Subscribe

The best in health, wellness, and positive training from America’s leading dog experts

Home Blog Page 52

Know When To Stop

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Calm Down Rover eBook from Whole Dog Journal

An important skill for impulse control is the ability to settle down in the face of excitement. There is a lot of value in “installing an off switch” in your dog! It translates into the ability to get your dog to settle on cue even when she is very excited. This is especially useful when you want to let your dog know that an activity or a game has ended. Some high-energy dogs simply don’t know when to stop, and they can keep going long after you’ve already tired of the activity.

An effective way to turn off activity in an action-loving dog is to teach an “all done” cue. This one doesn’t specifically tell the dog what to do – it just signals to her that the activity is over. Use any cue that makes sense to you, such as “All done!” or “That’s all!”.
The sooner you “install” an off-switch in your high-energy, activity-persistent dog, the better. Remember, the longer the reinforcement history for persistence, the more persistent she’ll be.

  1. Start teaching this behavior by engaging in your dog’s favorite activity – say, fetching a ball.
  2. After a reasonable period of fetch time, say “All done!” and put the ball away, out of sight, per-haps in a nearby cupboard.
  3. Give your dog a reasonable alternative that she can do by herself, such as emptying a stuffed Kong.
  4. Go sit down and occupy yourself with some-thing, such as reading a book, watching TV, or web-surfing.
  5. Ignore any attempts on your dog’s behalf to re-engage you, such as going to the cupboard and barking, or bringing you a different toy. Don’t even repeat your off-switch cue, just ignore her.
  6. Warn all other nearby humans to similarly ignore her attempts to engage them in activity when she’s been given the “All done” cue.
  7. Be prepared to quietly (so as not to get her aroused again) praise her when she finally lies down and starts to chew on the stuffed Kong.
  8. Use your off-switch cue every time you end a play session with her favorite activity, and don’t give in if she persists. The more consistent you are, the sooner you will see her resign herself to the fact that the fun really is over when you say it is.

If your dog does not like to fetch a ball, try another similar “get excited and settle” game such as running around together with a stop and settle. Or, play tug-and-drop, or try playing with a flirt pole (a toy on the end of a rope, which is fastened to a pole) to get your dog running, and then in-corporate the stop and settle.

Looking for more ways to teach your high-energy dog to chill out and relax? With Calm Down Rover, you’ll have instant access to vital training techniques. We all owe it to our dogs to understand why they act the way they do. Learn more.

Leave It Alone

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Calm Down Rover eBook from Whole Dog Journal

Impulse control requires patience, and Leave It (sometimes called “Off”) is a very powerful impulse control exercise. It involves having the dog turn away from something that he is interested in and make eye contact with you instead. An excellent way to jump-start this behavior is through a “Doggy Zen” exercise. (Doggy Zen: In order to have the treat, you must leave the treat.)

  1. Have a handful of super-exciting treats and one rather boring treat available. Put the boring treat in one hand and the good treats in a pouch or container behind your back. Present the boring treat to your dog in a closed fist (so she can smell it, but can’t get to it). Allow your dog lick and sniff your hand, and try to get to the treat.
  2. The moment your dog backs away from your treat/hand a tiny bit, mark the moment with a click or a “Yes!” and give your dog one of the super-good treats from your other hand. Be very patient; the first try or two can take several minutes before a dog gives up and backs away.
  3. Once your dog understands the game and quickly backs away from the treat in your fist, change it up a little by switching which hand is holding the boring treat. Again, reward with the yummy treat from your other hand.
  4. Once your dog easily backs away from a boring treat in either hand, pause a moment after your dog backs away from the treat (without immediately marking or rewarding the behavior). Watch your dog carefully; almost always, after a few moments of not getting the expected reward, dogs will look at your face for information, trying to figure out why they haven’t been rewarded yet. The moment he offers that eye contact, click (or “Yes!”) and reward him.
  5. When your dog easily backs off a treat and subsequently makes eye contact with you each time, add a verbal cue such as “Leave it.” Present the treat first, and when your dog takes notice, say “Leave it,” and click/“Yes!” and reward when your dog makes eye contact.
  6. Practice “Leave it” while placing the treat on the floor. Make sure you can cover it quickly with your foot if your dog makes a move for it!
  7. Take the cue on the road, and practice with different items such as a favorite toy, or a distraction like an interesting smell or the sight of another dog.

For more advice on ways to train your dog to be calm, purchase Calm Down Rover! Teach Your High-Energy, Hyperactive Dog to Chill Out & Relax… from Whole Dog Journal.

Go to Your Spot

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Calm Down Rover eBook from Whole Dog Journal

Another useful exercise involves teaching your dog to go to a specific place, like a mat, to lie down and relax. This can be a fixed location in your home (in front of the fireplace, by the toy box, etc.), but I find it more valuable to use a portable carpet square, mat, or dog bed of some sort. This gives you the flexibility to send your dog to her spot wherever you are; you just have to take her mat along with you. This behavior is very useful for a dog who tends to “bug” you (or your guests) for attention.

  1. Take your dog to a bed, mat, carpet square, or throw rug you have obtained for this purpose, say “place,” “go to bed” (or whatever word or phrase you plan to use). You can lure her to the bed with a treat, or place a treat on the bed and encourage her to go to it and eat it. Click or say “Yes!” when she does it, then ask her to “Down,” and click and treat for that.
  2. Do this a number of times until you think your dog is beginning to associate the word or phrase with lying down on the mat.
  3. Then you can start cueing the behavior without the lure. Click (or say “Yes!”) and give her a reward when she complies. You can also request a “Wait” so she doesn’t pop right back off the mat.
  4. When the dog is doing this part well, begin moving farther away from the mat before giving your “Place” cue.
  5. Ultimately, if you wish, you can ask your dog to go to her place from anywhere in the house. You can name several different places and teach her to go to each on your request. You can also take the mat with you when you go out and use it in public or at friend’s houses (this is why a small, portable throw rug or mat is ideal).

One alternative to the approach described above is to “shape” the behavior. This is done by marking (click or “Yes!”) and rewarding any behavior remotely related to the mat, gradually raising the criteria (what she needs to do to get a click and treat) until she reliably goes to the mat and lies down on it. Add the cue when she reliably moves to the mat, and then go to Step 4 above.

Challenge: Your dog lies near or only partially on the mat in an effort to be nearer to you or your guests (or whatever he’d rather be doing).

Solution: Be clear about how much of your dog has to be on the mat for it to “count” (your choice!) and reinforce your dog only if he meets that standard.

For more advice on ways to train your dog to be calm, purchase Calm Down Rover! Teach Your High-Energy, Hyperactive Dog to Chill Out & Relax… from Whole Dog Journal.

Physical Exercise: A Primer to Training

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Calm Down Rover eBook from Whole Dog Journal

Intense physical exercise alone won’t tire out a high-energy dog, but it does take the edge off so that when you’re ready to work with him to teach calm behaviors, he is able to focus and participate in the training. The physical exercise sets him up for training success.

First, let’s agree that leaving your dog out in his own fenced-in backyard does not qualify as “exercise”. He needs to be actively engaged.

Outings to your local well-run dog park can be a good exercise option. If you don’t have one in your area, invite compatible canines over to play in your dog’s fenced yard. If you don’t have one, invite yourself and your dog over to your dogfriend’s fenced yard for play dates.

Absent any access to a dog-friendly fenced yard, play with your dog on a long line. A 50-foot line gives him a 100-foot stretch to run back and forth
and work his jollies off.

Caution: Work up to 50 feet gradually, so he learns where the end of the line is. You don’t want him to blast full-speed to the end of his long line and hurt himself. Also, wear long pants. A highspeed long-line wrapped around bare legs can give you a nasty rope burn.

If none of those work for you, having him wear a pack when you walk him, or even better, pull a cart (which takes significant training), or exercising him (safely) from a bicycle may be options for using up excess energy.

For more advice on ways to train your dog to be calm, purchase Calm Down Rover! Teach Your High-Energy, Hyperactive Dog to Chill Out & Relax… from Whole Dog Journal.

What Does Your Dog Know?

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Beyond The Back Yard Book from Whole Dog Journal
Excerpt from Beyond the Backyard: Train Your Dog to Listen Anytime, Anywhere!

This book assumes that your dog already knows how to perform your target behaviors (also called base behaviors). What I haven’t told you yet is that what a dog knows is actually contextual. In other words, your dog probably doesn’t know what you think she does unless you’ve done specific training. That specific training, called generalization, is the princess of applying information from one context to another. It’s very important to do this because dogs are notoriously poor at generalization.

Does your dog know how to sit on command? Let’s find out!

Go to your dog’s most familiar training area and grab a pile of delicious cookies. Make sure she knows you have them and that she is eager to earn them. Now face your dog and ask her to sit. Your dog should enthusiastically put her rear end on the ground. Excellent!

Let’s try it again, except with a small change. This time, turn your back on your dog so that you are facing the wall. Ask her to sit.

What happened? I’m willing to bet that she failed to perform. Not because she was unmotivated or fearful. Not because she was distracted or in a new place. And not because she couldn’t hear you. I know all this because the only thing you changed was the direction that you were facing; the first time you were facing your dog and the second time you turned your back from the dog. So what went wrong?

Your dog failed to perform because you changed the context. She learned to sit with you facing her, and now you’ve changed the picture. Your dog isn’t stubborn or bad. Your dog simply has not learned which variables are – or are not – relevant. To be blunt, she doesn’t know “sit”. Instead, she knows “owner standing in front of me in the kitchen holding a cookie in front of my nose and saying the word sit.”

But what if you tried this test and your dog passed? That’s great! She has started to learn to sit. Let’s see just how well she’s learned it. Take your dog to a familiar place and have an obvious motivator in your hand. We want your dog trying her hardest so we can safely conclude that any failure to perform is due to holes in your basic training opposed to lack of motivation.

  • Can your dog sit when you are sitting in a chair?
  • Can your dog sit when you are sitting on the floor?
  • Can your dog sit when you are staring at the ceiling?
  • Can your dog sit when you are behind the door?

Come up with as many variations as possible – within reason. The goal is not to cause your dog to fail; the goal is to find the weaknesses in your basic training so that you can work through them. As you do this be sure to maintain sympathy for your dog. She’s trying. So your job is to provide measured challenges so that she can succeed.

For more information on effective training methods, read Beyond the Backyard: Train Your Dog to Listen Anytime, Anywhere!, a special book by Denise Fenzi!

Changing the Challenge

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Beyond The Back Yard Book from Whole Dog Journal
Excerpt from Beyond the Backyard: Train Your Dog to Listen Anytime, Anywhere!

To help dogs learn to generalize their behaviors, we have to know when to increase the challenge level. This is something dog trainers call “raising criteria”.

Before we can raise criteria, though, your dog needs to meet criteria. Basically, this means that your dog needs to successfully complete the behavior to your specifications. For example, if your goal is a 30 second sit stay under mild distraction and your dog performs a sit stay for 30 seconds with a piece of bread sitting on the counter, then your dog has met criteria. But what if your dog goes to the counter and sniffs for the scent of the bread instead of performing the stay? Then we should say that your dog has not met criteria.

When your dog meets criteria you’ll reward him with a motivator, but when he fails to succeed, you’ll withhold the motivator. (You’ll also make sure that he is unable to get the bread on the counter, since helping himself to the distraction would have been very reinforcing – but not reinforcing what you wanted!)

When your dog consistently meets criteria by ignoring the bread on the counter and performing correctly, you can raise criteria. This simply means you’ll ask your dog to do more in order to earn a cookie. But… what is “more”? And how many successes do we want to see before we raise criteria again?

When it’s time to raise criteria, the trick is to select a new challenge that your dog is likely to meet. If you work to raise criteria in a systematic and measured fashion, you will find that your dog makes progress extremely quickly while maintaining a positive attitude throughout his training sessions. It’s good to ask more of your dog, because it keeps him thinking and working for you, but if you ask for too much all at once, you’ll demoralize him with excessive failure. At the same time, if you raise criteria too slowly, your dog will become bored and his progress will slow down. In other words, raising criteria is something of a Goldilocks question: how much is just right?

For more information on effective training methods, read Beyond the Backyard: Train Your Dog to Listen Anytime, Anywhere!, a special book by Denise Fenzi!

How To Select a New Training Space

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Beyond The Back Yard Book from Whole Dog Journal

When you select a new training space, remember that the change should be gradual. If your regular training has always taken place in your kitchen, try moving to the living room. Work through the entire lesson plan in that room, then change locations again. How about the bedroom? The bathroom?

Once you’ve exhausted the options in your house, take a look at the next most gradual change that you can make. How about your porch? Backyard? Front yard? In front of your neighbor’s house?

In each new training space, first test that your dog can perform with a cookie in your hand. This is important because the total number of additional distractions (beyond what you are deliberately introducing) is going to increase simply by changing locations. You will continue to create controlled distractions for your dog, and you want them to hold his attention more than the stuff in the environment. This might sound counter intuitive, but the truth is, if the dog is paying more attention to the smells in the neighborhood than to the training exercises, you have a problem! You need to start with a distraction (and a reward) that is MORE interesting than the rest of the world.

If you introduce new places thoughtfully, they should be dull enough that your dog can work off leash or with a loose leash with his total attention on either you or on the distraction that you have provided. Realistically, though, sometimes you’ll overestimate the draw of a new place. Therefore, your location needs to be safe as well. Your dog needs to be contained in some way, which means that for some locations, you may need to use a leash during all ten steps. You don’t want to put your dog in danger in the name of training! It is much better to work on leash with a focused dog than to work off leash with a dog who is not the least bit interested in doing anything for you.

You should also think about the type of places you eventually want to take your dog. If your goal is to bring your dog to the pet store, to pick your children up from school, to attend local soccer games with your kids, and to walk through your neighborhood on a loose leash, then those are the places you should be using for the training! Consider each of these possible locations and rank them from least distracting to most. Start with the easiest ones and work your way up.

There’s a huge advantage to using places for training that you already go to: it’s efficient! You’re already going there, so you won’t need to spend a lot of time making special trips for the dog’s training. When you head to the local school to pick up your kids, arrive ten minutes early so you can practice your skills while it’s still relatively quiet. Work your way up to practicing when the kids are being released from their classrooms! Or, if you need to purchase groceries, bring your dog along for a few minutes training outside the doors. It is much easier to stick to a training plan if it doesn’t take a lot of extra time.

At first it will feel strange to be carrying a baggie with distraction treats while you work with your dog in public, but you’ll soon find that people will enjoy watching you, and might even want to know more about what you are doing!

Make a point of using friends and strangers for your distraction babysitters – we want your dog to believe that all people are willing to help you! Handle failure quietly and cheerfully; simply show your dog the delicious morsels that he won’t be getting, put them back, and try again.

Most dogs will make tremendous progress working this way. After ten minutes a day for a few weeks, you will likely find that your dog is ignoring a variety of distractions that you provide in all sorts of locations. If you add this to the three or so hours you’ve already spent, you’ll have invested around six hours, and with excellent results!

Don’t despair if your dog needs a slower route. Remember that training is a process where you are developing a deeper bond with your dog. Stay focused on the journey!

For more advice on training your dog listen anytime, anywhere, purchase Beyond the Back Yard from Whole Dog Journal.

Is Your Dog out of Control?

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Beyond The Back Yard Book from Whole Dog Journal

Lesson #8: Uncontrolled Distraction, Controlled Dog

Your dog will need to be on leash for this lesson. Because your distraction won’t be contained, make sure that when you set up for each step, the distraction is at least one foot farther away than the length of your leash.

For this lesson, ANY tightening of the leash should be considered a failure. Handle failure in the usual way: go to the distraction with your dog, admire it (but do so in a way that your dog CANNOT get it), move away, and go back to work.

Procedure:

  • Place your dog on leash and take the distraction out of the container.
  • Set the distraction out of reach, request a behavior. Reward your dog using the two-treat method if she’s successful.
  • Increase the value of distraction, keeping it out of reach, and request a behavior.
  • Move around the training area requesting a behavior in a new location each time.
  • Stay in the same place in the training area, but move the distraction around the area.
  • Move the distraction closer to your dog.

Lesson #9: Uncontrolled Distraction, Uncontrolled Dog

This lesson will have both your dog and the distraction off leash, so you’ll need a helper! If your dog goes for the distraction, your helper’s job is to get to it first and pick it up. Your helper will then hand it to you, you will admire it, and you’ll start again.

Procedure:

  1. Bring your dog into the area off leash. Put the uncontrolled distraction at a distance from your dog. Request a behavior and reward success with the two-treat method.
  2. Increase the value of the distraction and request a behavior.
  3. Move around the training area, requesting a behavior in a new location each time.
  4. Stay in the same place in the training area, but move the distraction around the area.
  5. Move the distraction closer to your dog and request a behavior.
  6. Repeat all steps with a variety of helpers.

For more advice on training your dog to listen anytime, anywhere, purchase Beyond the Back Yard from Whole Dog Journal.

Three Training Lessons for a Distracted Dog

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Beyond The Back Yard Book from Whole Dog Journal

Lesson #1: Easy Distraction, Easy Behavior

Use a low-value distraction for this lesson!

Procedure:

  1. Bring your dog into the training area.
  2. While your dog is watching, place the distraction out of your dog’s reach, but where she can see it. Your dog should be well aware of the distraction, so do not try and hide it!
  3. Hold two cookies in your hand; you’ll need them in a moment.
  4. Standing close to your dog, cur a behavior she knows like a sit.
  5. If your dog responds correctly, reward your dog with the two-treat method.
  6. If your dog fails, admire the distraction together, then try again.
  7. Repeat no more than 10 times or 5 minutes, whichever is greater.

Lesson #2: Easy Distraction, Different Behavior

This lesson is a repeat of lesson 1. The only difference is that you’ll be working on a different behavior.

Procedure:

  1. Bring your dog into the training area.
  2. Place the distraction out of your dog’s reach.
  3. Have two cookies in your hand.
  4. Request a different behavior. If you have been working on a sit, then maybe you’d like to do a down, or a few seconds of loose leash walking, or maybe a recall. As a side note, if you choose a recall, make a point of standing so that your dog is traveling away from the distraction rather than heading towards it. This is the only way that we can be sure that your dog is actually coming to you as opposed to heading to the counter.
  5. Reward success with two cookies as described above.
  6. Admire the distraction if your dog fails, then try again.

Lesson #3: New Distractions

This lesson introduces new distractions! Use low-level distractions at first, then slowly raise the value. Don’t forget to raise the value of your motivator, too!

Procedure:

  1. Bring your dog into the training area.
  2. Place the distraction out of your dog’s reach.
  3. Have two cookies in your hand.
  4. Request an easy behavior.
  5. Reward success with two cookies.
  6. Admire the distraction if your dog fails, then try again.
  7. Repeat this lesson, varying the distraction.

For more advice on training your dog listen anytime, anywhere, purchase Beyond the Back Yard from Whole Dog Journal.

The “Two-Treat Method”

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Beyond The Back Yard Book from Whole Dog Journal

When your dog is successful, reward your dog with the “two-treat method”:

  • Have two cookies in your hand
  • Give your dog one cookie from your hand while your praise enthusiastically.
  • Back up so that you end up farther away from the distraction, so that your dog is likely to run back to you instead of heading to the distraction.
  • Give her a second cookie when she is back with you again. What a deal!
  • Your reward should always be higher value than your distraction.

Don’t worry if your dog fails. Failure is a natural part of learning. Remain calm and resist the urge to yell “no” or physically move your dog around. Instead, follow this procedure:

  • Go to the distraction. Pick it up. Talk to your dog about it. Admire it together.
  • And then put it back.
  • Go to the same place you were before and ask the dog for the behavior again.
  • If your dog fails again, make the task just a bit easier.
  • For example, you might stand closer to your dog, or move the distraction a bit farther away. Or if you asked for a stay, you might change your duration from five seconds to three seconds.

If your dog fails three times in a row, stop. The task is too hard for your dog. Go back to the previous step or find a way to make it easier for your dog. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Did you use a low enough value of distraction?
  • Are you using a higher value reward?
  • Does your dog KNOW that you have a higher value reward?
  • And this is the big one: are you SURE that your dog knows the base behavior in that environment when no distraction is present? If your dog does not know the command, you can repeat if till the cows come home, but you will not achieve success.

Each training session should be 5 minutes long OR LESS. Training should be fun, so don’t keep going unless both you and your dog are enjoying it. You can repeat a lesson up to (but no more than) three times in a day. Ten minutes a day is an excellent target.

Each training session should focus on one behavior only. If you’d like to work on another behavior, do so in separate training sessions. Each lesson should be repeated until your dog is successful at least 80% of the time. In addition, your dog should be bright and eager to train. If she’s not having fun, that training session has not been successful, no matter how well she performed!

For more advice on training your dog listen anytime, anywhere, purchase Beyond the Back Yard from Whole Dog Journal.

Replacement Behaviors

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 Book from Whole Dog Journal

A replacement behavior is what you teach your dog to do instead of the problem behavior. The key to making this work is when replacement behavior becomes a more efficient or more effective way for the dog to earn the functional reward than the original problem behavior(s). Let’s go back to the example of the dog who rushes across the room, barks, and scratches the door when you reach for your keys or his leash. If you clip on the leash and open the door to let the dog out after he does all of that, you are providing him a functional reward (the fun outing) for his behavior and you will have to repaint your door much more often. If that has happened with your dog, your best strategy is to start requiring him to sit before you clip the leash on. If the dog is bouncing around, simply set down the leash and patiently, silently refuse to clip the leash to the collar until he sits. Sitting becomes the replacement behavior for jumping and acting crazy because you have made going for a walk contingent upon polite behavior: your dog gets to go on a walk fi, and only if, he is calm. Making the functional reward of walks and car rides contingent upon sitting will quickly calm down the situation at your door.

To read more on ways to deal with fear, frustration and aggression in dogs, purchase Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 by Grisha Stewart at Whole Dog Journal.

Ask Yourself “Why”?

By
Editorial Staff
-
0
Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 Book from Whole Dog Journal

If your dog is exhibiting some behavior you don’t want, you may have wondered, “Why is he doing it?” does he not love you? Is he trying to dominate you? If he knows you don’t like whatever it is he is doing, then why does he keep doing it? Is he not your best friend, after all? I think the answer is that he behaves the way he does simply because he has some need that the behavior helps him meet. He may not even find the behavior particularly fun to do, as is the case with most reactivity. But your dog has learned that behavior is a way to get what he wants or needs.

Think creatively about what your dog gets as a result of doing a problem behavior (whatever he’s doing that you want to change). In other words, what is the functional reward for his behavior? Think of the functional reward as a “real life” consequence that reinforces the problem behavior. Has your dog learned that barking at strangers makes them move away? The fact that the person moves away creates safety in the dog’s mind by putting distance between him and a stranger. That is the functional reward for his barking.

Once you know the functional reward(s) for your dog’s problem behavior, the next step is to find other behaviors you can encourage your dog to do that can reasonably lead to that same reward. For example, you can reward your dog’s choice to turn his head away from approaching strangers instead of barking at them. That would make looking away a replacement behavior for the problem behavior of barking. Sniffing the ground, yawning, sitting, or looking at you are also appropriate possible replacement behaviors for reactivity. Reinforce the replacement behavior(s) by using the same functional reward that your dog earned from doing the problem behavior. For example, when he looks away (a replacement behavior), happily walk your dog away from the stranger, thereby increasing the distance between dog and stranger (the functional reward). That’s the core concept of Functional Analysis – using the functional reward of the problem behavior to pay for more appropriate behaviors. The functional reward concept can be applied to just about any problem behavior. Behavioral Adjustment Training is a way to apply the scientific concept of Functional Analysis to reactivity problems: use the functional reward of reactivity to pay for more appropriate social behaviors.

To read more on ways to deal with fear, frustration and aggression in dogs, purchase Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 by Grisha Stewart at Whole Dog Journal.

1...515253...391Page 52 of 391

Latest Blog

What behavior does your dog have that drives you slightly crazy?
Blog

What’s Your Dog Pet Peeve?

Nancy Kerns 12
I recently fostered a dog who first greeted me at the shelter that I sprung her from by jumping up on me. I spent the first two days with her almost exclusively working on preventing her from jumping. When I introduced her to a friend, my friend immediately held her arms out and greeted the dog’s enthusiastic jump up with a big hug, petting, and cooing
© Belvoir Media Group, LLC. All rights reserved.