(private information for SCDR AND CBBR)

Distractions

o  Dogs can’t generalise well. This explains why owners often say their dogs are stubborn. “He knows the ‘sit’, but won’t do it in the park”. Watch here why: 

Add Distraction and Different Settings

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 command 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 command 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 command with some distraction, begin practicing in different places, such as another room, the backyard, and the neighbor'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 command.

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 behavior.

He should now be able to perform the behavior as well at the dog park as he does it in your living room. Once you've gotten to this point, the behavior 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 behavior in the environment your dog initially learned it. This will ensure that the cue and the behavior are at the forefront of their mind
  • When you do move to a new environment, lower the standard at which you expect the behavior to be performed at – offer praise and reward if they offer the correct behavior, regardless of sloppiness
  • Play attention games first to ensure your dog is in the right frame of mind and thinking fast.

Poisoning the Cue

If we have poisoned a cue we have basically destroyed the strong reinforcement history that we originally created with our continuous reinforcement schedule and therefore our pups are less likely to perform the behaviour to the given cue. This can happen in different ways, one is certainly by punishing the dog for not performing the behaviour. The cue now no longer seems safe and therefore the pup doesn't have the automatic response to follow it anymore. The way of 'correcting' the fact that the pup didn't perform the behaviour should therefore be to take a step back and work with less expectations, less distractions or higher valued rewards in order to build up to this specific situation. Remember what you learned about dogs and their ability to generalise! Another way of poisoning the cue is by stopping the continuous reinforcement schedule too early or by not maintaining a high enough rate of reinforcement for the majority of the time. One way of doing this is by overusing cues. "Fluffy, Sit, Sit, Sit, Sit", "Fluffy, Come, Come, Here, Come".

Now, get ready to have your mind blown. ;) Once a cue has a strong reinforcement history you can use the cue to reinforce a previous behaviour in a chain. What does that mean? If I ask my dog to 'Sit' and once she has done well, I now ask her to 'Shake' I am using the 'Shake' cue to reinforce the 'Sit' cue. The more you work with chains the less you have to reward every single behaviour because the next cue is reinforcing enough. So long the cue is well-established positive.

DISPLACEMENT BEHAVIOUR

Often described as the dog ignoring the owner and ‘mucking about’ or 'being stubborn', displacement is the dog's way of showing you (unconsciously) that he or she is becoming bored, stressed or simply confused. This can for example happen when we are inconsistent or asking for too much of our dogs. When it happens, stop and consider what is happening and why. Don't tell your dog off as they are not defying you. Take notice of the dog’s behaviour at all times, if he starts to show signs of displacement then you need to ensure that the approach to the training or the environment is changed so that he starts to focus for the available reinforcement. In some cases you may even need to stop the session and reconvene at a later date with a more suitable environment or training plan.