Rehearsal and management

Good rehearsal builds on the idea that dogs will repeat what they find rewarding—they are creatures of habit and efficiency.

An example of bad rehearsal is a dog running up and down the fence whenever it sees a car driving past. The dog races one way, reaches the end of the fence, races the other way, reaches the other end and repeats. This chasing behaviour has become something that the dog has rehearsed.

An example of good rehearsal would be a dog relaxing in the backyard, mooching about, and looking quite happy in their chilled-out world. Sometimes, the dog next door barks, but your dog ignores them and continues to chill.

As you can see, rehearsal is powerful. Think about any situations where you see your dog rehearsing behaviours that are either good or bad.

How do you know if rehearsal plays a role in a behaviour struggle, training struggle, or good behaviours that you might want to establish?

For example, leash pulling is a rehearsal. When your dog pulls on the leash, it gets to smell lots of cool things; it might find a cat under the car, and once it pulls, it may have an opportunity to find somewhere really nice. Consider all these reinforcers of the behaviour and the rehearsal taking place.

The best way to think about rehearsal is to ask whether my dog always does this behaviour. If the answer is yes, rehearsal plays a part, and you will notice very little flexibility in their choice response. They tend to do the same thing to get the same outcome.

So, if your dog always does the same action, you know that rehearsal plays a role. Perhaps it’s because of pure rehearsal, simply practising a behavioural choice, or maybe your dog's behaviour and choices sometimes result in accidental reinforcement.

You need to stop or interrupt the rehearsal to help your dog make more appropriate choices and have them rehearse better outcomes.

To interrupt your dog’s undesirable rehearsal, use an attention noise. This noise needs to be taught and practised so your dog will know what it means when you make it and the positive outcomes.

An important point I want to make is that an aversion-based trainer’s most significant argument against reward-based, force-free, positive trainers is how to stop unwanted behaviours. Instead of using an attention noise, aversion-based trainers would use a choke chain, a spray collar, a physical interrupter such as a spray bottle or can of stones, or verbal intimidation.

An attention noise, such as a repeated kissing sound, will stop your dog from doing what it is doing and turn towards you. As mentioned, this is learnt behaviour. You can then reward your dog for listening, redirect its energy elsewhere or manage it with rest or calmer activities.

Watch the Attention Noise video.

Positive reward-based training, while a gentler method, doesn’t mean you allow your dog to do things you don’t want them to. Instead, you interrupt their behaviour, prevent rehearsal, and redirect them to do what we want them to do instead.

You can decide and manage the ideal energy you want from your dog in a particular place.

Imagine you want to go for a walk on the beach this morning. Maybe you want the energy to be relaxed and have a nice, enjoyable walk that is not high in excitement. You might mix in some toy play, but also ensure you bring energy levels down again. It won’t be as calm as it would be inside your house. At times, there’s a little bit of high energy, but overall, you maintain a medium level of arousal.

Or, you could rehearse in a different room. For example, you could sit in the living room with your dog chilled on a raised bed, a nice-smelling diffuser going and maybe some music. In this situation, you are looking for a dog who can be calm and bring its arousal levels down.

The critical question is: What energy do you want in your rooms, and will you set up your dog to match the mood and tone of that room? These choices are all within your grasp and are very achievable.

To be successful, you must be clear about what you want in those situations. The biggest stumbling block is that guardians don’t decide what they want before the dog is released into the area. If you leave toys in the area, they will likely play with them. If you leave things for them to chew in that area, they will likely chew them. You have the power to influence what choices your dog makes.

What you provide as choices is fundamental to your decisions, as is how you allow your dog to decide how they will rehearse in that room. How many decisions do you allow them to make, and when do you step in to manage behaviour and expectations?

You must also be flexible and monitor your dog’s behaviour to ensure it rehearses the behaviours you want to improve. This may change as your dog grows and matures and after different life experiences or recent events.

You will employ management techniques to ensure your dog rehearses your desired behaviours.

You will actively set your dog up to reinforce a particular choice successfully. For example, you will set them up to choose calmness in the presence of distractions by removing temptation and controlling the environment and their interactions.

For now, you might employ a crate rather than a raised bed to control movement or use a head collar rather than walking your dog on a harness. Your dog might be at the stage where it can deal with being on a harness, but you use a double-clip harness rather than using only a single attachment point.

You control these decisions to limit choices and rehearsal during your dog’s training journey and life stage. Grow the love of their crate and limit outside time if this activity leads to the rehearsal of bad choices.

If you’ve dropped your guard and your dog is barking, chewing on furniture, or about to dig a hole in the garden, use your practised attention noise to interrupt and redirect the behaviour.

The question then becomes: Are you accidentally rewarding your dog for making inappropriate choices?

If you use your attention noise when chewing furniture and your dog stops and comes to you, you will reward them. That was a great choice, and you want to reinforce that response.

However, when you get distracted and are on your phone, your dog heads towards the furniture again. You use your attention to make a noise again and reward it when it turns towards you.

In this scenario, you create a chain of events that leads to a rewarding event. I walk towards the furniture, and I get rewarded. You are accidentally shaping the dog to do the unwanted behaviour.

After making the attention noise, you have two options:

1. You immediately start rewarding the appropriate behaviour, which might be just being in the same room as the furniture and not looking at it – “Great job you’re looking at me rather than furniture” or “Great job you’re lying down over there rather than doing what you want to do”.
2. This is for situations where you think the dog is not ready for option one. You adapt the dog’s decisions, taking the decision away from them. You don’t allow them to rehearse the unwanted behaviour. You must use the attention noise and then find an appropriate alternative behaviour.

You must also practice the attention noise away from the room where the dog wants to chew the chair leg to prevent it from becoming attached and paired to furniture chewing.

You can use the attention noise everywhere, for example, on the beach – rewarding just for the attention noise. In this way, the attention noise becomes a powerful interrupter.

While rehearsal seems like a small topic, it is essential because it involves every dog training situation and behaviour struggle.