PRIVATE Puppy PACKAGE - Week 4

What have we done in class? COME and LEAVE IT. I have already mentioned in the past that especially your recall needs a super high reinforcement, so please don't forget that in your training.

We also worked on Long line lead handling which is a skill to practise. Too often we hear "The long line didn't work for us" which tells us that the handler should've practised the lead handling more. It's a great tool and recommended by all recognised trainers all over the world, so please give it a proper shot. It's your secret weapon for a reliable recall. Especially at the very beginning when you start taking your pups out and then again later when they hit adolescent phase. The last thing you want to teach your teenage dog is that ignoring your recall is fine. So, please get a long line (8-10 meters).

Enjoy the videos and explanations of week 4.

If you pay close attention to the following video you might notice a "mistake". Lisa recalls Mousy, says YES when she is with her, but only rewards after the OKAY. She does that because she want her to sit calmly in front of her for a moment and then usually rewards her with the toy (unless she is being distracted with the toy behind the camera). Lisa has build this system up gradually in order to make sure not to break the YES-Marker Contract. She still rewards, but has a slowly build up delay in it. You don't have to do this since it kind of complicates matters.

Once you have done 10-12 short sessions of teaching this behaviour, you can then start to use the cue in real life scenarios. When your dog is doing something you don’t like - like jumping on the kitchen counter, it’s important to not reinforce the dog with a treat after they listen to you to back up. Instead, redirect the dog to doing a behaviour you DO want your dog to do. Like go to his bed or play with his toys on his own. Then at other points in the day, make a habit of reinforcing a few repetitions of the cue. If you reinforce your dog with a treat right after they back up from jumping on the counter, you can inadvertently reinforce a chain of behaviours which includes the one you didn’t like. If your cue doesn’t work in real life scenarios it will need more conditioning by repetition in training sessions where the dog is calm and relaxed.

Stay Training Protocol

Find all Protocols in a downloadable version here.

Here is how to gradually overcome distractions…

When you begin training your dog to do something new, you usually start off in an area that's fairly quiet with very low distraction. Once your dog is able to respond quickly to a cue in this setting, it is time to add some distractions and new settings. Do this slowly, and work on adding one new thing at a time.

Let's look then at how you would proof a "down." Practice the down until your dog is able to respond to the down cue fairly quickly. Then begin to slowly add new things. You can start by adding some distraction. Have another family member come into the room. Practice several times, and then turn on the television while you practice the down. Slowly add more distracting things to his environment, like other dogs, running children, and loud noises. Do all this while practicing the down.

Once your dog is able to lie down quickly on cue with some distraction, begin practicing in different places, such as another room, the backyard, and the neighbour's house. Keep each training session to about 10 minutes, and stay upbeat. If your dog begins making mistakes, go back to the last time he was responding quickly to the cue.

After you have practiced a behavior with different amounts of distraction and in a variety of locations, your dog should have a really good grasp of the behaviour.

He should now be able to perform the behaviour as well at the beach as he does it in your living room. Once you've gotten to this point, the behaviour is proofed!

Some broadly helpful tips for all training if your dog is struggling to keep up include:

Increase the value of their rewards so they have something exciting to spur them on
Practice consistently, yet at a pace your dog is happy with
Treat training like playtime – act bright, cheerful enthusiastic and offer plenty of encouragement at all times.

Here are some more specific tips for proofing that you could also try out:

Before moving to a new environment, practice the behaviour in the environment your dog initially learned it. This will ensure that the cue and the behaviour are at the forefront of their mind
When you do move to a new environment, lower the standard at which you expect the behaviour to be performed at – offer praise and reward if they offer the correct behaviour, regardless of sloppiness
Play attention games first to ensure your dog is in the right frame of mind and thinking fast.

We won’t be practising this exercise in class, but we can’t stress enough how important it is to work on this as much as you can. And who doesn’t like to train their dogs while watching a movie? ;p

Apart from this on-lead exercise you also want to work on giving constructional affection when your pups are chill. If they are relaxing somewhere you could walk up to them and sometimes just calmly put a treat down and leave and sometimes kneel next to them and see if they’d like a cuddle. They might not, so it’s important you wait for the invite.

See you soon.