If someone takes you for granted it probably makes you pretty fed up with them. At the very least you are likely to be less enthusiastic about repeating any effort involved in helping or pleasing them. If the person continues to abuse your good will, the time may come when you don’t respond to their wishes at all. With this I mind, spare a thought for your dog and the times that you fail to recognise its willingness to please you.

There cannot be many dog owners who are unaware of the need to praise their dog when it sits or lies down, on command during training sessions. In casual situations however, such as when the dog sits at the kerb, praising it for responding is often forgotten or reduced to a monosyllabic grunt that conveys very little enthusiasm. When the owner eventually notices that a lack of response has developed, they may either write the dog off as a training failure, or salvage the situation by encouraging the it to do what is required by praising it in an animated and effervescent style and/or by using titbits. This assumes that the owner is not a bully who adopts the “do what I tell you, or I will hurt you” method. The consequence of this unkind and unscientific approach, is frequent smacks, from hands the dog is supposed to trust, and/or leash delivered jerks on the neck. The jerk being the one on the other end of the lead. To return to the point before I was wax lyrical about the sins of punitive dog training. In any event the prescribed technique is one that requires that appropriate behaviour is not taken for granted, but is rewarded effectively so as to reinforce it, and prevent canine apathy.

Recall is a classic example of a situation where owners sometimes take their dogs for granted, and eventually show little or no appreciation for the fact that the dog comes back. This contrasts dramatically with the owner’s behaviour when their dog was first let of the lead in a public place. Then their voice had a sense of urgency in its tone that betrayed apprehension about whether their dog would indeed come when called, or run off despite the training carried out at home. When the dog does come back to its owner, it is smothered by the relief driven praise it receives, making it willing to come back with more enthusiasm on the next occasion. As the days pass and the dog’s recall becomes reliable, the owner may start to take it for granted. Gone are the euphoric displays of delight when the dog returns. As a result, the dog may start to amble up in its own time, or allow itself to be distracted with increasing regularity. The owner may feel frustrated that their dog does not come back as quickly as it used to, but why should it? What is the incentive? Having the lead clipped on because the owner wants to go home? I don’t think so.

Lets take this to extremes. The next few times you take your dog for a walk encourage it to come back to you and give it lots of praise every, and I mean every, time it looks at you. If your dog is not very responsive to praise, produce a titbit from your pocket each time you praise it. You should find that your dog becomes attentive and looks at you with increasing frequency, because you are reinforcing the behaviour. This technique will put you in a position where you respond to your dog’s attempts to communicate by looking at you, which is an appropriate behaviour that often goes unnoticed let alone rewarded by most owners.

So far I have concentrated on the obvious subject of rewarding a dog’s appropriate response to its owners commands and wishes, but on many occasions a dog should be rewarded for doing nothing. If you find that difficult to believe, just think how many times you would be grateful if your dog did not react to something or to a particular situation. If you are one of the lucky people whose dog does not over react to things, just think how you would feel if they did. Despite this, we all have a tendency to ignore our dog when it behaves in a manner we find convenient. Lets look at some examples.

When was the last time you praised your dog for lying down quietly whilst you watched television? If you feel that you can not see the point, you should be made aware that some dogs learn to get their owners attention away from the television by running round the room, stealing items that it is attracted to by scent, such a tea towel, underwear or tissues from the waste paper bin. Some dogs will repeat anything that causes their owners to leap into action and give them some attention, rather than just sitting there. To prevent or stop the problem, reward your dog for doing nothing. Of course the rewards have to come at the time your dog is lying down quietly. If you praise it when it gets up at the end of a film, you will reward, and therefore reinforce, movement rather than restfulness.

Most people, even most dog owners, don’t like the experience of excitable dogs jumping up at them as they enter a home. If a dog does start to jump up, its owners are likely to make an effort to stop the problem. Frequently these attempts are futile because the dog finds the owners activity exciting, which results in yet more jumping up, both on that occasion, and on future occasions when the dog is presented with a similar situation. Faced with the fact that it is possible for all dogs to develop the anti-social behaviour of jumping up, failing to reward a dog for keeping its paws on the ground is ungrateful and short sighted . If you reward your dog for not jumping up, it will learn that it gets affection and attention when it remains calm, which will encourage it to remain calm in future.

Many dog owners are distressed by the fact that their dogs become difficult to handle when they encounter another dog on a walk. Hence it is surprising that so many owners appear to give little thought to praising their dog for not reacting to the other dogs, when it is walked past them on a lead. In contrast they are likely to come down on their dogs like a tonne of bricks if they are distracted or show any aggression towards other dogs. Unfortunately this can mean that the dog becomes more inclined to react to the presence of other dogs because its owner becomes animated if it does, but ignores it if it does nothing.

Now that I have started you off, you can probably think of many situations where you should praise your dog for doing nothing, rather than ignoring it, because its behaviour is convenient. For a final example just think how sick you would feel if your loving Fido landed you in court because it snapped at a child that dashed past while you were walking him or her on a lead. Next time it does not happen show Fido some gratitude, and at the same time do yourself a favour by rewarding and reinforcing appropriate behaviour.

©: David Appleby

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Please note that the Pet Behaviour Centre and David Appleby cannot be held responsible for death or injury to people or animals, or damage to property caused by the correct or incorrect use of the techniques described in this article.