Manic, attention-seeking, manipulative mutts, cantankerous, man-mauling catastrophic cats and even ballistic, finger-nipping, belligerent birds can all have their behaviours improved using the technique of 'Time Out'.

'Time Out'

Time out simply refers to placing a pet in an out-of-the-way place when unwanted behaviour occurs but unless you use time out correctly, you can cause more problems than you solve.

The goal with 'time out' is not to punish bad behaviour but to halt it, so that good behaviour results. You can then reward this resultant good behaviour. Here, 'time out' differs from a closely related method called the 'sin bin' technique – a behaviour management procedure that is often used with children (and sportspeople).

Sin-binning is a punishment technique that usually involves lengthy confinement. It requires the person to have plenty of time to reason why his or her freedom has been removed. The sin-bin process does not work well for pets because to learn anything from the lengthy confinement requires the ability to reason at levels that are not possible for pets.

Time out involves a short period of confinement – generally no more than five minutes.

In most cases, time out produces a ‘trough’ of quietness about thirty seconds to a minute after confinement. This is when the pet is ‘thinking’ about what will occur next. This trough lasts for about three minutes and then the animal becomes aroused and anxious again, wanting to get out. In this latter period, the cats and dogs will often scratch at the door and may vocalise. This is not the right outcome.

Because your goal is to reward serene, quiet behaviour, you should aim to release the pet during the trough of quietness. In that way, you are rewarding the resultant quiet behaviour.

An example will help. Bozo the Boxer is a clamorous attention seeker. His owners complained to me that he continually demands attention by heaving his massive chest and forequarters onto their lap and. If they ignore him, he licks them on the face until they have to react. If they push him off, this bossy, dominating dog pushes back with all his might. Rarely can the owners win. Yelling and hitting are not effective as this just heightens the battle.

The remedy is for the owners to realise that Bozo wants attention and to give this attention – but as a reward for the tranquil behaviour that the owners are seeking. The owners need to know how to set a brick-wall-limit to his attention seeking and that’s where 'time out' becomes the secret weapon.

I asked the owners to follow this process:

1. The first time Bozo approaches for a pat, they were to turn away or to stand up.
2. At the same time, they were to command 'SIT', initially using a food treat to create this behaviour change.
3. When he had been sitting serenely for five seconds, they were then to give him the pat and cuddle he wanted, but not the food. I also demonstrated how they could use the food to lure him to ‘LIE DOWN’ beside them. When he retained this position for five seconds, they rewarded him with the food.

Can you guess what happened next? Yes – in no time at all, Bozo was up demanding attention again.

They repeated the process a second time, but this was their brick-wall limit.

On the third attempt, immediately but without malice or aggression, they walked Bozo to the bathroom where they confined him for time out.

After three minutes, they went to the bathroom, opened the door half-a-nose-width and commanded SIT. When Bozo obliged, they released him.

In this way, Bozo’s owners had:

• Given him his desired attention but for the non-dominating behaviour of ‘lying down’.
• Shown him there was a limit to the amount of attention seeking tolerated.
• Shown him the continuation of attention-seeking resulted in less attention, not more, by him being ‘timed out’, and
• That a return to serene behaviour was rewarded by him being granted access to the family again by ending his time out session. Of course, some dogs do not tolerate the confinement and will whine, bark and scratch the door from the moment you place them into the time out room.

For such dogs, the addition of the ‘progressive praise’ technique is useful. When you have placed your dog into the time out room and barking occurs do the following three steps.

Step 1:

• At the first bark, tap the door and command 'QUIET'.
• Then count to five.
• If your pooch is now quiet, praise him or her, through the closed door with a joyful 'GOOD DOG'.

Step 2:

• Now count to fifteen
• If Pooch maintains its quietness, give it more praise by opening the door and, in addition to the joyful 'GOOD DOG' reward, give the Pooch a quick a pat.
• Close the door.

Step 3:

• Now count to thirty.
• If pooch has been quiet, it deserves the ultimate reward.
• Release it and give it an enthusiastic pat and the joyful 'GOOD DOG' for its return to good behaviour.

The progressive patting technique marries with time out comfortably.

What Behaviours Can You Use Time Out For?

Dogs:

• Attention-seeking
• Setting a limit to aggression to another in-contact dog
• Barking at passers-bye
• Cat predation
• Many other behaviours

Cats:

• Furniture scratching
• Aggression
• Hyperactive behaviour where the cats bounce around the house like fur-covered ping-pong balls with a caffeine overdose

Birds:

• Aggressive birds
• Excessive noise
• Feather picking

Where Can an Animal Be Timed Out?

You can employ time out in many locations. Using a laundry, bathroom or toilet is useful for dogs and cats.

However, tethering a dog to a lead attached to the leg of a piece of sturdy furniture is a form of time out. This allows for the development of ‘progressive time out’ where a misbehaving dog is moved from one tethering spot to a spot further away if its behaviour continues but, in contrast, is allowed its freedom if good behaviour returns.

You can time out a small dog or cat in a pet carry-cage and some can be secured in an over-turned laundry basket.