Don’t Beware the Ides of March: Use This Training Tip Instead

Learn how to transform undesirable jumping into a desirable hug! photo: Cyd True

Happy 15th Anniversary, Bay Woof! 

Coincidentally, the Ides of March is also coming up on the 15th, which, before Caesar met his fate, was actually a celebration of the new year based on the lunar calendar. So let’s rejoice! 

My own contribution to this month’s celebration is a quick, effective way to stop and transform a dog’s unwanted behavior. In this case, the dog was a 95-pound Rottweiler/Cane Corso/Pit mix named Hank. Here’s how I changed his jumping and humping to a quick “Hug!” (minus the humping). 

As an educated and experienced dog person, I knew that pushing a dog only invites play and intensifies his efforts. I tried walking into Hank, which will often get the dog to drop to all four paws. But this effort only got us doing something that looked like dancing while the gyrations continued. I also tried turning and walking away myself, which only added another step to our odd choreography, as his front legs tightened around me further. 

Next, I tried standing still, like a tree, and ignored him. The idea behind this approach is that the human removes all the reinforcement the dog is seeking such as orientation, attention, and praise, a method known as “extinction.” Unfortunately, this method often backfires because most dogs go through an extinction burst, during which they keep doing the unwanted behavior louder and harder because no one is listening to them. 

Because none of these methods worked with Hank, I had to try something new. 

I had recently heard about the idea of reinforcing the unwanted behavior to get it to stop and/or change into something else. This sounds impossible and counterintuitive. But it worked like magic with Hank. Here’s how we did it.

First, I stood with my left side perpendicular to the front of Hank’s standing body. I loaded up my right palm with a large dollop of squeeze cheese (Hank’s #1 treat). He jumped up, but before he could start gyrating, I clicked and fed him. We did this over and over again. If he stayed clasped to my side, I marked and treated repeatedly until his back legs got tired and he rebalanced to four on the floor. 

Once we had done this a few times, I started to say the word “HUG!” just as his back legs bent to launch upwards. Hank not only had no time to start gyrating, but it became very clear that humping was not part of the behavior that was being reinforced with yummy treats. In short, humping and gyrating did not exist in what I was training him to do instead. In less than 15 minutes, I took a dog who was compulsively jumping and humping to a dog who had his new, improved behavior on cue and had his greeting down to a quick three-second hug.

Still wondering why this works? There are three main factors that make this training method effective. 

• A  dog usually cannot focus on food and consume it while also doing the unwanted behavior. Hank could not eat his yummy cheese treat and hump at the same time. I started the feeding before the humping started and Hank became completely distracted by his desire for the cheese. This outweighed his desire to hump. 

• The reinforcements provided for “Hug!” far outweighed the reinforcement he was getting from the humping. I was a willing participant, giving him attention and praise and treats, rather than an annoyed human trying to get away from him. 

• I trained him to do something else instead. This is one of the most useful and important concepts in dog training. As trainers, we must help the dog learn what we want it to do instead of the unwanted behavior. The new behavior must be something that they cannot do at the same time as the unwanted behavior. 

Another option, and maybe an even more desirable one, would have been to train Hank to sit for a greeting, instead of jumping for one.  But I had to work with the dog in front of me, and there was really no way I was going to get him to stop jumping long enough to sit.   For Hank, the full body contact from the hug was clearly more valuable than sitting for the same reinforcements. I had to work with the behavior being offered. 

Next week, I will start asking Hank for the “Hug” before it even starts. This cements it as a behavior to be done when the human asks, as opposed to a behavior done randomly.

The best part? His mom texted me later that night to say, “I just rewatched the videos at full volume and Hank heard you say ‘Hug!’ and immediately gave me a hug!” 

So don’t beware the Ides of March. Instead, celebrate with this quick and easy solution to unwanted behavior!