before 16 weeks can actually be detrimental to the dog’s behavioral health. Because of this, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior’s position is that puppies should start positive socialization group experiences as early as 9 weeks of age, after at least one vaccination and deworming.

“In general, puppies can start puppy socialization classes as early as 7-8 weeks of age. Puppies should receive a minimum of one set of vaccines at least 7 days prior to the first class and a first deworming. They should be kept up-to-date on vaccines throughout the class. The primary and most important time for puppy socialization is the first three months of life. During this time puppies should be exposed to as many new people, animals, stimuli and environments as can be achieved safely and without causing overstimulation manifested as excessive fear, withdrawal or avoidance behavior. For this reason, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior believes that it should be the standard of care for puppies to receive such socialization before they are fully vaccinated.”

We carefully curate the our training room environment to minimize risks to our young puppy students. Our training room is thoroughly cleaned daily (we share more about our cleaning routines below!), and we evaluate each puppy during each service for health and wellness. No environment can be completely without risk, and we understand that your veterinarian may have different recommendations for when your puppy should start group socialization. Your veterinarian treats physically sick puppies and we work with behavior challenges in dogs often associated with missing early socialization periods, so we are coming at this from two different sides of the issue. Both sides are very important to consider as you decide what is right for your puppy. If you decide to wait until your puppy is fully vaccinated at 16 weeks, we'd love to see you in our Level 1 Puppy Basics class or drop-in to Puppy Playschool Plus.

We know that you want to do everything in your power to keep your puppy safe and healthy before their final vaccinations. Balancing this with the need for healthy early socialization can feel tricky. We want to do everything we can to build a safe environment for you and your puppy to come and learn, and a piece of that is by keeping our training rooms clean and sanitized.

The Summit Cleaning Routine

Both training rooms are cleaned and disinfected daily, and deep-cleaned once a month with an attention to detail.

All of the toys that your puppy may play with are cleaned daily; monthly, we also sanitize each of the shelves where those toys are stored so that the toys can remain clean once they are put away. Not only does it keep everything safe, but it also keeps things looking nice and neat.

A lot of time is spent making sure the floors where your puppies love to wrestle remain safe and clean. We always vacuum and mop after the end of our classes, and this is done at least once a day. During our monthly cleanings, any moveable item, such as our x-pens or chairs are moved from their usual spot, and each corner and crevice is cleaned. Special care is taken to make sure any debris is removed and then that area is properly mopped with kennel-grade disinfectant and there is no residue left behind. 

We never forget about cleaning our cleaning supplies either. The mop, mop buckets and vacuum are all cleared and cleaned to make sure they're working as best as possible to maintain our standards.

When it comes to our Adventure Camp (drop-off learning for puppies 9-16 weeks), we take extra precautions to make sure we keep your pups safe. Any toys they may use such as puzzle toys, kongs or chew toys are washed and scrubbed with our other dishes at the end of every Camp day. This also applies to any cots or platforms your pup might play on. We spray them with our disinfectant and wipe them down so they are clean for next time. Any accidents that may occur during Camp are promptly cleaned up and we make sure to restrict access to that area while we clean so puppies won't be exposed to the mess or the disinfectant.

We screen our Adventure Camp puppies ahead of time for health, and ask all puppy parents who use this service to keep us informed if they notice anything unusual about their puppy’s health or behavior ahead of a Camp day. If we notice any signs of illness while a puppy is at Camp, we make sure to take proper precautions by keeping that puppy separate until they can be picked up early, and initiate additional deep cleaning on that day by washing all sheets, towels, or soft toys that were played with that day, and anything that can't be cleaned (such as the popular sniff boxes) are disposed of and replaced.

Your puppy's physical health is just as important as their social development, which is why we take the time to keep our training rooms clean and safe. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

Check out these photos from our #12 classroom during a monthly deep clean:

---

Check out other blog posts:

• 2024 6
• 2023 21
• 2022 1
• 2021 3
• 2020 12
• 2019 11
• 2018 11
• 2017 22
• 2016 22

Teaching "Picky" Pups to Eat!

Eating is a learned behavior, which means that it is something that can be taught, just like any other behavior.  If you have a “picky” or food-selective pup, it is important to think about how we can teach them how to eat more consistently. 

This is an overview of our webinar on this topic. If you want more in-depth help & support on this topic, you can check out the webinar replay Teaching “Picky” Pups to Eat here! 

Besides getting good & consistent nutrition, there are many other reasons why eating is an important behavior for our pups to know how to do appropriately! 

• Training: Eating is a very helpful component of positive reinforcement training! There are lots of other ways we can apply positive training principles if using food isn’t an option, but being able to reward quickly with a treat is very convenient and efficient for a lot of training goals!  

• Enrichment: Being able to eat food out of food puzzles is a great way to exercise our dog’s brains and provide mental stimulation. If our dogs don’t care for the food in the toy, it is difficult to encourage them to play. 

• Threshold Assessment: If our dogs can eat food in most situations, we can then evaluate how comfortable they are in other scenarios. If we first have a solid baseline of “okay, my dog can eat food easily out of my hand at home where he is comfortable…” then we know if they all of a sudden can’t eat food out of your hand because you are outside in a busy park, then your dog may be over threshold. Using food is a great, easy, way to gage your dog’s comfort in a situation and provides a channel of communication between you and your dog. 

• Health Assessment: Eating can be a great way to evaluate your dog’s health. Again, if your dog can have a baseline eating behavior such as being able to eat comfortably at home, then when they pass up a meal or their favorite puzzle toy, we can know something isn’t quite right. 

We cannot emphasize this line of communication enough with our dogs! If our dogs can learn the behavior of eating, it can tell us so many things when they choose to, or not to, eat. 

It’s also important to note that some food-selective dogs that we might label as “picky” may in fact just be over-threshold in a lot of situations. For example, if you have a puppy that eats regular meals at home, and likes working for treats in its own backyard, but then won’t eat at training class, this is likely just because your puppy hasn’t yet learned the behavior of eating enough to withstand the exciting stimuli in that environment, and thus all of the other behaviors (watching other dogs, getting excited about the people nearby, etc.) are more likely to occur than eating.  Similarly, if you have a reactive dog (one that barks at other dogs or people or other things you encounter), that cannot eat food in the presence of one of these triggers, it may not be because your dog doesn’t like food, but rather the behavior of eating isn’t built up to withstand the level of difficulty where we are asking that dog to eat.  

So how do we teach our “picky” pups to eat?

• Reinforce Eating with Other Things: What does your dog enjoy doing?  How can we make access to that activity contingent on eating a treat or a bite or two of their evening meal?  Examples that I often use are activities like playing with a favorite toy, getting attention and praise from you, chewing on a yummy bone, getting access to a new area like a yard or getting out of the car, sniffing, peeing on stuff, etc.  Dog eats a bite of food, gets let out in the backyard to play.  Repeat!

• Set Appropriate Criteria: Think about what environments your dog might feel comfortable eating in.  Do they eat at home?  Do they eat in a quiet room by themselves?  Start with building consistent eating where it’s easy for them to be successful, rewarding them when they do eat.  Then expand the criteria a bit, such as asking for a bit of eating in the front yard. 

• Start with High Value: Many, many (although certainly not all) “picky eater” situations have been resolved simply by increasing the value of what you are offering.  If your dog is turning up their nose at the milk bone crumbles you have, perhaps starting with something a little bit more exciting like a small piece of hot dog or cheese instead.  It’s important to still focus on building consistent eating habits so that if the novelty of these yummy treats wears off, we have eating behaviors that can withstand moving to treats of different values. You won’t always need to give hotdogs & cheese if we are teaching our dogs that in general, eating is a pretty enjoyable activity!

• Avoid Upping The Ante Pitfall: For both training & meal feeding purposes, it can be easy to fall into the trap of increasing the value of what you are offering after your dog has refused the first thing you offered them.  This could look like picking up a neglected kibble bowl and adding in scrambled eggs and putting it back down, or reaching into the training treat pouch and finding that cheese piece after your dog has refused a piece of milk bone.  This can inadvertently teach your dog that refusing food will get them something better!  For meal feeding, we recommend instead if you offer your dog just kibble food and they refuse, removing the food and waiting until the next meal; if you want to add something to their food to make it more exciting, do it before you offer it to them for the FIRST time rather than after they have refused the plain meal.  For training, start with the higher value treats.  You can reduce the value as your dog is getting into the behavior pattern of eating. 

We are just scratching the surface here, and there are a lot more factors to consider when working with “picky” pups.  If you are interested in learning more, check out the webinar replay on this topic for lots of specific suggestions & video examples for teaching our pups how to eat with ease!