당신이 강아지를 진정시킨다고 '생각하는' 그것 #320 #팟캐스트

You're preparing a lick mat because you want to give it to your puppy, because you want to maybe do some reading, and you want your puppy just to chill for a little bit. And so, after two or three lick mats, she learns when she goes back there and I hear the tinkering of the bowl, I get my lick mat. So, that's when the first little singing the songs of my people, I'm just enhancing the experience for you while you're out there making me a licky mat. You might not even notice the first thing that happens because that first thing might be a circling or a pawing. Can I get closer to you so I can help you? But I promise you there is some expression of the emotion the puppy is feeling. You are making me something I want. I want it faster. And when you deliver that lick mat, the thing before the thing, the behavior starts to amplify. It starts to intensify. Until you get to a point, you may already be there where your puppy is all out screaming at you. I want that licky mat now. I am really excited about this. So, somewhere between the first circles and the all out screaming obscenities at you, there is a gradient of behavior that makes that puppy appear that this is the time of day they're more anxious. So, what can we do about it if we are there? Number one is stimulate that dog's brain. Do some training. Get them out for a walk. Now, my puppies, once they're, I don't know, three or four months old, they go for off-leash walks with me. Not with my pack of dogs, just myself. Off-leash walks so they get to practice coming to me when I call them. They get to sniff. They get to go get some physical exercise, not on a leash, just off-leash. Now, I know that's not maybe possible for everybody, but there are ways you can find like sniff spots that you can rent for 20 minutes. But this podcast episode isn't about exercise. I'm just saying these are some of the things that help lead to a puppy that isn't showing anxiety that you believe that they need now have their lick mat. But what are we going to do when we know we would like to use a lick mat, but we have an anxious puppy. So, here's what I would advise you to do. If you have somebody else in the house that can take that puppy out and play with them outside or go for a walk, anytime you're going to make a lick mat, that's what I would do first. If that's not a possibility, then this is what we're going to do. If you're the kind of dog owner who truly wants to understand, not just manage your dog, then subscribe to the channel. We're going to get multiple lick mats, maybe three, four,

five lick mats, and you're going to prepare them all and put them in the freezer. And you are going to then go back and sit down. Maybe you're going to take your puppy out, maybe not. But when your puppy is relaxed and they've forgotten about the fact that you prepared a lick mat, that's the time that you're going to go get one for them. You're going to now have a new trigger. You going to the freezer and opening the freezer eventually will become the trigger. So, maybe you're going to have to go to your freezer several times a day and walk by the puppy without having a lick mat in your hand. Because what we want is to associate calm puppy, lick mat comes out. Now, I use lick mats, or you might be using a stuffed Kong for the same thing. I use them very strategically. So, there's different ways I use them and there's different stages of each way. I want to share that with you. First of all, let's say we have a dog who has an issue. I'm afraid of tall men, or I'm a puppy who is suddenly in a fear period and I get worried when anybody comes through the door. So, what's going to happen is they might alarm bark. An alarm bark from a puppy is very distinct. And if you run and give them a lick mat, then you are pacifying. You are trying to curb their anxiety. Now, that puppy may or may not lick the mat once they're in that fight or flight mode. Don't think you are then reinforcing the puppy. Put the lick mat down anyway. But the best thing to do is to know people are coming. So, if you have a puppy that has shown you once, I am going to alarm bark because I'm a little worried about the people. Then what you're going to do, you're going to give them that lick mat anyway and see, will they take it? Like I said, if they're really afraid, they may not. For sure, don't let the people near the puppy. Have the people talk, casually sit down and talking with you. So, what we want to do is know people are coming at 10 o'clock. So, at 9.58, I will be getting my lick mat. I would like to pacify my puppy so that the puppy is engrossed in the lick mat before the people come through the door. They may still give a woo-woo and that's okay. They're going back to the lick mat. Ideally, if they're not, then we're going to start with the puppy further away from the door. In this stage, stage one, this is a lick mat is pacifying, is entertaining, is distracting. It's not really doing much except helping to get the puppy's mind off of what is potentially, what we see as an inert fear, but in that little puppy brain is a real fear. So, that's stage one,

pacify, entertain, distract. Now, if that puppy gets to a point where they might just go, they don't really respond when somebody comes through the door anymore. The pacify, entertain, and distract mode has been working. It might take a week. It might take two weeks. It might take a month. It might take two months. Now, you're going to move into conditioning. We really want to build some conditioning for that puppy. What we're going to do is the moment the door knob starts engaging, like somebody's coming through the door, or the moment somebody knocks, the lick mat goes down. The thought somebody's coming in means you get something amazing. You're going to work at that stage of conditioning. So, the puppy then looks forward to somebody coming. They might start wagging their tail instead of barking. Now, you know you can move to the third stage where we're going to reinforce. And that reinforce might look something like this. You might have moved on beyond the lick mats. You might just, somebody comes in the door, the puppy starts wagging their tail. You say, good baby. And you throw a handful of cookies in the pen for them to search. You might then eventually get to the place where the puppy's loose and you're throwing it on the ground. And you'll probably get to a place where the puppy has been conditioned to love the sight of people. So, now you can stop reinforcing that because the people themselves is very reinforcing to the dog. And you're probably going to have to start reinforcing, go to your bed when the people are here. So, you don't go too crazy on them. So, that's a way that you can use a great, great tool in a way that creates great, great behavior. I just want you to be aware that the whiny, barky puppy might be there because of the inadvertent reinforcement that you've been giving them when their needs weren't met fast enough by you preparing their food or preparing their lick mat or preparing their Kong. They're great tools, but the idea of using these tools is they shouldn't be just a crutch for you to manage that dog for the rest of their life. There should be a strategy behind every time you pull out a lick mat, every time you use a Kong, it is an intentional use of building better behavior. I'll see you next time right here on Shaped by Dog. What are you looking at me like that? I'm not stopping you from watching any videos. You're a subscriber. Are you a subscriber? If you're not a subscriber, hit the subscribe button now and be sure to turn on that notification bell so you don't miss a single awesome video from us.

Right? They should, shouldn't they? I know because you're subscribed. They should too, for sure. Yeah! Thank you.