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Service Dog Training: House Training (aka Potty Training)

Potty training your puppy doesn’t have to be hard.

House Training Schedule for Your Puppy

Start with a schedule and stick with a schedule. Repeat, repeat, repeat. There’s nothing more helpful when potty training a puppy than getting him on a schedule and keeping that schedule. Schedule your pup’s meals. Leave the food down for 20 – 25 minutes, then take it up until the next feeding. Allowing your pup to have free access (called “free feeding”) will slow down your house training efforts.

Schedule frequent trips outside — with your pup on a leash — to give him lots of opportunities to go to the bathroom on the grass. There are good reasons to take your pup on potty breaks on a leash.

  1. You can control your pup — this isn’t play time, it’s pee and poop time.
  2. You are there with your pup to make sure he goes to the bathroom. Too many suburban dog owners just let their pup out in the backyard and assume that business gets done. And then they’re surprised when their pup comes back inside and promptly goes to the bathroom in the house.
  3. You can create the bathroom area in a specific part of your yard. Take your pup to the pee and poop area, stand there, and wait for your pup to go to the bathroom.

You want to take your puppy outside every 30 minutes and after he wakes up from a nap, after an enthusiastic play session, and after he’s eaten.

Supervise Your Puppy

When your pup is inside the house with you, control his access to the rest of the house. Your pup should be in the same room with you at all times (for so many reasons, not just for house training). Wooden or plastic baby gates are easy to find and are relatively inexpensive — there’s no reason not to have at least one in your house. I also use a tether, as well as a crate to help control the pup’s access to the house. Between these three tools, it’s pretty easy to keep your confined so you can “eyeball” your puppy all the time.

It’s important to control your puppy’s access in the house.

Doing this ensures that you will:

  1. teach the puppy to go outside to go to the bathroom
  2. catch on to your pup’s subtle signals that he’s gotta go to the bathroom
  3. make sure he’s not learning to sneak off and pee or poop out of sight. 

More Potty Training Tips

  • Take your pup out the same door every time.
  • Whenever the pup is even remotely close to that door, praise him and take him outside to the potty area.
  • If your pup goes to the bathroom in the house, don’t scold him. You messed up, scold yourself if you feel you must scold someone. Scolding your pup will encourage him to hide when he has to go to the bathroom and it’ll be even harder to teach your pup to go outside.
  • Create a family schedule to share the house training responsibility and so there’s no breakdown in supervision or potty training coverage. It’s really hard to say “I didn’t know I was supposed to be watching the puppy!” if the schedule is posted on the refrigerator.
  • Use an enzymatic cleaner to clean up messes. These enzymatic cleansers actually breakdown the elements of waste and they’re the only thing that will remove the scent. You can’t cover the scent — at least not to a dog’s nose. Dogs can smell 1 tablespoon of sugar in the water it takes to fill two Olympic-sized pools!

It all comes down to YOU.

The more consistent YOU are, the quicker your puppy will learn to go to the bathroom outside. It takes a little bit of planning, but you can have the problem licked in just two short weeks if you get your plan in motion now!

Talk back!

What’s your biggest potty training headache? Have house training hints to share? Leave a comment!

Some Dogs Need This and Other Dogs Need That. Whatever.

Some Dogs Need This and Other Dogs Need That. WHATEVER.

I hear all kinds of things when people find out I’m a professional trainer.

Lots of people will say to me “not all dogs (horses, cats, insert your animal here) respond to things the same way. What works for one dog doesn’t necessarily work for another dog.”

I’ve got news for you.

It all works the same way for every learner, be it dog, horse, cat, or chicken (yes, chickens can be trained!).

The laws of behavior state:

  • Reinforcement increases a behavior.
  • Punishment decreases a behavior.
  • Extinction eliminates a behavior.

Period. End of story.

Now, here’s what does change depending on the learner.

What one learner considers reinforcement does change, just like it does from person to person. Here’s a real-life example.

Let’s say a friend did me a huge favor (like came to let my dogs out 3x a day while the dog sitter worked when I went on vacation — you know who you are, Wendy!). If, as a thank you, I got her a big coconut creme cake, I would actually be punishing that behavior if she hates coconut. If that’s my go-to thank you gift, she’s probably not going to volunteer to help me out in the future.

So even if you really love something, it doesn’t mean everyone else does. I LOVE ice cream. But someone allergic to dairy would not appreciate ice cream for dessert.

It doesn’t matter if I hate pecan pie — if I want to reinforce someone’s kind or helpful behavior, I gotta let my hatred of pecan pie go.

A reinforcer is a reinforcer is a reinforcer. If behavior increases, a reinforcer is involved. Period. Done. Finished.

Quit talking about training and how every animal is different and just get out there and reinforce the behavior you like, for goodness sake.

Dog Training: Puppy Primer

Sleeping_tango_close_chaise Do you know when your puppy’s no longer a puppy?

Socially, your pup turns into an adolescent between 16 and 20 weeks. Yup. Your 9-month old dog isn’t a puppy. Yowza! (They’ll still be growing for many more months, but we’re talking social development here, not physical.)

Lots of people like to chalk their dog’s mis-behavior up to “puppyhood.”

That doesn’t fly around here! Even 10 week old pups can learn the rules and how to follow ’em. So your “crazy 9-month old puppy” is more realistically an out-of-control adolescent dog!

What to do?

First, get that pup into training when she’s still a pup! If your pup is healthy and on a vaccination protocol (if she’s seen a vet and has had her first set of shots), get her in a good, positive reinforcement puppy class right away. We start training our service pups in-training at 8-weeks. A good breeder will start training the pups with a clicker when they are five or six weeks old!

Get her out (safely) often.

Not to a dog park. (ACK!) But to a lot of different locations every week. Think: shopping center, neighborhood (a different street each day), kids play-dates, soccer games, pool, beach, outdoor cafe, sidewalk, country road, the list goes on.

Be consistent.

Be fair. Teach her what she needs to know and be predictable! If you don’t want her on the furniture when she’s full grown, don’t let her on the furniture now!

I want to hear from you:
What do you wish you’d taught your pup when you first brought her (or him) home?
What are you thankful you DID teach your pup?

 

Service Dog Training: Transfer Camp for Talos

Talos (Big T, as I affectionately call him) made the news in Charlottesville, VA.

The Great Dane and his new partner, Kathy, kicked off their Transfer Camp.Transfer Camp helps both the service dog and the recipient familiarize themselves with one another. And a local tv station was there to capture the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Kathy learns all about service dogs.

The law, Talos’ needs, how he can help her, his cues, how to care for Talos, and much more. Talos learns all about Kathy: her gait, how her cues may differ from what he’s used to, her needs, and her personality.

Camp days are long.

They’re tough. There’s a lot of learning and bonding that needs to happen in two weeks. But I know Kathy and Talos are up to that challenge.

Dog Training Tips: Stop Using No!

Does this sound like a dog you’re living with?

Ike is the most energetic puppy I’ve had the pleasure of raising. He’s a Labrador’s Labrador. He wakes up with his tail wagging, ready to go. He’s always happy. He’s always into something.

He also always wants something in his mouth. He IS a retriever, after all. But sometimes, that something is human parts – hands, backside, clothing, whatever. It doesn’t matter to Ike what he grabs, he needs to have it in his mouth.

The typical “no!” doesn’t work (of course). 

Although…you’d be surprised at the owners who hang onto that “no!” even though it’s never worked. But that’s another blog post entirely. Ike is doubly rewarded when he hears “no!” and he succeeds in getting a body part — he gets my arm and  I talk to him — that’s a bonus to his brain.

What to do?

I suppose I could get harsher and more “serious.” Something tells me that wouldn’t work either. It would either energize him more, or worse — make him fearful of me.

Saying “no,” doesn’t work, so what’s an owner to do?

How about this gem: put something else in his mouth so he can’t grab me (my parts or my clothes). Genius, right? It works. It’s fantastic. I’m meeting Ike’s need to have something in that retriever mouth AND I’m able to pet him sans teeth. It’s a win-win.

But here’s the best part:

By positively (and pleasantly, I might add) encouraging Ike to put something else in his mouth, I’m preventing a bad habit (grabbing people’s parts) from taking hold. If a habit’s not there, you’ll never have to break it.

Do you know how much easier it is to prevent a bad habit than it is to break a bad habit?!

Tons easier. Tons. If you’ve got a young dog, or a new-to-you dog, mull this over and then create a plan to help your dog develop good habits. You’ll never have to call me to help break those bad habits. Wait a minute, I should probably delete that sentence…

How To Deal With a Stubborn Dog

“My dog is so stubborn!” “He knows better, he’s just hard-headed.”

Usually, the owner who says these words is frustrated with his dog because the dog’s not listening. In my 15 years of training, I’ve not yet run into a stubborn or hard-headed dog. And I don’t think that’s because I’ve figured out how to screen the stubborn or hard-headed dogs out. I don’t think there are any out there.

What could people mean, then, when they say their dog is stubborn?

I think they think their dog is stubborn, but what they’re really seeing is an untrained dog.

They’ll say things like “He knows I asked him to sit. He’s just being stubborn because visitors are here.”Nope, he’s not being stubborn – he’s too distracted. The environment is filled with lots more exciting things, sitting’s the last thing on the dog’s mind. That doesn’t mean he’s stubborn, that means you haven’t done your training. Yep, I’m putting this one squarely on the owner, not the dog.

Look, if it were that easy for the dog to sit, he’d go ahead and sit! It’s not like sitting is difficult or time consuming. It’s pretty darn easy for a dog to do. So why wouldn’t the dog sit? Not hard-headedness, not stubbornness – it’s lack of training.

When I say lack of training, what I really mean is lack of training in the face of distractions. That’s usually what trips most dogs up, what gives them the label of stubborn and hard-headed.

Nemo<br /><br /><br /> Sticking His Tongue OutTake my own dog, Nemo, as an example. He’s a puller on walks. He likes to go now, go fast, and go far. Logically, it would be much easier and more pleasant for him to walk on a slack leash. A tight leash is (1) a lot of work for the dog – he’s constantly pulling and (2) pretty uncomfortable – the leash is pushing against his trachea and neck muscles. Wouldn’t it be more comfortable for Nemo to slow down a bit and have a nice, enjoyable loose-leash walk? Well, yes, it probably would. So why, then, would Nemo still pull?

Must be because he’s stubborn.  Wrong. He’s excited. He’s over-threshold. He can’t wait to find out what scent the next blade of grass holds. He wants to know which dog peed on the neighbor’s mailbox. He can’t wait to add his own scent. In short, he’s awfully excited to be out on a walk.

He’s far from stubborn or hard-headed. He’s flat out excited. Plain and simple.

But it’s much easier for me to blame Nemo, rather than put the blame where it belongs: on me. I need to spend a lot more time teaching Nemo that a slack leash is the way to get to that next blade of grass or to the neighbor’s mailbox.

What do you do if you think you have a stubborn dog?

Teach him! If you’ve got a stubborn dog who pulls on the leash, get some really good treats (chicken, steak, hot dogs, etc.) and cut them into pea-sized pieces.

  1. Take your clicker and these treats with you on your walk.
  2. When you step out the front door, wait for your dog to look back at you. Don’t say anything to him, just wait.
  3. The instant he looks in your direction, click and give him a goodie.
  4. Take another few steps and stop. Wait for him to look in your direction, click, and treat.
  5. Next, take several steps and when the leash gets tight, stop. Just wait for your dog to turn to look in your direction before you click, treat, and begin to walk again.

Your dog will get the message that the walk will continue when he looks at you. He’ll start to look at you a lot and you’ll then click and treat a lot. When he’s looking at you, he’s probably not pulling on the leash. Voila – you’ve just taught you dog to walk nicely on a leash!

Now you’ve got to add in small distractions.

Make a list of the things that really interest your dog. For Nemo, it’s the smells that really draw him in. He loves to smell the ground, the bushes, the road. Those are Nemo’s distractions – your dog could really notice other dogs, kids on bicycles, joggers, whatever.

The key to success is to start where your dog notices the distraction, but isn’t consumed by it.

If you need to walk 100 yards away from the distraction, that’s ok. You’re the teacher – you set up the environment so your dog can succeed. Click and treat every second your dog doesn’t react to the distraction.

If your dog has a problem with, say jumping on guests, put your dog on a leash before your visitors arrive. You can then prevent the dog from jumping by simply keeping him away from the guests and by asking him to sit.

Make sure he’s really good at sitting, though, without the distractions of the guests!When no one’s at the door, ask him to sit, then open the door. Can your dog sit even when you open the door? If he can’t do it when no one’s there, he won’t be able to do it with actual guests on the front porch. He’s not stubborn, he just doesn’t know how to do it.

The next time you’re tempted to call your dog hard-headed or stubborn, stop and think: did you really teach your dog how to do the behavior? With distractions?

Thankfully, it’s easy to teach the dog how to deal with distractions, it just takes some practice, some good reinforcers, and your trusty clicker.

Talk back!

The science is coming in fast and furious! Lots of research is being done in this area and the results are fascinating. Let me know what you think: If you think your dog is stubborn, what’s in it for your dog to be stubborn?

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