Positive Change
As organizations (and people) evolve, policies, procedures, and processes evolve alongside them. When we first founded Mikaela’s Mutt Motel, we held superficial knowledge about the “ins and outs” of dog training. Admittedly, we could have done more extensive research, but training was (and still is) secondary to actually saving Mutts from abandonment and euthanasia. As we stood the organization up off the ground, we were able to devote more time to our secondary objectives and determined that our (then) current training methods were ineffective and potentially harmful. That realization and the guidance of our Director of Training led to significant modification to our training policies and procedures, and we believe our current approach is much more effective and safer for our Mutts.
Training the Mutts
We employ a force-free, fear-free, positive reinforcement based training methodology at Mikaela’s Mutt Motel. Rather than punishing undesirable behaviors, we reward the encouraged behaviors. This places more of the Mutt’s focus on the desired behavior and the positive reward than on an undesired behavior and a punishment. The Mutt will perform the desired behavior seeking a reward rather than avoiding punishment. Eventually, the reward will devalue to simple verbal praise or no acknowledgement at all (making the behavior second-nature and more like a habit). In this way, the behavior becomes ingrained into the Mutt’s daily life. Teaching our Mutts a dozen or so desired behaviors is much easier and much more effective than punishing hundreds of undesired behaviors.
Why Shock Collars Don’t Work
Our initial experience with training centered on E-Collars which electrocute the dog wearing the collar when the person holding the remote pushes a button. Shock collar proponents will tout the “short, millisecond” duration of the shock as proof that the dog isn’t being harmed, but ask any of those proponents to strap the collar around their neck and watch them shy away from the idea.
Additionally, electrocuting your dog can create an ingrained fear of the location where the dog was shocked. If you typically train and shock your dog in your backyard, your dog may develop a fear of the backyard. The mindset of a shock collar enthusiast will lead such a person to shock their dog even more for not going into the backyard when commanded. Finally, dogs (just like people) can have congenital or acquired heart conditions that shock collars can exacerbate leading to worsening conditions or death.
When shock collar proponents claim to deliver a ‘correction’ the word they should be using is ‘electrocution.’
When shock collars are used to train dogs, the dogs learn pain-avoidance rather than learning the taught behavior. Inversely, when the source of pain (the shock collar) is removed, the dog has no need for pain-avoidance and typically will revert to undesired behavior. Bond-based training is much more effective and humane than pain-avoidance training.
Prong and Choke Collars Are Better, Right?
NO. Prong and choke-chain collars work fundamentally the same as shock collars. When a dog pulls on a leash, the prongs dig into the dog’s neck or the choke-chain tightens around the dog’s airway. The goal of this training device is to teach the dog pain-avoidance so it will stop pulling on the leash. However, commonly owners simply use the device all the time. The better, more effective method is to teach the dog to heel and recall. As previously mentioned, instilling the desired behavior is a far-better training method than punishing the undesired behavior. The bond between dog and owner should be healthy and strong enough that the dog wants to be near you or come back to you rather than chasing squirrels or pulling on the leash.
Building a lasting bond with your Mutt is a far more effective way to instill desired behaviors than continuously punishing unwanted behaviors. With a strong, healthy bond, your Mutt will want to please you and will repeat the behaviors that do so. Using harsh punishments like electrocution not only instills fear in your Mutt, it forges the belief that you are the source of the pain.
Training Behaviorally Reactive Dogs
We’ll start with the obvious: electrocuting a reactive dog is only going to irritate the dog even more. If the dog is reacting to something, then it is already uncomfortable in its current setting. Adding the pain and discomfort of electric shock will not teach the dog anything except that the person holding the remote is making it worse.
You don’t put your dog above their threshold and then electrocute them to keep them calm.
Many owners ask “how can I push my reactive dog above their threshold and keep them calm?” The answer is “you don’t put your dog above their threshold and then electrocute them to keep them calm.” Training (especially reactive dogs) is a long, slow journey. If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it again? And you will have to do it again if all you do is teach your dog pain-avoidance.
How We Do It
Rather than pushing our Mutts beyond their comfort zones and then electrocuting them for being scared or uncomfortable, we approach (but stay below) a Mutt’s reactivity threshold and build habitual desired behaviors. As the Mutts get more comfortable near their thresholds for reactivity, those thresholds inch forward. We follow. In other words, as Mutts get more comfortable near the edges of their “bubble,” we increase the size of their “bubble.”
If, at intake, a Mutt is reactive to other Mutts in the room, we work with the Mutt until its comfortable with dogs in adjacent rooms. Once we’ve achieved success, we may move the second Mutt into view but still in a different room. Eventually the reactive Mutt will be in the same room and adjacent kennels. This is clearly a slow and arduous process, but it’s much safer, more humane, and more effective than forcing the reactive Mutt to stay next to other dogs and then electrocuting it when it reacts. This is just one example of many aspects of obedience and reactivity we work on at Mikaela’s Mutt Motel.
Here’s a short video showing Drako’s progress from extremely reactive to playful and energetic
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