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Dog School - Week 3

 

General

·        As your dog masters a command, fade using the lure and use the hand signal instead.

·        Remember to have the verbal cue precede the signal!

·        Use lures to elicit only new behaviors.

·        As your dog masters a command make him work harder for the reinforcer. He may have to perform 5 or 6 behaviors for 1 treat. Or perhaps you will reward only his quickest performance, etc.

• Work on the "Sit, Down, Sit, Stand" Sequence we rehearsed in class.

·        Make sure that your dog is also working for real-life rewards.

·        He should be sitting for breakfast, and to earn his walk, or doing a sit/down/sit before he is allowed on the bed, etc.

 

·        Make sure that your dog is getting adequate exercise, company and problem-solving games. These things may be as critical to his good behavior as is training.

 

·        When rehearsing behaviors your dog is beginning to be proficient at, try working in new contexts, i.e. new rooms of the house, new locations outside of the house, or with the trainer in new positions (seated rather than standing, at a distance of 6 feet rather than 2 feet, etc.)

 

·        New behaviors should be rehearsed with little distraction.

 

Behaviors

Practice “Loose leash walking”.  Move briskly and talk to the dog cheerfully to keep his attention on you. 

·        Initially require the dog to follow for only a few steps before you reward.  As he improves increase the number of steps.

 Practice Better “sit”.

• Practice "picture changes", that is, instead of allowing your dog to predict that you standing upright, facing him, hand in fanny pack is a "Sit" cue, get him to really listen and look for the actual cue, by working him while you are seated, kneeling, lying on the couch; while you are 2 feet from him and 5 feet from him; While you are facing him, and sideways to him...

• Have your dog "earn" everything by doing a sit (with or without the Watch Me.)  He must sit to earn dinner, walks, leash-walks, and so on...

 Practice Better “down”:

• At this point your dog should be reliably targeting an empty hand to go "down", so your job now is to have him "Down" on a verbal cue alone.

• Downs with you seated, and/or Downs with you at a distance (leash your dog, walk 10 feet away cue "down", wait quietly for success, click then treat.)

 

 Practice “sit-stay”: strive for 60 second stay by the end of the week.  Remember, the “stay” ends only with the release word or a new cue. 

If the dog breaks the stay, reprimand “ah-ah!”, and step back towards the dog, causing him to sit back down on the same spot he started from. 

If you have sensitive dog, do not reprimand, simply "Mark" the error by saying "Too Bad" or "oops" (Be consistent with your "No Reward Mark", melodramatically drop the previously available  treat back in your fanny pack and close the pack. 

Then, start again at the last stay the dog was successful at, increasing your time or distance increment more gradually this time.

After two or three repetitions of the shorter stay increase the time gradually.

Gradually increase the time that the dog stays until he can do 30 - 60 seconds, and at that point you can stop practicing the shortest stays.

 

• Stand

  

  Conceal a food lure in your right hand, and move your hand forward horizontally from the dog's nose for 5 or 6 inches. The dog will stand as he reaches for the treat.  Click, then treat.  

  Once the dog is reliably targeting the lure, you can say “Stand” just once before you lure the behavior.  The gesture you used to lure your dog will “morph” into the hand signal for this command.  That signal will be: palm perpendicular to the ground, elbow at your side, swing right hand out to the right from the waist.

   

Rules of Problem Solving

 

·        Predict and prevent problems.

Set the dog up to be right: make sure he has adequate exercise, both physical and mental, and adequate company and attention.

Use gates, crates, exercise pens, tethering, closed doors, latched cupboards, etc., as necessary, (of course without damaging your dog's quality of life (see above)) so your dog can't choose wrong!

·        Redirect the dog's natural behaviors to an acceptable substitute.

Teach him How to greet (perhaps Sit & Shake), What to chew, Where to pee, etc, rather than punishing him when he guesses wrong.

·        Reward behaviors you like.

Catch him being good. Praise him for lying quietly, chewing on his toy, going potty in the right place.  Don't take good behavior for granted!

·        Punishment (when necessary) should be done only at the time of the misbehavior, must be done consistently (That is, each and every time the dog attempts to engage in the problem behavior), and generally should seem to the dog to be done by the environment, not the owner (use a booby-trap).

 

For Next Week

Bring Long-line or Flexi-leash.

(Please read the Safety information that came with your Flexi-leash.)

Bring any training tools suggested by instructor.

For example, yummier treats, different leash-walking equipment, a chew toy to occupy your dog when the boring human-talk part of class is happening...

 

Owner Notes/Questions (If you print this homework, you can use this section to make notes about your puppy's progress, and/or to record questions to ask your instructor.)