6 Common Dog Personality Types

6 Common Dog Personality Types

Not all training is created equal.  Until you understand the primary personality of your dog you will not achieve the desired results of training.  Each dog will go at his/her own pace.   We need to learn to evaluate where they are in their ability to learn and know when to push forward gently or to be patient.

Remember the Doggie Language Chart from yesterday -- learn to speak dog and read when he's shutting down from fatigue or frustration.  Likewise, you should never bring frustration, intimidation, anger or other emotions to your training activities with your dog.  If either of you are in the wrong state of mind.  Take a break!!!!    

If you are not giving clear signal and clear expectations -- you could be part of the difficulty of him learning and progressing.   It's easy to push to far to fast -- that can be dangerous with a fear biter or aggressive.   It's also easy to not go fast enough with can create boredom with a Happy Go Lucky or Hyper.

A job well-done is always praise worthy.  ALWAYS PRAISE and reward the the behavior when your dog gets its right. Don't ever forget to praise your dog.    We'll talk about effective praise and reward in a day or two. 
 

Happy Go Lucky

A pleasing dog most of the time, even without training. May demonstrate selective hearing or amnesia as they mature.

Most learn obedience as if it were a game or trick, but often do not choose to comply. Often well socialized and confident.

Training Approach – You must be enthusiastic and fun but hold him accountable to skills and your non-negotiables. Keep him challenged with new skills, new distractions.

Hyper Active

Endless energy. Out of control, pulls against leash. Social, but short attention span and lack of focus. They do not grow out of this personality.

Training Approach Use obedience skills to teach focus and impulse control. Teach restraint. Handler must remain calm and use very limited body movement. High level of verbal or physical praise may be too much for the dog causing him to break commands. Save enthusiasm until the end of a training series.

Shy

A dog displays discomfort or lack of confidence in association with living things. Dog withdraws from unfamiliar living things.
These dogs may become comfortable with some living things but not others.

Usually harmless to others, will not come out of this behavior without help.

Training Approach: Patience and very calm assertiveness. Dog must learn to work through stress. Creating specific patterns of activity and repetitive experiences to build trust and confidence. Teach simple playful games that can be easy and fun for him to learn the value of praise and reward.    Later add obedience work and socialization in incremental steps further builds confidence.

 

Basket Case

A dog that demonstrates anxiety, fear, panic, lack of confidence around unfamiliar people, places or things. As a puppy often raised in isolation.
This personality type usually acts reasonable in his own environment, unless something changes.

Training Approach: handler must build communications slowly and with patience, but still require dog to work on new skill levels each day. It’s a soft requirement to push beyond his current capabilities.

 Fear Biter

An insecure Dog that when cornered or threatened may display aggression. They may also display aggression to people / things that are hesitant or show fear. Most likely to strike when the back is turned.

This personality is often scared, confused, and frustrated. Doesn't make friends easily. Not all fear-biters bite, and it's not limited to large dogs.

Lacks socialization.

Training Approach: handler must be calm and confident. Slow and deliberate in movements. Build trust before obedience. It is highly recommended that you work with a trainer to create controlled environments to add controlled stress to the dog teaching him to cope with it successfully. Muzzle as needed.

 Aggressive

A confident dog with the ability to back it up and reactive poorly (if and when he feels it is needed). Most have learned to intimidate and control other animals and people from an early age. No size limitation.


Training Approach:  An aggressive dog presents significant risk and liability. Training can be extremely effective if the handler is 110% committed to the training and supervision/management of the dog & environment.
 Obedience work builds trust and socialization creates controlled stress to create new behavioral responses from the dogs to his triggers. Handler must be extremely confident (not intimidating or threatening) and non-fearful of the dog. Calm and confident leadership is essential.  Muzzle as needed

Training a dog does not come without risk.   
Consult a professional trainer for all your training needs and questions.  

Coming Up

• Teaching Sit and Using It In Every Day Life

• What is Praise Worthy and How to Give Praise Your Dog Values

• Why Consistency Matters

   

  Dana Brigman
  The K9 Coach
  Dog Training - Matthews, NC
  980-339-8064
  www.thek9-coach.com
  info@thek9-coach.com
  
  Follow us On
  
  
  
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Handler Consistency Makes All the Difference

The Coach's Corner:  Training Tips for Fans of the K9 Coach

Be Consistent!  Handler Consistency Makes All the Difference

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As your dog is learning fundamental life skills and basic obedience, you must have consistency in your expectations, discipline, and communications.   Your consistency is the key to unlocking success in your dog’s training.   Yes, that means you may have more to learn than your dog!

Your goal should be 100% consistency by all members of the family.   Will you achieve 100%?  No.  But with 100% as your goal, you’ll do a much better job of getting it right and preventing confusion for your dog.

What does this mean?  Ultimately, you make the determination of what your dog is expected to do and what you’ll find permissible.  You may have some decisions to make to prevent family behaviors that may be confusing your dog:

·     Is your dog allowed on the sofa – ever?  Or only when invited?  Or only when Dad’s not    home?

·     If it’s Ok for Dad to feed him a taste of dinner from the table but not for the kids to do so?  Does someone sneak food under the table, and you’re later embarrassed when Fido begs your guests for food?

·     Does Dad make him sit and wait for his food to be delivered but mom doesn’t?

·     Do the kids allow him to bolt out the door while you’re trying to train him to wait at the door?

·     Does Dad invite Fido to jump up on him, but then tries to prevent him jumping on Grandma?

·     Does Dad rough-house with the dog, but then get angry when he tries the same with the kids?

Some things should be non-negotiable though.  Examples:

·     Your dog should never be allowed to jump on people.

·     Your dog should be expected to comply with a command (Sit, Down, Come) every time it’s issued, the 1^st time.  It will never be effective if they don’t have to do it at home, but are then expected to do it 100% of the time in public or when guests come over.

·     Aggressive behavior is never to be tolerated without discipline.  This includes growling in the drive-thru window or as your neighbor’s dog walks down the street.

What does consistency in training mean, really?  Have very clear expectations of what you expect from your dog and the consequence for not meeting that expectation.  Be disciplined in your practice and follow-through.  Whatever you choose as your training technique, you need to demonstrate the same response (praise/reward and/or correction) every single time the behavior is demonstrated while the dog is learning.   You need to use the same word(s), same hand-signals, and the same body language (or lack thereof) every time.   

Over time you can vary or even eliminate treat based rewards if you’re using them, but you can never vary your expectation for the dog to comply with your command.  If corrections are effective during learning, and you have associated the word “no” with the correction  -- the word “no” will be eventually be enough of a correction to let the dog know that he has not met your expectations and allow you to repeat the command.

Your words and body-language communicate a message to your dog.  If not used consistently you can actually create confusion for your dog or perhaps even coax them into the wrong behavior – leaving you wondering why your dog didn’t do the command you expected.  You dog will without question pick up on your patterns or sequence of events and your body language.   It may be so subtle you don’t notice it; but your dog will.   They are far more in tune with body language than we will ever be. 

Your dog is learning something in every single interaction you have with him.  And because dogs learn by association, behaviors they practice generally become habits.  Therefore, if your dog gets to practice bad behavior sometimes, it’s going to be much harder to gain reliability when you really need it.  A classic example of this is your dog has free reign of the house while you’re gone, and barks like crazy every time the neighbors pass by.  You come home and tell him to stop – and it doesn’t work well.  During the learning phase you need to prevent your dog from practicing bad behaviors.  If you can’t be there to correct it, close the blinds, put him in a crate or block access to the front of the house.   And then use controlled training opportunities to teach a new behavior to replace the old (bad) behavior.

Be consistent.  Your dog will thank you for it, and you will find your dog is much better at doing things right, and has a lot more fun doing it.

Have questions or need help with more advanced training or behavioral issues.   Call us today.   We can help.

Dana Brigman
The K9 Coach
Dog Training - Matthews, NC
980-339-8064
www.thek9-coach.com
info@thek9-coach.com

Follow us On

Facebook,  Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest , Instagram  & Google+

My mission is a better life for dogs as members of a forever family.

My goal is create training solutions for the home owner, to rehabilitate dogs from shelters and rescues, and to prevent dogs from dying alone as strays or owner surrenders in shelters due to unnecessary aggression or behavioral issues.

Begin training with a consult with a professional trainer to be sure you're solving the right problem. Misdiagnosis can make the matters worse. Be sure that there are no medical issues at play and that your dog is not in pain, as pain can be a contributor to a new display of aggression. If you have any fear or uncertainty -- do not attempt the techniques without professional supervision.

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Clicks & Treats Training: Are They Effective

The K9 Coach's Corner:  Training Tips for Fans of the K9 Coach

Clicks and Treats:  Are They Effective Training Techniques?

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Clicks and Treats can work in many situations however I don’t believe they work in all situations. It is my belief that clicks and treats alone do not create a timely reliable result for obedience, unless you have months to invest to achieve the results.   You should also know that I don’t believe any method works 100% of the time in 100% of the dogs.  Most methods work for most dogs, but not always. 

Now I will preface my comments, by saying I have not taken a formal training program in “marker” based training.  But I have studied many books & videos and I used it with my dogs and foster dogs, including a blind Catahoula.  It seems to work better for “trick” training rather than the reliability of something like a Sit/Stay or Come under heavy distractions.

I’ve inquired in forums with “marker” experts about challenges I have experienced and each time they have told me I was either moving too fast in the training process, the distractions were too high relative to the value of treat reward or I was not consistent in my timing or my queue.  If I as a professional trainer can’t quite master this, how is the average pet owner to do so?  Am I to just give up and try another day when I take my dog to the local park and he refuses to sit on command because my treat is not yummy enough?    Who’s training who?  (Click here for more on my training experience with my Great Dane and my Dachshund with treats.)

 I have also inquired about how “marker” training could be leveraged with an extremely aggressive dog.  I’m told it’s possible, but no one has yet to give me any details. 

 So what’s the alternative?   Balanced Training.  Teach your dog that there will be a consequence for not complying with your command once the command has be taught and understood.  You have a consequence when you fail to do something at work.  Your boss is not going to just wait until you’re ready, or offer you a higher value reward to do the task.   Your kids have a consequence for not cleaning their room.  You are not going to just keep repeating yourself over and over, pleading with them, or giving up until another day.  (Are you?)

·     Praise:  a verbal excited “Good Boy!” coupled with a physical touch.  This might be an affectionate coupled with a gentle stroke on the head/face or down their back.  You’ll figure out in time what affection your dog values. 

·     Motivation:  Verbal encouragement while they are learning to complete the command, a pat on your leg to get them moving, a guiding hand with the leash, etc

·     Correction:   Once commands are learned the dog is expected to comply.  If not, we would generally issue a verbal “No” coupled with a leash-based correction.   A firm and quick tug and release on the leash.  It’s an attention getter and a reminder that they need to pay attention you. It should NOT be harmful, painful or issued in frustration.  Over time, “No” becomes the only correction you will need. 

Let’s talk more about corrections and the tools used, as I know many people have already cringed by now and think it’s medieval to even consider using any tools other than a treat.  By the same token you will find trainers that only ever use an e-collar.  I disagree with both of these extremes and work to find the tool that works best for each dog and their unique needs.

·         I find that beginning with a Martingale collar is often sufficient with many dogs.   Depending on their level of stubbornness or in cases of aggression you may find that progression to a prong collar or E-collar is necessary.  These tools can absolutely be used effectively without harm to your dog.   These tools can also be used inappropriately, as can any tool, and should be taught to the handler by a professional.   Your goal with any tool is to eventually eliminate the tool and work toward complete off-leash training.

·     I have seen many owners towing and dragging or using a standard leash and collar inaccurately, causing far more harm than the proper use of well-fitting tools.

·     Using the right tool for your dog needs coupled with the needs and capabilities of the handler can make all the difference in effectiveness, timeliness and success of your training program.

o    I will never use a tool on a dog not approved by the owner.   But many owners reach a point where they tell me “Training is not working – what am I doing wrong” – and the most common answer is your dog is training you (Remember what the forums told me about timing, value of the treat, understanding of the dog, etc) and to get a better result you’re going to need to consider a new tool.

o    But does it hurt my dog?  No, I have tried them all, including on my own arms, and holding the e-collar in my hands. I also use different tools on each of my dogs depending on their need, personality, and response.   Your dog’s neck structure is extremely muscular and powerful.

o    Won’t it break their spirit?  Any training can break the dog’s spirit if you’re wielding around intimidation, frustration, and inconsistency.  No training requires that – including leash-based corrections with a prong collar or e-collar.  And to be clear – your dog may NOT need it.  Some dogs however, based on attitude, learning styles, and overall behavior may very well benefit from a different training collar vs a treat. 

I will forever be a student of dog training methodologies and dog behavior to continue refining my skills and doing what’s best for the dog.  If we cannot achieve the desired result without a tool, we will move to what works the most effectively for the desired goals.

I can assure you, that no one loves their dogs more than I do.   I will give them best I can in all things, including a corrective consequence if they need it.  Why?  Well, a reliable recall or preventing them from bolting out of my car, or sitting when I stop moving may very well save their life.  And that’s the most important to me.

Are my dogs happy?  Yes, they are!  They show no signs of being fearful or intimidated, losing their playful spirit, or unwilling to work when expected.   Want to meet them?  I’m happy to give you a demo!

By all means give your dog a treat and lots of praise when they do something right.  But when you need reliability and consistency, you may need to look to adding an appropriate correction method.

Have questions or need help with more advanced training or behavioral issues.   Call us today.   We can help.

Good luck! And please share your success stories or other solutions you may have found effective. If this doesn’t work for your dog, we can get creative and try something else





Dana Brigman
The K9 Coach
Dog Training - Matthews, NC
980-339-8064
www.thek9-coach.com
info@thek9-coach.com

Follow us On

Facebook,  Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest , Instagram  & Google+

The K9 Coach is a Professional Certified Dog Trainer Serving Charlotte, NC, Matthews, NC and surrounding areas.

My mission is a better life for dogs as members of a forever family.

My goal is create training solutions for the home owner, to rehabilitate dogs from shelters and rescues, and to prevent dogs from dying alone as strays or owner surrenders in shelters due to unnecessary aggression or behavioral issues.

Begin training with a consult with a professional trainer to be sure you're solving the right problem. Misdiagnosis can make the matters worse. Be sure that there are no medical issues at play and that your dog is not in pain, as pain can be a contributor to a new display of aggression. If you have any fear or uncertainty -- do not attempt the techniques without professional supervision.

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