Great Dane Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Smart Dog University

Fear Not (Video)

December 19, 2009

We're always on the lookout for ways to expose Talos to new and unusual sights and sounds. When we were at the Christmas Tree farm we had the chance to get our Christmas tree bundled. The bundler is loud and big. And there was plenty of room to move away if Talos showed any fear or avoidance of the crazy contraption.

The key to introducing your dog to something novel is to do it incrementally, to do it systematically, and to always (and I mean always!) go at your dog's pace. If you see signs of anxiety (tucked tail, ears back, lip licking, hiding behind your legs), STOP! Move further away, speak calmly and quietly to your dog, and try to feed some extra yummy treats. If your dog isn't eating those delicious treats, you know he's still too stressed. Move even farther away. Keep moving away until the dog's body language is more relaxed and until he's able to take treats.

What NOT to do: Don't reprimand your dog, don't boss your dog, don't pull your dog closer, don't stay there and expect your dog to get used to it. That's not fair to the dog and proves to the dog that you're not on the same team.

Take a look at what a really good relationship (developed through clicker training) can get you…a dog who's a little uncertain, but who trusts that everything's ok as long as he's with you.

Crates are Great

October 23, 2009

I hated "Marley and Me" because much of the chaos could have been prevented if Marley had been crated.

In an earlier blog post, I produced evidence of the damage Talos did today while I was away from the house. If a client complained because their dog ate a book while they were gone, I would definitely suggest a crate to avoid future disasters.

Talos has been crate trained. He likes crating. Trouble is, he's too big for his crate now! We have Labrador-sized crates, not Dane-sized. Talos is here temporarily – he's not going to be a permanent member of our house (much to my disappointment). The Dane crates are too big for the Labradors, so I'm trying to avoid buying a giant Dane crate that won't be used once Talos goes "off to college" in less than a year.

I made a couple of mistakes today.

Mistake #1: I was unprepared. Normally, if I've got to be gone more than four hours, I'll set the dogs up with a Kong-Time – a machine that dispenses four filled Kongs over either a four- or eight-hour period. It keeps the dogs busy, gives them something appropriate to chew. However, I didn't have 20 Kongs stuffed this morning, so I ran out the door and gave the dogs just one Kong each.

Mistake #2: I didn't dog-proof the room Talos was in. He's not normally a chewer or ripper-upper. I saw the books on the coffee table, but I pooh-poohed the idea that he'd bother them. In the past, he's always eaten the stuffed Kong, then taken a nice, long nap.

I know it was my fault the books got chewed. I take full responsibilty and Talos did not bear the brunt of my mistake. His destructiveness is not the norm, however if it becomes a problem, I'll go get a giant crate to ensure the house – and Talos – remain safe!

Teaching “Wait” (Video)

October 7, 2009

I was giving the dogs their dinner the other night when I realized Talos didn't have any idea how to wait his turn. Easy enough to teach, wait, so today I decided to teach him wait using his lunch. If I'd have planned this session (like a good trainer should), I would have had my clicker handy, I would have created a short training plan, and I would have reinforced the tiny correct steps.

What did I do instead?

Everything that I shouldn't do. I winged it. I didn't use a clicker. And I lumped behaviors together. In short, I made a mess of the session, but around 53 seconds in, I salvage it and actually pull it off.

Not one to show you just the good stuff, I thought it would be interesting to show you how not to do something. In the end it all works out, but it would have gone faster if I'd done it the right way.

Watch how Talos gets a tad frustrated. He goes through several behaviors he thinks I might be looking for. He backs away once or twice, clearly confused. Finally, I wise up and start to incrementally reinforce the appropriate behaviors (backing away from the dish, waiting just one second, two seconds, etc.).

I haven't added the cue yet "Wait," because we're nowhere near ready for that. I'll add the cue once I'm ready to bet $50 that Talos wont' go for the food bowl until I release him. Once I have the behavior I want, then (and only then) will I start to call it something.

It won't take many sessions for Talos to master the Wait - especially if his trainer gets her act together!

Talos Learns about Shaping (Video)

August 31, 2009

I love shaping. I love teaching a dog how much fun shaping can be. It takes the dog just a few minutes to understand what shaping is, and then: hold on and be ready to click – the dog loves this new game!

What is shaping, you ask? Imagine a sculptor with a chunk of clay. How does he get that clay from chunk to masterpiece? He shapes it with his hands, slowly changing the form, until it meets the artist's satisfaction. That's what we do with the behavior of an animal: we take whatever "chunk" of behavior the dog gives us, and we slowly mold that behavior into something we like. We use the clicker to tell the dog "Yes, I like that!" If the dog knows the way to earn a click (and therefore a goodie), it's only a matter of a few clicks before you've got the dog creating behavior that matches what you wanted to see.

If you want to try it with your own dog, here's what you need:

Clear the room – no other dogs allowed. Keep the distractions to a minimum.
Have high value treats. No dog food, biscuits, or Pupperoni. We're talking ham, turkey, cheese, chicken, or hot dogs!
Have a large object ready to put on the floor. Put the object down, step back, and zip your lips!
Click the dog for any interaction with that object. This is not the time to be stingy or to have high expectations.
Remain still. Remain quiet. Resist the urge to help your dog.

I made a video of Talos learning how to shape. (At the bottom of this post.) The sound isn't very good (sorry, I'll remember this for the next video), so you may have to turn your volume way up. Originally, I thought I might shape Talos to use his feet to interact with the box. But it turns out he's not that advanced yet – he's still learning that interacting with the box is a good thing. So I decided to lower my criteria and reinforce any and all interactions with the box.

At one point, Talos stops, sits, and waits for me to direct him to do something with the box. That indicates to me that he doesn't understand fully what shaping is all about. And that's ok! That's why I didn't raise my criterion to paw touch. The more experience he has with shaping, the better he'll get.

Why is shaping important? Your dog is learning how to learn – which is the most important reason to work on shaping. Another thing, it's FUN for the dog! Your dog gets to engage with you, work his mind, and try to figure out how to get you to click. The more you practice shaping with your dog, the faster he'll be able to figure out a solution. So when you actually need to teach a new behavior, it's super easy!

Now here's the video of Talos shaping:

Being Quiet is Hard (Video)

August 25, 2009

One of the things service dogs have to be good at is waiting quietly. They'll be asked do a lot of that in their life – they only need to work when their person needs them, so downtime is a big part of their day. At first glance it may seem like an easy task, but being quiet is sometimes difficult for a dog to learn.

Today I took Talos to the local public library. I'd planned to do some work on my laptop, while giving Talos some "office experience:" how to lay quietly for an hour or two in a public place. Two years ago, when I worked for the Federal government, the pups learned this relatively quickly – they were immersed in office life nine hours a day, five days a week. We had a few restless meetings, but in general, the pups learned that when nothing was required of them, it was nap time.

I don't have an office environment, so today was Talos' first real "office experience." I was prepared: I took his portable bed, a stuffed food toy, and a regular dog toy to help occupy his body and mind. We found a nice, quiet cubby out of the way of the library traffic and away from other patrons. I gave him a quick tour of the library, so he could have a few moments to see where he was and what was (and wasn't) going on, then headed back to my cubby to get some work done.

I put Talos' bed under the desk, gave him his chew bone, and got to work. For about two minutes. He wasn't interested in the chew bone. He could hear children across the library, and apparently they'd peaked his interest. I threw a few pieces of dog food under the table to get his attention back to where I needed him to be. He was happy to eat the food, then was ready to explore again.

I took him on another quick circle of the library, letting him sniff and explore, but not letting him meet any people. (No one asked to meet him – I would have let him greet if anyone asked.) He flopped down on his side, began running his big lips along the carpet in one of the aisles and proceeded to sing. Oh good lord – not now, not here!

I managed to get him up and back to our out-of-the-way cubby, only to find a woman had chosen to sit right next to us. Out of the 50 free cubbys, she picked ours to sit next to. Another distraction for Talos. I tried again to get him to sit or lay quietly under the table, but he was having nothing of it. He flopped down again, and began rolling on the floor and singing. Imagine this at your local library, except he's not on a couch, but on the library floor. We've got a lot of work ahead of us:

Service Dog Training or Circus Show?

August 10, 2009

We spent the day in Charlottesville, VA with the good folks from Service Dogs of Virginia. Talos got reacquainted with his brother, service pup in training Gryphon, and also got to visit with his brother, Arrow, a real working service dog.

Two Great Dane puppies is a sight. Three Great Danes will stop traffic! Talos and Gryphon are cute, and Arrow is handome and huge. I'm 5' 1" and Arrow's back hits my hip. He's a svelte 165 pounds and has movie-star good looks. And a sweet personality to boot. The pups are, well, pups, and will sometimes bicker, sometimes play, and sometimes be good, quiet pups. Never a dull moment, let me tell you…

We had lunch at a quaint cafe in downtown Charlottesville. Arrow, the mature and dignified service dog waited quietly while we ate. The two brothers, the pups, took turns sitting on one another, gnawing on each other's ears, and generally being, well, puppies. They did settle in eventually and we all enjoyed the company, both canine and human.

After lunch, we meandered around a bit. Everywhere we went, people would point. They'd exclaim. They'd stop. They'd watch us pass. They'd whisper. They'd cross the street. Mothers would either grab their children and walk away or shove them toward us. Everyone, however, was nice. The questions were as varied as the questioners: What kind of dog is that? What does he do? How big will he get? How much does he eat? Is he friendly? Is he a dalmatian? I didn't know if we were training dogs or if we were the side show in a circus.

It was a fun, hot, tiring day. Talos slept the entire trip back – and is asleep again as I type this. I hope to have more pictures for you in a future post.

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