Puppy Tails...A Firm Foundation

So many times I see families with great dogs getting very frustrated because their dog is not "getting" something.  The huge majority of the time it has to do with the shaky foundation they have laid for their dogs' training.  What I mean by this is that their dogs were really smart and seemed to be picking up on training quickly, so they either speed through steps and not give them enough attention or they skip steps altogether.

If you are building a house, you can't do anything else until you have a firm foundation.  The same is true for dog training.  Without a firm foundation, ultimately your house, and your training, will crumble.

I see this happening in Puppy Class.  One of the "rules" I have during Puppy Playtime in class is that you don't call your dog to come to you during this time.  I do this because a) the puppies don't have a firm grasp of "come" and if we call them and they don't come, we are setting them up for failure and b) it's just too much to expect a young puppy who doesn't quite understand "come" to leave the fun and her playmates to listen to mom or dad.  Once the puppy is coming reliably 100% of the time when called in low-distraction, familiar situations, you can assume the very basic foundation has been laid and you can start building on that.

The other part of building a firm foundation in your dogs is breaking down behaviors and understanding what it is you need teach your dog. Again using "come" as an example, there are other skills that are essential to the foundation -- attention, focus, willingness, knowledge that "come" equals something good.  In class I teach that knowing their own names is important too, and it is, but you can teach a rescue dog to come reliably without using a name.  Our foster puppies all are learning "come."  For those that have not been adopted, we use just the word "come."  Sometimes we use "puppy" and we always work on attention and focus.  It's an awesome thing when we can call "Puppies, Come!" and nine puppies thunder across the yard or the room to get their reward!!!  They have all learned that the word "come" means that they are going to get something they really, really like and the foundation is laid.  For their forever families, it shouldn't be too difficult for them to teach them their names and add that to "come" for reliable, life-saving coming when called.

The foundation is key.  You wouldn't start building a house in the middle of the house -- you would start with the foundation.  Do the same thing in your dog training and you will have solid, well-behaved, reliable dogs who do what you ask when you ask.  How easy and wonderful is that? 

Rewards

Positive reinforcement training does NOT mean you will be carrying treats around in your pocket the rest of your dog's life!!!  This statement comes as a surprise to many people when they first start learning about how to teach their dogs by reinforcing desired behaviors.

Rewards come in as many forms as there are dogs and people!  For our beagle, Daisy, it's mostly about the treat, but she also will turn inside out for her dumbbell and her target stick.  For our golden retriever, Husker, it's rarely about the treat, but it's about play time with his humans -- with and without toys.  Add in the hose, a sprinkler, or pretty much water of any kind and I think we could get him to balance our check book and fold the laundry!!!  For our friend Annie's lab, Preacher, the ultimate reward is his frisbee.  He's pretty amazing anyway, but add in his frisbee and watch out!

Be creative when you are pondering what is rewarding and reinforcing to your dogs.  (I wish I knew how to develop a treat based on the apparently highly rewarding treats dogs steal from the kitty litter box that humans would actually carry and use -- I'd be a rich woman!!!)  Toys, play, walks, tracking, tricks, food, other people, activities, down time, crate time, free time, snuggle time, ear scritches, water play, car rides, hanging with children, nose work, activities, agility, fetch, frisbee, retrieving, sniffing, checking their "pee-mail," doggy playtime, bike riding, hiking, jogging -- the list is endless!  Observe your dog -- discover what makes her insides get all gooey and makes her go weak in the knees.  What a powerful training tool you will then possess!  When you find reward(s) that your dog will do anything for, the training world for both you and your dog holds infinite potential!


Uncovering what makes your dog tick is an extraordinarily wonderful leg of the journey we share with our canine companions -- enjoy!!!  When you find out something new about your dog, drop me a line, send me an email, or post a photo -- we'd love to be part of your journey!

Clicker Expo

Woohoo! Off to Clicker Expo this weekend in Lexington, Kentucky!!! I am so excited about all the great things we are going to be doing and all of the wonderful information I am going to bring back to my own dogs and to our clients' dogs. Daisy (the beagle) and I will be participating in several Labs as well as spending some time training on our own.

Please keep a good thought for my husband and daughters as they stay home and take care of things here. They are all perfectly capable and will probably do just fine, but a mom worries and I hope the weekend goes well for them. I am so blessed by them and feel especially blessed that they made this trip possible.

Keep building the bond with your dog, spending time together (don't you love this spring weather?!?!?), and enjoying the journey you are on!!!

We've been home about 5 days now from our Spring Break trip to Florida and while we are pretty much back into routine as a family, I still haven't found that rythym with my dogs. I always miss them terribly when we leave them (which is only about once a year, but so good and necessary to do for all of us), I can't wait to get home to them, and I am always fired up with new ideas and thoughts on training (especially when I spend my vacation reading training books!) -- but now I'm home and can't seem to find the right time and place to train/play with them.

It really showed last night at the first session of Puppy Class. I got Daisy out to play with the puppies (she is so good with them -- she plays so nicely and has great canine communication skills) and when Daisy figured out that one of the handlers had treats she was willing to share with her, Daisy would have gladly gone home with her! It was like I didn't exist. I have no one to blame but myself -- we've snuggled a lot this week, but that's about it. I didn't take her to school, I didn't train with her at all, I don't think we even did any tricks! Dogs love to work and play and Daisy, even being the couch-potato she can be, is no exception. To maintain our relationship and our bond, it's just like human/human relationships, we need to work on it. Since I am the human and the leader, it's up to me to do that. In thinking back over the week, there were many times Daisy was communicating to me that she wanted to do something with me and I ignored it. Definitely "handler error" and something I intend to work on this weekend and next week. I want to go to Puppy Class next week with my dog having eyes only for me!

Things change...

I have been thinking a lot lately about how much things have changed in my lifetime -- since I was a child -- since I graduated from college in the 80's -- since I started training dogs in the 90's. I have been exploring all of the different options of advertising in this age of instant communication and it simply amazes me. Now we have to be so up-to-date, so cutting edge, that we have to be ahead of ourselves!

Truth is, I love it all. I love how I can put something out on the internet and people across the globe can read it instantly. I love keeping track of friends and family through Twitter and Facebook (it reminds me of when I was little and my mom would stand at the back fence with her coffee chatting with the neighbors -- something that was lost, but I think has been rediscovered in a different form). I am learning to like to text and I know it's helping my teenager and I stay more connected. And now, I am venturing into the wonderful world of blogging -- something I wasn't sure I would do, but am willing to try. I am really enjoying learning about the many different ways I can share information with clients.

Dog training has changed too and I think it's for the much better. Using positive reinforcement is so building up instead of tearing down, both of the handler and the dog. I used to dread working with my dog because I didn't want to be mean, I didn't want to see that look on her face that told me she was not understanding and feeling really badly that she was not doing what I wanted. But now, to get the clicker and the treats and to see the joy in my little dog when we get ready to play makes me want to train, to do more, to learn more and I think my dog feels the same way! To watch the shaping, the learning, the understanding is exciting and rewarding for me -- the dogs really seem to love it too.

This slightly middle-aged lady likes the progress we have made in so many areas! I am not going to fight it -- just the opposite, I am going to embrace it!