February 2021 - 2 Minute Trainer

How to help dogs afraid of loud noises

We helped Peanut the Mastiff, afraid of loud noises.

This week we were called upon to help a dog afraid of loud noises. It’s not your typical case. Peanut is a Mastiff. Not a toy dog, not a “lap dog.” Peanut weighs more than we do.

Peanut is about three years old now. We met him when he was a puppy, just twice as big as Hope’s French Bulldog, Torque. Peanut’s always been timid, but puppy class helped and he was doing well with consistent exposure to different situations.

Pandemic shut-down

And then the pandemic struck. Peanut and his family have had limited contact with the outside world for almost a year. For easy-going dogs, it’s probably not as critical an issue. For Peanut, it stopped his progress in its tracks.

His owners are a lovely, active couple who make sure their dog gets plenty of exercise and goes for long walks daily. They even made sure he got out in the worst weather. On truly bad days, the husband would take Peanut out for a walk and, if they got too cold or it was too sloppy, they’d call for a ride to get home.

Which is where the issue with noises arises.

Two facets of a single problem

Peanut needs a ramp to get up into their car. They can’t lift him – he’s over 100 pounds. One day last week the ramp dropped away from the car and made a loud noise on the garage floor. Peanut was terrified. He wouldn’t go near the ramp again. It took them hours to convince him out of the car.

They just didn’t know how to help their dog. They replaced the ramp with a different one, but Peanut wouldn’t go anywhere near it.

Wisely, they called for help. A single issue, the dog’s fear of loud noises, has two different training solutions. One to address the ramp issue. The second is changing Peanut’s noise phobia.

To get Peanut to use a car ramp again, Peanut has to love the ramp. Now it’s a fear object, with all the terror of the noise itself attached to the ramp.

To get Peanut over being afraid of loud noises, he has to learn to ignore them.

Learning to love again

Peanut the Mastiff is afraid of loud noises and must learn to love his ramp. — This ramp is free-standing – you can read more about it at GollyGear.com.

The ramp aversion is the more immediate problem, since Peanut won’t be able to go anywhere if he won’t use the ramp. An added complication for them – Peanut has severe food sensitivities and is a lackluster eater at the best of times. Fortunately, he is toy-motivated and loves to play with his toys.

Since this is an intense situation, we’ve set some rules for Peanut. All of his toys, every single one, has been removed from the household and hidden in a bin only the people have access to. Several times a day, they take a toy and stand by the ramp. When Peanut puts a paw on the ramp, he gets to play tug with the toy and person. Only if he puts a paw on the ramp.

What we’re doing is attempting to transfer the value of something Peanut loves (his toy) to something he avoids (the ramp). Everybody’s going to have to be patient. Overcoming fear isn’t fast. And Peanut’s fear may be more powerful than his love for his toy at first. Ultimately Peanut will learn to love the ramp – he’ll associate the best rewards with it. (Read more on this: https://2-minute-trainer.com/2020/05/01/all-behaviors-are-equal/)

When Peanut is stepping on the ramp with a single paw fairly consistently, the next step will be to wait for two paws. And reward with play. Then three, and four. Then walking consistently.

Small steps

Peanut’s owners may also face a problem when they move the ramp. Right now it’s in their family room while they address their dog’s fear of loud noises. When they make progress, it will have to move to the garage. And the process may have to start all over again.

We’ve talked before about dogs not being able to generalize. Once people learn to use a spoon, all spoons “work” the same way, regardless of what they look like or where they are. That’s generalizing. Dogs don’t make the same mental leap. A ramp in the family room may not be the same as a ramp in the garage.

Fear of loud noises

The other part of the issue Peanut’s owners need to address is their dog’s fear of loud noises. Contrarily, we don’t want Peanut to love noise. Instead, he needs to learn to ignore it.

In separate training sessions from his ramp game, his owners are going to make their household much louder. One of them will bang pots while the other plays tug with Peanut. Or yell across the house at each other. Or play loud music, or explosion recordings, or fireworks or thunder. If Peanut learns that noise is just a part of life, his life will be less fearful, more fun, and improve immensely.

Get loud

If your dog is afraid of loud noises, try pairing noise with things your dog enjoys. If your dog is food motivated, it’s a little easier for you. Just play those loud recordings during your dog’s mealtimes. Even better if you feed by hand and ask your dog to do “stuff” during meals.

Trying to turn around an established pattern may be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Take it step by step and change the fear into a trigger for something good and/or fun to happen. You and your dog will both be happier if you can overcome the fear of loud noises.

Get your dog to come dashing to you every time

Booker is playing "keep away." He had not learned to come. — Booker playing “keep away.”

Do you have a dog who likes to play “keep away?” It’s frustrating and can be scary – especially if you’re in a heavy-traffic area.

You can get your dog to come running to you whenever you call. One of the best games for recalls (“come”) just turns “Keep Away” around! What do you think would happen if YOU were the instigator of this version of “Keep Away?”

Catch Me If You Can

This game asks that you act against every instinct you have. When your dog takes off running away from you, or dances just out of reach, everyone’s first impulse is to run after the dog, or try and grab him. It’s natural. And it’s wrong.

Instead, you’re going to work with the fact that your dog has exactly the same instinct. After all, both humans and dogs are predators. We share the “chase” reaction. So we’re going to use it.

Playing the game

In a controlled environment, where you know your dog can’t get away from you (indoors, or a fenced area), bring your leashed dog and have a pouch of really top-notch treats ready to use. If your dog is more toy than food motivated, bring the best tug toy your dog loves. If you can hide the toy so your dog doesn’t realize you have it, even better. We’ve been known to stuff toys up under our shirts if they don’t fit in a pocket.

When you get to the safe spot, without saying anything to your dog, drop the leash and take off running away from him/her. If your dog isn’t paying attention, you can yell his/her name while you run away.

Really run. No half-baked pretend running, or sideways running to keep an eye on your dog. You’ve made sure Fido can’t get away. All dogs are faster than we are. Get into the spirit of the game. Run!

As soon as your dog catches up with you, grab the dog’s collar with one hand and start shoveling treats into his mouth with the other. Or if you have that toy, whip it out and play tug. Celebrate!

A note about using toys as rewards: The reward is playing tug with you. It’s not getting the toy and playing by himself. Don’t drop or throw the toy. Keep hold of it and offer it to your dog for a game of tug. If you let your dog play by herself, you’ve undone all the good you just achieved. We’re establishing that you are a component of the reward. Without you, there’s no fun game.

Do it again

After a half-dozen treats (or so), or a minute of tugging, start the whole thing again. Take off running, away from your dog. When she catches you, reward with a jackpot of treats, or a game of tug.

Rinse and repeat

That’s all there is to it. Playing this game will teach your dog that coming to you is always a good thing. There will be treats, toys, and you!

You’ll find more fun games that will convince your dog that the only place he wants to be is with you in Book 2: Come!

Dog games: Ring stacking game for dogs

Yes, your dog is smarter than a two-year-old!

And you can easily teach your dog the ring stacking game, one of baby’s favorite toy games!

All you need is a post, rings that easily fit on it, some treats, and your dog. We recommend a clicker, too, but it’s not essential. As long as you consistently “mark” good decisions, a word (good!) is fine.

Step by step

When you start teaching your dog something new, break the behavior down into little nuggets that can be assembled into the whole behavior.

With the ring stacking game, start with just one ring. Put it on the floor near your dog. The goal is to get your dog to pick it up, but she doesn’t understand that, yet. Watch carefully. When she looks at the ring, mark it! If she gets close to the ring, mark it! If she sniffs it, mark it! If she picks it up, celebrate! Good dog! Lots of treats!

What if your dog moves the ring with a paw, instead of her mouth? Ignore it. It’s not what you want, and it may cause confusion if you change the criteria later. Mouth? Yes! Paw? Try again, that’s not what we want.

Next on the agenda

The next step is to have your dog move while holding the ring. The easiest way to do this is for you to start moving as soon as the dog has the ring in his mouth. If he drops it, stop. Wait for him to pick it up again and start moving.

At this point, you can place the post you’ll be using to stack the rings. When your dog has the ring in his mouth, move toward the post and wait. At first, if your dog drops it anywhere touching the post, reward. We want to let the dog know that the ring has to touch the post. When he has that idea, we’ll get pickier and expect him to place the ring over the post.

Onward!

We have a total of six rings. We use diving rings because the rings that came with our post were too chubby for our dogs to hold and manipulate easily. Now we toss all six rings down and our dogs, knowing the game, get each one, carry it across, and place it on the post.

If the ring doesn’t go over the post, just wait. The lack of reinforcement (praise and/or treat) will let your dog know it’s not quite right and, hopefully, he will try again.

Here’s a successful session in which Torque completed the game in about a minute with all 6 rings:

Torque plays the ring stacking game

Hints for success

Reward for the “same thing” only about three times per session. Looking at the ring is great, but we want to move on after the third time. Picking up the ring is terrific – three times. Then we need more. If you expect your dog to do more, he will!

Keep each session short – that’s why we call it 2-Minute training. Dogs think and process what they’ve learned. The next session, either later or the next day, start with a brief “refresher.” If your dog is stumped, take a step back to the point he/she was successful.

Dogs learn what’s “good” by associating the “thing” with the reward. Try to place your reward (treat) near the post, so your dog knows the post is a good thing. She may not know what to do with it right away, but she’ll be happy to be around it.

This may sound odd, but “show” your dog how the game works. You pick up a ring (you don’t have to use your mouth – you have thumbs!), carry it over, and put it on the post. Dogs do learn by watching.

Try not to be frustrated or lose patience with your dog. If it’s all brand new, it may take some time to catch on to the ring stacking game. Keep in mind that playing only two minutes at a time, a dozen sessions is less than half an hour. Read about a session a while ago when Torque completely forgot how to play the game.

Remember how dogs learn

Just by watching how your dog relates to the game, you’ll be able to see how he/she learns. Some dogs will get it right away. Others will learn one step easily and have difficulty with another. Just like us, all dogs have unique learning styles.

Part of learning is processing. You may have one completely awful game session. The next time, your dog may be brilliant. Giving your dog time to “think” about it helps them achieve success.

If you do have a session that falls off the rails, just stop and regroup. Your dog is doing the best he/she can, willing to play with you. Be grateful for the wonderful companion you have and try again later.

It’s all about choice in dog training

Dog training is up close and personal. You can’t do it remotely. And you shouldn’t let someone else train your dog. There are gadgets that are supposed to work – but those are tools you can use. Not people replacements.

Dealing with a bad dog owner

We got a call this week from a person looking for a “thing” that would stop her dog from jumping over her fence. She had no idea what she wanted, she just wanted something that would do the “job” of keeping her dog in her yard. Her choice in dog training was not to do it.

She has two options:

A taller fence (her current one is four feet)
A leash, with her attached to the other end

She didn’t much like the options we offered. And highly resented the fact that tethering her dog in the yard is illegal. Not to mention highly dangerous for the dog, which is why it’s illegal. This person shouldn’t own a dog.

Teaching takes time

If you want your dog to understand the boundaries of your territory, you have to teach your dog where the boundaries are. If you want your dog to stop jumping over the fence, you have to teach your dog it’s not a good choice. And you have to offer your dog a more rewarding option.

That’s the key phrase, and one we can’t emphasize enough. Dogs always do what’s most rewarding. They will, absolutely dependably, choose to do what makes them happiest. It’s up to us to teach our dogs that doing what we want is the best, most rewarding, most fun option.

That’s dog training in a nutshell.

Pay your money, make your choice in dog training

Dog trainers often say that people get the dog they need, when they need it. If your dog has a behavior you don’t like, you have to decide whether you’ll become a better trainer or you live with the behavior.

If your dog is a counter-surfer; you’re either right there whenever your dog is in the kitchen teaching better choices, or you leave nothing on the counter, ever.

If your dog jumps the fence; you put a long line on your dog and go out with him every single time teaching boundaries, or you get a higher fence.

Dog’s aren’t convenient

Booker could jump the fence. We made in choice in our dog training to go out with him. — Booker could jump over the fence. That’s why he never goes outside by himself.

We go outside with our dogs every time they leave the house. It’s not convenient. We’d rather stay on the nice cozy couch, trust them to “do their business,” and come home again.

But we don’t have robotic dogs. We have dogs that, without supervision; eat dirt, bark at the neighbors, bark at the neighbors’ dogs, bark at cars, and eat rabbit poop. To prevent all of those things, we’re right there. And when we see our dogs make good decisions, like glancing at the neighbor and looking back to us, we’re right there to reward that good choice to be quiet.

Choices in dog training include the “battles” you choose to fight, and those you’d rather just manage. If your dog goes digging in the bathroom wastebasket all the time, we completely understand moving the wastebasket rather than dealing with the issue. Some things just aren’t worth the effort to train. (Here’s another post about that choice: https://2-minute-trainer.com/2020/03/24/set-up-for-success-no-more-counter-surfing/)

Along with that choice comes the realization that your dog is going to do some stuff that aggravates you and you’ve chosen to live with it. If that’s your decision, it’s also up to you not to get angry or yell when your dog does it.

We have a saying for that: “Train, don’t complain.”