Public Service Announcement: How to make a dog enjoy something he otherwise hates

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is something that I think is blindingly obvious and I’m constantly surprised to hear friends, acquaintances and one-time conversations with people in my daily travels who apparently don’t have a clue about.

If you need to do something to a dog that he’s not really happy about, especially if you need to do it with any kind of frequency, you should treat and praise him. The theory is that you change an unhappy experience into a happy experience (or at least tolerable).

Some examples:

Greyhounds have granny skin that tears easily, so it’s advisable to put a basket muzzle on when letting them play together in a yard or when confined together in small spaces like cars or x-pens. They’re used to wearing muzzles from their track days, but they still aren’t fond of them and try to rub them off. Lots of new greyhound owners scold their dogs for fussing with the muzzle. Don’t do that. Instead put a little peanut butter on the end of the muzzle where he can lick it off. Slip a cookie between the mesh and into his cookie hole. If he knows basic obedience, ask him to sit and treat him for it. (That not only distracts him from the muzzle but also makes it a happy experience.)

A friend told me yesterday that when she needs to brush her dog’s teeth he runs away from her. I told her to treat him; she’d never thought to do that. I treat my dogs after tooth-brushing; husband treats them before because he’s a stickler for not getting teeth dirty again after brushing (we alternate nights on brushing duty). End result for us? When we get out the brushes and toothpaste and sit on the floor, the dogs all but stampede over and plop down like kids eager to hear a story.

The same friend’s dog is getting old and incontinent and she was telling me how they have to put a doggy diaper on him and he hates it. Again my advice: associate having the diaper put on with getting a cookie. Cookie, diaper, diaper, cookie.

Depending on what motivates your specific dog, you can substitute lots of effusive pets and smooches, or a bit of playtime, for the treats. And once your dog starts to get the picture, you can alternate between his favorite rewards. And when his attitude is pretty good, you can maintain it that way by only rewarding him on an intermittent basis. My dogs get toothbrushing treats randomly one time out of three. They come-a-runnin’ because THIS could be the time they get some snackies!

And last of all, step into their paws for a second: would you rather be rewarded for tolerating something, or browbeaten, scolded, and chased for it?

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Bribery is always the best policy! :smiley:

Dolphins understand this even better than dogs. Captive show dolphins train their trainers to give them fish, then shape the trainers’ behavior until they are giving the dolphins fish for nothing. (Cite: Karen Pryor, Lads Before The Wind

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Ha, smart dogs do that too.

Our first greyhound instantly turned her first obedience lesson around - from being rewarded for sitting on command, to sitting to ask for cookies.

You always have to watch the smart ones. But that’s part of why I want people to understand this. If I’d yelled and chased her the first few times she didn’t sit because she didn’t yet understand, it would have been a whole different experience for her. She wouldn’t trust or respect me, and it’s possible that the negative behavior would have snowballed. A particular dog might want to please his owner, which can be used as motivation, but if he feels bullied then the owner is less likely to realize that the dog wants to please him. (Depending on the dogs personality, of course. There are some who try to please as a way to say “stop hurting me!”)

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I agree they have to correlate an activity with something pleaseant. Different dogs and different breeds respond differently. Some dogs cannot see into the future more than 2 seconds.

For instance giving them a treat after brushing teeth may not make a connection for them. If you have the treat sitting right in front of them and let them know it is comming it might work for dumber dogs.

I had to occassionaly break gun shy bird dogs from being gun shy. It wasn’t always successful and sometimes easier than others but it was the same principle, they had to relate the gun shot to something pleaseant like chasing or catching a downed bird.

I never have succeeded in getting my dogs to tolerate brushing or nail clipping. They have become less troublesome but still don't like it and will hide if they can.
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Instead of nail clipping, try a dremel tool and grind the nails down. That’s what we use. Even still, get them used to it slowly: show them the tool, let them hear its sound without touching them with it, touch it briefly and gently to one nail, then two nails, etc where each one of these is a different day and of course much praise or treats. Even this falls down, though, for dogs that hate the sound of the motor or have a phobia of having their feet touched.

For toothbrushing, even though my hounds are used to it, it’s still not their favorite thing. The female especially tosses her head alot and they both lick. I let them lick and only brush for about 10 seconds per side. They seem to think I’m a weird person for rubbing tasty food on the outside of their teeth instead of letting them eat it normally. But we have an amicable experience despite that. I sing silly songs to them and tell them in a sweet voice how important it is to clean their choppers or that I am keeping their teeth clean and sharp so they can bite the squirrels or flirt with the boys (for the female) or the girls (the boy). I just keep it happy and silly so nobody gets annoyed.