Common in herders and hunters

I recently replied to an enquiry looking at how to train a twelve month old Australian Shepherd who was nervous in general around novel stimulus , who lives in a farm environment (riding stable) and didn’t have much experience of the wider world except for trips to the beach occasionally. He lunges forward when asked to meet and greet new people and also circles and barks when anyone tries to leave the premises or the group if they are out walking when off the lead.

Sound familiar ? It should be , it’s a common trait in sheep herding breeds and may also look quite similar (but is not the same thing) in flock guardians and hunting breeds (sighthounds and gundogs like spaniels for example) whilst each dog is an individual and some parts of my advice would be tailored depending on the age sex breed and learned history of an individual – here is my response for a young inexperienced shy/nervous collie. But the techniques and “foundation training” would be very similair for dogs exhibiting these sorts of behaviour. Also if your dog is over 2-3 years old you can gloss over the first section and go straight to the second paragraph. You may recognise some of the things I mention if you think back to when your dog was 12-18 months old. If you find yourself nodding your head and saying “ah yes Fido did used to do that a lot when he was X months old” then I’m here to tell you why that happens in the next paragraph. Still nodding? Maybe take a quick look at my previous post Help my teenage dog has forgotten everything 👈

Let’s get into it.

Firstly welcome to adolescence. Twelve months old is roughly around the time a secondary fear period can kick in coupled with a few other things you have the perfect storm. Take the fact that your pup is also quite an anxious dog by nature then you can see how any previous behaviours such as some form of overarousal around novelty (new people, new places ,too much going on at once) can make those “reactions” more amplified. It is important that any training during this period is done gently and at a level the dog can cope with. Distance is your friend. Start any training at a distance that he can cope with and work back up to meeting and greeting people and also watching or participating at the edge of classes.

Now you mention his ability to cope for an hour or two -that’s amazing for a teenage dog. I agree that these are traits shepherding dogs do naturally and without ample opportunity to meet his needs in regards to his pastoral behaviours then when he gets super frustrated tired excited or fearful he will resort back to behaviours he has been selectively bred for (micromanaging his environment or space seeking behaviours if he is very nervous) looking for the body language that his behaviour has tipped over the edge of his ability to cope is your first port of call, training for this scenario is done separately. This is where we start to build the scaffolding or foundations for any future behaviours we may need to chain together in the not so distant future.

Laying The Foundations First

I would put the “eye stalk” part of his behaviour on cue “look” mark and reward for eventually disengaging an actively reward for an alternative which is looking back at the handler and moving away.

The key is to mark and reward AFTER he’s disengaged. Obviously do this in a calmer environment to get the initial behaviour. With enough repetitions you will get a dog that fulfils the “eye stalk” part of the behaviour without the chase and grab part of the behaviour. You could also fulfil that bit of the behaviour too. Once you have a reliable return from the eye stalk what will the next behaviour be? This is dependent on what suits your dog I often teach a very simple nose touch to hand for nervous dogs as a little confidence booster or if we also wanted to fulfil the chase grab bite sensibly, when he returns perhaps wanting a “kryptonite” toy throw it past yourself so he has to chase the toy on returning to you this would also get him engaged in an alternative to going forward. Then we could add the last behaviour to the chain and play tug “grab bite part” this is how agility is trained for example the reward is at the end ususally an amazing fluffy tug toy of some description. And remember to let the dog actually win the toy and keep it.

Make sure this is done on lead to begin with to prevent unwanted rehearsal lungeing forward to start with. Keeping the lead relaxed (this is why distance is crucial to begin) So your behaviour chain looks like this (at a distance) Eye Stalk something in the environment anything moving- cue “Look”- wait for it (.you may need to find something that helps get his attention in the first few instances / squeaker his name / anything trained so it has become a reflex) Mark “Yes” for disengagement back to you – then throw the toy past you as you move away from the dog – dog orientates towards you- gets quicker or chases you- throw it slightly behind you (add distance to this throw as he gets the hang of it) play tug or allow him to play with the toy – ask for a drop or not – train this seperately/ repeat (at each stage proof the behaviour – so that generalising can take place).

But My Dog Doesn’t Take Food Or Toys When We Are Outside

If the dog isn’t taking food or toys rewards when they normally would in a calmer environment it’s a good indicator that your environment is too over stimulating or stressful – go back a step and further proof the step before moving on / your ability to time your marker cue when he disengages is key – quicker timing faster learning less repetitions needed😅

Does Your Dog Really Need To Say Hi To Everyone?

I’d argue not really, now that we know it could be adding to your dogs “busvket of stress” , too many unmanaged interactions in this way may result in a dog having to resort to the behaviour we’ve previously looked at as a result of too many triggering things happening in succession. So I’d give meeting and greeting a break for a month and just do this stuff mentioned instead after all the training and confidence boosting you could do the same when people approach because l can almost guarantee your dog doesn’t want to meet and greet when he’s shy about new people instead work of focus on the handler whilst people throw rewards away from themselves (giving treats from their hands can cause conflict in the dog so best avoided – think I really want that treat but I really don’t want to go near that person usually results in hand grabbing and increased arousal- so best voided) get visitors to calmly throw any reward past the dog so that he moves away from them instead of towards / a much safer option would be to do some antisocial training and by this I simply mean reward everything that looks like focusing on the handler in the presence of new people- not every dog is a social butterfly sometimes the best we can ask for is tolerance but we don’t get tolerance if we constantly force the dog to do stuff they are not yet equipped to deal with.

Things To Add To Your Foundation Work

Once You Have A Reliable Reinforcement History

I would also then be teaching your dog directions with a solid down (as he seems to be very good at this ie has a reliable reinforcement history) Utilise what your dog already knows well, this will save you a lot of time. Let’s say he can still eye stalk well , always returning to the handler for disengaging. I would now start to this progress this behaviour off lead. Eventually with enough repetitions you will get a dog that looks at his triggers and starts to reflexively return to you for “the grab game or a treat toss behind you” reward delivery is key to getting engagement up. And don’t be in a hurry – we are trying to build a new association for the one previously learned which takes time and patience 👍

For further guidance on how to train the foundations in this behaviour change take a look at Predation Substitute Training by Simone Mueller who has a wonderful book on Amazon on the subject- Whilst you are there also check out a book called Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt And for the engage disengage section look up Grisha Stewarts many free resources on Grisha Stewart’s Behavioural Adjustment Training she too has a very useful book on lead handling and creating behaviour change. I like to use a mixture of all of these techniques).

Part Two – The Structured Walk

Do you have a dog that is manic for the first 5-10 minutes of your? Dog they pull you down the street? If yes then, make sure you pop over and read PART ONE in this series to see how “Pre-walk” training and games can help you before you even leave the house hereHow To Train High Energy Dogs Part 1 – Now let’s look at two types of structured walk you can do after you have set aside fifteen minutes to do something e,she with your dog (see previous post).

The Structured Walk Number One

Let’s remember why we are walking the dog, first and foremost, I would hope everyone would agree, it’s for the dogs benefit. It’s your dogs walk and yours second. If we keep that at the front of minds we can then also remember that what we might want to do in that walk might not actually be what that dog wants to do on that walk.

What is a structured walk I hear you cry? It’s a very distinct set of things we are actively trying to encourage at specific times of the walk for a very specific reason. It’s not very complicated I promise. It will however require a little bit of pre-empting on your part, that’s all.

There are five questions I want you ask yourself before we start;

1- What type of personality does my dog have (boisterous, confident, shy, nervous, under confident)?

2-What’s does my dog love to do (digging, sniffing, movement, praise)?

3-What training do they already know?

4- What can we be working on to ,are this more enjoyable for us both (does my dog know- “Yes”, “Drop”, “This Way” “Look”)?

5- What venue can we walk in to achieve our structured walk today (do I need the car?, is there a quiet open field I can use? Will an extended walk in my local area suffice?).

That’s it five things to consider and I will come back to the last point in a minute.

Id your dog number ONE who might really really enjoy sniffing , they get in “trouble” for constantly

Why these five things?

Firstly knowing our dogs personality type and their likes and dislikes means we can start to see the walk from their perspective. You might think that “around the block” walks are boring to you but to your dog who might be shy it could be a way of getting and using their nose in a familiar environment one in which you’ve practiced how we move away from anything that is scary or perhaps we have done a lot of look/look away training on this route so they no longer have to be super vigilant, as an example. On their hand overly confident dogs who need to learn to be calmer might benefit from “setup” walks in real life places but with very little distractions. They might not be ready for the dog park just yet but perhaps they can cope if they look at the dog park from far away.

It’s important to know what your specific dog likes to do because we can use that to our advantage to make their walks more interested h and also can help get more engagement when we are out and about trying to train. For example if my dog is a superstar sniffer I would incorporate almost the entire walk to Scent-work so that I could wean them off of high energy activities all together or my crazy spaniel might not get a lot from walking around the block on a lead but might excel of search and find activities in a small pocket of woodlands that may require very little “walking to the venue”. I could let myself off the hook for the dreaded lead walk for this dog and begin training AFTER they let off steam in the woods.

Utilise what they already know. Does my dog know a sold “drop”, brilliant let’s play some retrieve games in the woods (proper search and find games). My dog reliably knows “hand touch” awesome, let’s ask him to do that as part of his loose lead training so we can reduce the amount of treats we give him or lastly my dog knows “find it”, brilliant let’s play “Find it” on the way home – work with what you’ve got and add skills in.

Which leads me to – what can we add to make this more enjoyable. There’s a lot to be said for basic life skills with your dog, my top ten go to cues I use every single day in multiple groups of dogs are “yes” as a marker word, “This Way”, “Look” “Walk On” “Wait” “Here” (for loose lead) “What’s This” “Drop” “Come” & “Find It”. If your dog doesn’t know any of these , get working on them very soon. **

** I would also say number one thing is to learn to handle a lead better and work on your ability to give rewards precisely and in a timely fashion, without getting tangled**

Lastly we need to set our dogs and ourselves up for success. If our dogs find the front door duper exciting try to desensitise it or change the exit you are using. If we have a nervous dog don’t force them to go on busy loud street walks without building up to it and also don’t take reactive dogs to a place that they might see a plethora of people or dogs in high frequency. Also find quieter places for over excited teenage dogs so they can learn to stay calm and don’t expect them to make go decisions in that last five feet or so between meeting new dogs and new people. If in doubt create space by moving on. Be vigilant, look for you exits and entrances , look for street furniture you can use to calm your down down behind whilst people walk past and start thinking about your walks from your dogs perspective and not your own. Sure it’s convenient to go to the nearest green space and throw a ball a hundred times to create a tired dog. I would then say have they been physically and mentally challenged but the time you spent with them? If not then some simple mindful things can be added to get a dog that loves their walks with you and that you enjoy more as a result.

Structured Walk Number Two

We should also remember that with a structured walk we are getting rid of the “stress” having to take our dogs on a super exciting adventure or rushing the walk just to get it out of the way for forty five minutes instead let’s say that forty five minute looked like this-

PRE-TRAINING (15 minutes) – GO SOMEWHERE QUIETER – FOR OUR WALK OR EVEN AROUND THE BLOCK SNIFFY WALK (15 minutes)- TRAIN ON THE WAY BACK TO THE CAR OR FIND IT ACTIVITIES ON THE WAY BACK (15 minutes) – HOME TIME.

You can see with this structure not only have we reduced the actual amount of “walking” we have had to down to thirty minutes instead but we have actually added more engaging activities.

The pre training has gotten that start of the walk energy out, going somewhere in the car or going somewhere predictable helps keep your dogs arousal levels to a minimum as much as possible and also sets you both up to have a less stressful walk. This part of the walk is the actual excersise part of the walk and can include sniffing to engage a different part of their brain so they can potentially be physically and mental tired to the point that they are more likely to concentrate (even in short bursts) on your training activity to have planned. The training/ Find It part of the walk calms their brain down from the previous high energy activity. It’s why I don’t encourage constant high energy games such as fetch or a ball flinger, not only does it injure knees and joints galore you are essentially creating a dopamine addict, who, without some sort of structure on his way back from the walk will sometimes go home and still be “wired” from walk because he hasn’t had chance to come down the other side of his high. I would offer that we do this with a handful of find it games & retrieve games to engage his nose, as calm licking or chewing can help bring those hormones back down below an unsafe threshold. *

*Please not I am not saying you should never through a ball for your dog again, but I am saying don’t spend the whole “walk” throwing a ball flinger or a frisbee until the dog is flat out tired. I am saying throw it a few handful of times and put it away in favour of a few different activities instead.

So structured walk one is for dogs that are not reactive in any way and are perhaps just a high energy working dog who often can fall into the habit of pulling, lead grabbing or needs lots of stimulation to prevent boredom. These dogs benefit from ; PRETRAINING/A FUN WALK WITH MINIMAL DISTRACTIONS AND LIKELY ONE-TO-ONE ATTENTION from the handler (no getting distracted with these dogs please a as they thrive from quick timing and lead handling skills. These dogs are quick learners and so much you be. THEN TRAINING IS MOTIVATING AND REINFORCING & LASTLY ANY FORM OF SNIFFING OR SCENT-WORK TO HELP THEM CALM DOWN.

Structured walk number two – is for those more nervous dogs that need you go slower or who struggle in new environments. I would like you to structure your walks so that they become SAFE & PREDICTABLE. By all means we want to build up to what these dogs can do and cope with over time but to get them there quicker we want to make them feel that this walk is safe because we do this then this then this. Step by step. Your walk might start with a confidence boost at home in the for, of training or an easy find task for fifteen minutes then if lead walking is scary then simply start with “look/look away” sorts of training on your front lawn or in the driveway. We want these dogs to just look at the world around them – they will naturally be hyper vigilant and look at everything in their environment anyway. Let them take it all in. You will likely not get far with these dogs in terms of distance but that’s ok too. These walks are about building confidence for the dog and your ability to handle them in “scary situations”. Graduate out into the street of to a preferred quite spot where they can sniff and explore at their own pace for fifteen to twenty minutes and then dog some training on the way back if they are feeling up to it. Don’t drag these dogs around allow them to stop if they hear a loud vehicle passing but or a boisterous child on the other side of the road, encourage “Look/Look away” on their own. They will walk on when they are ready. Actively encourage sniffing on the way home to let off some of their “mental steam”. You will find these dogs are mentally exhausted and you could add another game when you get home again when they feel safe to aid in getting them physically tired as well. Ending your time with a nice licki Mat or something similar. These walks look like this,

PRE-TRAINING (15 minutes)/ ENGAGE DISENGAGE WORK NEAR THE HOME AND PREDICTABLE WALK(10-15 minutes)/SNIFFING AND FIND IT ON THE WAY HOME (10-15 minutes) – PLUS AT HOME GAME /LICKI OR SNUFFLE MAT TO FINISH.

As you can see there could be so much more to the way in which you walk your dog. I want everyone to enjoy dog walks again. Instead of hiding your dog away from the world because they are too excitable or too reactive etc etc, let’s start to implement completely doable activities for your specific dog so that you can start to enjoy walks again with your best friend. Dogs are constantly learning so let’s help them to go out in the world again with structure that is on purpose for our high energy dogs that find themselves expected to be “pets” without having their own needs met first.

If you enjoyed this post please keep on eye out for the third and final part in this series of How To Train High Energy Dogs – next time I will be looking at places or venues we can utilise that will actually help our high energy dogs to work up to more distraction environments in regards to getting and keep their focus whilst on a walk. In the mean time please check out my previous post Pre Training High Energy Dogs here.

Love from your friendly neighbourhood dog trainer Sara. X

Ps if you would like to work with me in person or online please feel free to contact me here Contact Sara Here

Part One

High energy dogs come in all shapes and sizes and they range from busy spaniel puppies with no off switch to highly frustrated teenage dogs who just have to chase every thing that moves in their environment.

It can be difficult to know where to start with regards to training them, for specific scenarios, especially if you have a dog that pulls the minute you step foot out of the front door, or a dog who is overtly stimulated by things in their environment when out and about.

I want to offer you part one of “how to train high energy dogs” of which I call “PRE-TRAINING”, imaginative I know right?

All dogs get excited and pull for a variety of reasons during the first 5-10 minutes of any walk. If you are trying to train your dog at this moment you are likely setting both you and your companion up to fail. Now this is where the “Pre-training” comes in.

The first question before we start pre-training – to ask yourself – Does your dog know how to drop? If the answer is yes then continue on to Pre-training, if not then it’s time to train a reliable “drop” (this is another “How To” post for another day).

Once you have this in the bag then you can use this new found skill to create a pre-training protocol, whereby you choose a breed specific game that you can play for about 15 minutes before you need to go out for your walk/ training session. Whatever you dog really enjoys * It could be Scent work and Find It games in the garden for spaniels and hounds. Games of tug with sight hounds terriers and bull breeds or retrieving games for gun dogs. Perhaps your dog is a sucker for a frisbee or more training games like many of the herding breeds.

Be on the look out for over arousal in your dog and always bring them back down from hyper games with licking sniffing or chewing activities.

This extra 15 minutes of activity will help to get rid of that “fizziness” you experience with them at the beginning of a walk.

*Every dog is different but taking the time to find out what they were bred to do, also what motivates them will serve you well when deciding how to structure this pre-training, perhaps your dog loves movement, scent ,holding something in their mouth, hunting or even working out a task on their own (spaniels and terriers excel at this). I guarantee it will be a joy to simply watch your dog carefully to find these things out.

By doing this you will find that your dog is already engaged with you and more likely to be “in the mood” for training and will be able to either concentrate/focus more on any engagement work you now want to do with your dog (loose lead or engage/disengage) for example.

Doing so will also make the first section of your walk much more bearable even if it’s so that you can get to your dog to an area more suitable for training. It could even be a calmer car journey if you need to get them into the car to go somewhere more suitable to continue your training efforts.

In part two we will look at the two types of structured walks that I recommend that can further set both you and your dog up to succeed in your training efforts especially with regards to high energy dogs. Sometimes we just need to change the context for our dogs and come up with protocols that meet them halfway when we ask so much of them everyday.

Keep an eye out for part 2 of “ How to train high energy dogs” and in the meantime if you would like to work with me don’t hesitate to contact me here About Town Pets

…..love from your friendly neighbourhood dog trainer Sara ❤️

Ps if you enjoyed this post you might like my previous post on Help my dog is lead reactive

When working with a behaviourist you are not just getting a dog trainer who can teach you how to do a new behaviour you should also be getting someone who can delve into their Rolodex type mind to come up with solutions for more complex issues as well as the more simple ones. Each scenario should be approached with the hierarchy of humane procedures.

This is a slightly simplified version of what goes on, but this is the general idea for why we ask you to fill in a list of very specific questions on our behaviour history question forms. A lot of information can be gleaned from the dogs breed age and sexual status (neutered or not) and medical history but we are also looking for the following things in every case:

1. Is the dog healthy? I’ve heard different numbers but over half of aggression cases are medical issues according to the experts. Get a general physical done and some tests. Seemingly average looking complaints (such as compacted anal glands, pain, intestinal issues or females in season) can cause obscure behaviours which may not need any behavioural intervention at all just management and veterinary intervention.

Is the dog being fed enough & a quality food? Just because we use food doesn’t mean we want them starving. Also is the dog eating everything and anything and still not putting on weight ? (This last one can be true for dogs with specific forms of diabetes so again not behavioural but medical rule outs are needed as standard). We are not in cohoots with the vet and we are not trying to get you to pay out for the vets when not needed , we ask because about fifty percent of the time there IS a medical underlying issue that has gone unnoticed and knowing these things can speed up your training experience if we need to do that as well.

Are they getting enough mental and physical exercise? More confidence training, more engagement with family members #BeMoreFun and more stimulating walks (dependent on the dogs age personality and ability) more enrichment activities will likely solve lesser problems in the first instance -solve those first, always.

If the dog is excitable how can we introduce more calming activities ? ( just as we need to be exciting to train a young dog recall we also have to note that that same method won’t help us when training calmer behaviours).

2. Can we change the environment so it’s not an issue? Management is always our next port of call so that whilst the dog is learning we manage them safely whilst they learn an alternative – this management can then be phased out over time when the dog has become more “trustworthy” For example we might phase out the use of a crate over time when toilet training or mouthing has subsided and upgrade the dog to having more space over time, not as a privilege but because growing dogs need more space and it’s up to us to train them or give them stimulation so they can be trusted in their new space.

Does this lead reactive dog need to be on lead or can he enjoy enrichment in other ways that doesnt involve being tied to a person or for safety reasons, a food resource guarding dog must ALWAYS be given space and left alone when eating to prevent escalation before we can start to train and educate owners on what the risks are and how to manage this scenario.

3. Next up- Positive reinforcement training. Pick something the dog already does that we like and reinforce it. Even better choose something simple that is incompatible with the issue (got a dog that jumps up? Train a default sit or settle on a mat and repeat repeat repeat- Dog isn’t eating food? Go back to step one. All dogs are motivated by food it’s usually the environment is too stimulating for them to WANT to take the food in that instance (be it negatively – anxiety or positively – excitable behaviours).

The dog normally eats but isn’t now? Change the environment. We are probably flooding them which means they are too over aroused to think clearly – reinforcing calmer behaviours regularly helps here or at a distance too. Going back to basics even if it’s for a refresher in an older dog who is out of practice will help everyone get on the same page.

4. Like mentioned above we would then look at reinforcing alternate behaviors. Jumping isn’t reinforced but standing is. Pulling isn’t reinforced but walking near handler is and this is done with good timing, clear hand signals (no need for man handling in any case) with good frequency (don’t be stingy with reinforcement) and with good mechanics (delivery of the treat matters, can the dog see its reinforcement , are you reinforcing after the dog does something ie: in the case of counter conditioning – don’t be tempted to put your hand in your pocket too soon😅) and all of this is done with lots of repetition – you get what you put in and the simpler the approach the better as it helps owners stick at the training too😉

Lastly If you have done these things and they aren’t working, it’s time to call in someone else because we missed something. It’s not time to use aversives. There is lots and lots of science to back up this claim (a simple google scholar or science direct search is all that is required) these days and the top behaviourists should be aiming to work collectively with knowledgeable vets who also hold a specialism in veterinary behaviour (unfortunately these are few and far between at the moment and their case loads have months and months waiting lists) – again another topic for another day.

Your trainer or behaviourist should not be trying to “muddle on” if they don’t know how to progress when a dogs behaviour has plateaued they should be asking for a second opinion or help with the task or if it’s a complicated case should be happy to refer on.

So as you can see there are no quick fixes even for relatively simple issues and when you ask for a response to your very unique or specific question you can start to see why it might be problematic for me to generalise to “every dog that does A needs to be trained to do B”

We can give you an educated guess based on what we’ve seen before and what science has proven the probability of it to be true but every dog is an individual with learned history and specific breeding and upbringing so they may have learned things even us as owners are unaware of.

So I hope the takeaway here is that your qualified experienced dog trainers and behaviourists are doing all of this puzzle solving in the background and trying to come up with a manageable, easily digestible plan that you can implement at home without lots of supervision .

When we hear “I’ve tried this XYZ and been to lots of different trainers” regardless of methods it’s not really a dog trainer issue at this point it’s the individuals ability to go at the dogs pace , not expect a quick fix and putting in the repetitions with GOOD technique to get a dog to the point it’s issues are “resolved” and whether a dogs issues are truly solved or rehabilitated is also a topic for another day.

Keep up the good work and keep training the best you can and stayed informed 👍

Love from your friendly neighbourhood dog trainer ❤️xx

Ps if you enjoyed this article feel free to check my previous article on The Puppy Blues & Why it’s Totally Normal