So now you have had an opportunity to see the wonderous ability we have to train our dogs with very little effort. With careful observation, a clicker and a cookie, you have been able to get your dog to perform a new behavior with relatively little effort and stress.
I started loving dogs while growing up on my parents hobby farm in the rauceous town of Boring, Oregon. My mother tried her hand at breeding Saint Bernards during which time Heidi became a beloved part of our family. Heidi, however, was neither trained, nor well mannered. Saint Bernards are not easy trainers, but I don't recall anyone making a big effort with her. I do remember fur, mud, and frantically running around the neighborhood trying to catch the boistrous but friendly pet. Heidi taught me that having a dog without manners is not fun, no matter how much you love the dog. Having a BIG dog without manners can be downright treacherous.
The next family pet that made a memorable impression on me was an adorable little American Eskimo named Nomie. American Eskimo's are a notoriously easy-to-train breed and because of this and their striking looks and high energy, are often selected for performing and entertaining by circus' and the like. I decided to take it upon myself to train Nomie, teaching her a variety of functional commands along with some fun behaviors such as roll-over and play dead. Nomie was so fun and easy to train that I was hooked.
I joined 4-H for dog training, but there didn't seem to be a big knowledge base in the area for that, and raising a seeing-eye dog was not in the cards for me, so after graduating from high school and joining the military, dogs were out of my life for the next six years.
When I finally arrived at a point in my life where having dogs was again feasable, I adopted a series of older 'used' dogs. :) They were wonderful pets and family companions, and had for the most part acceptable manners . When I felt I was ready for a challenge I adopted a german shepard and rotweiler mix puppy named Zuess. I had up to this point read my heart out on canine training books, but in the eighties, training methods were still blunt and archaic. I began training Zuess in earnest even teaching him to 'seek back' for rocks I had deliberately dropped on trails.
Zuess was an amazing dog with a huge heart. He was, what I thought at the time, incredible at scent detection. Later in canine search and rescue training, I learned how low my expectations really were. But he had heart and ambition. One game my children and I played with Zuess involved everyone hiding in the back yard and letting Zuess find us one after another. He loved that game. One day, deciding to push the envelope I held Zuess on the front porch while my ex-husband went and hid. He ran to the back yard, jumped into the bed of the pickup truck, onto the roof of the truck, up onto the roof of the carport. When I released Zuess, he went without hesitation straight to the roof. I thought that he went so fast that he could not have possibly scented and I wondered if he listened and interpreted the sounds or sound direction. I don't really know, but he would have been a wonderful police dog. Through a series of unfortunate and tragic circumstances, Zuess left our home much too young.
Many years again passed without a dog in my home or heart, until at last, I decided it was time to bring furry fun to the family again and we adopted a Newfoundland puppy. D'Artagnan was about three months old when Miranda Gaddis went missing from near our Oregon City home, and a month later, Ashley Pond. During the ensuing search for the two missing girls law enforcement officials and search and rescue volunteers searched Singer Creek which ran through my backyard. A few months later a canine search and rescue team inadvertantly parked in my yard while searching Singer Creek during follow-up training. I later found it to be a common practice to re-search areas where people have gone missing in the format of a training mission.
While the teams were re-grouping at their vehicles, I made contact with a wonderful ladie named Tina Parr. Tina gave me her card and invited me to attend the annual recruitment. I was absolutely ecstatic and never new that such opportunities existed, or could even exist for me.
As luck would have it, as I was gearing up for the personnel portion of the search and rescue training, I found the most amazing and competent trainer I had ever met during a PetSmart puppy class. Faye talked the talk of an animal behaviorist. She knew her stuff inside and out, and I was so taken with the possitive reinforcement style of training and her clear and unmistakable knowledge and experience that I took six more classes with her, participating with three different dogs.
So here I am, blogging about my take on training. Seven years after joining search and rescue, having read countless books, and participating in hundreds of hours of canine training, and dozens of hours of classes, workshops and clinics, I think I feel comfortable enough to share my experiences, what has worked and not-worked for me, and share my love of canine training.
So there, gentle reader, you have it. And if I might leave you with one parting observation, that while it is completely true you can train a dog with leash jerks, shock collars, and alpha-rolls, there is another way that will leave you and your pet living a happier more harmonious life.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Naming & Cueing Behaviors
Once you have been observing and marking a new behavior with your clicker with some regularity, you are ready to name the behavior or create a cue. In the old fashion method of training you would try fervently to get your dog to perform a behavior after you say a cue. Bridging the gap between the cue or command and the performance of the behavior was hit-and-miss and exhausting. We are not going to do that anymore. From now on, when we give a cue, we already know with 80% certainty that the behavior is going to happen. We will improve that later.
How do I know for certain that the behavior is going to happen? Well for starters you read the first two posts, and you have chosen one behavior to work with. With your spectacular goody bag and clicker always at the ready, you have been watching for and rewarding this behavior every time you have seen it. Dogs are very smart about getting food and once they learn how to push the button that dispenses the food, they will do it at every opportunity.
At this point, it would not hurt to cut back on the regular kibble for a day or two. A hungry dog is a dog that will do back flips to get that cube of cheese. So there you are in your recliner and your beloved pet wanders in positioning herself strategically between Frasier and your eyeballs. Just as she prepares to sit, look at her directly and say 'Sit'. The split second her bottom contacts with carpet, CLICK and TREAT! Make a mild fuss but not enough to make her forget what happened. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Later we will discuss selecting commands and cues for behaviors you are going to ask, but right now this is a learning opportunity for you both and our only objective is to help you learn the rhythm of opportunistic training. No more training times, no more frustration, just observation and marking.
Breaking this training method down in the simplest of terms, you are observing, naming and marking a behavior. Later we will talk about luring and shaping to help speed things along, but it is important to note that right now our focus is on building our dogs desire to pay attention to us, explore behaviors to see what works, or in this case gets the cookie, and getting us in the habit of giving selective attention. Paying less attention to things we don't want and more attention to things we do want.
How do I know for certain that the behavior is going to happen? Well for starters you read the first two posts, and you have chosen one behavior to work with. With your spectacular goody bag and clicker always at the ready, you have been watching for and rewarding this behavior every time you have seen it. Dogs are very smart about getting food and once they learn how to push the button that dispenses the food, they will do it at every opportunity.
At this point, it would not hurt to cut back on the regular kibble for a day or two. A hungry dog is a dog that will do back flips to get that cube of cheese. So there you are in your recliner and your beloved pet wanders in positioning herself strategically between Frasier and your eyeballs. Just as she prepares to sit, look at her directly and say 'Sit'. The split second her bottom contacts with carpet, CLICK and TREAT! Make a mild fuss but not enough to make her forget what happened. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Later we will discuss selecting commands and cues for behaviors you are going to ask, but right now this is a learning opportunity for you both and our only objective is to help you learn the rhythm of opportunistic training. No more training times, no more frustration, just observation and marking.
Breaking this training method down in the simplest of terms, you are observing, naming and marking a behavior. Later we will talk about luring and shaping to help speed things along, but it is important to note that right now our focus is on building our dogs desire to pay attention to us, explore behaviors to see what works, or in this case gets the cookie, and getting us in the habit of giving selective attention. Paying less attention to things we don't want and more attention to things we do want.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Opportunistic Dog Training - Lifestyle Changes
So now that you have been priming the pump, dragging pooch around with a clicker and a treat bag for a week or so, you are ready to begin training in earnest. NOT!! Remember we are not going to do that. There is nothing earnest about it. It will be fun and rewarding for both of you. And we will not be beginning anything, we have already begun and using this method training will never end, but will always succeed in the long run. Remember what I said about never? Same here.
You are probably pretty impressed by how easily and vigorously your pet began responding to the sound of the clicker. If not, read the first blog all the way to the end. Remember you were not supposed to make eye contact or make so much as a peep. Your pet is responding to the clicker, not you and that is exactly what we want. This will be helpful in the future when the whole family wants to join in the fun.
Now we are going to talk about opportunistic training. With this training methodology, our dogs are going to show us their stuff and we are going to sit back and grade it, like officials at the Olympics. "Why would my dog want to show me his stuff?" you might be wondering. Because we have the clicker AND a bag of goodies.
Even before day one of "priming the pump" was over, you probably notice Fifi was expressing a LOT more interest in you, and expressing it much differently. You might have even noticed she was going out of her way to get your attention, or make eye contact. Great job on the treat selection if this was the case. Now we are going to start becoming a little selective about when we click that clicker. Without being obvious, start watching your pet out of the corner of your eye. She just sat down? BANG! Click and treat! Grant you, she is clueless about why this happened and will assume it was random.
For the next three days pick ONE behavior that you see your canine perform on a somewhat regular basis. The behavior should happen with relatively high frequency, it should be spontaneous, and it should be positive. Peeing on the carpet does not count and we will address that in a different post. Sitting is a good one to start with, but if you prefer laying down, or picking up your slippers, knock yourself out. It has to happen fairly frequently so that you can catch her in the act.
Click and treat every time you see her sit, or whatever behavior we chose. Right now our focus is not so much to train a new behavior, but to train a learning method. Your dog is learning that sometime when she does something, something good happens. She also has learned that when she hears that click it means she will get a treat. 1+1 = a dog that will continue to try new things and that means a dog that is primed for learning.
During this phase, you will notice your pup starts to sit a lot around you. Click and treat every time she does it. Don't look at her, don't talk to her, don't fuss over what a good girl she is, we will be doing more of that later. Right now she is just learning the program, and the nice thing about the program is that like a baton, it can be passed from family member to family member and she will not care who has the clicker and the treat bag.
Continue to observe and click. You probably only need a few days on this phase of the training, but don't worry about rushing to the next step. All of the time up front will be time well spent in the long run. And have fun! You and your pup are bonding, your heart rate and blood pressure are going down and she will help you live a longer and healthier life!
You are probably pretty impressed by how easily and vigorously your pet began responding to the sound of the clicker. If not, read the first blog all the way to the end. Remember you were not supposed to make eye contact or make so much as a peep. Your pet is responding to the clicker, not you and that is exactly what we want. This will be helpful in the future when the whole family wants to join in the fun.
Now we are going to talk about opportunistic training. With this training methodology, our dogs are going to show us their stuff and we are going to sit back and grade it, like officials at the Olympics. "Why would my dog want to show me his stuff?" you might be wondering. Because we have the clicker AND a bag of goodies.
Even before day one of "priming the pump" was over, you probably notice Fifi was expressing a LOT more interest in you, and expressing it much differently. You might have even noticed she was going out of her way to get your attention, or make eye contact. Great job on the treat selection if this was the case. Now we are going to start becoming a little selective about when we click that clicker. Without being obvious, start watching your pet out of the corner of your eye. She just sat down? BANG! Click and treat! Grant you, she is clueless about why this happened and will assume it was random.
For the next three days pick ONE behavior that you see your canine perform on a somewhat regular basis. The behavior should happen with relatively high frequency, it should be spontaneous, and it should be positive. Peeing on the carpet does not count and we will address that in a different post. Sitting is a good one to start with, but if you prefer laying down, or picking up your slippers, knock yourself out. It has to happen fairly frequently so that you can catch her in the act.
Click and treat every time you see her sit, or whatever behavior we chose. Right now our focus is not so much to train a new behavior, but to train a learning method. Your dog is learning that sometime when she does something, something good happens. She also has learned that when she hears that click it means she will get a treat. 1+1 = a dog that will continue to try new things and that means a dog that is primed for learning.
During this phase, you will notice your pup starts to sit a lot around you. Click and treat every time she does it. Don't look at her, don't talk to her, don't fuss over what a good girl she is, we will be doing more of that later. Right now she is just learning the program, and the nice thing about the program is that like a baton, it can be passed from family member to family member and she will not care who has the clicker and the treat bag.
Continue to observe and click. You probably only need a few days on this phase of the training, but don't worry about rushing to the next step. All of the time up front will be time well spent in the long run. And have fun! You and your pup are bonding, your heart rate and blood pressure are going down and she will help you live a longer and healthier life!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Opportunistic Dog Training - Priming the Pump
Sharing this method of training has been on my mind for a long time, but in a world of "1,2,3's" and "Top 10's", it is difficult to sell the idea of "lifestyle change", even for diets. The fact is that one of my favorite things to do in the whole world is train an animal to perform a behavior on a cue, especially if that behavior is something they would not ordinarily do.
I promise you, with 100% certainty, that using the method I am going to share in this blog, you will positively be able to train your dog, cat, parrot, rabbit, guinea pig, child or even husband, to perform amazing behaviors and feats upon your command, or your money back.
The first thing I want you to completely erase from you mind is the concept of a training time, lesson, class, or any other structured period of time for you to accomplish your goals. Once you go down that road, you will spend additional time trying to convince your pupil that you want the behavior during other times, and in other locations, with a variety of distractions. We've all seen our friend beg their furry friend to play dead with one shot from the smoking finger only to get the RCA dog look in response. If you follow my plan from the beginning, you will never have to go back and re-train for all of the additional variables. When I say never, I mean not nearly as much. I say "never" a lot for emphasis.
"Elizabeth," you say, "if I have no designated training times, how am I supposed to train my pet?" Aha! That is where the lifestyle change comes in. When you decide you are ready for the lifestyle change of a better behaved pet, I want you to start by leashing her to your hip for the first two weeks straight! What about work, you say? Take a vacation. The time you invest up front will save you tons of time down the road. Trust me. Later I will tell you why you SHOULD trust me.
So now that Rufus is leashed to your Levis, lets get on with it. At first, it is going to be difficult. Kind of like when you had to carry that raw egg around in high school, you will find that there are many inconveniences to having your pooched tied to your leg like a member of some chain gang. But wait until you see how easy training will be!
Before we get on with the opportunistic dog training we have to prime the pump. The pump being the pooches desire to learn. He may have a little desire, but we want him to have that desire in spades. By the time we are finished with this priming the pump he is going to be watching your every breath for an indication that you are going to ask something of him. For this you will need two things, and DO NOT try to fudge on this. I want you to lanyard a clicker around your neck, and wear a fanny pack filled to the brim with his favorite treats. Not dog food, not dry old training cookies, but stuff like freeze dried liver, cooked chicken, cheese squares, anything that make your pooch loose his mind for the treat. It has to be better than good. He has to LOVE it. I insist.
So there you are, lashed down with clicker, dog and pouch full of goodies. What next you say? Now is the best and most fun part! Click the clicker and give your dog a treat. Don't say anything, don't even look at him, don't fuss. Just be VERY nonchalant. Now sit back down and continue reading this blog. In a few minutes, when he looses interest in you...POW!!! Click and treat again. No eye contact, no fuss, like you have no clue what even happened.
Go to the fridge with your now more willing and eager caboose in tow and get yourself a glass of juice. BANG!!! Click and treat. Sit in your favorite chair and thumb through a magazine....POP!!!! Click and treat!
Do this at least 25 times a day for two days. Please make the treats crazy good, but fairly small, even very small if you have a toy breed perhaps the size of a pea.
"Why do I have to wear the clicker, the dog and a fanny pack?" Because if you don't you will forget and you will cram all 25 clicks and treats in before bed time and that will not work. You have to do it everywhere you go, and at random intervals. Sometimes twice in 10 minutes, sometimes twice in an hour. Even better if you start each day with closer intervals for the first couple of hours, then gradually increase. Do it at the mailbox, in the bathroom, on the patio, in the car. Take your dog everywhere with you and click and treat. You will see a dog go from happy to see you to watching your every move to see if you are going to touch that clicker.
Now when I say do this for at least three days.....oh I said two? Anyhoo, as I was saying. Do it for three days, then gradually decrease the frequency to perhaps 10-15 per day. Click treat! Do it now! Now that you are a graduate of priming the pump, or "loading the clicker" as we trainers like to call it, you must now try to be very, very sneaky. Try to only do it when Brutus is looking out the window, or licking his paw, or even lightly snoozing.
IF your pet does not start jumping out of his skin every time you click that clicker, one of two things is wrong. You did not listen when he told you what his favorite treat was, or he is deaf and you need to get him to the vet right away for a hearing test.
Next week we will begin to learn just how fun marking behaviors can be with your pets new and improved eagerness to learn.
I promise you, with 100% certainty, that using the method I am going to share in this blog, you will positively be able to train your dog, cat, parrot, rabbit, guinea pig, child or even husband, to perform amazing behaviors and feats upon your command, or your money back.
The first thing I want you to completely erase from you mind is the concept of a training time, lesson, class, or any other structured period of time for you to accomplish your goals. Once you go down that road, you will spend additional time trying to convince your pupil that you want the behavior during other times, and in other locations, with a variety of distractions. We've all seen our friend beg their furry friend to play dead with one shot from the smoking finger only to get the RCA dog look in response. If you follow my plan from the beginning, you will never have to go back and re-train for all of the additional variables. When I say never, I mean not nearly as much. I say "never" a lot for emphasis.
"Elizabeth," you say, "if I have no designated training times, how am I supposed to train my pet?" Aha! That is where the lifestyle change comes in. When you decide you are ready for the lifestyle change of a better behaved pet, I want you to start by leashing her to your hip for the first two weeks straight! What about work, you say? Take a vacation. The time you invest up front will save you tons of time down the road. Trust me. Later I will tell you why you SHOULD trust me.
So now that Rufus is leashed to your Levis, lets get on with it. At first, it is going to be difficult. Kind of like when you had to carry that raw egg around in high school, you will find that there are many inconveniences to having your pooched tied to your leg like a member of some chain gang. But wait until you see how easy training will be!
Before we get on with the opportunistic dog training we have to prime the pump. The pump being the pooches desire to learn. He may have a little desire, but we want him to have that desire in spades. By the time we are finished with this priming the pump he is going to be watching your every breath for an indication that you are going to ask something of him. For this you will need two things, and DO NOT try to fudge on this. I want you to lanyard a clicker around your neck, and wear a fanny pack filled to the brim with his favorite treats. Not dog food, not dry old training cookies, but stuff like freeze dried liver, cooked chicken, cheese squares, anything that make your pooch loose his mind for the treat. It has to be better than good. He has to LOVE it. I insist.
So there you are, lashed down with clicker, dog and pouch full of goodies. What next you say? Now is the best and most fun part! Click the clicker and give your dog a treat. Don't say anything, don't even look at him, don't fuss. Just be VERY nonchalant. Now sit back down and continue reading this blog. In a few minutes, when he looses interest in you...POW!!! Click and treat again. No eye contact, no fuss, like you have no clue what even happened.
Go to the fridge with your now more willing and eager caboose in tow and get yourself a glass of juice. BANG!!! Click and treat. Sit in your favorite chair and thumb through a magazine....POP!!!! Click and treat!
Do this at least 25 times a day for two days. Please make the treats crazy good, but fairly small, even very small if you have a toy breed perhaps the size of a pea.
"Why do I have to wear the clicker, the dog and a fanny pack?" Because if you don't you will forget and you will cram all 25 clicks and treats in before bed time and that will not work. You have to do it everywhere you go, and at random intervals. Sometimes twice in 10 minutes, sometimes twice in an hour. Even better if you start each day with closer intervals for the first couple of hours, then gradually increase. Do it at the mailbox, in the bathroom, on the patio, in the car. Take your dog everywhere with you and click and treat. You will see a dog go from happy to see you to watching your every move to see if you are going to touch that clicker.
Now when I say do this for at least three days.....oh I said two? Anyhoo, as I was saying. Do it for three days, then gradually decrease the frequency to perhaps 10-15 per day. Click treat! Do it now! Now that you are a graduate of priming the pump, or "loading the clicker" as we trainers like to call it, you must now try to be very, very sneaky. Try to only do it when Brutus is looking out the window, or licking his paw, or even lightly snoozing.
IF your pet does not start jumping out of his skin every time you click that clicker, one of two things is wrong. You did not listen when he told you what his favorite treat was, or he is deaf and you need to get him to the vet right away for a hearing test.
Next week we will begin to learn just how fun marking behaviors can be with your pets new and improved eagerness to learn.
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