Have a look…

What is extremely important for anyone who approaches a dog, particularly a strange dog, and particularly if you are teaching your child about dogs, is to become familiar with how dogs communicate their anxiety and discomfort.  This video clip quite clearly illustrates many of the more obvious ways a dog will communicate it’s state of mind.

Try to REALLY look at dogs and try and understand what they are saying.  The really sad thing is that so many dog bites can be avoided if we just learned to read what our dogs were trying to tell us.

Your Agility and Flyball dog will need to build the muscles needed to cope with jumping and quick changes of direction, whereas your pointer will need to start working on those muscles that require longer distance running over a variety of terrain.

Bear in mind that running up hill uses different sets of muscles than running down hill.  Retrievers will need to work on shorter sprints but will also need to be supple enough to crawl through low fences and climb up steep embankments and jump across narrow gullies.  A retriever will also be required, often, to swim long distances.

When planning your conditioning programme start slow and build up to your optimum fitness goals.  Plan it so that your dog is peaking at the very first trial of the season.

Cranial Cruciate Ligament Injuries

Owners of sporting dogs know that a diagnosis of an injury to the knee is not good news. The most common stifle (knee) injury is to the cranial cruciate ligament, or the CCL.

There is no reliable way to prevent stifle damage in active dogs. The stifle (knee) joint in dogs is extremely vulnerable to injury because it has no interlocking bones to provide support or stability. A dog’s stifle joint depends upon ligaments for stability. The cranial cruciate ligament provides most of this support and, when torn or ruptured, causes the most common hindlimb lameness in companion and sporting dogs.

However, in humans, new research is investigating ways to prevent ACL injuries in an effort to avoid lost time from sports and competition.  The stability of the knee is dependent on different factors. The two most important are the static and the dynamic stabilizers of the knee.

• Static Stabilizers
  The static stabilizers are the four major ligaments of the knee: the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), the medial collateral ligament (MCL), and the lateral collateral ligament (LCL).
• Dynamic Stabilizers
  The dynamic stabilizers of the knee are the muscles and tendons that surround the joint. These muscles and tendons are controlled by what’s known as neuromuscular input, the unconscious activation of these structures to control the position of the joint.

Neuromuscular training is used to teach the body better habits for knee stability. By training how your knee moves, especially when jumping, landing, and pivoting, you can maintain a more stable position of the knee joint. Several studies have shown that neuromuscular training programs can reduce the chance of an ACL injury.  One of the programmes was developed by the the Santa Monica Sports Medicine Research Foundation and can be downloaded from http://smsmf.org/files/PEP_Program_04122011.pdf.

I believe if one could develop a similar training programme for dogs it would minimize the risk of CCL injury, particularly in those sports that involve rapid changes in direction at speed, often combined with a jump.

Warm up and Cool Down

Any time you exercise your dog it is very important to warm him up and afterwards cool him down.  Don’t take your dog out of his crate or the back of your vehicle and walk to the start line without the warm up.  Get the blood flowing with a short walk or jog.  The warm-up stimulates the delivery of increased oxygen and nutrients to the muscles.  Also do some simple stretches to limber up the tendons and ligaments.  Teach your dog to do a play bow; have him sitting in front of you and get him to stretch sideways to get an offered treat first to the left and then to the right.

After you have finished your run, don’t just pop him back in his crate or the back of your car.  Cool him down first with a slow 5 minute walk with a couple of “sips” of water out of a bottle.  Check him over for any soreness in his joints and then let him rest.

For example, let’s assume that you have planned to practise “sit” in your formal training session.

Step 1:  What are your present criteria for this particular behaviour?  How does it look?  How fast must it be?  Where must it be?  Make a note of this.  Don’t rely on memory – you might remember where you practised two days ago, but I’m pretty sure you won’t remember if you were rewarding ½ second sits, or 2 second sits.

Step 2:  Take out 10 treats and either hold them in your hand (out of sight of the dog) or place them on a surface near you.  For each sit that meets your criteria Click and Treat.  For each non-existent or slow sit, place one of the ten treats to one side.  And continue asking for sits.

Step 3:  At the end of the session count the treats that you put aside.  If there are, say, four, then your dog has only scored 60% and is not ready to move on.  If there are two treats put aside, then your dog has scored 80% and you can think about raising criteria.  You might decide that in your next session you want neater sits.  You will, next session, only reward the neatest sits.  All the other criteria remain the same.  You might be happy with the quality of the sits, but would like to practise the sits in a different environment.  These decisions are up to you.

The point I’m trying to make here is that just because your dog meets all your criteria for sits at home, he will probably not meet the 80% rule when trying sits in the park or at a dog show.  So apply the 80% rule wherever and whenever you train.  If your dog does not make the grade, then your criteria are too high.  Lower your criteria and raise your rate of reinforcement until you are scoring 80% again.

The other thing I am seeing a lot is that too much time is taken to move from one trial of a behaviour to the next.  By trial I mean one individual response (from the animal), to a cue or prompt from the trainer or from the environment.  Jean Donaldson in her book “Culture Clash” puts it very well.  She says “Good trainers are very efficient: as soon as a trial has ended with either a reward, praise, release, NRM (no reward marker) or punishment (see my comment) they immediately commence another trial.  They have great “flow”.  The payoff in terms of efficiency is obvious: more trials per unit time means more progress.  In 10 minutes a good trainer can accomplish more than someone with poor delivery can in an hour, even if their skills match up otherwise.”  She goes on to say “Trainers with good delivery lose the dog a lot less.  Post trial loss of the dog’s attention is a common problem, necessitating time and energy to get the dog refocused before the next trial.”

Comment:  Clarification of some of the terms used in the quotation above:

NRM – No Reward Markers:

Because we are verbal we tend to want to relay information to our dogs by talking or signalling verbally.  A No Reward Marker is our way of letting our dog know that the behaviour that it has just offered is not the behaviour we want (it does not meet our criteria for that particular behaviour) and it must try something else.  Not all dogs perceive an NRM as neutral, however, and some sensitive dogs might regard it as a mild punisher.  If this happens you might find that, over time, the rate of emitted behaviour falls off and your dog becomes reluctant to experiment with new behaviours.

For this reason I hesitate to recommend the use of NRM’s and would much prefer that by clicking and reinforcing the choices you like and ignoring and not reinforcing the choices you don’t like, you allow positive reinforcement and extinction to work together in a powerful way.

Punishers:

Bear in mind that punishment can range from simply withholding a reinforcer on the one hand to physically causing pain on the other.  I, personally, when I am training new behaviours try to keep the session as positive as I can.  If I find that I am withholding reinforcers too frequently, I will review my criteria for that particular response.  Be aware that if you have set your criteria too high and your rate of reinforcement is too low, you are in danger of extinguishing the behaviour altogether.

Another comment:

This rule, obviously, only applies in a formal training session.  However, dogs are learning all the time, so your training in other circumstances needs to be more informal and you will make use of environmental rewards, praise and play.  The important point here is that you must get into the habit of making the most of time spent with your dog.

YARD WORK – PART 1

FOCUS, ATTENTION PAYING AND FOLLOW-ME

It is extremely important for your dog to be focussed on you. If this focus on you is not present and strong, your dog will be less likely to cope with all the distractions of other dogs and strange environments, etc. At home encourage this attention-paying by putting one of your dog’s meals into your pocket and simply go about your normal activities. Each time the dog looks at you – feed him some of the food in your pocket; each time the dog sits and looks at you, feed him. There are no commands – all you want from your dog is attention and for him/her to follow you, and to sit when you stop. This is the foundation behaviour for ALL obedience.

Getting the Behaviour

Stand still and wait for orientation. Orientation does not mean eye contact or anything specific in the beginning – ear twitch or small movements towards you can be clicked. Rate of reinforcement must be very high to start with to avoid the dog disengaging. If there is too much time between each click and treat, the dog will tend to get distracted more easily. It is very important that no coercion is used for this exercise – no leash jerks or calling the dog’s name. Either tie the leash to your belt, or drop it and stand on the handle.

This behaviour must be a default behaviour – in other words, no cue. This is a separate exercise from the name recognition game.

Once the dog is focussing on you, start backing away from the dog. The dog will follow. Make sure you continue facing the dog. At this stage of the exercise, any movement by the dog towards the handler is clicked with the treat being delivered by hand. It is important to keep moving as you may be inclined to stop and click the dog for sitting. This is not what the exercise is about.  At least once a week, take your dog to a place other than the home environment such as a shopping centre or a park or an open area and play the focus game here. It is important that your dog learns to pay attention in spite of distractions.

HEELING

This exercise follows on automatically from the attention and follow exercise. After about 5 minutes of the Focus exercise, and at a point where your dog is focussed on you, simply do an about turn to your right and continue moving forward. Your dog will now be on your left. Carry on clicking and treating for movement with you and position at your left knee. Focus on a spot directly ahead and move in a straight line towards that point for about 20 steps – clicking and treating for movement and position. Do only this for the first week, gradually tapering off the clicks and treats as the behaviour becomes more solid. You can also, at this stage start asking for sit when you stop. Don’t forget to click and treat your dog for compliance.

When asking for the sit at heel when you stop, be careful to say “Sit” just before you actually stop.  If you wait until you stop before you say sit, the dog’s forward momentum will carry him past you before he complies.  He will then be sitting ahead of you, and not in the heel position which is what you require.  With repetition, he will learn to pick up the cues from your speed and leg movements and you can drop the verbal cue.

As your dog has more of an understanding of what is required you can start adding about turns and right and left turns, remembering to watch your dog all the time so that you can click and treat for attention during the changes of direction.

Start with these exercises in your garden or some other non-distracting environment and then take them “on the road”.

When taking the heeling exercise on the road, you need to lower your criteria and raise your rate of reinforcement until your dog desensitizes to the distractions.  Also, do not try and walk all the way around the park, or around the block in one go.  Rather do 10 steps of heeling and then either let your dog off lead to run, or allow him to sniff.  Then do another 10 steps.  Gradually extend the distance to 15 steps, then 20 steps, and so on.

REMEMBER, THAT HEELING SHOULD BE FUN. KEEP THE EXPERIENCE EXCITING FOR YOUR DOG WITH NO CORRECTIONS AND STACKS OF REWARDS. TO QUOTE THE TOP EUROPEAN AGILITY TRAINER SILVIA TRKMAN “HEELING IS JUST ANOTHER TRICK”.

SIT AND STAY

 The first criterion for this exercise is that your dog sits each and every time you ask for it. Not just when your dog feels like it – not just when you are waving food around in his face – not just when you are feeding him his dinner – but always, no arguments, no cajoling,- every time.

If your dog is not popping his rear down when he hears the word “Sit”, you need to go back and practise, practise, practise. Not just at home, but when you take your dog for a walk, in your kitchen, before you go out of the gate, before you put his lead on. Repeat, repeat, repeat until it becomes a HABIT! Remember that once your dog has learnt the meaning of the word “Sit” it is no longer necessary to use the clicker to mark the behaviour. The word has taken over the function of the clicker. What is the function of the clicker? It is, in part, a predictor of the reward. The word “Sit” has now become the predictor of possibly a reward like a treat, going outside and/or fetching the retrieve.

Now we are going to extend the sit into a sit/stay, so it is necessary to bring out the clicker again so that we can “talk” to our dog and explain (via the clicker) what it is we want. We want our dog to sit and stay there until we release him or her from the stay. The way we do this is simply to delay the click.

The 3 D’s

• Duration (Time)
• Distance (Movement away from your dog)
• Distraction (Anything that will tempt your dog to break his stay).

Because we want to set things up for your dog to succeed, we can’t train him on all the three D’s at the same time. So we start with the easiest – Duration. We address the other two D’s later on.

Duration

• Say “Sit” – dog sits – (wait 2 seconds) – click and treat.
• Say “Sit” – dog sits – (wait 2 ½ seconds) – click and treat.
• Say “Sit” – dog sits – (wait 3 ½ seconds) – click and treat.

….. And so on, until you have reached 10 seconds. Do not move away at this stage, just stand next to or in front of your dog until your dog can maintain the sit for 10 seconds. Remember, the dog is waiting for the click to tell him that he has done the right thing. What the click is telling him is to wait…. The next D we will be working on is Distraction to prepare your dog for being steady to shot and throw.

SUMMARY

ATTENTION-PAYING AND FOLLOW-ME

1. Click and Treat for orientation and/or eye contact.  High Rate of Reinforcement.
2. No coercion is used for this exercise – no leash jerks or calling the dog’s name.
3. No cue – default behaviour.
4. Back away – dog follows.  C&T movement with you.
5. Extend duration, and then
6. Add distractions.

HEELING

Brief Attention-Paying and Follow exercise to get dog focussed.

1. Heel for about 20 steps in a straight line.  High rate of reinforcement (every 2^nd or 3^rd step).
2. Gradually extend to 5 steps between C&T, then 8 steps, then 10 steps.
3. Ask for sit when you stop.  For example, walk 10 steps, stop and ask for a sit (C&T the sit) walk another 10 steps, stop and ask for a sit, and so on…

SIT AND STAY

Ensure that your “Sit” is fluent.  To test this, you should be getting at least 10 to 13 sits in the space of 30 seconds.

1. Gradually extend duration until the sit is held for 10 seconds both in the heel position, and in the front position.

 YOUR TRAINING PLAN

 If you are to take your training seriously, and more important to make progress with the skills you are teaching your dog, it is very important to do some planning before you actually get out there and have to stand around wasting time for 5 minutes while you think of what you’re going to do.  The other problem with not keeping records, is that without knowing what your dog achieved with your last training session (and don’t think you’ll remember, because you won’t!), you are not in a position to raise criteria and will probably get stuck doing all the things that your dog can already do, resulting in apathy from your dog, and boredom from you, as well as absolutely no progress forward.

At the very least, make a list of your goals, and keep a running check on your progress.  A simple form of goal setting with a checklist could be as illustrated:

This is just an example for you to use.  You can break down the progressions into even smaller steps if you like.

RETRIEVER FOUNDATIONS

FIELD WORK – PART 1

THE SINGLE MARKED RETRIEVE

 When you start a pup–or inexperienced adult for that matter–remember that retrieve desire must precede “marking practice.” You must build a pup’s enthusiasm for simple retrieving by way of games. Start building good habits such as coming back to you with the retrieve (all part of the game) and holding the retrieve article without mouthing or mishandling the retrieve “toy”. Also, put as much effort into building your obedience skills as you do with your retrieving exercises. 

 Training for the “Spot on the Ground”

 If you are fortunate enough to have a natural marker, your dog will understand the concept of marking the destination of the bird or dummy as a “spot on the ground” and will lock on to that spot all the way from your side to the location. He is marking with his eyes.

The weak marker or the dog that has not learnt to use his eyes, will head out to the area of fall, immediately drop his nose to the ground and start hunting the area. Because it has not occurred to him to use his eyes to locate the bird, he often will hunt right past the bird and never see it. Unfortunately the nose-down marker tends to lose track of where to hunt and often ends up well away from the “zone” he first identified.

What we are going to do is make it possible for our young dogs to learn to use their eyes. We will…

• Use, wherever possible, dummies that can easily be identified – white or light-coloured dummies – not orange.
• Start your marking exercises in an area with light cover so that your dog can easily see the retrieve object.
• Avoid throwing long distance marks – rather start close and build the distance gradually.
• Try to avoid throwing marks that frequently require the thrower’s help to get your dog to the dummy or bird.

The ability to mark is a natural instinct among quality retrievers. All that is necessary is to enhance the gifts proper genetics has provided. This is not done by throwing repetitive, meaningless marks – all this does is promote unsteadiness and independence. In your pup’s very early days its natural retrieving “drive” is woken by tossing “fun” retrieves, but as soon as we know that pup will retrieve enthusiastically, these relatively uncontrolled retrieves must cease if we are to have a great marker. Once the dog is steady and is embarking on the more intense training, these “fun” or “happy” marks can be used to relax the dog or for a reward.

Remember these important points:

The right field. Use a field with short grass such as a park or soccer field. This should be clean with no distracting objects such as food wrappers, etc.

The right retrieve object. Use only prominent retrieve objects that the pup can readily see from a distance as he approaches. Clean white dummies are preferred for the very first marks. Don’t throw anything that the dog will have trouble seeing in the air or on the ground.

The right wind. Early marks should be thrown down wind. You want to make sure that the pup doesn’t use his nose to guide him to the fall.

Visual continuity. The pup must be able to see the dummy lying on the ground for the entire time he runs out to it.

Your thrower

It’s important that your thrower have a good throwing arm. There are real advantages to a long throw that lands well away from where the thrower stands, especially for beginning markers. Before you send your thrower out to throw for the puppy, coach him on when and how to help if the pup gets lost or tries to return without the dummy. Techniques for helping young pups include: re-attracting the lost pup with sound and throwing a second dummy while he’s looking at the thrower; attracting the pup with sound and motion so as to help direct him to find the one already thrown; or slipping in another bird or dummy while the pup is not looking and placing it in a location where the pup will easily find it.

Remember, if your marks are set up correctly the need for thrower help will be rare or nonexistent at this early stage. If you find your puppy is frequently needing thrower help, you need to simplify your marks.

Position the thrower to minimize his influence on the marking “picture”

For a young puppy’s very first retrieves that are thrown by someone else (not your own hand thrown retrieves), the distance from the dog to the fall should be less than the distance from the fall to the thrower.

This geometry helps establish the puppy’s habit of looking at the fall and not the thrower after the dummy is on the ground. It also helps the pup naturally return to you with the dummy, rather than go visit the thrower.

As you gradually lengthen the marks, you cannot maintain this geometry, of course. So now, to keep the pup’s focus on nothing but the fall as he runs out to get it, try to position the thrower where, although he will still be visible, he will be somewhat out of the picture as the pup runs toward the mark. For example, place him on the other side of a path or cover strip from where the fall lands. When this is not possible, use square (“flat”) throws, because they visually separate the thrower from the fall better than angle back throws.

As soon as your pup has learnt to track the dummy as it moves through the air to a spot on the ground, you can position the thrower behind a tree or shrub, so that he is not such an obvious part of the picture.

Another possible problem that you might encounter is that your pup does not maintain focus on the dummy before being sent to retrieve, but switches to either watch the thrower, or you.  Because you want to test your dog’s steadiness as well, you will be inclined to delay sending your pup for a second or two; this delay often causes your pup to switch his focus from the fall to the thrower.  If you send him when he is watching the thrower you are in danger of creating a habit that will be difficult to break later on, and might become problematic when you are marking off a retired gun.  What I suggest you do in a case like this is NOT delay sending your pup.  Rather send him as soon as the dummy hits the ground.  This way he will maintain focus on the fall rather than on the thrower.  You can then gradually extend the time you delay sending him.

However, having said all this about marking it is still very important to your training plan to remember that a retrieve is a complex behaviour consisting of a number of finite behaviours linked together to form a chain.  Also, with any training of complex behaviours, the best place to start is at the end of the chain.  The end of a retrieve behaviour chain is the delivery.  So this is where you would start.  We will discuss how to start at the end at our next lesson.

I will publish the notes in four parts at weekly intervals and would welcome any comments.

Before you read this article, I would like you to answer the following questions:

• Is your dog easily distracted?
• Is he more interested in other dogs and people than in working with you?
• Does he get overly excited in certain situations?
• Does he spend time sniffing the floor when you want to train?

If the answer to any of these questions is “Yes” then working on focus, attention-paying and impulse control will help.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that everything else you try to train is much more difficult than it needs to be.  Spending some time and effort on these exercises will pay off by making all your future training easier.  Even dogs with lots of training experience would still benefit from improved focus and impulse control.  The exercises are appropriate for dogs in various dog sports such as agility, obedience and field trials as well as helping your dog become a more responsive and focused household companion.

Offered Focus:

Step 1:  First of all decide what your criteria is.  If you haven’t done this exercise before, you will probably be rewarding a momentary glance in your direction.  Start by attracting the dog’s attention with a kissy noise or a click of the tongue.  Or, just stand still and wait for the dog to look at you.  As the dog looks at you, CLICK! And feed 5 or 6 treats in quick succession, one at a time..  Then, toss the 7^th treat on to the ground so that he has to unfocus to get it.  We are doing this so as to give the dog an opportunity to re-focus on you – or find your face.  As soon as he looks at you again, reinforce with the click and treat, treat, treat, 6 times.  Again, toss the 7^th treat on the ground.  Repeat this exercise 2 or 3 times. It is very important that no coercion is used for this exercise – no leash jerks or calling the dog’s name.  As the dog’s focus improves, gradually increase the length of time between reinforcements.

This behaviour must be a default behaviour – in other words, no cue. Practise this two or three times a day for two or three minutes at a stretch.  One of the times could be before you give him his dinner.  Leave the bowl on a table, and wait for him to focus on you before giving him his dinner.

Step 2:  When your dog is able to sustain the looking at you for 5 seconds, you can raise your criteria again by only clicking for eye contact.  You will probably have noticed that in the previous step the dog did make eye contact every now and again.  In Step 2, you will only be clicking and treating the glances where your dog made eye contact.

Step 3:  Show the dog you have some really nice treat (a Beeno) or a favourite toy in your hand, then hold the toy or treat out to the side at shoulder height.  If your dog starts jumping towards your hand, simply put it behind your back.  As soon as your dog stops jumping, bring the toy out again and hold it at shoulder height.  If your dog is sitting calmly, simply wait for him to glance in your direction.  Click and give him a treat from the other hand.  The toy goes away behind your back.  The point of this game is that the more your dog ignores the toy or treat in your hand, the more likely it is that he will get a click and a treat.  Repeat this a couple of times, and for the final successful attempt, let him have the treat or toy in your hand.

You need to use up at least 10 to 15 treats with each session and you should try and have at least two or three sessions a day.

Leave – an Exercise in Self-Control

This exercise, apart from teaching your dog the cue “Leave” (that dead frog on the ground – or the cake on the table – or the food in a toddler’s hand) also teaches him about self-control.

Step 1:  Show the dog a treat, then fold the treat into your hand so it’s totally protected. There must be no part of the treat available to a questing tongue or prying teeth. Put your hand down in front of her at mouth height. Note that your hand protecting the treat is a fist. This fist will be the dog’s first CUE. The fist cue says “Keep away from my hand.” Later you can change the cue if you want to by associating a word like “Leave” with the presentation of the fist.

Trying to protect the treat by holding it up above the dog’s head, or jerking it out of her reach as she approaches it, are common mistakes. Holding it up high will only encourage her to jump up to get it, and jerking it away from her will force her to grab at it to try to get it away from you. You’re already protecting it by holding it in your closed fist. Let the dog figure out how to get that treat out of your quiet hand.  The minute she gets tired trying to get the treat from your fist and moves her nose away, you click and open your hand so that the treat drops on to the floor.  As she takes the dropped treat, you can say “Take It”.  You can also feed her with the other hand, but don’t confuse her by feeding her with the hand that’s protecting the treat.  You’ll know that she’s grasped the concept when she pointedly ignores your fist when you put it in front of her nose.

Adding the Cue:  Once she’s realised that ignoring the treat makes you click you can start associating the word “Leave” with the presentation of your fist.  You can also at this stage move on to the next step.

 Step 2:  As you present your fist, say “Leave” and open your hand so that the treat is visible.  If your dog doesn’t grab the treat, click and drop the treat on to the ground.  If she does make as though she’s going to grab it, quickly protect it by closing your fist over it.  Say “Leave” once more and open your fist.  In all likelihood she will ignore the food, in which case you can drop it on the floor and cue “Take It”.
Step 3:  What you’ll probably find is that with each repetition her “staying away” is getting harder, faster, longer.  You can now start raising criteria by either gradually increasing time or distance.  Be careful not to start raising criteria until you get at least 8 successes out of 10 trials.

Step 4:  When you’ve got some decent time and some decent distance, find a convenient coffee table.  Show the treat to the dog, put the treat on the coffee table, and cover it with your hand.  If you think this is going to be easy, think again.  Staying away from your hand is NOT the same thing as staying away from the coffee table.  You might have to go back to the beginning or on the other hand, she will catch on immediately.  Both are normal.

Once she’s decided that this is the same exercise as the one she did with your fist, she will move her nose away from your hand.  Click and flick the treat onto the floor, saying “Take It”.  When she’s made the connection move your hand away from the treat. Of course, when you move your hand off it, she’s going to grab for it, so be ready to cover it again.  Click and flick it off the table when she’s staying away from it.  When you can lean back and leave the treat alone, with the dog holding back waiting for you to click and flick it off the table, add your cue as you’re placing the treat on the table.  There’s no need to bellow “LEAVE!” simply use a normal quiet tone.

Self Control at Threshholds:

This is a useful exercise to teach your dog whenever you are going through a doorway or gate or exiting your car in a strange place.  In a nutshell, what you are going to teach your dog is to stay put until you are given permission to go, and when out or through, reorient to you until you release him.

This is NOT a rank reduction exercise.  I honestly don’t care if the dog goes through a doorway before me or not, but what I’m trying to guard against is for the dog to leap out of my car when the door is open directly into oncoming traffic, or to charge out of my gate and leap onto a passerby to say “Hi”!   I also do not want to constantly be telling my dog to sit and stay, stay, STAY while I concentrate on getting my parcels out of the car before he runs amok.  Any gateway or doorway will do for the purpose of this exercise.

Step 1:  The door does not open until the dog is sitting.  The “sit” must be a default.  A default behavior is a behavior that has been rewarded many times in the past, and is the behavior a dog falls back on when it’s not sure what you as the owner want it to do.  You have just arrived at some place that the dog enjoys and that is safe – either home at dinnertime, or the dog park or some other safe area.  He is dying to get out of the car so is standing on the seat tail wagging furiously.  You, on the other hand, are just standing calmly – waiting.  Because something good usually happens when your dog sits down, he will try this.  You immediately put your hand on the car door handle.   Your dog’s rear end immediately comes off the seat – poised to leap out.  Your hand comes off the handle.  You continue in this fashion until the dog has realized that the only way to get the door to open is to sit and wait.  You have not said anything at all.  All you have done is to watch for the sit, and open the door (or start opening it) when your dog sits.  If the dog will stay sitting until the door is fully open (you may block the opening with your body, but do not SAY anything) reward your dog by allowing him out.

Note:  The default may be lying down That is fine – just be consistent.

Step 2:  Reorienting to you once he is out.  Once your dog has learnt that he needs to stay sitting until you cue him to get out of the car, then you need to teach him that getting out doesn’t mean that he can dash off.  He needs to know that reorienting to you is what is required.  Have the lead on your dog before you leave home.  By now he should be sitting when you open the car door.  Take hold of the lead and invite him out.  When he gets to the end of the leash, he should turn around and look at you.  Click and treat.  A couple of times before releasing him.

Use the same methods to teach your dog self-control at gates and at doorways.

Be consistent.  Be patient.

This course which will kick off in December 2011 is designed for young retrievers or gundogs who have completed a puppy class and an obedience foundation class, and who are at least 5 months at the start of the course.
Our aim is to have a dog that can accurately mark the fall of the dummy or bird, is steady and calm in the presence of distractions, will retrieve out of water and on land and will deliver to hand with enthusiasm. The course also includes an introduction to basic handling skills.
The course consists of 9 sessions of approximately 2 hours duration, spaced two weeks apart, and will take place at venues either at Hillcrest or Eston.  The cost of the course is R1200.00. Payment options are:

•   R1200.00 on registration.

•   Two instalments of R650.00.

•   R150 per session.

An illustrated training manual is included in the cost.

Contact Louise on 084 828 7880 for more details.

For example:

• Dogs that jump up to greet are normal, not bad or naughty;
• Dogs that chew TV remotes, spectacles, cellphones that are left lying around are normal, not bad or naughty;
• Dogs that steal food off the kitchen counter are normal, not bad or naughty;
• Dogs that rush out of the door ahead of you are normal, not bad or naughty;

These are just some dog behaviours that are unacceptable to us.  It is our responsibility, if we are to live in harmony with our dogs to establish boundaries and teach our dogs how to respect them and put into place rule structures that can be incorporated into daily life.  We should also manage the environment in a way that it makes it more difficult for our dog to indulge in inappropriate behaviour.

What we need to do is set a baseline of good behavioural interaction between ourselves and our dogs and to teach them that they must consistently defer to people to receive attention. This is done in a safe, kind, and passive manner. If your dog knows a consistent rule or behaviour will get your attention, it will be receptive to guidance. This is a form of discipline. People often confuse discipline with violence or abuse, but for most dogs withdrawal or withholding of attention is far more profound correction than is physical punishment.  Dogs that are consistently mismanaged with physical punishment either learn to override the punishment or learn to seek it because it may be their most common contact.

The rule is:  the dog must sit and be quiet to earn anything and everything it wants for the rest of its life. This includes sitting for the following:

• Food and feeding
• Treats
• Love
• Grooming
• Being able to go out – and come in
• Having the leash, halter, or harness put on
• Having its feet towelled
• Being invited onto the bed or sofa
• Playing games
• Playing with toys
• Having a tick removed
• Having a wound checked
• Being petted or loved
• Attention
• ANYTHING the dog wants!

All your dog must do is put its bottom on the floor or ground, be quiet, look at you, and await your cue. This takes only seconds, but is invaluable. ALL dogs should learn to do this, and NO dog is too old to learn this.  All puppies should be raised with this simple but powerful deference behaviour. If you put this programme in place you will have a far better relationship with your dog and to able to control him or her without having to restrain him with force.

Start with dinner-time.  If your dog does not already sit for his dinner, now is the time to start.  Get the dinner bowl and stand facing your dog – who might be bouncing up and down ready to dive into the bowl the minute it hits the ground.  Ignore all this and either ask for a sit, or just wait…  your dog will eventually sit and calm down.  When he does, put the bowl down.  If he leaps up before the bowl is on the floor, simply pick it up again, and wait …  Do not give him his food until he has sat and remained calmly sitting until it is on the floor.  What he learns from this is that the bowl does not get put down until he is sitting, and calm.

You want to take your dog for a walk, but the minute you take his lead out he starts bouncing around and acting crazy.  You simply put the lead away and look disinterested.  As soon as the bouncing around has stopped, you take the lead out again – dog bounces around – lead goes away.  He will soon learn that the only way to stop you putting the lead away is to sit calmly.

These are just two examples of teaching your dog about rules, but there are many more situations that apply.

I was reading an article the other day on the 10 Points of Good Discipline.  It wasn’t an article on dog training, but an article on bringing up children.  The interesting thing was that the comments that were made throughout the article could be applied equally to training your dog to be a good citizen.

Some of the points made were:

1. Good discipline teaches.   Punishment teaches what is wrong, but does not help a child (dog) learn what is right.  The goal of discipline is to teach.  It teaches self-control and socially acceptable behaviour.
2. Good discipline is not a power struggle.
3. Good discipline does not involve anger and over-reactions.  It is a planned out strategy to encourage good behaviour and discourage bad behaviour.  It is consistent and fair.
4. Good discipline uses clear expectations, clear consequences, and consistent reinforcement.
5. Good discipline is neither permissive nor punitive.

So let today be the beginning of a great relationship between you and your dog.

What they mean is that not only do you have to introduce your pup to a lot of strange dogs of all shapes and sizes, but also to different humans and as many different species of animals as you can, particularly animals that your pup will have contact with in your home.  It also means that you should expose your pup to as many different environments as possible; as many different sounds as possible from babies crying or toddlers screaming and shouting to traffic sounds, vacuum cleaners, motorcycles.

Even more important than just exposure is for you to carefully observe your pup’s reaction.  Your goal should be that your pup’s experiences should be positive experiences, not neutral or bad ones.  If your pup’s response to either the environment, person, object or handling is either overarousal (nipping, barking, growling or lunging), avoidance or freezing, then this particular item needs more work.  On the other hand, if the pup stays calm and relaxed, explores the object or environment, is playful and stays focussed on the food, or is all these things even without the food, then you know that your socialization is going well.

Some specific things you need to add to your list are:

Handling – in addition to the more obvious ones, cradling your pup in your arms, squeezing his paws, putting on his collar or harness, grabbing and pulling at his collar – all these things very gently, of course.

Different people, such as people with canes, people with uneven gaits, people with sunglasses, and so on.

Less obvious surfaces such as wet grass, manhole covers, stairs.

Also, blankets or rugs being shaken out, brooms, balloons…

Socialization is much, much easier to do during the Critical Period (before the pup turns 16 weeks) than later in the pup’s life.  Definitely worth it.