Training Your Pug. Brenda Belmonte

play behaviors. This may escalate to growling once he has hold of a pant leg. Behaviors such as these normally decrease over time as the puppy matures. Chapter 8 offers ways to minimize your Pug’s play biting.

       Chewing

      Dogs learn to explore their environments by observing their surroundings, using scent discrimination to investigate new objects, followed by an exploratory chew. If something warrants further investigation, a dog will often place the object in his mouth simply to find out what will happen. The chewing of objects satisfies a dog’s natural curiosity, and is a primal instinct carried on from a dog’s wild ancestors.

      Chewing is a normal behavior for Pug puppies.

      Chewing also serves as a means of relieving the discomfort caused by the eruption of puppy teeth. The desire to chew can also be an outlet for nervous or anxious behaviors, and is a normal way for a Pug to get rid of energy.

Canine Communication

      Dogs have a complex language all their own. Their ability to send messages, receive and interpret signals, and respond to one another is nothing short of amazing. Teaching a Pug successfully requires knowing how to communicate your wishes in a language that he can understand.

      Pugs, like all other dogs, do not inherently understand human words. In order to communicate in “dog language” you must first understand how dogs communicate with each other and reproduce those skills effectively during training.

       Social Hierarchies

      Dogs are a social species and are most at ease in a home that provides them with stable opportunities for socialization. These social relationships, or hierarchies, have a direct effect on a dog’s behavior. Communication between members of the social family occurs constantly, using body language and vocal sounds to reinforce each member’s position within the hierarchy.

      Each individual within a dog’s canine family or pack assumes a role or ranking position. Those individuals who are assertive and confident assume a dominant role, or leadership position. Individuals who do not display confident behaviors or are nervous or fearful are looked upon as subordinates. Within any given social family, an individual may assume a dominant role over some members, but quickly assume a subordinate role with other more confident individuals.

      When a Pug puppy enters a human family, people become his pack or litter-mates. A great deal of time is spent observing each individual’s behavior, watching body language and listening to different voices, in an effort to determine his or her role in the hierarchy. Each time there is an interaction with this new family, the puppy is learning either to assert himself into a dominant role or act submissively, due partly in response to how the human individuals act and react. Adults often produce a submissive response from a puppy, while children may be viewed as subordinates. These “lower-ranking” individuals may quickly become a target for manipulative or play behaviors from the puppy, such as nipping and biting.

       Body Language

      The majority of canine communication is done through observation of body language, particularly facial expressions. Leaders in a canine hierarchy clearly exhibit confident body language, such as standing tall with erect ears and tail and making direct eye contact, while subordinates assume a posture that is lowered, avoiding eye contact and dropping their tails. A dog who wishes to display submission or avoid a confrontation may try to position himself under another dog’s chin, and lick at the dog’s lips or chin. He then rolls over on his back, presenting his belly to the more dominant individual. He may also lower his head and urinate submissively, a clear signal in dog language that he assumes a subordinate role to the approaching individual.

      Human family members who are tall or have deep voices are at an advantage, as they are often automatically perceived by their Pugs to be in a leadership role. It is not uncommon to hear of Pugs who “only listen to the husband.” These dogs believe men to be in a leadership role because their body posture and deep vocal patterns are recognized as strong leadership signals. These same individuals are often the unhappy recipients of a Pug puppy’s submissive urination each time the puppy is approached.

      Correctly interpreting the body language of some family members may be somewhat difficult for a puppy. Remember that your young Pug is constantly observing his new family trying to adapt to his new social hierarchy. Women often exhibit body language that quickly changes from a leadership position to subordinate and then back to leader. The nurturing or “mothering” instinct that many women have—constantly picking the puppy up to hug it or bending down to give it affection—may conflict with their attempts to reprimand or control the puppy. Children, especially infants and toddlers, exhibit body language that the puppy may believe is consistent with a littermate or subordinate. They often find themselves on the floor at the eye level of the puppy, and their uncoordinated movements may be perceived as submissive body language or a signal for play. Children who have high pitched voices often stimulate play behaviors in a Pug puppy.

      Children may become a Pug’s favorite play partner.

       Vocalization

      Vocalization is a dog’s way of communicating how he feels at any given moment or in a specific situation. A dog can express positive feelings such as greetings and pleasure using vocalization; he can also communicate fear, anxiety, and pain. Vocalization is the only way a dog can communicate at a distance from another of its own species.

      The dog’s normal vocal repertoire consists of barks, whines, and growls. Whining is quite often the first sound that a puppy learns to make, bringing mom back to check out what is wrong. Pleasurable experiences may elicit a series of high-pitched, rapid barks or infantile whining and whimpering. Fear-based vocalization may include growling and barking, as does normal play behavior among litter-mates or playmates.

      Submissive Pugs often lick at the chin or lips of a more dominant dog.

       Verbal Communication

      Most people communicate effectively primarily using their verbal skills. For dogs, verbal communication is usually a secondary form of communication. This difference between our species creates a communication nightmare for a Pug. Fluman language is completely foreign to a Pug. While dogs can learn to associate specific words for specific tasks, they do not automatically recognize the words themselves. Instead when a specific word cue is used to mark a behavior, over time the Pug learns to associate that word with the behavior.

      Dogs communicate with sounds that vary in pitch, tone, and frequency. Human verbal communication is rather monotone and boring to a dog. In order to help your Pug understand what you are trying to communicate, try to remember to use varying pitches and tones that correspond to the signal you want your Pug to process and understand. For example, in dog language, high-pitched tones indicate play behavior or something fun and exciting. Remember that normal canine play behaviors are accompanied by high-pitched barking patterns. With their high-pitched voices, children often inadvertently stimulate a Pug to play just by screaming or laughing. Praising your Pug for a job well done should be done in an upbeat tone of voice. You can mark a good behavior by verbally rewarding your Pug with an excited, “Good job!”

      Words or sounds that are delivered in a sharp, descending tone of voice tend to inhibit motion in the Pug. The word “no” is often used ineffectively to try to stop a Pug from chewing on something inappropriate or to stop play biting. But the word itself means nothing to a Pug. When it is delivered in a sharp manner with a slight growl to it, the puppy recognizes the tone as a signal to stop, and may momentarily halt its behavior. Over time, if the word “no” is consistently spoken with the same deep, growling tone, the puppy