​Why does the Tsst noise interrupt a dog's behaviour

That's it in a nutshell. Lady and I interact with each other and generally rub along fine and most of the time understand each other - she's good at giving me feedback as well. We have a really good bond between us I would say and I very much like that.

 

I swear I can read their minds sometimes..... "what IS she doing that for?!?!"

I wonder if a few more dogs down the line I will be better at training being just part of normal life instead of something I have to consciously think about......and then I might feel less like I do now

 

I think a lot of the "mild aversive" stuff people do - lead jerks, scolding, NOs! etc are just pointless, they might slightly upset most dogs, but convey no information, and don't teach a dog anything. I think these "mild aversives" are a dis-benefit to the dog, but give people something to do - humans need to feel they "did something about that" when a dog does something they think is wrong.

Just like me giving Charlie bit of chicken once, has only a tiny positive effect - but if I give him a bit of chicken a thousand times for the same thing, then he will be hugely more likely to repeat the thing that got him the bit of chicken (eg looking at me when he sees another dog - or whatever).

So what do I achieve by shouting No! and jerking my dog if he lunges at another dog? Unless I jerk him very, very hard, or shout No! in a scary enough way to really shock him - while crossing my fingers he is smart enough to associate the punishment with him lunging and not the presence of another dog - I haven't achieved anything. Unless I'm going to set him up to lunge at other dogs and repeat the jerk and No! a thousand times....

I don't want a training strategy that is about my dog getting it wrong, and me jerking and shouting. It's just so much nicer - and I honestly believe more effective - for him to get it right and get chicken.

I also think it's not a good look when out and about - jerking and scolding a dog looks ugly.

 

I have been watching myself the last couple of days and the aversive I use is 'ah ah'. I use it when the pup is about to dig the garden / eat the flowers / chew the furniture etc. I say 'ah ah' and, as soon as I have her attention, I tell her what I do want her to do (usually come to me and sit, followed by a few training exercises or a play)

Rather like children there are behaviours we want them to stop and behaviours we want them to start. It takes much longer to learn 'start' behaviours (eg, with kids always putting their toys away - with dogs waiting by the dish for the command to eat) than 'stop' behaviours (eg with kids, stop prodding your brother with that pencil for dogs not chewing human shoes). It takes 2 seconds to stop a bad behaviour. Not that they have learned it - that takes aaaaages. But that they stop it there and then so it doesn't become a habit.

So my method is 99% distraction. If the thing in question isn't imminently in danger (like my table legs which would be!) I don't use 'ah ah', I simply call her away and we do something else 'till she has forgotten. Imminently chomped flowers get an 'ah ah' to get her attention - followed by good, happy play or exercises.

It worked well with Gypsy, we will see with Twiglet - it's early days yet

 

You say "ah ah" is an aversive - so it's delivered in a way that makes it so. What if you immediately started with a new pup with "hey! hey" in a distinctive happy voice, and threw roast chicken as soon as they looked round? I'd put money on that working as well, if not better than an aversive ah ah.

 

I like Julie's summary. Essentially if something we do stops the dog doing something, then what we did was aversive. A punishment.

I think that the Tssst noise is aversive for some dogs in the same way that compressed air is aversive. And I would agree that it could be related to snakes, or other animals that hiss when threatened. Its a warning sound that we do find quite widely in nature.

I try pretty hard not to use aversives at all these days, when I do, it is usually because I have slipped back into old habits. Like the time recently I said Tsshht! to Tess when I caught her licking out the frying pan after breakfast. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, situations like this could be avoided. I know she has a weakness for bacon juice, so I should have put the pan away.

 

I've found this thread very interesting and like Boogie I have used distraction as much as possible, only reverting to an aah aah occasionally - it just slips out sometimes . One question I would ask, probably from my lack of experience in dog training, is what action forum members take, for example to stop your dog in an emergency or to stop them from doing something dangerous, if tssht, aah's or No's are aversive and to be avoided.

 

In a real emergency, you do whatever you need to do. But I'd try my emergency recall (eureka!) first, then my stop whistle (which has upwards of 100 hours of training behind it), recall, attention noise..... Then I'd try anything else, Tsst, Ah-ah or whatever.....which have no training behind them at all.

 

My emergency stop is the stop whistle. If I haven't got the whistle, or can't get it to my mouth in time, then I just yell her name. But the stop whistle is the default and what works best.

 

Nothing stopped Homer having a good roll in a rotting dead bird washed up on the river bank. We do a little off lead walk "to heal" along a quiet pavement. He usually trots along a pace ahead of me and I'll give a uh-uh and he'll stop and wait for me. He also get a uh-uh when he pulls forward when on his lead. This is followed by a heal command and then "good boy" when he's back where he should be.

 

If I say AH,AH Ziva carries on with chewing of furniture for example


Boggie What if i cant get her away cause her teeth are already on furniture ?

 

Train a really strong interrupter. Mine is a click-click sound. The advantage of that is I can make that noise with a whistle in my mouth. Get her to turn towards you on a sound and heavily reward it. Then you can make your noise to get her to turn towards you if she heads to the furniture. The stronger it is, the better - when it's strong outside, it's super useful.

Here's a vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBvPaqMZyo8