• Spite
• Dominance
• Anger
• Mad at their person for being left alone

Common, Unprovable Explanation
Aggressive dog is alpha or dominant

My Assessment and Training Strategy
Identify triggers that cause the aggression and practice desensitization and counter conditioning.

Behavior Issue: Aggression Towards People

Common, Unprovable Explanation
Aggressive dog is alpha or dominant

My Assessment and Training Strategy
Identify triggers that cause the aggression and practice desensitization and counter conditioning. Do not put the dog in the situation where he might exhibit the behavior again and learn that aggressive behaviors work. This will increase the likelihood that the dog’s aggression will escalate.

Behavior Issue: Difficulty Being Left Alone
Dogs might exhibit housetraining accidents, barking or destruction

Common, Unprovable Explanations

• Spite
• Dominance
• Anger
• Mad at their person for being left alone
  

My Assessment and Training Strategy
Look at general housetraining and management strategies to alleviate the accidents and destruction. Look at desensitization strategies to noises that might be causing the barking. Increase training and physical exercise to alleviate boredom. Assess possible separation anxiety and treat accordingly.

Have you heard reasons for dog behavior and wonder if they are accurate? Share what you have heard, or ask questions in my Forums.

• Manage your dog’s behavior on leash so he is NEVER allowed to chase the cat
• Slowly and systematically introduce him so the event does not result in your dog getting anxious or chasing the cat
  

It could take a LONG TIME to get to a point where you feel comfortable allowing your dog near your cat. It depends on your dog’s prey drive, how good your timing is, and how much time you spend on the exercises.

The main rule of thumb with cats is that they should always have an escape route. Your dog should never be allowed to corner your cat or one or both could get seriously injured, and you are negating one of the rules -- never allow your dog to chase the cat.

Try this:

• I strongly recommend using clickers for this
• Have your dog on leash
• Keep him far enough away from the cat so he is relatively calm
• AS SOON as he sees the cat, click and treat (if you are not using a clicker, say, "Yes")
• If your does not take the treat, use something better and/or move farther away
• Keep repeating this until your dog is calm at this distance and then move a bit closer
• If your cat moves at any point, click and treat AS SOON as your dog sees him move
• Try and end the session before your dog gets anxious
• If he gets anxious, move him farther away
  

Over time, the strategy is for your dog to not feel like chasing the cat, because he was in the situation many, many times and never actually chased the cat. You are doing something called desensitization and counter conditioning. You are lowering the intensity of your dog's normal reaction and countering it, or replacing it, with a different behavior. 

 You can also improve your chances for success by doing more training such as working on Off Leash Control, Come, or Leave It (shown in the Counter Surfing video).

I have many clients that have dogs and cats and they actually play together. Many times the cat will playfully taunt the dog and then jump out of reach each time. Your chances for success are really good if you introduce a young puppy to an older cat and start the exercises from the first greeting.

Let me know if you have more questions in the Forums, and good luck!

It would be great if you would share your experiences with getting a second dog or why you decided to hold off. 

I get asked this question very frequently. My basic rule of thumb is that all dogs should receive at least 60 minutes per day of physical exercise and 15 minutes of training to be happy, well-adjusted dogs. This is just a starting point. The numbers can vary greatly depending on the age, breed and individual requirements of your dog.

One very important factor to consider is that dogs need physical exercise in addition to mental exercise in the form of training or other tasks. I have worked with many dogs that have the proper amount of physical exercise but are still destructive or unruly because they are just bored.

How Can You Tell If a Dog is Bored?
Boredom usually presents itself in the form of barking, destruction, or digging. The challenge with assessing boredom is that some of the indicators are the same for separation anxiety, which is a separate issue.

If a dog participates in the minimum amount of exercise per day and does not have signs of separation anxiety, I will recommend more training or physical exercise to see if that alleviates the problems.  

What Breeds Need the Most Exercise?
In my experience, herding and working dogs historically need a lot of exercise. However, I have been surprised over the years with Pugs that have as much energy as a Border Collie, or a Visla that is really mellow and sleepy. You have to be prepared for a wide range of needs if you are thinking about getting a dog.

Also, puppies of any breed require a lot more time and attention than most people realize. As they get older, the more mellow breeds often calm down by the time they are two years old, but sometimes they don’t.  

My List of High-Energy Dogs
This list is from my experience. I usually don’t like to lump dogs into categories and risk unfairly labeling them, so please use this only as a rough guide. There are always exceptions to any list. 

I use this list when someone calls and they tell me they are not super-athletic or don’t necessarily have a lot of time to run their dogs in the park. I would tell them that it is more risky to get one of these breeds because of their high energy. Even though I have worked with many exotic dogs over the years, I am going to stick to more mainstream dogs with this list. Keep in mind that if you are getting a mixed breed you can use this as a rough guide, but there is no way to know for sure what exercise requirements your dog will need as he or she gets older.

• Boxer
• Husky
• Doberman
• Poodle
• Chesapeake Bay Retriever
• Golden Retriever
• Labrador Retriever
• Visla
• English, Brittany and Springer Spaniels
• Irish Setter
• Weimaraner
• Most Terriers - especially Jack (or Parsons), Rat, Pit Bull, Staffordshire, Boston, Border and Wheaten
• Most herding dogs including Belgian Shepherd, Collie, Border Collie, German Shepherd, Shetland Sheepdog, Australian Shepherd, Australian Cattle Dog, Kelpie, and Briard
  
• Portuguese Water Dog

This covers a lot of different dogs, and is by no means a complete list. There are exceptions to every dog as I read through the list. I have worked with really mellow Labrador Retrievers, but mostly they need a lot of running and training. In general, Bernese Mountain Dogs are often thought of as low-energy, but I have worked with my share of high-energy Berners.

In my experience Corgis, even though they are a herding dog, don’t need as much exercise as many of the other herders.

Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking a little dog like a Yorkshire Terrier doesn’t need that much time or exercise because they are so small. I have worked with some Yorkies that could give my Sheltie and Collies a run for their money. And, very consistently, ALL dogs need a lot of time to maintain their happiness and well-being.

Tragically I see dogs that are blamed for being unruly because they are not receiving the proper exercise and that they need to be happy. If you are going to get a dog, please make sure that you have thought it through and have the time and attention that your dog will need.

Ranger, one of my Collies, needed 2-3 hours of exercise and training per day when he was a puppy. I still give all my dogs at least 90 minutes of time and attention every day, sometimes more.

Questions about dogs? Visit my dog training website and buy my dog training videos, read my training blog, post to my forums, or listen to my radio show.

What has been your experience with your dog's energy level? Have you been surprised by a different level than you were expecting? Share your thoughts.

Destructive behaviors such as chewing on furniture or digging in the backyard are one form of inappropriate behavior. Demand behaviors are also inappropriate and are another way of describing a dog that is asking for something in a way that is deemed inappropriate. Examples include jumping for attention, play nipping for attention, barking for you to throw the tennis ball, or barking to get let out of the crate.

My strategies for working with dogs that exhibit destructive or demand behaviors are as follows:

1. Teach them what behaviors you think are appropriate and reward those behaviors
2. Teach them that just because they did the appropriate behavior does not mean they always receive what they want
3. Use timeouts to stop the inappropriate behavior pattern
   

The first strategy is to teach your dog appropriate behaviors and reward those. To achieve this goal, one option is to shape behaviors by rewarding anything that your dog does that is better than the demand behaviors. Keep in mind that this doesn’t have to be something really specific such as sitting or lying down.

I will use barking as an example. If barking is the inappropriate behavior, you need to create a list of behaviors that are more appropriate than barking. Your list of appropriate behaviors might look like this:

• Being quiet
• Sitting
• Lying down
• Chewing on an appropriate toy
• Walking by you
• Sniffing the ground
• Lying on his bed
• Wagging his tail
  

Your list of possible appropriate behaviors might be short because your dog doesn’t know a lot of behaviors.  In that case you should do more training. Options for more training include, go to bed, down, sit, roll over, take a bow, shake or high five. More training will help in a number of ways:

• You will be spending time with your dog and working to alleviate boredom – one common reason for destructive or demand behaviors
• More training results in your dog having a history of getting rewarded for appropriate behaviors, which will increase the likelihood that he will do those behaviors again
• Focused training sessions will hone your ability to read your dog’s signals and increase your ability to communicate with your dog
  

Notice that all of the behaviors listed above are not “training behaviors” such as “Sit” or “Down”. Chewing an appropriate toy is not something that you necessarily need to train, because it often happens naturally, but it is better than barking. What I want you notice and reward is ANYTHING that is appropriate.

With demand behaviors a dog wants something from a person and thinks that the behavior that he is exhibiting will result in obtaining what he desires. You should teach your dog that the annoying demand behaviors NEVER result in him getting what he wants but the behaviors on the list of “approved” behaviors MIGHT get him what he wants. The reason I said “might” get him what he wants is that your dog needs to learn that just because he performed a behavior that is appropriate does not always mean that he will get what he wants.

Even with puppies as young as 7 weeks old I often see demand behaviors starting after they learn that sitting gets them a treat. After a while, they will sit and bark – as if they are saying, “Hey, I sat! Where’s my treat?”

Note: consistency is incredibly important. If someone in your household lets your puppy out of the crate for barking, for instance, your puppy will keep barking because it has worked in the past.

The next step is to teach a dog that just because he performs an appropriate behavior doesn’t mean he will always get a reward. I accomplish this by working on duration of behaviors combined with timeouts.

Duration of behaviors are important because you want to make sure that your dog does not think that being quiet for one second is all that is required of him. He should learn to be quiet for longer periods of time each session until he realizes that barking is just not an appropriate way to ask for things.

Note: barking is a complex topic. I, for one, do not expect any dog to be quiet all the time. Dogs do communicate by barking. With my dogs, I acknowledge their barking and then ask them to be quiet. I taught them this using timeouts. If you have more questions about barking, ask in the Forums. This post does not explain all of the nuances of teaching a dog not to bark in all situations, it is about barking for attention.

Timeouts are used to tell a dog that his behavior caused all the fun to end. You can execute a timeout in a number of ways:

• Leave the room
• Put the end of the leash gently over a doorknob or under a table leg and walk away
• Put the end of the leash over a fence or around a tree outside and walk away
• Put your dog in a crate or behind a baby gate and walk away
  

There are a lot of misconceptions about using the crate for timeouts. I will write another post about timeouts at some point, but for now, just don’t worry about using the crate as a timeout as long as your dog is okay with the crate. It is not recommended, however, to put a dog that has separation anxiety and panic attacks in the crate. More questions? Ask in the Forums.

The final strategies can be accomplished by using my “10-minute Exercise”. I use this as a very structured way for my clients to easily practice all the strategies above. Continue reading, and you will find out a really great way to teach your dog not to be demanding.

10-minute Exercise
Once your dog performs an inappropriate behavior decide if you have 10 minutes of focused time for your dog. Being focused is important. If you don’t have the 10-minutes right now, put your dog in the crate to prevent him learning bad habits and work with him later when you do have more time.

If you do have 10 minutes, do the following:

1. Ignore the inappropriate demand behavior or stop the behavior if it is in the destruction category such as digging or chewing
2. AS SOON as the inappropriate behavior stops, say,  “Yes” or ‘Click’ and treat if you are using a clicker
3. Ignore your dog for 5 seconds, or you could say, “Good dog” during that time, if necessary
4. After 10 seconds of appropriate behavior, ‘Click’ and treat
5. Ignore your dog for 20 seconds and then ‘Click’ and treat
6. If inappropriate behavior occurs during the time that you are ignoring your dog, say, “Timeout” and gently put your dog in the timeout area (have your dog wear a leash and trail it behind him if he has a tendency to run off when you say, “Timeout”)
7. Leave your dog in the timeout area for 5-30 seconds and come back and get him
8. If he is barking, whining or scratching, wait until he is quiet before removing him from the timeout area or you will be rewarding another inappropriate demand behavior
9. After removing him from the timeout area, go back to a shorter amount of time (if he could not be quiet for 20 seconds, reward after 10 seconds)
10. Continue doubling the time, rewarding for appropriate behavior and using timeouts for inappropriate behavior until your dog understands what behaviors are appropriate
    

Troubleshooting

• Do short sessions – that is why I start with 10 minutes. Eventually you will realize that your dog is behaving for longer periods of time and then you can actually do much longer sessions, but start slow.
• Talk to your dog if needed during the time in between full rewards. Verbal encouragement can help a dog understand what is expected, even if he isn’t getting the full reward that he wants.
  
• Make sure you say, "Timeout" AS SOON as your dog does the inappropriate behavior and gently and quickly move him to the timeout area. Timeouts are designed to make it crystal clear what is inappropriate. This can only happen if your timing is good. 
• Work on your timing in general. Using a Clicker can help tremendously with this exercise. If you are not using a clicker, say, “Yes”. Listen to my Clicker Training radio show or ask questions in the Forums if you want more information about Clicker Training.
• Be patient. If your dog has been rewarded in the past for behaviors, it might take a while for him to understand what the new rules are.
• Be really consistent. If you don’t want your dog to jump, does a timeout happen if he leaves his feet one inch, or only if he touches you with his paws? If you can’t answer this question, it is impossible to be clear to your dog.
  
• Focus on the correct behaviors and reward those. Often people just focus on the final, inappropriate behavior and miss all of the good behaviors their dog was exhibiting.