Ncdogtraining
From NCDogFacts
Dog Training by Claire Apple
What I Think a Dog (and its owner) Should Know
- Basics and Safety Issues
- Dog body language – play – nipping, play bow, apology – licking, tail low, helicopter wag, soft eyes, low ears, alpha/beta, attention, displacement behaviors, aggression – eye contact, hard stare, stiffening, muzzle tension, snarl, growl, snap or muzzle punch, bite, resource guarding – furniture, food, toys, people, location
- Your body language – speed, shoulder position, confidence, trust, drama
- Grooming –all over touching, massage, ears, teeth, paws, genitals, brushing and clipping nails
- Crating – safety, housetraining, time away from too much stimulus, home den, management tool
- Managing the hierarchy – handfeeding and resource management (toys, food, time w/ motivators)
- Housetraining – crate, preparations, timing (play, excitement, after food)
- Training – luring, click and treat, opposition reflex, continuous training, randomness
- Riding in Car – slowly building up calm car riding behavior, ear rubbing, drooling, shaking
- Managing strangers – consistency, management, information, game playing
- Managing strange dogs – body language, leashes and boundaries, play styles and age
- Visits to vet – another excuse for playtime
- Teach commands before punishment – motivation, clarity, persistence, observation
- Punishment – growling, yelping, scruffing, time outs, removal of motivation
- General politeness and calmness – respect both ways
Contents |
Obedience Training
Things to set as Default
- Leaving things alone if dropped on the floor
- Moving out of the way so you can walk or sit where the dog is
- Waiting for permission to cross thresholds and boundaries
- Not jumping
- Not mouthing
- Not grabbing things from you
- Coming to you for attention and treats
- Being patient and polite while being groomed
- Walking on a loose leash, on one side of you or the other
Training With a Clicker
Clicker Basics
- Juggling 101:
We are going to ask you to be able to manipulate and mange, all at one time – your dog, your clicker, your treats, and yourself. Quite a bit to deal with, eh? *There are a few ways of simplifying training on leash with a clicker:
- 1) Wear a treat apron so that you can put the treats and clicker (when not in use, which should be rarely) in.
- 2) Tie or fasten your dog’s leash to your waist or pant’s belt loop. Viola! One extra free hand!
- 3) Make the dog’s treats something that you can put in your mouth, and spit to your dog, thus freeing up one hand to either work the leash or the clicker.
- 4) Put a wrist lanyard on your clicker so that it can dangle when not in use.
- Click and Treat:
There is a certain procedure that has to be followed for the clicker methods to work. You will be using the following methods, both Marking or Shaping – but both require certain things. When you click, just click ONE time. ONE time only. When you treat, give the treat from your hand while the back of your hand is in contact with the rest of your body, or from between your legs. Back up a few steps when you offer the treat reward, so that the dog has to both approach you and come into your personal space to receive their reward. Never chase down your dog to give them their reward, and don’t offer it with your arm extended. If you do, you’ll end up with a dog that will not come to you, and expects you to deliver the treat to their mouth, not the other way around. Make sure that the click occurs..then a pause..then the treat. You can easily get into the habit of having the treat already on its way to the dog’s mouth before you click – that’s not going to be clear!
OK...Now Breathe!
Make sure you are calm, collected, have everything you need, and have a goal in mind before asking for your dog’s attention. You are going to be asking them to be prepared to work with you – you had better be prepared to work with them!
- Consistency
85-100% of the time success is your goal. Crazy? No – it just requires that you think for a second or two before you engage with your dog in training. You want to make sure your dog is almost always able to do what you are asking of them. This may mean not having the dog practice sits on a slippery wood floor, or not having the dog try to come to you when the kids are rampaging around the house. Make it easy for them to do it right every time. Slowly increase the challenge of the exercise as you get to know the limits of your dog’s understanding and attention. This increases your trust in your dog – as you know the dog is likely to do the exercise right, and your dog builds fantastic self-confidence in themselves. Hey – they did it right the last time, and the time before that – why shouldn’t they expect to do it right this time?
- Distractions
Distractions are anything that is going to make it hard for your dog (or you) to do the job at hand. This can be other people in the room, other animals loitering around, UPS trucks, food that has fallen on the floor, interesting scents in the yard, etc. Start your dog off on an exercise in an area with very little distractions and as the dog becomes more and more sure of what they are doing, slowly build up the level of distractions.
- Check Your Environment
Because you want your dog to succeed, and because you want to make sure the distraction level is appropriate to the dog, you want to check the environment in which you train your dog before you ask them to do something for you. Make sure there isn’t dropped food, that the service man isn’t going to knock on the door, or that there aren’t dogs off leash in the park when you train.
At Attention
You can’t really ask for anything until you have the dog’s attention. After the Name Game, your dog should be responding to their name by looking in your direction, at the least, 85-100% of the time, with varying distraction levels. For the Name Game, get a good supply of treats, and simply say the dog’s name. When the dog looks at you, click and treat. Continue with this at all different voice levels and tones (doing a Donald Duck imitation really makes dogs think) and by everyone in the house. Do this in all parts of the house, all times of day, and even when the dog is napping – so that their name gets their attention, and that their name is a very very good thing. Remember – the dog’s name is not a correction! Yelling the dog’s name as a reprimand is rude (do you want someone doing that to you?), doesn’t give them any information on what you want, and makes their name feel horrible to them when you say it. Think carefully about how you use your dog’s name. Have you said it in anger? In disappointment? Well – just don’t do it again!
Now you will want to build up time, the time the dog spends actually looking at you, and where the dog looks at you. Ideally, you want the dog to concentrate on your face until you release them. Say the dog’s name, and when they look at you, wait a second before clicking and treating. Try to stretch out the time between the dog starting to look at you and the time you click – they should continue to look at you until you click and treat, so make the first ones short.
Training the name:
- 1. Say the dog’s name
- 2. Click when the dog looks at you (even for a millisecond!)
- 3. Treat
Vary by saying the dog’s name in a variety of situations, slowly increasing the level of distractions. You can also practice by saying the dog’s name when it appears to be asleep, and giving a very very nice reward when it wakes up to see what you desire.
Manipulating Objects:
Manipulating objects requires several commands to properly and clearly explain to the dog what you desire, and to make them useful. These commands are: Take it, Get it, Leave it, and Thank You or Out. A dog is much more useful if it knows when you want it to take an object from your hand, when it has permission to pick something up off the floor, and when to leave something alone and when to give you something. It is also much safer both for family members and guests if the dog is trained to not snatch toys or food out of your hand without permission.
- Take it: Anytime you hand the dog something – could be a toy, a treat, a bone – say take it and then hand it to them. Make sure it is always something comfortable and safe for them to take in their mouths.
- Get it: Anytime you are letting the dog pick up a piece of food from the floor, or their food bowl, or a thrown object or one lying on the floor, say “Get it”. If the dog then brings the object to you, reward them for the retrieve with a treat!
- Thank you: Have a command for the dog giving you something in their mouth. If the dog brings you an object, or you are taking an object from the dog, say “Thank you” and trade that item for a treat. If it was a toy, give it back to them saying “take it”. If it was something yucky that you don’t want them to have, give them something else they can chew on or play with , using the take it command.
- Leave it: Especially useful with puppies that are teething, and dogs that like to retrieve items you would rather not have them mess with. This is also a safety command: what if you dropped an asprin on the floor, and the dog went for it? What if they want to really really go roll on that dead skunk?
When the dog picks something up or engages in an activity that you would prefer that they not do, say “Leave it”, lure them away from the area and give them a treat, and give them something else similar but safe to do. Eventually you will get good enough that you can tell when the dog is even thinking of getting into trouble – say “leave it”, click and treat the dog for leaving the thing alone, and find something for them to do. You can practice this command with food on the floor – click and treat for leaving the food alone.
Click and Treat (Marking Method):
- You prepare: treats and clicker and a goal behavior
- Watch dog
- Dog does desired behavior – on their own or lured
- click
- "ok"
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats used in luring should come from hand not doing the luring.
- Goal: inform dog every time he does behavior you desire
- Dog offers behavior
- release dog with “ok”
- click
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats should be given from a hidden place, or from a surface close to you
- Goal: Dog starting to think about what you want and be engaged in the game
- You see dog thinking of offering behavior
- "Command"
- Dog offers behavior
- release dog with “ok”
- click
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats should not be held by you, they should be located 2’ or more from you and dog.
- Goal: Starting to put a command on the behavior – consistency and timing is key
- Command
- Dog offers behavior
- wait
- release dog before dog releases themselves
- click
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats should not be held by you, treats should be located 5’ or more from you and dog.
- Goal: Have a finished behavior you can start to randomize and use everyday!
Click and Treat (Shaping Method)
- You prepare: treats and clicker – AND A GOAL
- Watch dog
- Dog does something that you think you could shape into something useful
- click
- "ok"
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats used in luring should come from hand not doing the luring.
- Goal: inform dog every time he does behavior you desire
- (Repeat as necessary)
- Dog offers behavior you worked on last time
- do nothing which will cause frustration in the dog
- dog will offer similar but different behavior that is closer to you goal behavior
- click
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats should be given from a hidden place, or from a surface close to you
- Goal: Dog starting to think about what you want and be engaged in the game
- You see dog thinking of offering behavior and varying behaviors frequently
- do nothing which will cause frustration in the dog
- dog will offer similar but different behavior that IS your goal behavior
- release dog with "ok"
- click
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats should not be held by you, they should be located 2’ or more from you and dog.
- Goal: Achieve your goal behavior
- You see dog thinking of offering behavior
- "Command"
- Dog offers behavior
- release dog with “ok”
- click
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats should not be held by you, they should be located 2’ or more from you and dog.
- Goal: Starting to put a command on the behavior – consistency and timing is key
- "Command"
- Dog offers behavior
- wait
- release dog before dog releases themselves
- click
- treat close to your body while backing up – treats should not be held by you, treats should be located 5’ or more from you and dog.
- Goal: Have a finished behavior you can start to randomize and use everyday!
Commands and Problem Solving
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Basic Commands
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After the CGC -More Advanced Commands:
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Solving Problems:
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Tricks:
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Activities:
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More Tricks:
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