One Overlooked, Underrated, Incredibly Helpful Skill

It’s starting to feel like fall around here! Leaves are turning, nights are cooler, days are shorter. Those long hot lazy summer days are over, and it’s back to school time.

I’ve worked with a lot of interesting behavior cases this summer, and I’ve been mulling over an all encompassing question: If there was one skill you could teach a dog, what one would be the most helpful?

There’s probably not many people who would guess the skill I’d choose; it’s probably not even recognized by most. But I’d also propose having a dog with this skill would change most dog’s families life for the better. This skill is part (or often, all) of the solution for the following challenges:

-Housetraining a dog of any age

-Dogs who are overexuberant about or frightened of visitors arriving to or being in the home

-Introducing a new dog to the home as well as resident dogs

-Keeping the peace when your dog doesn’t enjoy a visiting dog (or vice versa)

-Introducing dogs to cats

-Keeping everyone safe in households with kids and puppies/dogs 

-Raising a puppy without losing your mind

-Dogs who have trouble sleeping if people are home

-Dogs who are inclined to chew inappropriate things

-Countersurfing

-Dogs who are recovering from surgery or injuries

-Travelling or camping with a dog

-Building confidence in/being able to provide a portable “safe space” for more fearful dogs

This skill? It’s comfort with being physically separated - but within sight or earshot - of people. This could be in a crate in the same or another room; behind a baby gate or in an exercise pen within or out of sight; on a tether but unable to physically reach their person; or just in a room with the door closed. (Note that the only safe confinement tool for when people will be out of sight for long periods of time is a crate or a secured room.)

This skill is actually a “sub-skill” of what I’d call confinement training. In fact it is, or should be, a part of confinement training process. But in my experience it’s often overlooked, and more importance is placed on a dog’s comfort with confinement when people leave the house. Not that being home alone isn’t something we want to help our dogs feel OK about, but teaching our pups that being physically separated within sight or earshot of their people - or any people - is an extremely practical lifelong skill that can prove incredibly helpful in a whole variety of situations. Very few dogs have it, which can make life for the humans much more challenging than it needs to be.

Interestingly, this is often a trickier skill to instill than when we leave completely. Yep, many dogs have far less concern about their humans leaving them home alone, but would have quite a meltdown if put behind a baby gate where they can see their people, crated nearby during a dinner party, tethered at a picnic table at a campground, or in a bedroom with the door closed when the humans are working in the next room.

Concertedly teaching this step of the confinement training process abides by the same “rules” as all the other steps, and with the same goal: focusing on the dog’s feeling relaxed and comfortable when restricted, every step of the way. If the dog feels safe and calm, he won’t be behaving in a distressed manner like barking, whining, pawing at the crate door, or worse.

I’ve written about the confinement training process in a past column, but to quickly review some key guidelines:

Set a dog up for success when learning: provide exercise beforehand and something compelling and longer-term to lick or chew, which promotes relaxation

Break down each step into tiny pieces 

Be sure your pup is solid with earlier steps before progressing

When you add a new variable, reduce the time

Mix up easy and slightly more difficult experiences so it’s not always getting “harder”

All living creates - including both humans and canines - are built to grow and learn. Given that dogs live alongside us, as we evolve and adapt, it’s our responsibility to teach our dogs the skills to make our life changes easier and less stressful for them. Being proactive is best, so ideally we’d teach these before we need to call on them.

Let’s take visiting my brother’s family as an example. For many years he had a wonderful, blind Golden who was like a bull in a china shop that my space-sensitive dogs weren’t super excited about. There were also two little kids and the accompanying kiddo accessories: a floor covered in Legos, sword swinging and other unpredictable movement, snacks everywhere. I’d visit with all my dogs along, Border Collies who live in a quiet household on a small farm. Needless to say, this sort of pandemonium was NOT something they were used to and giving them full but problem-free access to this scene would require a degree of stressful micromanagement beyond any person’s skill set. And so? I’d set up an exercise pen or two and divide the main living area: Bordercollieland on one side, the Golden and kiddo chaos on the other. Calling on their ability to be physically separated without worry meant my dogs could be included in a way they felt safe, and I didn’t have to be constantly on the lookout for potential problems. So all the humans could feel safe and relaxed, too. Win-win!

With a pup who is totally relaxed being confined in a variety of ways whether their people are present or not, we have maximum flexibility and options - even with our more unsure dogs. We can bring our dogs more places and do more things in a manner that will be far less stressful for them. If your dog isn’t fully comfortable with being physically separated but within sight or earshot of you, given that this is a skill that almost everyone would benefit from, it might be back to school time.