To Cue or Not to Cue? Manners in the Multiple Dog Household

Manners. The word has less meaning these days it seems but in the multiple dog household, establishing manners can mean the difference between chaos and calmness. Manners do not come without training. Especially in the multiple dog household. Spending some time teaching manners to your crew will not be time ill spent.

Manners and politeness as the typical status quo can prevent issues from arising. If your crew is used to saying please and taking turns, then a misstep is unlikely to cause an uproar.

The individual needs of your household will vary. It’s up to you to decide which behaviors to teach. But there are several basic areas of living with multiple dogs where teaching manners can make your life less stressful and who doesn’t need that?

Mealtimes can be very chaotic even when you only have one dog to feed so imagine that multiplied! Teaching impulse control where food is concerned is invaluable. Doorways to the outdoors are another hot spot. Toys can be another huge problem area, even if only one of your crew has possession issues with said toys. Walking more than one dog can cause many an owner to hyperventilate at just the thought of it!

One of the first things that I teach a foster dog is to wait at the door (to the backyard) until released, for the privilege of going out. I do this wordlessly, other than the release word. All but one foster dog in over 10 years of fostering, has learned this in less than five minutes! So if a brand new to my house dog can learn that fast, then just think how fast your crew can do this. It just boggles the mind.

It’s very easy to teach but a little tricky to describe on paper. I will briefly try however. Basically, you use an open palm hand signal and say “wait” once (optional) and slowly open the door. Any forward movement by your dog gets the door closed again. You must be careful to not close any toes or noses in the door! You don’t say anything at all after the initial hand signal and word cue. Your dog need not even sit but with some dogs, it makes things easier. You simply repeat the door closings as needed with forward movement and open the door very slowly with your dogs remaining stationery. It’s important when first teaching this, to release your dog to go through the door as soon as it’s open far enough to fit through. You do NOT need to go through the door first, Trust me on this! Your dog is not concerned with who goes first. His only need is that he go out as soon as he possibly can. You can also use what I call “accidental inattention”. This means if your dog is not looking when you open the door, you can still release as if he were. He can hear, after all, regardless of whether he is looking at the door at the time. Of course, this only applies if he does not move forward when the door opens!

Mealtimes are one of the highest excitement times that a dog can experience. Teaching impulse control as it relates to food and treats can only make your life easier. It’s important to work with one dog at a time when first teaching this. As each dog’s skills increase, you can then practice with more than one dog at a time. Going slowly will increase your chances of making this more solid as a group. When you get your crew all together en masse, you can use rivalry as needed to get better compliance, provided that you do NOT have any guarding issues present.

One of the most important things that I think you can teach any dog, whether in a multiple dog household or as a singleton, is to offer appropriate behaviors. It is especially helpful in a multiple dog household. It is far easier on you as the dog mom or dad to verbally mark and (randomly) food reward an offered behavior than to continually be “issuing orders”!

Offering behaviors gives your dogs a choice. They will learn that when they do a, b, or c, etc., that good things happen. They then have a choice to make said good things happen. This relates to mealtimes really well since they are virtually guaranteed a food reward in this situation. This article is not long enough to describe capturing well enough so I will urge you to do some googling if you are not familiar with the capturing method of training an animal. You won’t be sorry! I will warn you that you will need to exercise patience within yourself for this method. You will not be actively doing anything but instead, waiting for a behavior. And in a mealtime/treat dispensing context, that behavior can be a sit or a down that is maintained until you release the dog(s).

Impulse control with toys and special treats such as chew things is a special area. If you have any issues that cause you to fear for a dog’s or a human’s safety, then you should get in-home professional assistance asap. Even one session is better than just reading up on this issue. If you opt for this, please be sure to locate a qualified positive reinforcement behavior consultant. Using fear and/or force to “correct” this behavior can cause it to become worse and will damage your relationship with your dog.

If your crew doesn’t have any guarding issues, then teaching them to leave things alone that you have not given them is your goal. I like to teach my crew that all good things come from me. If I have not handed it to them or released them to get it (food bowl, outdoor access, etc.), then it is not theirs. I believe that teaching a leave it without a word cue is better than having to frequently say the cues. You use fewer words, for one thing! This way, you simply acknowledge when your dog makes an appropriate choice and reward accordingly. Again, this article is not lengthy enough to describe these individual training cues step-by-step.

Walking more than one dog is not an easy feat. Teaching focus on you as the person holding the leash is your first order of business.

Walking more than one dog is not an easy feat. This again is training that needs to take place one-on-one before you venture out en masse if you value your knees! Teaching focus on you as the person holding the leash is your first order of business. You can begin this by noticing and rewarding every time your dog remembers that you exist while on a walk, no matter how slightly that noticing is. Having a strong relationship with each dog can make walking outdoors without being dragged, much easier. A dog that likes to check in with his person frequently will check in outdoors as well. Possibly not as much as indoors at first, but make that your goal!

Everyone has different needs in their multiple dog household. Here are several takes on this:

Crystal in Indiana, PA has her dogs do a “down-stay” while she prepares meals. This same behavior is useful when guests arrive so as to not overwhelm them. She uses a “wait” for exiting the house as well as in the car when leashes get attached for a hike. And of course, she has taught leash manners so that she can safely hike with several dogs!

Sidney in Phoenix, AZ also requires her three Dobermans to maintain a sit-stay while meals are prepared, until they are released to eat. She finds that it eliminates any issues that could arise during this potentially high excitement activity.

Anne in Pittsburgh, PA had already done some manners training with her first dog before she added a second. She felt that it helped the second dog to learn by watching. She also attended classes with each dog separately but practiced training at home with both dogs at once. Again, this helped each to do better with some competition at stake!

Andrew in Morgantown, WV is down to one dog now but has always used dog beds as happy places with every dog he has had. Dogs are cued to go to their beds when visitors arrive or if there is something that they find fascinating to bark out outdoors. And food on a coffee table IS the cue for his dog(s) to go to the coffee table. Neat trick!

Michelle in Pittsburgh, PA finds that it helps to say each dog’s name prior to delivering a treat. She thinks that it minimizes the chaos. I agree!

So you see, manners and structure really make life with multiple dogs much less chaotic. Decide which behaviors you want to see and teach them and then relish the calm!