Effective Training Technique

Like having to sit on the naughty step!

Timeouts – Dog Training Technique

The mechanism of using timeouts to teach your dog to self-inhibit a behaviour you find undesirable is a an age old method. Commonly, players of organised sports suffer penalties for misbehaviour. Ejection in rugby, penalty yards in American football and being side-lined in basketball are all examples of ‘removal’ as punishment. Isolation as a penalty works well for dogs as for people.

What is a timeout?
A timeout is a social isolation penalty for a short period of time that serves as a punishment for the infraction. Unlike saying ‘No’, a timeout IS a penalty, a loss of access or freedom that curbs misbehaviour without the scary aversive punishments that frighten dogs into freezing and avoidance.

What type of behaviours might constitute a timeout?
Timeouts are traditionally used to resolve undesirable behaviours such as demand barking, rude and rowdy greeting of family and guests, biting and nipping (skin or clothing) during play, counter surfing, door bell barking and begging at tables. This type of punishment is effective providing that the penalty is delivered based on certain criteria.

Clear and consistent use of a marker phrase, for example ‘TOO BAD’, after your dog barks to demand attention.
Timing – a prompt response from you with the marker phrase followed by an immediate social isolation penalty.
Compliance – timeouts must be given on each occasion of misbehaviour, regardless of what other activity you were involved in (for example, watching your favourite TV programme). This is the legwork issue, it only works if you do it.

The following considerations should be adhered to when using timeout penalties.

SET UPS – Train on your time
Don’t try to train your dog not to put his paws on the table when you are trying to eat your dinner. Instead recreate a situation that looks like dinnertime to the dog but in actual fact is a training scenario.

Define your criteria
Decide ahead of time which behaviours will earn the dog a timeout. Be specific as to what might constitute begging at the table – paws on the table, pawing at you, dog within 1 foot of the table and barking/whining at you. Once you have decided that, you have given yourself a mental picture of what you are going to be watching for so it will be easier to mark it and issue a timeout.

Location, location, location
How and where you deliver your timeout is important. Before executing a timeout penalty, your dog should have his lead attached to his collar. The lead can be trailing behind, you don’t have to be actually holding it. This is for ease of execution and also to prevent your dog from building a negative association with being grabbed by the collar and hauled out of the room.

I would suggest putting your dog directly outside the room that you both were occupying as an ideal location for the social isolation penalty. Don’t plan on sending him to the yard, or kennel if it takes more than 10 seconds to get there. Any room that has a door is an ideal location. Make sure you close the lead in the door jamb (the dog has about 1 foot of lead on the other side of the door), therefore preventing him from getting into mischief and gaining the reinforcement of freedom.

Mark the bad behaviour
As mentioned previously, you’ll need to pick a phrase that will teach the dog that he has just earned a timeout for misbehaving. Avoid using ‘NO’. Your marker phrase need not be emotional, the word is not the punishment, the social isolation that follows is. The timing of the phrase as the behaviour happens helps the dog have the ‘light bulb’ moment of realising what brought about the successive penalty. ‘Too bad’ or ‘Sorry’ are some examples.

Length and repetition
Each timeout should only last between 30 seconds and 1 minute and should be repeated numerous times in succession until the dog self-inhibits the bad behaviour. Remember to mark the behaviour with your timeout phrase and deliver the timeout ASAP. Typically 6-12 timeouts in a row might be necessary to get the result you are hoping to achieve.