Dog Training 101 - Don't repeat cues and other dog training basics

Just some quick thoughts to make your life as a dog trainer much easier. After training thousands of dogs, it still amazes me how the little suggestions can make the biggest difference.

Don't repeat cues. Each time you say, "Sit, sit, sit . . . SIT" you are creating more work for yourself. Why? Generally one of four reasons. Your dog did not hear the cue. Your dog doesn't know the cue. Your dog is distracted and you need to move farther away from the distraction. Your dog isn't motivated to do the cue. After you say a cue, you need to "help" your dog get the cue correct. For instance, if you say, "Come" and your dog doesn't come to you, gently put a leash on your dog, gently bring your dog to you, and . . . reward. Yes, you reward even if you are helping. You want to establish a pattern of your dog doing a certain behavior after hearing a cue and getting a reward. That is where the motivation comes in to play. Eventually if you follow the pattern of:

1. Say the cue once
2. Help your dog get the behavior correct
3. Reward your dog (even if you help)

Eventually your dog will do the behavior without help. You can see more examples of dog training techniques at http://www.watchandtrain.com

Train in short sessions. The best strategy is to do really short sessions (as little as one or two minutes) before EVERYTHING that your dog wants. For instance, before you take your pup for a walk ask for a "Sit", "Down" and "Stay" for 20 seconds. Then say, "Ok" (release) and put the leash on and go. This will force you to do training throughout the day, and will teach your dog that your cues have relevancy in her life. Motivation!

Pay attention to what your dog wants and use this as a reward. This goes along with the previous suggestion. For instance, if your dog wants to play with a squeaky toy, take it away, do a short session and then give it back as a reward. If your dog wants to say, "hello" to his friend Spike on a walk, ask for a "Watch me" and then allow him to say "hello". Then . . . do a quick "let's go" walk away 5 steps and then come back only if he is not pulling on the leash.

Stay close to home, if necessary. It is much smarter to stay 10 feet on either side of your front door for 20 minutes than to allow your dog to pull you around the block which teaches her to pull. Stay in a setting that is less distracting until the behavior improves before heading to a new location.

Use a Sensible Harness for pullers. There is a fantastic, humane harness called the Sensible or Senseation harness. Find it at Softouchconcepts. Use it instead of chokes or prong collars.

Happy training!
http://www.watchandtrain.com

To Sit or Not to Sit - Helping a dog with dog-dog aggression

I work with dog-dog aggression a lot. I get lots of practice in the congested city of Chicago, and I use techniques that work. As with any training topic, there are many competing strategies out there, but I urge you to think about the psychology of anxiety and aggression.

If an animal is not hunting for food (one form of aggression) if they show aggression towards another animal it is almost exclusively as a result of discomfort. "You are too close, get away from me!"

To help a dog feel more comfortable, you have to help them BEFORE they start the "rehearsal" of the behavior. If the pattern is currently 1) I see a dog 2) Eventually I will bark and lunge at that dog. You need to change the pattern to 1) I see dog 2) I am calm.

This is how it works: If your dog currently is routinely in a situation where she ends up barking, she can start to predict the discomfort that will eventually happen and get more anxious earlier in the process. I think about it as getting anxious about getting anxious.

I like to use an analogy to a human experience to help my clients understand. If you are terrified of roller coasters, you might get anxious as soon as one of your friends even suggests going to the amusement park. You can already predict how you will feel at the park and start to go over that feeling in your head. Now think about how you might feel driving to the amusement park, walking through the gate, etc. The ANTICIPATION of the event can actually be stressful.

The same process happens with dogs. I usually get calls from new clients when their dog's behavior has gotten worse. "They used to be ok with dogs about 10 feet away, and now they bark when the dog is 50 feet away!"

So now, how do you fix the problem? I will post a more detailed answer at some point . . . want more info . . . comment on this post and I will do it faster . . . .

The main point I want to talk about today is the very common practice of having a dog sit when she growls or barks. Not inhumane, not always a bad idea, but . . . often it can send a dog into an anxiety-ridden tailspin.

If your dog is anxious 20 feet from a dog and you have her sit, she is MORE vulnerable sitting. If you have done lots of training and sitting is a conditioned response, now you've done it. Part of her brain is telling her to sit, and part of her brain is telling her to fight or flee (the two instinctual reactions when any animal is in panic mode). So now what can happen is your dog is anxious. She wants to run away or fight but is told to do something else that will make her more vulnerable.

What should you do? Move her away and desensitize her to the event so she doesn't even start to feel anxious.

Teach Emergency STOP!

On Friday I met a client for the first session and met his wonderful 1.5 year old Labrador Retriever named Riley. Our session ended after some fantastic leash work, placement cues and some work on Stay. As I was leaving, my client opened the door for me just as a delivery man was opening the door on the ground level. My client immediately saw the worst. The door was open, the gate was open and Riley ran through both.

We immediately raced after him and, thankfully, Riley did not make it to the very busy street one block away.

But, that reminded me of the importance of all dogs learning Emergency Stop. My client and I will be working on that during the next session, but it takes a while to "stick". So better management around open doors is first on the list for my client to practice.

Here are the steps. As with any positive reinforcement dog training, there are a number of ways to teach the same behavior. Here are a couple.

Strategy One

1. Start out with a 6 foot leash
2. Place a toy or treat that your dog likes 10 feet away
   
3. As she walks away from you say, "Stop" and gently stop her movement
4. AS SOON as she is stopped Click (if you are using a clicker) or say, "Yes"
5. She should turn around after hearing the Clicker or the word "Yes", but if not, give her a treat no matter which direction she is looking
6. Do 5 repetitions of this and continue below
7. My definition of Stop is for a dog to do a "U-turn" and turn around and look at me. So if she if she is not already doing that, you will now add that requirement to the behavior. So now your expectation is "Stop moving AND turn around and look at me"
8. Move a bit farther away from the toy or treat on the ground and add a little noise with your mouth after she has stopped moving. Then, when she turns around, 'Click' or say, "Yes"
9. The goal is that she starts to anticipate the word "Stop" with something behind her after she stops moving. It is almost as if we want her to turn around and say, "What?"

Troubleshooting

1. Move farther away from the object that she is moving towards before starting the exercise
2. Stop her more quickly after saying "Stop" (always gently)
3. Provide "help" more quickly after she stops so she turns around more quickly. Helpers include a kissing noise with your mouth, tapping your leg, etc.
   
4. Think of this as a reflex exercise that is only successful after the necessary repetitions. Do not get frustrated. Practice daily in different situations.
   
5. Practice on a walk every time you walk up to a curb and eventually she will associate the curb with "Stop" and will start to do it on her own
6. Move to fixed length - not retractable - long leashes (12 feet or more) and continue practicing. Make sure you do not "clothesline" your dog. If she is moving quickly do not stop her too quickly. You should move to a short leash until you have more reliability if this is happening frequently.
   

Strategy Two
You can do this one if your dog loves toys. Use her favorite toy that you know she will chase. As long as you are in a safe, enclosed area, she doesn't even need to be on leash for this one.

1. Take her favorite toy that you know she loves to chase
2. Pretend to throw it
   
3. When she takes steps towards the direction you "threw it", say, "Stop"
4. As soon as she turns around (help her with a noise with your mouth if you need to) 'Click' or say, "Yes" and throw it the opposite direction you originally "threw it"
   
5. What you are doing is associating the word "Stop" with her action of turning around and running the opposite direction
6. That is what Stop looks like!!! Yippeee!
   

Visit http://WatchandTrain.com for streaming dog training videos for more tips and techniques like these. Each video comes with a free, orientation video as well as downloadable notes with more helpful tips and tidbits.

Corrections

While working with a private client on Wednesday, we ran into another local Chicago trainer. It was interesting, because we were both teaching our clients the exact same lesson, using different philosophies. The goal was to have our dogs meet each other calmly. My client and I were walking a 2 year old wheaton terrier, and the other trainer and his client each had a dog that they were working with.

I used one of many strategies to get Misty to greet nicely. In this case, I asked her to watch me. Each time she watched me, she got to move a bit closer to the other dog. At a certain point I "lost her" and I moved her gently away and started again. So much of this strategy revolves around two things. Teaching a dog to pay attention and not be single-minded on the other dog and also through repetition teach her to "ask for permission" by checking in before greetings.

As we got closer to the other trainer and the two dogs, I noticed that each dog was wearing a choke chain. Anyone that knows me knows that I do not ever recommend using one of these "tools" for training. By definition, it adds pain to stop a behavior. This is called positive punishment. Often trainers will incorrectly label it negative reinforcement which is something different.

I heard the trainer tell his client that her dog should greet another dog on her terms and that she should "correct" him if he gets up from his sit too quickly. While I did not see her actually do this, this often means giving a pop with the leash to stop the dog's forward movement using the discomfort of the choke chain to help this happen.

On my way home I thought how unfortunate it was that while we were all teaching our dogs the same lesson, the word "correction" in the other trainer's case refers to adding discomfort or pain in the lesson. In my lessons, I "correct" a dog's actions by gently moving her away from her current location until she is able to focus on the task at hand and then continue the lesson.

The most troubling aspect of the word "correction" used in the physical sense is that it implies that there is a clear "right" and "wrong" and it is ok to punish dogs if they make the wrong decision. My strategy focuses on making sure that dogs understand what is expected of them and I encourage, motivate and reward the right decisions. If they make a "mistake" I don't hold it against them or decide that they are wrong. I look at the whole picture including the current location, the age of the dog, the amount of training the dog has had and adjust my expectations from there.