If your pet has an appetite for such oddities as socks, rocks, or even feces, chances are you’ve wondered—and worried—about her unusual eating habits. In this case, your worry may be justified: Not only can your possessions be destroyed or damaged, but objects such as clothing and rocks can produce life-threatening blockages in your pet’s intestines.

Eating non-food items has a name: It’s called pica. A specific type of pica is stool eating—either the dog’s own or that of another animal. It’s called coprophagia.
Rarely seen in cats, coprophagy is fairly common in dogs, especially those who tend to be highly food-motivated. Although it’s not necessarily dangerous to the animal, it probably is unacceptable to you.

Why Animals do This

The causes of pica and coprophagy are not known. Many theories have been proposed by various experts, but none has been proven or disproven. One idea is that such behaviors may be attention-seeking behaviors. If engaging in one of these behaviors results in some type of social interaction between the animal and her owner—even a verbal scolding—then the behavior may be reinforced and occur more frequently.

Others think these behaviors may be attempts to obtain a necessary nutrient lacking in the diet, although no nutritional studies have ever substantiated this idea. Pica and coprophagy may also stem from frustration or anxiety. It’s even possible that the behaviors begin as play; as the animal investigates and chews on the objects, she eventually begins to eat or ingest them.

Some experts have suggested that coprophagy is carried over from the normal parental behavior of ingesting the waste of young offspring. Others believe that coprophagy occurs more often in animals who live in relatively barren environments, are frequently confined to small areas, or receive limited attention from their owners. It’s also possible that dogs learn this behavior from other dogs. Because pica and coprophagy are not well understood, stopping these behaviors may require assistance from an animal-behavior professional who will work individually with you and your pet.

Suggested Solutions for Coprophagy

Because the cause of coprophagy isn’t known, no techniques or solutions are known to be consistently successful. However, the following techniques may be effective in resolving the problem.

• Treat your pet’s food with something that causes her stool to taste bad. A commercial product called 4-BID™ is available through your veterinarian. The same result may be achieved by using the food additive MSG. Based on owners’ reports, both of these products work in many cases, but not all. Before using either of these products, consult with your veterinarian.
• Give your pet’s stools a bad taste by sprinkling them directly with cayenne pepper or a commercial product such as Bitter Apple®. For this method to be effective, every stool your pet has access to must be treated so that she learns that eating stools results in something unpleasant. Otherwise, she may discriminate (using scent) which stools have been treated and which have not.
• Keep your dog on a leash any time you take her outside. If you see her about to ingest a stool, interrupt her by clapping your hands, spraying a squirt bottle, or shaking a can (only for pets who aren’t afraid of loud noises). Then immediately give her a toy to play with instead, and praise her for taking an interest in the toy.
  Clean your yard daily to minimize your pet’s opportunity to eat her stools.
• If your dog eats cat feces from the litter box, install a babygate in front of the litter box area. Your cat shouldn’t have any trouble jumping over it, but your dog may not make the attempt. Or place the litter box in a closet or room where the door can be wedged slightly open from both sides so that your cat has access but your dog doesn’t.
• Think twice before setting up a booby trap to stop your dog from eating cat feces from a litter box: If it frightens your dog, it’s likely to frighten your cat, too.

Suggested Solutions for Pica

Pica can be a serious problem because items such as rubber bands, socks, rocks, and string can severely damage or block an animal’s intestines. In some instances, the items must be surgically removed. Because pica can be potentially lifethreatening, consult both your veterinarian and an animal behavior professional for help. Here are some other suggestions.

• Make the objects your pet is eating taste unpleasant by applying cayenne pepper, Bitter Apple®, or some other aversive. (For more information on using aversives, see “Using Aversives to Modify Your Cat’s Behavior” and “Using Aversives to Modify Your Dog’s Behavior.”)
• Prevent your pet’s access to these items.
• If your pet is highly food-oriented, change her diet to a low-calorie or high-fiber diet. This may allow her to eat more food, more often, which may decrease the behavior. Check with your veterinarian before changing your pet’s diet.
• If you suspect that anxiety or frustration is the reason for your animal’s pica habit, change the behavior by using behavior modification techniques.
• If you catch your pet ingesting items and believe it is to get attention, startle your pet with a loud noise or a spray of water. If possible, avoid letting her know that the startling noise or spray comes from you, and be sure to praise her when she leaves the items alone. You may want to give her something acceptable to eat or chew. Try to set aside 10–15 minutes twice a day to spend with your pet so that she doesn’t need to resort to pica to get your attention.
• If you think your pet’s pica habit is play behavior, then keep plenty of toys around for her to play with. Cats especially like to play with string, rubber bands, and tinsel, and ultimately ingest them. Keep these items out of reach and provide a selection of ppropriate toys. (See “Cat Toys and How to Use Them” and “Dog Toys and How to Use Them.”)

What Doesn't Work

• Interactive punishment (punishment that comes directly from you, such as verbal scolding) is usually not effective because it may be interpreted by your pet as attention. What’s more, many animals learn to refrain from the problem behavior when their owner is present, yet still engage in the behavior when their owner is absent.
• Punishment after the fact is never helpful. Animals don’t understand that they’re being punished for something they did hours or even minutes before. This approach won’t resolve the problem and is likely to produce either fearful or aggressive responses from your pet.

Adapted from material originally developed by applied animal behaviorists at the Dumb Friends League, Denver, Colorado.

©2000 Dumb Friends League and ©2003 The HSUS. All rights reserved.

You know how it goes: The minute you turn your back, your pet decides that your new carpet is the perfect place to relieve himself. You clean and clean, but you can’t get rid of that smell. What can you do?

Well, for starters, you need to find which areas are soiled and then retrain your pet to avoid eliminating in those areas. And to do that, you’ll have to clean those areas, and clean them well. Here are the steps you’ll need to take:

• Find all soiled areas using your nose and eyes. A blacklight bulb will usually show even old urine stains. Turn out all lights in the room, use the black light to identify soiled areas, and lightly outline the areas with chalk. Black lights are available for rent through the Larimer Humane Society.
• Clean the soiled areas appropriately to remove the odors.
• Rule out medical causes for the behavior by visiting your veterinarian.
• Figure out why your pet is urinating or defecating in inappropriate areas. (For help, see our tips sheets “Solving Litter Box Problems,” “Housetraining Your Puppy,” and “Reducing Urine-Marking Behavior in Dogs and Cats.” These tips sheets can be found at www.larimerhumane.org.
• Make the areas unattractive or unavailable. (For help, see our help sheets on dog aversives and cat aversives. These help sheets can be found at www.larimerhumane.org.
• Make the appropriate “bathroom” area attractive. (For help, see our help sheets “Positive Reinforcement: Training Your Dog (or Cat!) with Treats and Praise,”
• “Housetraining Your Puppy,” and “Solving Litter Box Problems.” These help sheets can be found at www.larimerhumane.org.
• Teach your pet the appropriate place to eliminate by using positive reinforcement techniques.
• To be successful, you need to follow all these steps. If you fail to completely clean the area, your retraining efforts will be useless. As long as your pet can smell his personal scent, he’ll continue to return to the “accident zone.” Even if you can’t smell traces of urine, your pet can. Your most important chore is to remove (neutralize) that odor with the following steps.

To Clean Washable Items

Machine wash as usual, adding a one-pound box of baking soda to your regular detergent. It’s best to air dry these items if possible. If you can still see the stain or smell the urine, machine wash the item again and add an enzymatic cleaner (available at pet supply stores) that breaks down pet waste odors. Be sure to follow the directions carefully.

If your pet urinates or defecates on the sheets or blankets on a bed, cover the bed with a vinyl, flannel-backed tablecloth when you begin the retraining period. It’s machine washable, inexpensive, and unattractive to your pet.

To Clean Carpeted Areas and Upholstery

For new stains that are still wet, soak up as much of the urine as possible with a combination of newspaper and paper towels. The more fresh urine you can remove before it dries, especially from carpet, the easier it will be to remove the odor. Place a thick layer of paper towels on the wet spot and cover that with a thick layer of newspaper. If possible, put newspaper under the soiled area as well. Stand on this padding for about a minute. Remove the padding and repeat the process until the area is barely damp.

If possible, put the fresh, urine-soaked paper towel in the area where it belongs—your cat’s litter box or your dog’s designated outdoor “bathroom area.” This will help remind your pet that eliminating isn’t a “bad” behavior as long as it’s done in the right place.

Rinse the “accident zone” thoroughly with clean, cool water. After rinsing, remove as much of the water as possible by blotting or by using a “wet vac.”

For Stains That Have Already Set

To remove all traces of heavy stains in carpeting, consider renting an extractor or wet vac from a local hardware store. This machine operates much like a vacuum cleaner and is efficient and economical. Extracting/wet vac machines do the best job of forcing clean water through your carpet and then forcing the dirty water back out again. When using these machines or cleaners, be sure to follow the instructions carefully. Don’t use any chemicals with these machines; they work much more effectively with plain water.

Once the area is really clean, use a high-quality pet odor neutralizer available at pet supply stores. Be sure to read and follow the cleaner’s directions for use, including testing the cleaner on a small, hidden portion of fabric first to be sure it doesn’t stain.

If the area still looks stained after it’s completely dry from extracting and neutralizing, try any good carpet stain remover.

Avoid using steam cleaners to clean urine odors from carpet or upholstery. The heat will permanently set the stain and the odor by bonding the protein into any man-made fibers.

Avoid using cleaning chemicals, especially those with strong odors such as ammonia or vinegar. From your pet’s perspective, these don’t effectively eliminate or cover the urine odor and may actually encourage your pet to reinforce the urine scent mark in that area.

If you’ve previously used cleaners or chemicals of any kind on the area, then neutralizing cleaners won’t be effective until you’ve rinsed every trace of the old cleaner from the carpet. Even if you haven’t used chemicals recently, any trace of a non-protein-based substance will weaken the effect of the enzymatic cleaner. The cleaner will use up its “energy” on the old cleaners instead of on the protein stains you want removed.

If urine has soaked down into the padding underneath your carpet, your job will be more difficult. In some cases, you may need to take the drastic step of removing and replacing that portion of the carpet and padding.

To Clean Walls and Floors

If the wood on your furniture, walls, baseboard, or floor is discolored, the varnish or paint has reacted to the acid in the urine. You may need to remove and replace the layer of varnish or paint. If you do so, make sure the new product is safe for pets. Employees at your local hardware or home improvement store can help you identify and match your needs with appropriate removers and replacements. Washable enamel paints and some washable wallpapers may respond favorably to enzymatic cleaners. Read the instructions carefully before using these products and test them in an invisible area.

Retrain Your Pet

Finally, in conjunction with cleaning, be sure to teach your pet where you want him to eliminate. To do this, make the “accident zone” unattractive and the appropriate “bathroom” area attractive, and see our related tip sheets at www.larimerhumane.org. The retraining period may take a week or more. Remember, it took time to build the bad habit, and it will take time to replace that habit with a new, more acceptable behavior. Treat your pet with patience and give him lots of encouragement!

Adapted from material originally developed by applied animal behaviorists at the Dumb Friends League, Denver, Colorado. ©2000 Dumb Friends League and ©2003 The HSUS. All rights reserved.

Much like the miners during the Gold Rush, dogs and cats are territorial animals. They may “stake a claim” to a particular space, area, or object. They let other people and animals know about their claim by marking it using a variety of methods at different levels of intensity. For example, a dog may bark to drive away what he perceives to be intruders in his territory. A cat may mark a valued object by rubbing her head against it.

Some pets may go to the extreme of urinating or defecating to mark a particular area as their own. Urine-marking is not a house soiling problem. Instead, it is considered territorial behavior. Therefore, to resolve the problem, you need to address the underlying reason for your pet’s need to mark his territory in this way. Before this can be done, however, take your pet to the veterinarian to rule out any medical causes for
his behavior.

House Soiling or Urine-Marking: How to Tell the Difference

Your Pet May Be Urine-Marking If:

• The problem is primarily urination. Dogs and cats rarely mark with feces.
• The amount of urine is small and is found primarily on vertical surfaces. (Dogs and cats do sometimes mark on horizontal surfaces.) Leg-lifting and spraying are dominant versions of urine-marking, but even if your pet doesn’t assume these postures, he may still be urine-marking.
• Any pet in your home is not spayed or neutered. Intact males and females are both more likely to urine-mark than are spayed or neutered animals. However, even spayed or neutered animals may mark in response to other intact animals in the home.
• Your pet urinates on new objects in the environment (a shopping bag, a visitor’s purse), on objects that have unfamiliar smells, or on objects that have another animal’s scent.
• Your pet has conflicts with other animals in your home. When there’s instability in the pack hierarchy, a dog may feel a need to establish his dominance by urine-marking his territory. If one cat is intimidating another cat, the bullied cat may express his anxiety by urine-marking.
• Your pet has contact with other animals outside your home. A cat who is allowed outdoors may come home and mark after having an encounter with another cat outside. If your pet sees another animal through a door or window, he may feel a need to mark his territory.
• Your dog marks frequently when you walk him.

What You Can Do

• Spay or neuter your pet as soon as possible. Spaying or neutering your pet may stop urine-marking altogether. However, if he has been urine-marking for a long time, a pattern may already be established.?
• Resolve conflicts between animals in your home. (For help, see “Canine Rivalry” and “Feline Social Behavior” and “Aggression between Family Cats.”)
• Restrict your pet’s access to doors and windows through which he can observe animals outside. If this isn’t possible, discourage the presence of other animals near your house. (See “Discouraging Free-Roaming Cats.”)
• Keep your cat indoors. He’ll be safer, live longer, and feel less need to mark his territory.
• Clean soiled areas thoroughly. (See “Successful Cleaning to Remove Pet Odors and Stains.”) Don’t use strong-smelling cleaners because they may cause your pet to “over-mark” the spot.
• Make previously soiled areas inaccessible or unattractive. (See “Aversives for Dogs” and “Aversives for Cats.”) If this isn’t possible, try to change the significance of those areas to your pet. Feed, treat, and play with your pet in the areas he is inclined to mark.
• Keep objects likely to cause marking out of reach. Items such as guests’ belongings and new purchases should be placed in a closet or cabinet.
• If your pet is marking in response to a new resident in your home (such as a roommate or spouse), have the new resident make friends with your pet by feeding, grooming, and playing with him. If you have a new baby, make sure good things happen to your pet when the baby is around. (See “Preparing Your Pet for Baby’s Arrival.”)

For Dogs

• Watch your dog when he is indoors for signs that he is thinking about urinating. When he begins to urinate, interrupt him with a loud noise and take him outside. If he urinates outside, praise him and give him a treat. When you’re unable to watch him, put your dog in confinement (a crate or small room where he has never marked) or tether him to you with a leash.
• Practice “nothing in life is free” with your dog. (See “Nothing in Life Is Free.”) This is a safe, nonconfrontational way to establish your leadership and requires your dog to work for everything he wants from you. Have your dog obey at least one command (such as “sit”) before you pet him, give him dinner, put on his leash, or throw him a toy. Establishing yourself as a strong leader can help stabilize the hierarchy and thus diminish your dog’s need to mark his territory.

For Cats

• Try to monitor your cat’s movements. If he sniffs in an area he has previously marked, interrupt him with a loud noise or squirt him with water. It’s best if you can do this without him seeing you. That way, he’ll associate the unpleasantness with his intent to mark, rather than with you.

What NOT to do

• Don’t punish your pet after the fact. Punishment administered even a minute after the event is ineffective because your pet won’t understand why he is being punished.

Pets aren't People

Dogs and cats don’t urinate or defecate out of spite or jealousy. If your dog urinates on your baby’s diaper bag, it’s not because he is jealous of, or dislikes, your baby. The unfamiliar scents and sounds of a new baby in the home are simply causing him to respond like the animal that he is. Likewise, if your cat urinates on your new boyfriend’s backpack, it does not reflect his opinion of your taste in men. Instead, he is behaving like a cat.

Dominance or Anxiety?

Urine-marking can be associated with dominance behavior. Some pets, though, may mark when they feel anxious or upset. For example, a new baby in the home brings new sounds, smells, and people, as well as changes in routine. Your dog or cat probably isn’t getting as much attention as he was used to getting. All of these changes cause him to feel anxious, which may cause him to mark. Likewise, a pet who is generally anxious may become more so by the presence of roaming neighborhood animals in your yard or by the introduction of a new cat or dog into your household. If your pet is feeling anxious, you might consider talking to your veterinarian about medications to reduce his anxiety while you try behavior modification techniques.

Adapted from material originally developed by applied animal behaviorists at the Dumb Friends League, Denver, Colorado. ©2000 Dumb Friends League and ©2003 The HSUS. All rights reserved.

Is your pet getting into mischief when you are away from the house? Maybe it is getting in the trash, destroying furniture or other household items, or making a lot of noise. There could be a variety of reasons behind your animal’s behavior, but one possibility is boredom. Just like you probably prefer to be busy or “entertained” during the day, your pet could benefit from some mental stimulation while you are away.

There are many ways to keep your pet active and entertained while you are out, but one of the easiest is to use food-release toys. Food-release toys are exactly what they sound like – toys that release food as the animal interacts and plays with them. Most animals are food-motivated and will gladly work for food. Using these toys to keep your pet busy has several benefits:

• Your pet is engaged in an appropriate, positive activity.
• Your pet can’t get in the trash or destroy the furniture when it is playing with the toy.
• Your pet stays active while playing with the toy which helps to release excess energy.
• The mental stimulation of puzzling through the toy helps tire your pet.

Hopefully, your pet will be sufficiently tired from working on the toy that it will take a nap instead of moving on to inappropriate behaviors.

Below are some examples of quality food-release or puzzle toys you might try with your pets. As with any new toy, you should always supervise your animal with the toy the first few times you use it. Once you are sure they know how to play safely with the toy and will not destroy it to get to the food, you can begin leaving it with them while you are away from the house. If you leave often or for long periods of time, you might consider getting a variety of toys that you can rotate. Or you can give your pet several of the toys at one time to keep it busy all day.

Please remember to account for all of the calories you are feeding your animal throughout the day. If you are leaving several food-release toys with them while you are away, consider reducing the amount of food you feed for their regular meals. Better yet, do away with the regular meals, and feed all of their meals through food release-toys. If you do this, be sure to use a high quality, balanced food in the toys rather than just “treats” and other “junk-food”.

Dogs

Good food-release toys for dogs include: Kongs®, Buster Cubes®, Nylabone® Crazy Balls, Molecuballs®, SPOT Roll-a-Treat® balls, the Busy Buddy Twist-n-Treat®, and Canine Genius Leo® toys. To get your dog interested in the toy, fill it with their dry kibble, and roll it around with them until they figure out that the food will fall out. Kongs® are particularly versatile as a food-release toy. As your dog gets really good at getting the dry kibble from the Kong®, you can make it more challenging. Begin by soaking their kibble in water so it is somewhat mushy, stuff the Kong®, and then let them play with it. If your dog gets really good at getting the softer food out, place the stuffed Kong® in the freezer overnight before giving it to your dog. You can make the Kong® even more enticing by topping it off with a little bit of peanut butter or by sticking a dog biscuit out the end of it like a popsicle stick.

Cats

There are currently no food-release toys designed specifically for cats, but several of the dog toys work well for cats. Use the smallest size of the toys designed for dogs. Good ones to try include the Busy Buddy Twist-n-Treat ®, Molecuballs®, and SPOT Roll-a-Treat® balls.

Birds

There are a variety of puzzle toys designed for birds, and many of these toys can be found at any reputable pet store that carries bird supplies. The puzzle toys can be filled with food or you can try stuffing them with old newspapers for your bird to shred. Bird Kongs® can be stuffed with a mixture of seed and peanut butter; however, please be aware that some larger birds can destroy these Kongs® if they choose to.

Ferrets

The Kong Company makes Kongs® designed specifically for ferrets, and these too can be stuffed with food. Ferrets also enjoy running through tunnels and shredding newspaper. Your ferret may enjoy exploring toys or objects that make crunching or crackle noises, and some toys that crackle that were designed for human babies may be appropriate. As with any new toy, please be sure to supervise your pet and ensure your pet’s safety.

All Pets

Use your imagination in creating fun, interactive, puzzle toys for your pets. Just be sure any materials you use are safe and non-toxic. Always supervise your pet the first several times you give them a toy until you are positive the toy will be safe if left alone with your pet. Many of toys on the market are designed specifically as human-interactive toys, and should not be left with your pet unsupervised.

To get the most out of your training sessions with your dog…

• Establish a relationship that is gentle, calm and non-threatening. Follow this rule of thumb: if you can’t laugh, don’t train. Do something else that is relaxing like throwing a ball or taking a long walk together.
• Decide on the beahvior you want to work on ahead of time. Know what you want the finished product to look like so you can work steadily towards that goal.
• Plan your building blocks to the behavior. Break it down into small, achievable steps and gradually build it up. Remember to be flexible.
• Prompt the behavior whenever possible. Use a lure, target or find a time of the day when the behavior is most likely to occur when youa re first teaching it.
• Keep your session short, positive, fun, easy and end on a high note if possible.
  Plan to incorporate training sessions throughout the day and in all interactions with your dog. Remember, every time you do something with your dog, he’s learning, whether you intended it or not, so use that to your advantage.
• Train a minimum of fifteen minutes per day, 4-5 days per week. Your training sessions do not have to be in fifteen minute blocks, although they can be if that works for you. The most effective training is spread out throughout the course of the day.

Fun, Fun, Fun ...

Exercise is a critical component in making life with our canine companions pleasant to be around. Without it, we would all be very boring, and they would be very … difficult to live with. It’s been estimated that if dogs were getting enough exercise, their behavior problems would decrease by half! The average dog is BORED! We do everything for them, because we love them. The average dog, barring any health problems, should have a minimum of a half hour per day or aerobic exercise. Doing just that could help your dog be calmer and more attentive. Bored dogs, like bored kids, find things to occupy their time, and it’s not ususally a behavior we would pick out for them. They enjoy things like digging holes, barking at the sky or redecorating the house.

Making sure that your dog gets enough exercise is mostly a matter of planning it into your day. Dogs are crepuscular, meaning they are most active early in the morning and again in the evening. At one of those times of day, plan a meaningful exercise activity with the dog, like a romp outdoors, a retrieving game, or a jog. Make sure the dog is moving most of the time. (Caution: before beginning any intense exercise regimen with your pet, please consult your veterinarian).

Remember this – most of our companion dogs, whether mixed breed or purebred, were designed to be very busy and active during the course of a day. For example, the average border collie can average 30 or more miles PER DAY in the course of it’s work as a sheep herder and still have energy left over at the end of the day to play with the family. Are you meeting that exercise need in your buddy? Plan on some exercise every day – it will be good for both of you and you will enhance your bond and relationship with your companion.

Training Secrets

Good trainers:

• are quick
• are generous
• are unpredictable, but dependable
• are variable in when, where, how much and what kind of reinforcement they offer
• concentrate on and reinforce what the dog does right
• offer the dog a reinforcement it really likes
  keep their training sessions short and interesting
• use a bridge or conditioned reinforcer to mark the behavior they like
• find a gentle, non-threatening way to show the dog what to do
• phase out the ‘help’ as soon as possible
  do not use commands until they have the desired behavior

Dogs do What Works

Dogs (and humans, for that matter) do what works. Another way of saying this is that a behavior is under the control of its consequences, or a behavior is reward driven. Say, for example, that when you come to class I give you a $50 bill. The chances of you coming to class again are very good, and you may keep coming to class often in the hopes of getting another $50 bill! Dogs do the same thing. If they jump on the counter and get a sandwich, no matter how much you punish jumping on the counter, they keep trying for a while in case they get another sandwich.

This has a direct bearing on training our dogs. If being around us and responding to the cues we give has a direct positive effect on the lives of our dogs, they will continue to do what we ask of them. If not, the behavior will end. If you can control the consequences of your dog’s actions, you can, in effect, control their behavior. There are two ways to control consequences – reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement means that a behavior will increase, and punishment means that a behavior will decrease.

Positive reinforcement is the optimal method for shaping behavior because the consequences that effect a behavior are associated with the environment in which those consequences are delivered. Think of punishment here. For punishment to be truly effective it must be immediate, on a large scale, only be associated with the behavior you wish to decrease, and must happen each and every time the behavior occurs to be truly effective. It is often impossible to meet these four criteria. Punishment can also lead to finer discrimination (teaching your dog to be sneaky, for example), and that is definitely not what we want in our dogs.

Using positive reinforcement strengthens and enhance the animal-human bond. To be truly effective it must be used less and less when a behavior is learned, it never leads to avoidance problems, and when poorly times does not harm your relationship and can only slow down the learning.

In using positive reinforcement we are giving the dogs an opportunity to do what works for them, and each time they receive their paycheck and their pat on the back, they are learning what works. If each cue or signal causes the best things in life to rain down on their heads, they will continue to do what you ask, and in fact seek to become better at it! HAPPY TRAINING!

Suggested Reinforcers

If you’re having trouble finding something your dog loves to work for, try some of the suggested reinforcers below.

Food:

Hot dog bits, Cheerios and other cereals, Freeze dried liver, Crumbled ground beef or turkey, Pounce cat treats, Pedigree Tandem, Alpo beef bites, Alpo beef burgers, Rollover, Natural Balance, Red Barn, Pupperoni, Snausages, Kibbled dog food, String cheese, Left over bits of meat from dinner, Hard boiled egg bits, Atta Boy treat sticks, Trout pellets, Rabbit pellets, Corn Nuts, Popcorn, Wheat thins, Cheese Whiz, Ice Cubes, Bread Crust, Croutons, Rice Cakes, Peanut Butter (on a spoon), Canned cat food (spoon), Pureed liver, Cooked pasta, Rice balls, Jerky treats, Charlee Bears, Obey, and Old Mother Hubbard

Objects/Toys:

Tennis balls, Kongs, Buster Cubes, Activity Balls, Rope tugs, Frisbees, Sticks, Firewood, Cressite balls, Boat bumpers, Buoys, Bicycle tires, Burlap sacks, Leash, Collar, Fire hose pieces, Soap bubbles, Hockey pucks, Cardboard tubes, Basket balls, Soccer balls, Boomer balls, and Carpet squares

Activities:

Fetch, Eat dinner (workfare), Hose/sprinkler, Belly rub, Back scratch, Play with other dogs, Play with cats, Play with kids, Play with you, Down, Go for walk, Chase flashlight beam, Swim (for some dogs!), Target , Cuddling, and Praise from you

It Positively Works!

Positive reinforcement is the best way to train your companion. We all know that, but the definition of positive reinforcement is a little more vague.

• Positive reinforcement is the presentation of something pleasant and rewarding IMMEDIATELY following a desired behavior.

Why should we use positive reinforcement in a training class? Because it:

• Strengthens and enhances the human animal relationship
• Is used less and less as a behavior is learned to be most effective
• Never leads to avoidance or avoidance related aggression
• Never causes damage to your relationship if you make a mistake with your timing.
• Produces enthusiastic, happy people who love to train animals
• Keeps dogs coming back for more and more training – they love it!

Punishment is Much Less Effective

Punishment is what we think of when we want to correct a problem behavior, or we’re not sure of how to handle something we find troubling to us. But it’s definition also remains fuzzy.

• Punishment is the presentation of something unpleasant and unwanted IMMEDIATELY followed an undesired behavior

Why do we avoid using punishment in a training class? Because it:

• Is confusing when learning is very new – how would you like to be punished for something you don’t know well?
• Is only effective when done IMMEDIATELY at the time of or following an undesired behavior.
• When administered weakly can cause a dog to need higher and higher levels of punishment
• When administered harshly can seriously damage the human – pet relationship