With the rapid growth of play groups and doggie day care, many dogs are leading better, happier lives. One of the spin-offs of these services goes beyond just simple socialization and exercise. Sometimes behavior problems can be solved – if the service providers know what to look for and how to arrange the service.

One of the pioneers of day-care is Gail Fisher of the All Dogs Gym in Manchester, New Hampshire. Since the mid-90’s Gail has had groups as big as 50 dogs at a time harmoniously having a blast. The employees at the “All Dogs Gym” watch over the mob and make sure that no one gets hurt. What Gail discovered was a world of interaction that largely goes unnoticed.

One fact of providing daycare is that singleton pups and those removed at a very early age may later have trouble getting along with other dogs. Putting a poorly socialized dog in a group setting can teach him proper social skills – or end traumatically for the pup and a loss of a client for you. These dogs need special care to get them into the general group and devoting employee time for helping a single dog may not always be available. At the All Dogs Gym, social therapy is a daily occurrence and done with the same care and precision that they use when teaching obedience and agility classes. They have the same employee restraints as anyone else, but they have a group of auxiliary trainers uniquely suited to helping newbies over the hump – and they work cheap. This auxiliary staff came to Gail accidentally, a long time ago.

Once, Fisher introduced a nine week old puppy, named Sharley, to the daily play-mob. Sharley had been taken from the litter too early - at about four weeks of age. In the ensuing five weeks, she had not seen another dog, and was terrified by the sight of her own species. Many dogs and puppies are intimidated by their first experience in the play area, and Sharley was no exception. She spent two short sessions in the yard, with no real improvement in her behavior. She was still terrified by the mass of milling, playing dogs.

On her third exposure to the other dogs, Sharley seemed to be worse. She tried to escape by pressing against the fence and screaming. This immediately drew the attention of a large group of dogs, who rushed over to see what was happening. As the dogs pressed closer, Sharley became even more frightened. She continued screaming frantically, and that’s when something odd happened.

One of the dogs in the pen was a nine month old, deaf, Dalmatian named Nicky. He had been coming to doggie day care since he was a puppy and was very comfortable with the crowd. Nicky probably wasn’t aware that Sharley was screaming, but he saw her little body pressed against the fence and sensed that she was terrified. Nicky squeezed in between the pack and Sharley, and faced the rest of the dogs. Without taking his eyes off the pack, Nicky reached back with one of his forepaws and touched Sharley on the shoulder. She immediately settled down. She stopped screaming, which caused the other dogs to lose interest. Suddenly Nicky and Sharley were left alone. Sharley now had a friend and protector.

Within the next few sessions, Nicky “taught” Sharley how to interact with the other dogs. Soon she was perfectly at home with the swirling mass of playing and romping dogs. As she grew, her initial fear of other dogs was replaced by confidence and canine social graces. This unusual relationship accelerated her education dramatically.

For Nicky, this first experience as a protector and mentor started a history of similar behavior. He started paying closer attention to “newbies” and often repeated his role as canine counselor. Over the years he developed a reputation as a “peace maker,” who regularly tries to passively separate squabbling dogs. This gentle form of control is not typical canine behavior. Nicky was an anomaly – but what if you could create your own Nicky?

Creating Serendipity for Fun and Profit
While virtually every day-care business reports similar “helper dogs,” I have never heard anyone say they actively tried to reinforce or teach the behavior. Teaching a dog to “care” for newbies is as do-able as teaching them to come when called. It starts with developing a signal that means “yes” that is followed by tangible positive reinforcement. For those of you familiar with clicker training, you know that this is the function of the clicker. Once you have a signal that can mark a single moment of correct behavior, subtle things like “stay close to the newbie” are easily strengthened.

If you have never used a clicker, you may instantly assume it can’t be used in a group setting. What if other dogs in the play-group also know the clicker? In this case, that isn’t a problem. Teaching “stay close to the newbie” is done in a separate area from the play-group. You can even teach a more structured “go find Sharley” command that will identify which dog your care-giver is supposed to protect. When you reintroduce the newbie, you can use the clicker to tweak the behavior even with the other dogs present. If they butt in to get a treat, just make sure they don’t get it. After a short time they will ignore the click in that setting. Also, the care-giver dog will pick up the gist of its role faster with each additional dog. Soon it will be routine. Then it will become habitual as the dog learns its job. The time needed to introduce shy or fearful dogs becomes negligible as your care-giver dog learns the task.

One main advantage to the clicker may not be instantly realized is that the clicker is not connected with a specific person, which makes it seamlessly transferable from trainer to trainer. This allows several staff members to create a “care-giver” dog in sequence faster than requiring that every trainer create a personal relationship with the dog. Once the dog is clicker trained, you can hand a clicker to someone new and the training doesn’t skip a beat. If you depend on verbal praise, you must individually create the foundation for learning with each trainer, separately.

Another huge advantage to the clicker is the ability to “double handle.” Sometimes the person directing the training is not in the perfect position to mark the exact instant the behavior occurs – especially at a distance. With a clicker, any person can click and the dog accepts the information perfectly. If you are teaching a care-giver dog to find a specific newbie, you can release the dog into the play yard and have an assistant near the newbie be in charge of the click. This teaches the care-giver dog that you, personally, don’t have to be directly connected to finding the other dog.

I have used clicker training for behavior modification for over twenty five years, with thousands of dogs. This example of using a precise tool to strengthen and shape canine nurturing is the perfect blend of dog-savvy observation combined with structured instruction. The net result is a blessing for your business – the ability to direct specific therapy to help dogs adapt to, what can be, a stressful introduction. The net result is more dogs for your daycare services and improved socialization for dogs that need to learn to play well with others.

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