Training cats and dogs isn’t just about eliminating problem behaviors. It might seem counterintuitive, but sometimes, encouraging more behaviors and more distractions can keep everyone in your household a lot happier.

Hannah Branigan, self-proclaimed dog training nerd and author of Awesome Obedience, joins me on this episode of It’s Training Cats and Dogs. She shares her journey to becoming a trainer, how she manages her multi-species household and her tips for success.

To listen to the full episode, press play below:

How Hannah’s training journey began

Hannah had cats at home growing up, but she always dreamed of getting a dog. Once she got out of college, she began volunteering in animal rescue and quickly adopted one of the puppies from the shelter she was working at. This is where her journey to becoming a dog trainer began.

Since then, Hannah has added more dogs and cats to her household. At one point, there were seven animals in her home, and that number has never dipped below three.

Sammy, her first dog, had a lot of behavioral challenges, and Hannah learned to work through them. She became really interested in training tricks and wanted to test her new skills on another dog.

A Belgian shepherd was Hannah’s next dog, followed by another one, and then another after that. A terrier and a border collie were eventually added to the family, as well as a few foster puppies thrown in for good measure. It’s safe to say she got a lot of dog training practice.

With her new training skills, Hannah’s days consisted of working as a vet tech by day and teaching dog training classes at night.

Still a big cat lover, Hannah has also rescued a few cats and kittens over the years. One day while trapping feral cats to neuter them, she met one who, it turned out, wasn’t very feral after all. When she tried to release this cat, it followed her all the way home, setting up camp under her porch. And that’s how Gray Cat became part of the family.

Keeping everyone safe

With so many animals, management is critical to keep everyone safe and happy. A few things Hannah did, included:

• When she brought a new cat home, the cat stayed in a small area first.

• Hannah focused on enrichment and tried to keep the cat’s litter box a safe and calm space (to combat frequent accidents).

• She took new cats on short, supervised visits to the rest of the home at first.

• The dogs were sometimes put in crates in the kitchen to keep the cat safe.

• Hannah focused on stress reduction and calming behaviors.

• Hannah used avoidance tactics to reduce the border collie’s stalking behavior.

A little house modification goes a long way

One issue Hannah was having was with Gray Cat. She liked to sit on the railing outside the kitchen to watch Hannah prepare food. While it was a safe height away from the dogs coming in and out of the yard, there was a problem.

Hannah’s border collie would freeze whenever he’d go outside and stare at the cat. It caused everyone to get stuck and would also set the other dogs off, causing them all to become overexcited.

So, Hannah came up with a makeshift solution. With the help of a few carefully placed Amazon boxes, she modified the back porch so that Gray Cat couldn’t sit there anymore. Instead, she’s found a spot on the other side of the fence where she can still watch Hannah through the kitchen window.

Addressing problem behaviors…without addressing them

Training a border collie to stop staring and stalking can feel impossible. It’s a natural part of being a border collie, after all.

Hannah’s tactic to deal with behaviors she’d like to eliminate is to stop directly addressing the problem behavior.

If something isn’t working, for example, the dog’s not listening to you, Hannah suggests shaking things up a bit and trying something different.

In her case, Hannah tried to build and reinforce other behaviors when the cat was present. For example:

• Hannah will walk her dog around on a leash if the cat is around.

• She’ll tell him to “go to station” if she needs him out of the way.

• She uses food games and distractions for both cats and dogs.

• If she wants to train the dog, she’ll set up something distracting for the cat elsewhere and vice versa.

While the original problem might not go away magically, adding a bunch of other behaviors into the mix can help to lessen the effect of the original problem. Hannah finds that when she comes back to the original behavior, it has usually improved.

When to intervene in problem behavior

With lots of different personalities, behaviors, and interactions between Hannah’s animals, she’s always on the lookout for any issues. However, knowing when to intervene and when not to is crucial.

Sometimes, cats and dogs will sort things out between themselves. Hannah’s dogs have learned that if Gray Cat is sitting outside, they need to give her a wide berth. They leave the back door, stay close to the wall, and then go into the yard in a C-shape.

Somehow, they’ve all worked out that this is the polite thing to do for Gray Cat.

But is this a problem? If Gray Cat took the opportunity to pounce on them while doing this, then it’d be a problem. But in this case, it’s become a part of their daily routine, and no one seems stressed.

Hannah’s go-to strategy to work out if she needs to intervene is to watch their typical behavior. If a dog has a pretty stable behavior pattern that suddenly changes or gets diminished, this is a red flag.

This is how Hannah measures the quality of life – more behaviors and more flexibility of behaviors are a good sign. Fewer behaviors and an animal becoming withdrawn means it’s time to intervene and solve the problem.

Track your wins

Training is tough. Training multiple different species in the same household is a whole lot harder. If you’re putting in the time, effort, and emotional investment, it’s really easy to become demotivated.

Hannah has been there, done that. In fact, she recommends that anyone training cats or dogs track their wins.

It’s easy to lose sight of the progress you’ve made if you hit a bit of a wall. But having a spreadsheet to look back on can help you realize how far you’ve come. For example, you can see it took four seconds for the dog to look away from the cat a few weeks ago, and now it only takes two. That’s progress!

Tracking your wins and being patient will help you stay consistent and motivated. It also helps trainers manage their own stress, which is sometimes much needed in a busy, multi-species household.