Puppy Fun and Focus - Week 3
What have we done in class? Again, some very important exercises. Getting the pups used to being handled is a must in order to prevent drama at the vets, around nail trimming and grooming. You will regret not having done it while your pup was still young, so please don't let it get to that.
It is important you start your leash walking training early as anytime your pup pulls on the lead it will get harder to train them not to.
And of course the Touch cue was so easy already. It’ll become your best trick! It helps them refocus on you, you can use it to move them to a certain point, like on the scale or out of the way and pups usually find the cue itself quite fun. Remember, you can use a cue as a reinforcer for a previous cue. :)
Please make use of practising obedience in playtime at the end of class. Getting a dog that is happy to respond to their owners even when playing with their mates is not easy, but we have the perfect platform to work on this. Our pups need to understand there is no disadvantage in listening to you, even when there is cool stuff happening. Best choice us your Reflex to Name exercise,
Enjoy the videos and explanations of week 3. Please bring 2 of the same toys for next week for the DROP cue.
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.
REmember what you learned about Distractions last week? Here is how to gradually overcome this…
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.
LOOSE LEASH WALKING
The number 1 rule with lead walking is DO NOT REWARD THE PULLING. If your puppy gets to where they want to go by pulling you are strongly reinforcing this behaviour. That's a frustrating thought, I know, because you sometimes have to get places, but lead walking isn't sorted yet, so what should you do? I personally put a lot of effort into getting my pup keen on her toy the second I got her. That meant for me that if I quickly had to get somewhere I could just play with her on my side and she wasn't pulling while I didn't do lead training. This won't work everywhere, always and with all puppies though. So, you need to find what works for you. While you spend multiple sessions a day doing lead training you should still be able to go to the park. There are different options to do this. If your puppy is happy being carried and the park is close you could do this and then just pop them on a harness and a long line. Alternatively you can have them in a buggy or drive them with your car to the park. The same counts for coming into the training location, don't let them pull. You have learned a valuable approach to lead walking in our last session. As long as you put the time into doing the training, you will see great progress. Remember you start with 1 step and then go to 2 and then to 3 and so on in your living room. Once you have reached 10 steps with your pup on a lose lead and stopping as soon as you stop to look at you, you can now go to a harder environment, like your backyard. Start at 1 step again and work your way up to 10. Then front yard, driveway and so on. Make it a game to get to more steps and soon you can make it to the park. :)
Walks with your dog are much more enjoyable when your dog is beside you on a loose leash instead of pulling ahead of you! Loose leash walking is a skill that takes patience, consistency and practice. It’s much easier if you start this from puppyhood.
Equipment - The best equipment to use is a good fitting harness. Check the leash and harness clips to ensure they won’t break. A harness does not encourage the dog to pull unless they already have a prior association of pulling with it and if they do have an association with it, find a different harness to create a new no-pulling association. While loose-leash-walking-training is in progress, drive to the park and use a long line (10 metres) to give your dog sniffing opportunities without pulling on the lead. Watch here how a nice mooch-walk could look like, note: the dog is leading the walk, but can be invited to change direction if necessary. It's a really nice video that hopefully makes you consider a different approach to your outings that are there for your dog. A 20 minute walk where your dog actively uses its nose is as valuable as a 50 minute run.
Follow Me! The principles of loose leash walking are essentially teaching your dog to follow you, not the other way around, and praising your dog for being beside you and focussed on you. They get rewarded for stopping when you stop. Beside you is the best place for your dog to be because that’s where they love to hang out and all the good stuff happens. When dogs pull on the lead they are rewarded by getting where they want to go and we get pulled along behind them. Instead, you want to reprogram your dog’s thought process so that they think having a loose leash is what enables them to move forward.
Happy loose leash walking!
These are some random puppies from class showing their lead walking training in week 6. They walk with their mums and dads on a loose lead and when the owners stop, the pup stops and looks at them. Please note, that technically the pups could be sniffing around while walking. There is no need for them to look up whole time, only when the walker stops.
Looking forward to seeing you in week 4 for recall training, DROP and STAY! :)