To quote Denise Fenzi, “In the [Positive Training] world, all failure to perform goes back to the handler; the dog is not held responsible. In the traditional world, the handler is held responsible initially until they decide the dog knows it. Then the dog is held responsible.” This is an important distinction, as time and time again, I go to evaluate a “stubborn” dog, and what I find is a dog with a poor understanding of expectations, whether it’s because he has not been properly prepared for the environment, or because the training techniques used do not mesh well with his temperament.
Let’s look at a common scenario: we have an 8-month old puppy who has successfully responded to SIT at doors for the past several months, and he suddenly stops responding. You approach the door with the puppy, tell him, “Puppy, SIT”, and he simply stands there. He does not appear stressed, there is no unusual stimuli apparent, and he has a solid history of responding to and appearing to understand the command. What to do?
This is a very common “teenaged puppy” response. There are several options available, and you may have to experiment to figure out what works best for THIS particular puppy.
The first consideration might be, “Did the puppy hear me?” It is a good time to ask for a check-in. Say the puppy’s name and pause. If the puppy looks up at you, now you’ve established attention; try saying “SIT” again. If he responds, he just may not have registered the command the first time. As a handler, it can be easy to say the command pretty fast (so it sounds like “dognameSIT”), and the dog may have tuned it out. Repeating his name and checking for attention sometimes will solve the problem (and many pups will appear to remember where they are just from hearing their name: “Oh right, a door… I’m supposed to sit!”).
If the puppy does NOT check in when he hears his name, do not keep repeating his name or the command. Try one of the following tactics:
At a puppy meeting, you can use the other dogs’ presence to your benefit. When you get a refusal at the door, back away from the door and stand with the puppy a few feet away. Allow another puppy and handler team to approach the door, SIT, and go through. After watching one or two pups proceed through the door, bring the pup up to the door and try again. If he succeeds, great! If not, walk away from the door again and allow another team to proceed. The pup learns that the fastest way to get to where his canine pals are is by following a simple command.
If there are no other dogs or similar tempting distractions available, try giving the dog a light attention cue. This is NOT designed to be a correction, but a light crutch/extra cue. Light tugs upward on the leash, a gently tapping finger on the pup’s head (“hello, are you listening?”), and/or VERY gentle pressure at the base of the tail can give a reminder of what the puppy is supposed to do. The goal is NOT to push the dog into position, nor to give the dog punishment. Think of it as an, “Excuse me, you’re supposed to be sitting” reminder. You don’t want to rely solely on these cues, but they can speed up the process (this can be very beneficial when you have people waiting behind you when you’re out and about).
If the cue doesn’t work, back the puppy away from the door. Allow anyone that is behind you to proceed, then approach the door again. If the dog is under control, it is acceptable to simply ask for attention, then proceed through the door without a SIT. This should only occur if the dog is behaving calmly. You are expanding your Box of Acceptable Behaviors to account for adolescence, as well as the potential that the puppy is having a bad day, is over-stimulated or tired, or is in a novel environment. Plan to go back to the basics with the puppy another day.
Notice that throughout all of this, a treat was not used as an aid or a lure. We do not want the puppy to learn that if he doesn’t listen, treats will appear. You can use a treat as a REWARD once the dog has complied, but do not pull it out to “tempt” the dog into listening. The benefit to compromising or using an extra cue is that it addresses the issue as it is happening; later, you can go back to foundation behaviors and re-teach sitting at the door, but the time to do that is not during the command refusal.
If none of the above methods work and the puppy can’t even stand calmly at the door, it’s time to manage the situation and take the puppy somewhere else to calm down (or end the outing).
Another common refusal is the COME command. It is good practice to not use the command when you don’t have a way to reinforce it; for example, if you have a fenced in yard, and the dog tends to play keep-away when you want him to come in the house, do not use the COME command. You can substitute an additional word (such as “INSIDE”) so as not to dilute the recall.
But even you always have the puppy on leash and and set up properly so that you can enforce the recall, training them for an “off-leash refusal” can be beneficial as well. Put the dog on a longer leash (6 feet +), try this in the house, or if you’re very patient and have lots of time, you can try this in a fenced in yard.
Call the puppy to “COME” while he is engaged with a scent or some other distraction. If he does not respond, walk towards him calmly. If he is on the leash, gather it as you approach but do NOT tug or put tension on the lead. If he is off leash, be prepared that he might dart away; do NOT grab for him or try to “catch” him.
When you get close to the puppy, calmly reach for his collar. If he is resistant or tries to jump away, make a mental note to practice grabbing his collar over several positive training sessions in the future. Then walk after him. Do not hurry or chase him; just follow him calmly and “walk him down”.
Eventually, he will allow you to take him by the collar; it may feel like a lifetime, but usually it only takes a few minutes for a pup to settle down and stop darting away. If he has been particularly resistant, you might want to give him a treat just for allowing a collar grab. But if it was relatively easy, you do not have to treat at this point. Tell the puppy to “SIT”. Just gently keep a hold of his collar (so that he can't go doodling off) and wait; remind him to "SIT" if he looks up at you.
When he does SIT, call him to “COME” and take a few steps back, gently using the collar or a short leash to guide him. Praise him, then call him to “COME”, again using the collar or leash to guide him, but this time give him a treat reward.
The reason that this works is because you are breaking the command down. The COME command is actually made up of three parts:
1. Stop what you’re doing
2. Come towards me
3. Hand target
When you get a refusal on the COME command, that means you need to work on the first part: stop what you are doing. The SIT command is one of the most basic commands, and one of the first things the puppy learned. Instead of focusing on tugs or pops on the leash when the puppy refuses the command, you are working on reinforcing each part of the command. Have you ever tried to tug an adolescent puppy off of a scent? It is not easy to do, and really, we are not interested in trying to fight with or out-muscle these dogs. By practicing the above technique, whether on or off the leash, you are giving the puppy clear information and structure that makes the command more fun and less confrontational.
*Thanks to South Shore AC Sue Croley and Diamond for posing for these shots.
