Teach Archives - Page 12 of 16 - Smart Dog University

Secrets to Dog Training Success: Redirect, Substitute, Reward

March 5, 2014

The dog is playfully grabbing your pants, tugging and growling, having the time of his life.

You, on the other hand, aren’t enjoying this at all.You’re saying “No! Get off! NO!” to no avail. The dog is still hanging on, tugging harder even. Everything you do seems to make the situation worse – the dog seems to be enjoying himself even more. What’s a good dog owner to do?

I’m here with the answers that will solve 80% of your problems.

There are three things you need to do: redirect your dog to do something else, substitute what he has in his mouth to something more appropriate, and then (this is the part that most people forget, yet is just as important as the other two things) reward the dog for doing the right thing. Let’s break these three elements down into smaller pieces, so you can use each of them to make your life a little easier (and your dog’s, too).

Redirect Your Dog

What is it? Redirect is a fancy way of saying “do this, not that.” Instead of barking at the cat, for instance, how about coming to me and sitting? When you redirect your dog’s attention away from something, you’re in effect, setting your dog up for success. And isn’t that what we’re ultimately after anyway – a dog that makes the right choices? A dog that does the right thing? It’s much more fun to say “Good dog!” than it is to say “No!” (For you and your dog.)

When should you use it? The key to redirection is to use it early. Redirect your dog before he’s invested in whatever havoc he’s ready to wreak. It doesn’t do much good to redirect your dog after he’s dug a hole under the fence. That’s a little too late. The ideal time to redirect a digging dog is the instant he begins to dig. Or, really, the perfect time is just as you see him sniffing for the perfect spot to dig.

How do you do it? To redirect your dog, simply call his name in a happy voice. This is crucial – so many people use a harsh, demanding voice to get their dog’s attention. You’re setting yourself up for failure by doing this. I understand how tempting it is to do this; to demand that the dog look at you. Demands will get you only so far with your dog. Demanding is short sighted. Demands will eventually fail you. You can’t go wrong with cooperation and a dog that wants to listen to you. After calling your dog’s name, when he looks at you, give him something else to do instead of whatever he’s about to do. For example, if your dog is getting ready to dig, call his name and take off running. He’ll enjoy a game of chase and you have interrupted the digging. Great work – you stopped a habit before it got a chance to put down roots.

Substitute Bad Things with Good Things

What is it? Substitution is exactly what you think it is: giving the dog something else to chew on, rip apart, jump on, instead of what he’s currently chewing, ripping, jumping. For instance, if your dog is chewing on your arm, substituting a chew toy is very effective. Your dog needs to do doggie things, but you don’t have to accept that because the dog needs to chew, it’s ok that he chews on your arm, your pants, your sofa, the leash, etc. You can choose to substitute appropriate items so that your dog is engaging only with the things you want.

When should you use it?

Use substitution anytime and anywhere the dog is ruining something, making a mess, aggravating a person/dog/wildlife, etc. Basically, use substitution liberally!

How do you do it?

Substitution is fairly easy – simply offer your dog the alternative item or activity. For instance, if your dog is chewing on your wooden coffee table, substitute a hard chew toy. Your message is “I know you need to chew. Chew on this, not that.”

Reward Your Dog

What is it? Rewarding your dog tells him that you like what he’s doing. If you reward frequently, you can eliminate yelling, punishing, and corrections from your repertoire of training tools. Sound too good to be true? It’s a fact: dogs do what works. If you reward your dog for doing something you like, he will repeat it. Period. The more he repeats the good behavior, the less he’ll engage in the bad behavior, solely because he gets rewarded for the good behavior. All of that can happen without corrections, honest.

When should you use it? It’s really hard to overuse rewards! In fact, people don’t use rewards enough in their daily interactions – with dogs and with people! Basically, if your dog isn’t doing something bad, you should be rewarding him. “Wait a minute,” I hear you saying. “I can’t reward my dog all the time, he’d be a fat pig if I gave him a treat for not being bad!” You’ll notice I didn’t say, “feed a treat.” I simply said “reward.” My dogs think all of these things are rewarding: chasing me, being chased, playing, going outside, coming inside, getting on the couch, getting out of the crate, going into the crate, getting a treat, getting a belly rub, hearing me talk in a high-pitched voice, playing with a toy with me, and the list is almost endless. Make your own list of things your dog enjoys and use those rewards liberally when your dog is doing something you like. And remember: if it’s not bad, you should be rewarding it!

Redirect, substitute, and reward – for many basic dog issues, these three tools will improve your dog’s behavior and decrease your stress level in dealing with them.

Remember, the key to good behavior is setting your dog up to succeed from the beginning. If you wait to intervene until after there’s already a problem, it’ll take longer to get back to “good dog” than if you start out with these three tools.

Talk to me.

What do you think of substituting, redirecting, and rewarding? Does it sound too good to be true? Or have you had success with these tools? Leave a comment and let me know!

How to Teach Your Dog to Settle

February 27, 2014

The doorbell rings, and chaos reigns.

The dog is barking at the door, you’re trying to pull him back so he doesn’t run out when the door opens — all the while your guests are waiting on the other side of the door, out in the cold. And once the guests are inside, now the dog is jumping on them!

There’s an easy solution: teach your dog to settle.

Wouldn’t it be nice if your dog could run to his bed, lay quietly and wait until your guests come in the door? Settle is the answer you’ve been looking for.

To teach this, start with some really good treats in a bowl, your clicker, and an appropriately sized mat. (A bath mat from your local big box store works perfectly for teaching this. Inexpensive, portable, and won’t slide around.)

Step 1: Drop the mat down in front of you and be ready to click the instant the dog steps a paw on the mat.

Step 2: When you click, deliver a treat off the mat. We need the dog to hop off the mat, so he can earn another click and treat when he wanders back on.

Step 3: Stay quiet (and patient) as your dog figures out that his foot on the mat earns him a click. Resist the urge to point to, pull your dog over to, or otherwise “help” your dog get to the mat. Let your clicker do all the talking.

Step 4: As your dog catches on, you’ll notice that he’s almost always getting at least one paw on the mat. Great! Now you’re ready to “raise the bar,” and reward only when there are two paws on the mat.

Step 5: Continue to click and treat every time your dog has two pas on the mat until he’s almost always getting at least two paws on the mat. Then raise the bar and click only when there are three paws on the mat. Then only when he has all four paws on the mat.

Step 6: When you’re willing to bet me $100 that your dog will come to the mat and put all four feet on the mat, you’re ready to wait for your dog to sit. The “wait” part is very important — resist the urge to ask your dog to sit. Remain silent. Let the clicker do all the communication. Click only when your dog volunteers a sit (on the mat). I promise you, the sit will happen if you’re patient.

Step 7: After the dog is reliably coming to the mat and sitting automatically, you’re going to wait for him to lie down. Again, no talking, just wait and then click and treat when it happens.

It’s that easy to teach your dog to go settle on a mat.

Things we need to add to make this useful in real life: a name (settle), distractions (doorbell ringing, for instance), distance (so you don’t have to go to the mat with the dog), duration (how long can he stay there?), and direction (so you don’t have to always face the mat in order for this to work).

How to Get Your Dog to Go to the Bathroom When You Ask

February 20, 2014

It’s raining, it’s cold. It’s time to walk the dog.

Don’t you wish you had a way to tell your dog “Hurry up! Let’s get this over with so we can get back inside where it’s dry and warm!”

Here’s a quick video to teach you how to do that! It’s fast, it’s easy, and all my dogs know how to go to the bathroom on cue.

What does it mean to go to the bathroom “on cue?” (And why am I using “cue” instead of “command?”)

When you can ask your dog to do something — and he does it! — you can call that behavior “on cue.” Old-fashioned trainers call it a command. I think it’s a little silly to command anyone, let alone a dog, to go to the bathroom. The thought of it makes me giggle. “I COMMAND YOU to take a tinkle.” Hahahahaha.

What word (or phrase) do you use to tell your dog to do his business? Leave a comment and let me know!

Our permanent three dogs know “Do your business.”
Levi and most of the dogs I raise know “Hurry up.”
Another service dog agency uses: “GitRDone!” (I’m not kidding.)

Puppy Training: Teach Self Control Around Food

February 11, 2014

Labrador puppy looking at treat hand, waiting politely for food. — Levi waits patiently for his treat.

Puppies are like sponges.

They soak up everything — good habits, bad habits, learn new things, and visit new places. When raising a puppy destined for service work, we like to capitalize on that “drink it all in” attitude and give the puppy all the learning he’s interested in taking in.

I thought it would be fun to share with you Levi’s learning goals for his first month in training.

Click on the link below to see the chart. At first glance, it seems like we’re cramming a lot into four short weeks, but puppies love to learn and are capable of learning at least this much (probably more, if you had more time to teach them).

Behavior Chart for Levi’s first month

Each week shows what new concepts the puppy is expected to learn (or at least be introduced to). It’s also expected that we continue teaching everything that was introduced, as we move forward. For example, in Week 2, we’re introducing loose leash walking to Levi, and we’re also expected to continue to advance the skills we introduced in Week 1 such as recall, settle, and hurry up (house training).

I set out to make a video to show you how we teach a puppy the simple task of sitting on cue. Puppies, however, have their own agenda, and Levi took us in a different direction. In this video, Levi is about 11 weeks old, very new to training in general, and has only had maybe one or two clicker training sessions under his belt prior to filming.

What started as a “sit” video turned quickly into a “don’t mug me for the treats” video. No worries, we’ll publish the video on sitting shortly, but in the meantime, this turned out to be a more valuable lesson for Levi, and hopefully for your dog who “mugs” you for food.

How to House Train Your Puppy

February 9, 2014

Need to house train your puppy?

Potty training problems can be frustrating.We’re on our 16th service dog in-training and I’ve had plenty of practice at house training — I’ve developed an efficient and easy system.

I think puppy owners underestimate the number of times a puppy needs to go outside to do his business, which then results in accidents all over the house. The more times your puppy goes to the bathroom indoors, the more “ok” going to the bathroom inside seems to your pup. By the way, this article applies to adult dogs, too, who (for whatever reason) haven’t been house trained.

A schedule is critical for house training success.

Your pup’s potty training will take a lot longer if you don’t stick to a consistent schedule. You need to schedule two primary events:

meals
trips outside

What goes in, must come out. Put your dog’s food down at his regularly scheduled meal time, give him 15 – 20 minutes to eat his meal, then pick up the bowl until the next feeding. Letting the pup graze into his food bowl (called free feeding) sets your pup up for house training failures.

Scheduling the meals at specific intervals gives you the advantage of predicting when your pup needs to be taken outside. Allowing your pup to free feed takes the predictability out of house training and will set you back a few weeks on your house training schedule.

You also need to schedule your pup’s trips outside.

You want to give your pup lots of opportunities to go to the bathroom outside and very few (if any) opportunities to go to the bathroom inside.

Take your puppy out immediately after:

waking from a nap
letting him out of his crate
a vigorous play session
a meal
a big drink from the water bowl
he walks near the door you always go out to take him to the bathroom
he starts sniffing

A quick note about puppy training pads.

Puppy training pads are a poor choice if you want to train your puppy to go to the bathroom outside. Puppy pads have a scent on them that encourages a dog to go to the bathroom. If you want your dog to go outside to do his business, don’t use a puppy pad in the house — you’ll confuse your puppy and house training will take longer.

When you take your pup outside for his frequent bathroom breaks, carry him directly to the area in which you’d like him to do his business. Keep him on a short leash (a Flexi or retractible leash is a poor choice for many reasons). All playtime and walks happen after he does his business — just stand still (silently) until he begins to go to the bathroom.

Putting potty on cue.

I put going to the bathroom on cue so that when I need my pup to go (if I’m in a hurry, if the weather is bad, if we’re at a rest stop on a road trip — the reasons are endless, really), I can tell him when and where to do his business. To teach your pup a “go to the bathroom now, please” cue, simply say the words (we use “hurry up”) as soon as your pup starts to go to the bathroom (either pee or poop). As soon as he’s finished his business, praise him enthusiastically and then play with your pup or take him on a walk around the yard or neighborhood.

No house freedom.

Don’t give your pup a chance to make a mistake inside. Your puppy is too young to be wandering the house (or even the room you’re in) — a mistake will happen, believe me. Keep your pup tethered to you (put the leash on your pup, then hold it or attach it to your belt loop) while you’re watching tv, working on the computer, fixing dinner — whenever you can’t watch your puppy 100% of the time. Following this one tip will cut the number of mistakes your pup can make and makes the house training process much shorter.

Here’s a quick video with service puppy in-training, Levi, detailing how we house train a puppy.

Do you have house training tips that worked for you and your puppy? Please share them here (dog-friendly solutions, of course).

Dog Training: Do This, Not That

February 6, 2014

The new puppy Levi, is doing what normal puppies do: he’s using his teeth to explore.

At the moment, he’s exploring a hand that’s been offered. I hear “Ow! No!” and watch as the offered hand remains well within the puppy’s reach, dangling enticingly, despite the protesting voice.

Again, “Ow, no!” this time with a little more, shall we say, enthusiasm. Yet still, the wiggling fingers dangle oh so close to the puppy teeth.

“Ow! Dang it, stop it!” Finally, I can take no more. The puppy clearly isn’t learning anything. The person clearly isn’t learning anything. I step in and tell the person to simply withdraw their hand from the puppy. The quizzical look surprises me. Doesn’t this make sense to everyone, I wonder? When one touches a hot stove, how many need to reach out again and again to see if it’s still hot? Yet when it comes to a puppy or dog, people don’t seem to come to this logical conclusion.

Maybe the fact that dogs seem to understand to much most of the time that renders people incapable of following basic logic, but I find myself daily instructing people on seemingly straightforward matters that involve dogs.

Whatever the reason, people tend to abandon common sense in their interactions with dogs. I’m here to lobby on behalf of dogs who are quite uncomplicated and need to know what they should be doing, not what you don’t want them to do. This article explains how and why it’s much easier and more efficient to focus on what you’d like your dog to do. It’s a version of Do This, Not That (DTNT), but doggie-style.

Focus on the Do This Part

Too many people focus only on the “Not That” part of DTNT.

And they stop there. Imagine this scenario:

You have a new job and your responsibilities weren’t clearly explained. The phone rings and you answer “Hello, this is Julie” with a smile in your voice. Your boss comes out, slams his hand on the desk and says “No!”

A little later, the phone rings again, you answer with your standard “Hello, this is Julie,” and again your boss emerges, slams his hand on the desk and says “No!”

You go about your day, making copies, filing things, and when it rings, answering the phone. You don’t get any feedback on anything, other than the “No!” when you pick up the phone.

How much are you learning? How confident do you feel in your new job? Do you have any idea why your boss is yelling “No!”? Nope. And pretty soon, you’re going to stop answering the phone altogether because it’s just so confusing as well as aversive.

Now, how about this scenario instead:

You answer the phone when it rings, “Hello, this is Julie” with a smile in your voice. Later in the day, your boss stops by your desk, welcomes you to the team and explains that the company likes the phones answered by stating the company name first. “Acme Production, this is Julie.”

What a difference, right?

In so many ways. All too often, we stop halfway when teaching our dogs. We focus solely on the stopping of something that we forget to teach the dog what to do. And the what to do is the most important part of the equation!

Real Life Examples

I’m raising a puppy again for service work.

He’s 11-weeks old and he’s into everything. If I spent my day focusing on the things he’s doing wrong, there wouldn’t be time for anything else. And I’d just be “putting out fires” all day, not teaching him anything useful.

He tends to bark a lot when he gets overexcited. I could tell him “No!” every time he gets overexcited, but that’d do nothing to calm him down, wouldn’t teach him what to do, and would make me (and him) really frustrated. Instead, I simply separate him from the other dogs (either he’s leashed to me or he’s in his crate) for five minutes or so until he settles down. By doing this, I’m actually teaching him some self control, I’m not letting bad habits develop, and I’m maintaining some sense of peace in the house – for me and the other dogs.

If you want your dog to quit nipping your pants as you go downstairs in the morning, have a stuffed toy at the top of the stairs.

Grab it as you walk down and offer it to the dog instead of having him grab your pants. The dog wants to play. You want to walk unencumbered down the stairs. By offering the toy, you both get what you want! But if you focus solely on “No! No! No!” every time the dog bites your pant legs, you’re going to be pretty frustrated – and so will your dog.

When you feel like all your doing is correcting bad behavior, step away from the problem for a minute (or ten).

Take a break. Grab a cup of coffee, sit down at the table and write down what you’d like the dog to do. Your list should contain no words like “stop doing x,” “quit doing y,” or “listen to me.” I want you to write down specific, achievable things like “I want the dog to chew on his toy instead of me.” Or “I want the dog to sit instead of jump on me.” Or “I want the dog to drop my shoe when I ask him.”

You can solve many of the problems quickly and easily.

Substitute a chew toy for your pants (or hand), ask your dog to sit before he jumps on you, teach your dog to give up things nicely before he steals something again.

The easy, permanent — and fair — solution is to teach your dog what you want him to do.

If you need help finding a qualified positive reinforcement trainer, drop me a line. I’d be happy to help you find someone who can help you and your dog.

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