Karen Chapdelaine is a certified dog behavior consultant and owner of The Timeless Dog - a professional dog training service based in New Hampshire. We've partnered with Karen to bring you valuable training tips for you and your pup. Read on to learn what it takes to train a dog with behavioral issues, how to utilize treats as training tools, and much more!
Question: What are some of the most common behavioral issues that dog owners come to you for help with?
Answer: I specialize in working with reactive and aggressive dogs. Most people come to me stating their dog is aggressive when in most cases the dog is actually just reactive. I like to reassure my clients that ALL dogs are reactive. A reactive dog is any dog that acknowledges something in their environment, such as barking at the mailman or jumping with excitement as you fill their food bowl. It can also be a dog that cannot walk down the street without barking and lunging at everything they see. It's important to remember that reactive or aggressive dogs are not bad dogs giving you a hard time, they are dogs that are having a hard time. It is my job to help those dogs find peace with the world around them.
Question: What training methods do you use and why do you prefer them?
Answer: I am a positive reinforcement, fear-free based trainer because reactive/aggressive behaviors are most often based in fear. I prefer these methods as they are a humane way of training that teaches the dog what we would like them to do instead of focusing on what we don’t want them to do. If we always focus on what our dog is doing wrong, then we will always look at our dog in a negative light. Plus, I think about how I would like to be treated when I am learning a new skill. If the person teaching me was speaking to me in a completely different language that I couldn't understand and when I got it “wrong” they hit me or took away my ability to breathe, I would not learn anything other than to fear them. I want the dogs I work with to walk away from the experience feeling good about what they accomplished.
Question: Can you elaborate more on the role of positive reinforcement in dog training? What do you like to use as positive reinforcement tools?
Answer: Positive reinforcement training tends to be made fun of a lot on social media. People like to call us "cookie pushers", but there is so much more to it than just giving your dog treats. Positive reinforcement training is at its core all about building up neural pathways in a dog’s brain to make a good association with what we are hoping to teach them. Treats are not the only thing you can use to keep your training positive. You can make use of toys, praise, and pets/cuddles to reinforce behaviors you like. Each dog is going to be different in what they find to be reinforcing. For example, my dog Rosie will work for a tennis ball very enthusiastically, while my dog CJ enjoys working for a good beef-based treat like Downtown Barkery's Beef Liver Freeze Dried Dog Treats. These treats are the perfect size for a training session!
Question: What do you recommend owners use for dogs in the teething stage, or dogs who like to chew on things they shouldn't be?
Answer: Having lots of good chews available to your teething pup, such as soft toys and edible chews, can help us make it through this challenging phase of growth. Chews like Downtown Pet Supply’s pig ears or yak chews can be a great way to keep your pup busy. Just make sure to watch them so they don’t bite off more than they can chew. I recommend having two to three chews/toys available to your pup at a time and then rotating them out every day. You can also try wetting one of their soft toys and freezing it so that they can chew on something cold to help relieve the discomfort they are experiencing. We want to make sure we are watching them closely with this because if the toy is frozen too hard it can lead to injury.
For those dogs that chew on things they are not supposed to, start by rotating toys just like you would with a puppy to keep them entertained and not bored with what is available to them. Next, ask yourself if you're providing adequate mental and physical stimulation for your dog on a day-to-day basis. Most of the time when our dogs are doing behaviors we do not like, they are bored and looking for ways to entertain themselves. Mental stimulation is going to be the most helpful for treating boredom in our dogs!
If your dog is destroying things in your home when they are left alone, I would strongly recommend a trip to the vet. We want to rule out things like separation anxiety, pica, and other medical conditions that can be causing our dogs to chew on things they shouldn’t. I am a huge fan of kennels or crates when used properly. If your dog likes to chew on your walls while you are away from home, and they are not suffering from a medical condition, they can be placed in their kennels to keep them from practicing the unwanted behaviors of chewing on things they shouldn’t. If this is something you are really struggling with in your dog I would encourage you to reach out to a certified dog trainer or behavior consultant.
Question: When shopping for treats for your own dogs, what ingredients or other factors do you look for?
Answer: For my own dogs I look for mostly single-ingredient treats. CJ loves a good yak chew like the Long-Lasting Himalayan Yak Chew Downtown Pet Supply offers. Rosie loves the Chicken with Blueberry and Turmeric Air-Dried Jerky Sticks. I also like using air dried treats because my fingers aren’t left feeling slimy after using them in a training session.
Question: How do you approach correcting undesirable behavior in dogs, such as aggression or separation anxiety?
Answer: When dealing with unwanted or undesirable behaviors in our dogs it is so important to start with a trip to the vet. We will not be able to make real changes in our dogs’ behaviors if there is something going on internally with them. Once our dogs have a clean bill of health, we can start to come up with a behavior change plan that is going to be individual to each dog. If you are looking for a dog trainer to help you with tackling behavioral changes, they should be positive reinforcement based, willing to listen to what you have to say, and not push you to do something you aren’t comfortable with.
Question: What’s your advice for owners dealing with leash pulling or leash reactivity?
Answer: My short and sweet advice – get yourself a treat bag, some yummy Downtown Pet Supply treats, a harness, and a really good positive reinforcement trainer. You will also need a fair amount of patience. In my opinion, loose leash walking and coming when called are the two hardest things to teach your dog. The skills themselves are easy to do, but we are working with living thinking beings who want to explore and walk faster than we do. Remember that dogs have the mental capacity of a toddler, so if they pull from time to time after we have worked on teaching them not to, keep in mind that they were most likely just excited and try to give them grace.
Question: What can owners do to help their dogs adjust to new environments or experiences?
Answer: When bringing a dog to a new environment or to experience new things, the best thing you can do is go prepared. If you are going to want your dog to go to an outdoor restaurant and lay nicely at your feet, then you need to first work on that skill in a familiar and less distracting environment like your living room. We cannot expect our dogs to be able to do specific skills they have never learned before in an unfamiliar location. You will then want to make sure that you bring lots of yummy treats with you to work on those skills in the new environment. It is also important to note that you need to be willing to leave the new environment if your dog is struggling.
Question: What role does socialization play in a dog’s overall behavior, and how can it be done effectively?
Answer: First, I want to start by saying that socialization is not just playing with other dogs. Socialization is about exposing our dogs to all kinds of different experiences from walking on different surfaces, going to different places, hearing different sounds, and also just observing the world around them and not directly interacting with it. The socialization period for most dogs is considered to be the first three months of life. After that we can only counter condition them to new experiences. So, if you want to take your dog to outdoor restaurants when they are older it is important to expose them to those locations, sights, sounds, and smells during the first three months of their life. The more we expose our puppies to different experiences during the socialization window, the more they should be able to handle different experiences later on as they have built up the ability to handle the unknown with your help and guidance.
We also want to make sure that we are not stressing our dogs out in the name of socialization as this can actually lead to problems down the road. If your dog is struggling in any situation, take a step back by creating space from whatever is causing them to be uncomfortable or leave the situation entirely. If your dog does have a stressful experience, give them a day or two off to decompress before going back out to expose them to other new experiences.
I also want to stress that you can do everything “right” when it comes to socializing your dog and still end up with a dog that is reactive, aggressive, suffers from separation anxiety, or just plain doesn’t like going to certain places. Genetics plays a huge factor in our dogs and they way they handle things as adult dogs. As long as we are approaching handling our dogs in a positive, humane way we are doing the very best we can.
Question: What do you think is the biggest mistake that dog owners make when it comes to training or behavior management?
Answer: The biggest mistake most dog guardians make is rushing. Most people expect too much from their dogs in a short period of time. They want their 4-month-old puppy to be perfectly potty trained or they want their dog that has been barking at the mailman for 6 years to stop the behavior in 6 days. Give your dog time to learn what it is you want them to do. Additionally, if you are looking at your dog and saying “you're being stubborn” I would encourage you to take a step back. Dogs are not capable of being stubborn. When you think they're being "stubborn" what's really happening is that they don’t truly understand what you are asking of them. Before you know it, your dog will be 12 years old and you will be looking at a grey face and you won't even remember when they used to pee on your favorite rug!
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