Dog owner question: What do I do about my technology obsessed dog?

Question from a pet dog owner and training client: ​
Since you asked for questions, here is one that may not be common. Sally is obsessed with animals she sees on tv. She will charge the screen and bark. I'm afraid she will knock it over! She wears the ecollar and I stim her and say, "No" or "Get Away".
She sits in place and stares at the screen. I stim her again and she either scooches backward toward me or comes and sits on my feet. I want her to learn to ignore the tv and to do something like "place" on the couch. We used to enjoy Animal Planet, Westerns, hunting shows, lol! Now it is the Dreaded Toyota Dog Days commercial! She has memorized the music and comes running after two notes!
Thanks,

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This dog owner has trained here with her lovely dog, Sally.   So hopefully I can break it down, and the skills she has practiced here before can create the answer to this.

Answer:  Couple of very basic things here that dog owners who are training their dogs need to understand.  Often this does not occur to dog owners because (unlike someone like me who does this for a living) they are not used to breaking down the problem and then coming up with the plan.  

• The time to train something like this is not while you are trying to relax and enjoy watching this program.  The training comes first, then the proofing, then the sitting back and relaxing (while enjoying the fruits of your efforts).  This is what the article proactive vs reactive dog owners is all about.
• Two, if we have not trained the commands don't use those other words!   They mean nothing to the dog.  The dog, in this case Sally, has not been trained to know what "no" and "get away" means.  She has been trained to know other commands those.   Dogs don't understand English (at least not the way we do).   When we train dog commands, we are using very specific body movements, verbal signals, and tone that train the dog to know what the word means in context of their training and the environments you have most been training in.  
• Third, unfortunately, I looked at your blog and neither quiet nor place were not exercises we trained her on when she was here for day-train as a puppy.  That is something you could work on later, but first changing the behavior and having a down stay should work.
• Fourth, although I sometimes use the word "no" it's a bit too vague for dogs in general, because it encompasses different behaviors you are trying to stop (which is a bit inconsistent).  Better to have them perform something else

So what would my plan be?   As usual there is no 10 second trick, so I will summarize it accordingly:

• First I would have a recording of a similar television show or movie (or commercial) ready to go for a training session with Sally.  Alternately, you can find audio files on computers that have barking dogs on a loop and things like that.  You could therefore split the sound from the visual (if you like) in order to break it down into even easier parts for her.  (youtube is an excellent source for most of this, but there are other sources out there on the internet as well).
• I would probably clear a half hour a day for a formal training session.  I would plan to be very patient during that training session:)​
• A management rule of thumb that I use, if the dog is thwarting me off leash (yes even in the house) they get attached to their leash until we have the training to a reliable standard under way (yes sometimes even when they are trained on electronic collars).  This way she will be physically stopped in her tracks and attached to you until she is responding to commands without any attempts to try to get at the wanted thing.
• So looking at the blog, the commands we have to work with are sit, sit stay, down, heel (possibly not good for this scenario), out (which is not necessarily applicable to this situation), let's go, and sit on the dog (not a command but an exercise).
• Everyday, I would do a sit on the dog (with (at the very least) an audio of a dog barking.  You don't have to make this audio constant through out (use the remote or your mouse to mute intermittently if you like), but you do want the barking to go on for several minutes at least.  You can also have the barking the whole time, it will be difficult the first few days but it will go faster to your goal that way.  So that is 30 minutes plus the time it takes her to go into a down in the beginning and/or end.
• For fifteen minutes a day, I would put her through her paces in training around the video and/or audio of a dog barking while having her practice her dog obedience commands.   You could work dog obedience command (especially if she is being difficult) or the dog obedience commands in a routine.

If you were interested later, you could learn how to teach a place command.  Until then, a down stay near the television should do.   If you have not been practicing the down stays, then build it up slowly just like you would do the sit stay command.   

Hope that helps you and some other people.  The bottom line is when a problem like this occurs (and the dog gets to practice this for awhile) remember to do the training outside of the actual live activity until you are ready to proof it.   Also remember things you have trained on become tools to work with and break down the steps to deal with a behavior like this.

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