Clicker Training Archives - Page 6 of 46

Advanced Stay: Part 2 (Video)

September 25, 2014

Making your dog’s “Stay” work for you.

Once your dog understands the concept of stay (stay right where you are, I’ll come back to you and release you when it’s ok to come with me), you can start building on the “real-life” value of the behavior.

By now, you’ve already taught your dog each of the three individual components of stay: duration, distraction, and distance.

Now the real fun starts! it’s time to start putting those together. You start, of course, with just two of the elements and making sure your dog has a pretty good chance of getting clicked and reinforced.

Remember, your job as teacher of your dog is to make the exercise challenging, yet ensuring your dog can succeed.

What if you make a mistake?

Ok, so maybe you overestimated your dog’s skills and he went after the toy you tossed or came to you when you said his name — instead of staying planted where you asked him to “stay.” No worries, it’s not a big deal. Simplify the exercise — make it a little easier — so you can get your dog a click and a treat. So if you were tossing a toy (distraction) while you were 5 feet away (distance) from your dog, and he went for the toy, just shorten the distance (maybe stand 2.5 feet away) and toss the toy away from your dog. If your dog is successful, click and treat, then move maybe 3 feet away and toss away from your dog.

It’s pretty easy to make quick progress when you set your dog up for success.

Kinda makes you wonder why people do it any other way, doesn’t it?

Talk back! Share your success of teaching your dog to stay! Leave a comment below, we’d love to hear from you.

Teaching an Advanced Stay

September 18, 2014

Sit. Stay.

The doorbell is ringing, the dog is barking. You struggle with your dog, hanging onto his collar with one hand, unlocking and opening the door with the other, holding on for dear life so the dog doesn’t bolt out the door or jump on the person outside.

Or. Imagine this.

The doorbell is ringing. You ask your dog to sit and to stay. You walk to the door, dog sitting calmly behind you, sign for the package, thank the delivery person, and close the door.

BAM! That’s how it’s done!

Teaching your dog a solid, advanced stay isn’t hard. First, of course, you have to teach your dog how to stay (see our article on how to do that). Once your dog knows the basics, all you have to do is add the three D’s: duration (how long he can stay), distractions (how crazy his surroundings can be), and distance (how far away you can be).

Set your dog up for success.

Start by working at a level you know he can accomplish. If you know you can take a few steps away, start there! Don’t start by trying to walk 10 feet away. Introduce just two components at a time. For instance, work on distractions and distance, without adding in duration. YET.

Levi’s service dog training.

Levi is going to be in public a lot. Distractions abound. The number of hands that reach out to pet him while he’s shopping with me could be overwhelming if Levi didn’t have a good stay. If we don’t perfect this now, he could leave his person’s side, thereby breaking the attention he has on his handler (someone who needs his help, like a person with diabetes or someone in a wheelchair, for instance).

Levi’s goals.

By our next training session with the service dog organization, our goal is to have Levi holding a stay while food or toys are tossed near and at him, while people are calling his name and talking to him, and while I walk away from him and interact with someone else.

We’ll be working on these goals over the next few weeks so stay tuned for more Levi and more stays! Here’s a quick pic of sweet Caysun, one of our previous pups in training. She’s in a mall, handling that stay like nobody’s business!

Talk back! Leave a comment and let us know a situation in which the stay could come in real handy.

Dog Training 401: Get Your Dog to Do WHAT You Want WHEN You Want

September 3, 2014

This is the fourth article in a series designed to bring the nuts and bolts of dog training directly to dog owners so you can work with your dog at home. Our past articles have explained the laws of behavior, how to change behavior, and how to get your dog to do the right thing. Logically, our next article covers how to get your dog to do what want when you want it.

Cues are our focus in this article. Cues are the key to getting your dog to do what you want, when you want. It’s how you label behaviors, and – once labeled – you can ask for (and get!) them whenever you want. Sounds cool, yeah? We did a video and article on cues not too long ago, but didn’t go into this depth — it’s a good overview.

What’s a cue?

Cues make all the difference in the world. Cues are how we tell our dogs how they can produce a favorable outcome. Back in the day, people used the word “command” when talking about dog training. That word doesn’t really fit into today’s well-developed training system. We aren’t saying to our dogs “Sit. OR ELSE.” We’re saying: “I’m giving you the chance to earn a goodie. Sitting now will guarantee you will be reinforced.” The difference may seem slight at first, but as the ripples go across the water, they get more pronounced. A cooperative dog is much more reliable than a dominated dog. (Applies to people, too!)

Why are cues important?

Imagine that you’ve got a dog who can do loads of things. He can sit, down, come when called, stay, roll over, speak, crawl, high five, play dead – you name it, he can do it! That’s half the battle: it’s what trainers call “getting the behavior on the dog.” Most dog owners can get that piece of the puzzle – getting the behavior on the dog. But where most people fall down is getting the behavior to happen when (and only when) you ask for it.

Cues are the solution to getting a handle on the “shake” behavior so your dog isn’t hitting you with paw every time he wants a treat. It’s how you get your dog to “speak” only when you ask for it. It’s how we get the service dogs to get something out of the refrigerator only when we ask. Can you imagine teaching the dog only how to do the behavior and then not finding a way to ask for it?! Nightmares, it gives me nightmares!

How many dogs have you seen who will run through their entire repertoire of behaviors. They don’t necessarily listen to what you’re asking for, they’re just spitting out behaviors until you click and feed them. How frustrating must that be for the dog?! Not to mention inconvenient and inefficient for us, the people.

Here’s a human example that might better illustrate the point. Your boss doesn’t tell you what he wants you to do when you come into the office. He just lets you do all the different tasks your job encompasses until you hit upon the right one. He then tells you

Cue types. There are lots of different types of cues. The ones most of us are familiar with are words (verbal) and hand signal (visual). Yes, those are the most common, but there are lots more! A cue is anything your dog can perceive. Dogs can perceive smell (this is how a diabetic alert dog does his job – he sniffs the bodies production of acidic ketones) and then perform a specific behavior (dog bumps his nose into person’s leg, indicating a change in blood sugar). Dogs also perceive sounds (other than your voice). Anyone’s dog bark in response to the doorbell? That doorbell is a cue for the dog! Touch can be a cue, too. Some dogs, if touched lightly on the shoulder, move over a step.

Cues in (your) real life.

Visual: Stoplight – red means stop, green means go. Signs – “Closed” means the doors are locked, “Open” means the doors are unlocked.

Auditory: Telephone ringing – someone’s calling you. Microwave beeping – food is done.

Smell: Smell of smoke – check the oven! Smell of bread: salivate, get butter out of fridge, etc.

Think of all the things you do in your life and why you do them. Most of them are cued in one way or another. It’s fascinating to realize how much we do depends on cues from either people or the environment.

Cue rules.

Simple cues are the best (one word, one hand signal, etc.)
Pick one type of cue (verbal or visual or smell, etc.)
Give the cue once (just once, this is so hard!)
Make sure everyone in the family (dog walkers, too!) uses the same cue
If you don’t ask for a behavior, you don’t pay for it

Here’s a little more on that last bullet point. Sometimes people say “But he’s sitting! That’s good!” Yes, sitting is good. But it’s good only if you’ve asked for it. Confused? Here’s an example to clear things up: A landscape service cuts your lawn by mistake – they read the address wrong and should’ve cut your neighbor’s lawn — but they still want to be paid because “well, we did the job.” If you pay them, they might come back next week – you’re an easy source of $120 each week! But if you tell them, “thanks so much, I’m very appreciative that you cut my lawn, but I didn’t ask you to do the job, therefore I’m not going to pay you,” they won’t be back next week. If you don’t ask for the behavior, you don’t pay it. Otherwise, the cue means nothing.

How to add a cue.

If you’re teaching a new behavior, adding a cue is really simple. First, you shape or capture the behavior (See Dog Training 301 for exactly how to do that). Once the dog is volunteering the behavior willingly, then it’s time to add the cue.

Timing is important. You want to be willing to bet $100 that the dog will volunteer the behavior before you start adding the cue. Let’s say you’ve clicked and reinforced your dog for offerin
g his paw and he’s always offering that behavior now. Good! The behavior is now predictable. We love predictable. Predictable lets us add the cue (word, gesture, whatever) immediately before the behavior is going to happen. We’re giving the cue because the behavior is about to happen, not to make the behavior happen in the beginning.

After 15 – 20 trials where you give the cue immediately before the behavior (and you’ve clicked and reinforced the dog for doing the behavior), begin to back the cue out of the sequence a bit. For instance, if you’re working on your dog’s “down” behavior, you’d begin by giving the cue right as the dog starts to lie down. Then, after 15 – 20 repetitions, you’d give your cue a second before the dog begins to lie down, clicking and reinforcing all the correct behaviors.

If the dog volunteers the behavior before you’re able to give the cue, ignore the behavior. Eventually, we need the dog to notice the cue and offer the behavior because of the cue, not simply volunteer the cue. By ignoring uncued behaviors, we’re helping the dog understand the value of the cue, of the “ask.”

Your homework: Take a look at the cues you already have in place.

Note which behaviors are “on cue” and which behaviors are still simply volunteered. Also how many behaviors have more than one cue (you’re moving and talking, for instance)? You’ll need that for next month’s article which will detail how to clean up your cues – the cleaner your cues, the cleaner (more accurate, consistent, reliable) your dog’s behavior will be!

Cues: How to Ask Your Dog to Do Something – Video

August 7, 2014

Ever wonder why your dog doesn’t do what you ask?

Could be that it’s the way you’re asking. Cues (not commands) are a vital component of solid dog training. Often, understanding just a bit about cues and cueing can take your dog’s behavior from so-so to outstanding.

First, what is a cue, exactly?

Good question! A cue is technically anything the dog can perceive — it can be a word, a noise, a movement, a smell. You name it: if the dog can notice it, it can be a cue.

Anybody have a dog whose dog goes a little bonkers when they see the suitcase come out of the closet? Yep, that’s a cue! The dog has associated an action (your leaving) with the suitcase.

A cue can be a word or a phrase.

In our house “Who wants a biscuit?” means: walk with me to the pantry, you’re about to get a goodie.

Cues are the way we ask a dog to do something.

Cues exist in our own life, too.

A green traffic light is a cue, for example. It means “you can move forward now.” A red light is a cue, too: “stop!”

When dogs don’t listen to us, we sometimes blame the dog.

He’s stubborn. He’s hard headed. He just doesn’t listen. But what if — just maybe — we were part of the problem? <Gasp!>

Maybe you say “C’mere” sometimes, but other times you say “Come!” Or maybe someone else says “C’mon!” And the dog is somehow supposed to know that all those different words mean “move to me as quickly and directly as possible?” No way!

Back to our traffic light example: what if the traffic light showed a green light and a yellow light at the same time? What the heck does that mean?! Who knows! Everyone would probably interpret that a little differently: go, stop, go slowly, go but look both ways, etc. See how confusing that would be?

That’s how easy it is to confuse our own dogs.

We’re just scratching the surface with our Dog Training 101 series.

We just published Dog Training 301, so keep your eyes peeled for more. By the end of our series, you’ll be at the top of the dog training class!

Dog Training 301: Dogs Behaving Badly

August 7, 2014

This is the third article in a series designed to bring the nuts and bolts of dog training directly to you.

Our past articles have explained the laws of behavior and the tools to modify behavior. Logically, our next article covers how to teach behavior – how to teach your dog to do what you want.

You already know, from the last article, that teaching what you want your dog to do is much easier than telling him all the things you don’t want him to do. So: now what? Knowing what you should be doing provides only half of the solution. Now you need to know how to do it.

Consider the laws of behavior from our first article:

if you reinforce a behavior, you get more of it and
a behavior that doesn’t get reinforced goes away. With that information, you have the first piece of the puzzle: find the behavior you like, tell the dog you like it, and reinforce it!

Let’s look at each of those things in a little more detail so you can start teaching your dog new – appropriate and desirable – things to do (instead of the annoying and inappropriate things).

Gather your tools.

You’re going to need a way to tell the dog exactly when he does what you like and then reinforce that behavior, too. So you’re going to need two things: a clicker (or other similar noisemaker) and tiny, pea-sized pieces of food (the tastier the food, the better). Go ahead – use real people-food! It usually works quickly and – bonus – you can eat it, too!

Identify the behavior you like.

The behavior you like is probably the opposite of what your dog is currently doing. Finish this sentence: Instead of jumping (or whatever behavior you don’t like), I would like my dog to do ____________. You know you don’t like jumping. But what would you like the dog to do instead of jumping. You have to know that before you go to the next step. Focus on just one or two things like “stand” or “sit.” Your answer can’t contain “don’t jump!”

Mark the behavior you like.

The two new vocabulary words in this article are:

capture and
shape.

These are the two ways we’re going to “get behavior.”

Capture. When you capture behavior, you get the whole thing at once. Dogs don’t sit a little bit at a time – they either sit or they don’t. There’s no sitting halfway. So sitting is an easy behavior to capture. Lying down is another easy behavior to capture – there’s not really a way for a dog to “lie down a little bit.”

Shape. When you shape a behavior, it’s a lot like shaping a piece of clay. You start out with a big blob of clay, and then as you work your hands through the clay, you shape it to the size and dimension you’d like. It happens a little at a time – you can’t go from a ball of clay to a bowl in just one step; it takes time to get the clay moved around in just the right way to make a bowl. Shaping behavior is done the very same way: you start with a goal behavior, then from the raw material and you selectively click for closer and closer approximations toward the goal.

Real Life Example

Your complaint: The dog won’t listen.

(That’s not specific enough – what do you specifically want the dog to do?)

Your revised complaint: The dog jumps on visitors when they come into the house.

Desired behavior: The dog stands (acceptable) or sits (preferred) when people come into the house.

Behavior you’ll capture: standing or sitting.

After you capture standing or sitting, we still need to give that behavior a word (put that behavior on cue) and strengthen it so it will happen with distractions (when people ring the doorbell), and duration (so the dog can hold the sit for awhile, so people can enter and the dog remains seated). Next month’s article will teach you how to put that behavior on cue.

How to Capture

Have your clicker handy during the times you think it’s likely the dog will sit. Keep an eye on the dog and click whenever he voluntarily sits. It’s really important to note that at this step you’re not asking the dog to sit. You’re just marking it (with the clicker) and reinforcing it (with the delicious, tiny piece of food). Your timing is important: click the clicker the instant your dog’s bum hits the floor. It’s ok if he gets up to eat the treat – with enough repetition, the dog will soon understand that it’s the act of putting his bum on the floor that gets you to click him and he’ll be volunteering the behavior more frequently.

How to Shape

Shaping works best for behaviors that aren’t likely to happen all at once. Take, for instance, lying on a mat. If you plan to capture that behavior, you’ll be waiting a long time – it’s simply too much of a behavior to think that a dog would volunteer that entire behavior all at once.

To shape the behavior, place an appropriate sized mat (I use bathroom mats for this) on the floor between you and the dog. Stand with your feet centered in the middle of the mat, but behind the mat (not on it). Wait for your dog to voluntarily place a paw on the mat. Have that clicker ready – you’re going to click the same instant the dog’s paw touches the mat. Toss the treat off the mat so all the dog’s paws leave the mat. Tossing the treat off the mat sets the dog up so he’s able to come back onto the mat and earn a click and a treat. Within about 20 clicks, your dog will begin to understand that there’s something interesting about that mat and start hanging around in that area more often. Of course, the more often your dog’s hanging out there, the more often he’ll get clicked and treated! Before you know it, the dog is getting a click and treat every single time!

When you see the dog is getting clicked frequently (about 8 times a minute), you hold your click until the dog happens to put two paws on the mat. Repeat the entire process until the dog is putting three paws, then finally all four paws on the mat. The next logical step, after getting all four feet on the mat, is for the dog to sit on the mat.

After the dog is reliably coming to the mat and putting all four paws on the mat, you simply don’t click that any longer. Don’t say anything – just wait. Be ready, though, because you’re going to click the instant your dog sits. Don’t ask him to sit, most dogs will volunteer the sit.

After the dog has figured out that the new way to earn a click is walking onto the mat and sitting, then you’ll click (and always treat) only when the dog lies down on the mat.

It’s not nearly as hard as it sounds! I teach this in all my group classes at Smart Dog University, and I love the surprise in my clients’ eyes when they see their dog volunteering the sit and then the down on the mat!

Here’s our service pup in training, Levi’s, first shaping experience with the mat.

http://youtu.be/a_zWUa2IMZ0

Next month, you’ll learn how to associate a signal (word, hand signal, etc.) to that behavior so you can then ask for it when you need it. If you missed either of our two previous articles, be sure to go back and read them – it’ll make this “chapter” make a lot more sense!

Photo courtesy of Popofatticus.

Dog Training Explained in Plain Language

July 31, 2014

Do you ever feel like you have to be an expert in something if you want to do something yourself?

Smart Dog University is here to bring dog training to you in a simple, easy to understand format so you can do it yourself!

Here’s a quick video on three of the most common dog training terms and their easy to understand definitions. It’s a must-watch if you have a dog and want to train him.

Talk back! What terms give you pause?

What else would you like to learn about through our Smart Dog University video series? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Menu

Clicker Training