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Last week we took a look at timeouts as an effective strategy for attention based behaviour problems. They are so effective that Barbara, who submitted the original question, wrote this after two days.

Dear Yvette,

It is working!!! …I have given Sammy, our puppy his “quiet time” twice and he sure comes out of the bathroom very subdued and not interested in biting for a while.

If you plan your strategy around the root of a problem, then you should see quick results. In class I tell people to give timeouts a full week. Puppies who nip for attention shape up very quickly because they learn that nipping gets them the opposite of what they want. The punishment fits the crime.

But, there are people who do not have success with timeouts. There are a number of reasons this could happen. First, we rule out consistency.

Inconsistency frustrates a dog. Since they cannot figure out the rules, they keep trying to nip for attention because it works sometimes. “When I nip, sometimes I get a timeout. Sometimes I get attention and wrestling. It makes sense to keep trying to get more play.”

Some people use timeouts and the dog gets worse. That is a very big early warning sign that your dog is not nipping for attention. If the puppy wants you to go away, timeouts are a reward. Rewards and punishments depend 100% on the dog.

For example, I could tell my child we'll watch hockey after he is done his chores. If he likes hockey, he will likely be motivated to work extra hard. But it just so happens that my kid thinks hockey is a four-letter word. He would enjoy watching the Worlds gymnastics competition. The irony of the role reversal is not unplanned in my example. Never assume that someone “should” like something. We all have personal likes and dislikes.

Dogs are similar. They are not toasters. You can guarantee that a part replacement will work. A dog is not a toaster. They have a brain and they have individual characteristics. Generally people do not take dogs back for a refund. You need a solution that works for your family and for your companion. A cookie cutter guaranteed fix is not going to achieve that with any degree of reliability.

The dog that is biting and getting worse with a timeout does not want attention. They want you to go away. They are happy with a timeout because they got rid of you. That dog could be under-socialized, sensitive to touch, startles easily, in pain or guarding something like space. At that point, you need to identify the problem and adjust the training to meet individual needs.

It makes no sense to swat, choke or shock an under-socialized dog. He will obviously hate people more, not less. If the dog is in pain, he needs to be diagnosed, not punished. If the dog is sensitive to touch, you need to do handling exercises. If the dog is guarding, then you need to teach the dog to willingly give up things of value.

If you want results, you need to pinpoint the exceptions. Otherwise, you're falling into an insane trap of punishment and frustration. The problem is that dogs grow up very quickly. No one has time to try a little of this or a little of that.

Yvette is an award winning pet writer and pet behavior columnist. She also is the author of Meeting Milo, a North American dog bite prevention program to reduce the approximately 2 million children bit by dogs annually. She is the owner of AwesomeDogs.ca and works as a behavior consultant in London, Ontario.

This column was originally featured in The Londoner
See more of Yvette... www.awesomedogs.ca
www.meetingmilo.com

Yvette has 2 dogs of her own, KIKI and KAYA. Take a look...

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