Everyone has at least one behaviour that there dog does on a regular basis that drives them nuts. No matter how often you correct the dog the dog just keeps doing it. Some dogs get really smart and wait for you not to be paying attention or be out of the house but they still do it and now they are sneaky about it.
The first step is finding an incompatible behaviour. If you just stop the inappropriate behaviour you are left with a vacuum and nature hates a vacuum. For the dog the easiest thing is to go back to the behaviour that has already been heavily reinforced (any behaviour that is constantly repeated has value somewhere). The incompatible behaviour fills that vacuum giving your dog something else to do when faced with that cue.
For an example we are going to use the dog that counter surfs the minute you leave the room. This is the dog that is perfectly well behaved but the second you leave the kitchen they will clear the counters. First step is to identify the cue. The cue in this situation is you walking out of the kitchen. Second the inappropriate behaviour that you never want to see again. For this example I have decided to teach the dog to follow me when I leave the kitchen. This is usually the easy question, going on the counters. Third is the hardest question; what incompatible behaviour do you want to train.
NOTE: While you are training the incompatible behaviour you have to prevent the inappropriate behaviour from happening. In this case you could use a baby gate to prevent the dog from going into the kitchen when someone else was in the kitchen. Ideally everyone in the family would participate. This will make the changes happen quicker and be generalized to everyone. Make it easy keep an easily accessible bowl of treats on the way out of the kitchen.
NOTE #2: The alternate behaviour needs to be rewarded until it becomes a habit. Meaning the dog always follows you when you leave the kitchen. Eventually you will stop rewarding this behaviour and it may fade but by this time you have erased the original incompatible behaviour.
Now you are ready to start the training. At first I would call my dog as I was
leaving the training and reward her when she reached me. After the first 3 or so repetitions I would start waiting to give her the reward somewhere away from the kitchen. Make sure that you don't end up rewarding some other inappropriate behaviour such as jumping for the food or barking at you. If the dog does any of these just keep walking until the behave politely and then reward.
After a few days of this you are going to do the first test. You are going to leave the kitchen but you are not going to call you are just going to keep moving away and have the treat ready. Will your dog choose the kitchen or choose to follow you? If your dog chooses you awesome give her the reward as soon as she reaches you. If your dog chooses the kitchen you are going to calmly and happily go get her in the kitchen by her collar and guide her out. When she chooses to follow you reward. I would then be ready to try it again as soon as my dog has gone and settled down. If after three attempts she goes into the kitchen every time I would go back to calling her as soon as I left the kitchen for another 3 days and then try again.
You are now well on your way of teaching an incompatible behaviour. Remember this won't get rid of counter surfing just that running into the kitchen as soon as you leave the room. Depending on the dog this will go a long way into getting rid of counter surfing because dogs learn that when we leave the kitchen the chances of food being left around is very high.
I would keep this up for at least a month. At that time I would start assessing the what stage my dog is at. Does she always follow me without hesitation or does she kinda wander towards the kitchen and take a quick peek before following? If without hesitation you can start reducing the food to about half the time and then a week later about a 1/4 of the time and so on. If while reducing the food she starts to go back towards the kitchen you have to quickly and deliberately go and get her out of the kitchen. Take her out let her go and see her choice. If your dog still checks out the kitchen every time then I would continue rewarding making sure I was calling a earlier before she had a chance to check out the kitchen. If my dog was only checking out the kitchen sometimes she would only get rewarded for the times she didn't even look at the kitchen.
The first step is finding an incompatible behaviour. If you just stop the inappropriate behaviour you are left with a vacuum and nature hates a vacuum. For the dog the easiest thing is to go back to the behaviour that has already been heavily reinforced (any behaviour that is constantly repeated has value somewhere). The incompatible behaviour fills that vacuum giving your dog something else to do when faced with that cue.
For an example we are going to use the dog that counter surfs the minute you leave the room. This is the dog that is perfectly well behaved but the second you leave the kitchen they will clear the counters. First step is to identify the cue. The cue in this situation is you walking out of the kitchen. Second the inappropriate behaviour that you never want to see again. For this example I have decided to teach the dog to follow me when I leave the kitchen. This is usually the easy question, going on the counters. Third is the hardest question; what incompatible behaviour do you want to train.
NOTE: While you are training the incompatible behaviour you have to prevent the inappropriate behaviour from happening. In this case you could use a baby gate to prevent the dog from going into the kitchen when someone else was in the kitchen. Ideally everyone in the family would participate. This will make the changes happen quicker and be generalized to everyone. Make it easy keep an easily accessible bowl of treats on the way out of the kitchen.
NOTE #2: The alternate behaviour needs to be rewarded until it becomes a habit. Meaning the dog always follows you when you leave the kitchen. Eventually you will stop rewarding this behaviour and it may fade but by this time you have erased the original incompatible behaviour.
Now you are ready to start the training. At first I would call my dog as I was
After a few days of this you are going to do the first test. You are going to leave the kitchen but you are not going to call you are just going to keep moving away and have the treat ready. Will your dog choose the kitchen or choose to follow you? If your dog chooses you awesome give her the reward as soon as she reaches you. If your dog chooses the kitchen you are going to calmly and happily go get her in the kitchen by her collar and guide her out. When she chooses to follow you reward. I would then be ready to try it again as soon as my dog has gone and settled down. If after three attempts she goes into the kitchen every time I would go back to calling her as soon as I left the kitchen for another 3 days and then try again.
You are now well on your way of teaching an incompatible behaviour. Remember this won't get rid of counter surfing just that running into the kitchen as soon as you leave the room. Depending on the dog this will go a long way into getting rid of counter surfing because dogs learn that when we leave the kitchen the chances of food being left around is very high.
I would keep this up for at least a month. At that time I would start assessing the what stage my dog is at. Does she always follow me without hesitation or does she kinda wander towards the kitchen and take a quick peek before following? If without hesitation you can start reducing the food to about half the time and then a week later about a 1/4 of the time and so on. If while reducing the food she starts to go back towards the kitchen you have to quickly and deliberately go and get her out of the kitchen. Take her out let her go and see her choice. If your dog still checks out the kitchen every time then I would continue rewarding making sure I was calling a earlier before she had a chance to check out the kitchen. If my dog was only checking out the kitchen sometimes she would only get rewarded for the times she didn't even look at the kitchen.
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