Foundations Module 6

GENERALIZING STAYS

  • take your stay work on the road!

  • practice in as many new locations as you can

  • start short and successful with each new location gradually building your times in each new spot

  • be adaptable, if you are working on stays and a person wants to pet your dog, decide if maybe the socializing needs to take precedence and then release and do that before getting back to it, or the same if a nice dog is walking by and you want to take advantage of that. On the flip side if your pup is super social it’s ok to say no when someone asks if they can say hi if you are working, just say “sorry not right now, we are in training” in a sweet friendly voice.

  • read the situation, somethings might be too much for your puppy to be able to stay, loud noises, lots of people, kids, skateboards, etc. If these things happen support your pup through the process, let them know it’s ok to move if they are scared, then help them move further away and try again. The more calm and cool you act about it all the more likely your dog is to follow your focus and stay connected to your training.

PROOFING STAYS

After you have generalized stays and your dog has a good understanding of what the game is it’s time to start proofing, which means testing it, seeing what you can do to challenge and test under what circumstances does the behavior break down. During dog training you want to be the one testing and breaking your dog’s performance if it’s going to break.

Now here’s the thing, our goal is NOT to break the behavior, it’s to systematically make things more challenging and keep bringing in more variables and catching our dog’s being successful. This is how you raise and train confident reliable dogs. If you test TOO much and are constantly breaking the behavior you can take a happy confident learner and create frustration, confusion and a dog that wants to avoid training.

Many people do not recognize how some dogs display confusion. I so often meet with people who call their dog’s stubborn, when the dog has not been able to be successful enough to figure out what you are trying to communicate. Many dog’s who run away from training and seem distracted are doing so because you are making it too hard and they don’t know what to do so they go into avoidance behavior. Some dogs get more hyper when they can’t figure something out and start pacing and whining or even just trying to climb into your lap, they are trying to change the channel because they don’t get it. Some dogs try ten times harder when they don’t understand and it seems like they are trying to frustrate you, when they are just trying to hard they are doing it ten times harder the wrong way, but they are trying, they just don’t understand.

For a dog to understand what you are trying to train, they have to be successful more than they are not! So in general when proofing you are ensuring you are getting at least a 75-80% success rate. This is during proofing. During the teaching and generalizing stage you are looking for more like 95%. So if you practice ten down stays with throwing proofing distraction challenges at your dogs they should be able to be successful and not break the stay 8 out of the ten times. If they are breaking 6 out of 10 times they are not going to easily learn without bringing a lot of stress and confusion into your learning game. You do not need failures, again our goal is not to break the behavior, only see what tests might break it so you know what areas still need more work before the world throws challenges at your dog they are not ready for. But you also don’t need to be afraid of a few mistakes, it’s ok to sometimes push a little harder and see if they are ready for more. Just back up and help if you see they cannot.

When proofing and you find a challenge that breaks the behavior you want to have a three and out plan, remember we want that 80% success rate. If I push and my dog makes a mistake, I simply reset and try again (I don’t scold or correct, just don’t reward) if my dog makes the same mistake again, then for the next attempt I need to try something different so my dog doesn’t fail the next attempt. The first mistakes are sometimes just honest mistakes, they don’t understand and when you don’t reward they get it and then are successful, if they make a mistake the second time right away it means they don’t understand and the first reset did not convey your information and what you are asking is likely too big of a jump, so back up and make the next attempt easier. You can stay closer, do whatever you were doing slower, or softer. You can reward sooner. But change something to make it easier for your third try if they have not earned the reward the first two attempts.

BUILDING DURATION FOR STAYS AND PLACES

Building duration is often the thing people struggle with the most! This is a dance. This is about being able to read your dance partner and see if they are calm and settled or about to move. When you really know a dog you can usually see they are going to break if you are paying attention. They generally all have certain tells, they might drop their heads every time right before standing, or shift their hips right before breaking a down stay, or they might start whining. Sometimes you can even see changes of breathing patterns and see muscle tension vs relaxation. We are looking for all these little tells so we can push right up to those limits without going over them.

When building duration we want an intermittent variable schedule the dog cannot predict but feels satisfied with. So for example, I don’t want to reward on a fixed schedule like give a treat every 10 seconds. Because if the dog sorts out this pattern, then when suddenly 10 seconds go by and he doesn’t get a reward you can get a sudden breakdown of behavior, because the dog thinks the reward won’t happen now because it’s not the pattern. So we want to constantly be changing the timing so it’s not predictable. So sometimes it’s 10 seconds or 15 or 12 or 8, but it’s always different, but it’s all close to the dog’s current tolerance.

So generally what I am doing is pushing up against but staying right around their current duration. So if I know my dog is great for 30 seconds but after that it all falls apart my schedule will look something like this: I reward at: 28 secs, then 31 secs later, then 27 seconds, then 30 seconds, then 33 seconds, then 26 seconds. So i’m going to be within that bubble near 30 seconds but i’m dancing between pushing for more and making it easier. And with each session those pushes get more as I’m building success. And my schedule is always also adjusted to the environment and my dog’s mood and what I am currently observing. So if distractions move in I might reward quicker, if the dog is calm and the environment is calm I might push longer.

One big piece of advice, use a timer or watch! People SUCK at gauging time when training a dog. You can feel like you’ve done a two minute stay when it’s really only been 45 seconds. So often people don’t realize they have not built as much duration as they believe, so time it! Most dogs have a tipping point, and once you get it duration after doesn’t matter, and it’s surprisingly not much for some dogs. So a dog that can do a ten minute down stay can often do and hour easily, but a dog that can’t do a two minute stay yet can take a long time to get to a 5 minute stay. Those first ten minutes are the hardest!

USING TOYS FOR HEEL AND LOOSE LEASH WALKING

To really effectively use toys to work on loose leash walking and heeling we want to first create a framework so the dog knows when to play and when to focus. We first teach our dogs a signal that says ok switch to play, this way I can hold the toy in my hands as I walk and not have it be a distraction and have my dog focusing on ME and not the toy.

We start by teaching our pups a nose touch to our hand is the gateway to the toy. This allows us to use our hand touch to shape the heel position we want and builds in focus to that hand target as we move.

So first start with just teaching the hand touch.

  • Tuck a treat between your thumb and palm of your hand

  • present your hand, as the dog’s nose touches your hand looking for the treat, click and move your thumb to release the treat

  • Repeat 3-4 times

  • then very quickly present your hand that same way without a treat, click and then feed a treat from your other hand

  • add your verbal touch cue once your dog is readily nosing your hand whether there is a treat in it or not.

  • once hand touch is solid you can switch to using toys to reward the touch (ideally you want to use what motivates your dog the most, if you have built both then you can use them interchangeably to keep up the motivation)

  • you can use toys to reward both precision heeling or loose leash walking, you can see in the videos how I hold the toys while working: tucked under an arm pit for fast delivery for heel work, a ball in my opposite hand, or a tug toy tucked in a back pocket.

  • if you have done the work from previous modules on having toys on the ground then it should be very easy to work with them in your hands or pocket as you train, if you skipped that step and are having issues with your pup trying to steal the toys from your hands or jumping all over you then you want to go back and work on that more before this training.

PLAY TRAINING SESSIONS

Ideally I want most of my training sessions to look like play. I want my puppies to think of training as fun engaged cooperative communication. I want enthusiastic responses to my cues. I want the impulse control and ability to think while in drive that comes with training using high energy play. Play training is one of the most powerful ways to overcome outside distractions as it makes you and your games the most valuable thing happening. It teaches your pup to stay focused and engaged. It teaches your puppy to control themselves around their toys.

3 ENGAGEMENT POSITIONS

It’s a great idea to build a high value association with three most used positions we would need our dogs to be in when we engage and interact with them out in the world.

Position 1: Tucking between our legs, Middle. Why would you use this position? Maybe your dog is worried about their surroundings, being able to tuck into you is a way for them to feel more secure. It is a position a dog maybe put in for Veterinary Care, this exact position is how a Vet would draw blood from your pup’s neck. This is the position I put my dogs in when I towel their muddy feet. Having a dog be comfortable with being snugged in close to you helps them better handle restraint when it is needed.

Position 2: Lined up at your side, Heel. Having a dog find being at your side is the position you will use the most in life with them. You want this spot to be seen as a super valuable fun place to be. Your pup’s should LOVE lining up to your side.

Position 3: Facing you toe to toe, Front. Having your dog love coming in nice and close to your feet makes it far easier to put on leashes and to regain control if you find yourself calling them to you in the world. You want your pup to think being close to you and being touched is super valuable. This is how you prevent keep away issues.

You start this game by using that treat tossing game we played with the first puppy recall game and then as you work on these positions you use those treat tosses to move the pup away so you can keep practicing the various positions.

TROUBLESHOOTING

When things don’t go as planned, how to handle when your dog barks or gets distracted by things during training

The number one take away is create more space!!! Then try to get your puppy focused on your rewards again.

  • Move back

  • Try to get their focus on a reward

  • If they cannot focus on the reward, move back more and try again, keep moving until you find the distance where they can think again

  • Once they are taking the rewards, try to then reengage them into doing things for the treats

  • Once your puppy is reconnected to you gradually move back closer to where you lost their focus

  • If they react again by barking repeat the above steps

PEDESTAL TRAINING

This is one of the most important foundation behaviors you can teach a dog! It helps a dog learn how to confidently use their back legs independently of their front feet. It teaches them how to line up at your side. It can teach them to chase your side.

It is a foundation step for:

  • Heel work

  • Orbit trick

  • Freestyle tricks

  • Body awareness and conditioning exercises

When choosing a pedestal at first pick something very solid and sturdy that will not shift or move under your dog’s feet, later on you can use things less stable but we want the first work to feel super solid beneath their feet. Pick something a bit elevated, the more elevated the more weight it puts on their back feet and the more it physically works their rear end (a dog with bad hips or weak legs you would choose a very low pedestal) The more elevated the tighter spins you get. I use an upside down ceramic crock pot liner for mine, also big heavy water bowls work, 5 gallon buckets that are weighted work. Round is best, but you can use big books.

When shaping pedestal work my first step is basically like the box game:

  • click and reward any interactions with your pedestal

  • use where you reward to help your next steps, reward from your hand over the center of the pedestal

  • shape until your pup knows the deal is to get their front paws on (again you can lure, but if you shape you will have a much more independent confident pedestal if you shape it)

  • once they are 100% putting the front feet on, watch the back feet, if they move AT ALL, even the slightest weight shift, click and reward using the hand position I demonstrate in the video.

  • the goal is to turn the dog’s head away from you as you reward so they are moving towards you with their rear legs.

  • resist the temptation to step into them to make them move! We want movement towards us, not away!

  • the way you shape this spin is entirely about reward placement and hand position!!! So plant your feet and don’t move your body into them.

  • Once your dog is purposely moving towards you with back feet steps build up the number of steps before rewards.

  • Once you have a half dozen steps between steps, be very aware of your hand and shoulder position, drop the shoulder of the side you want them to come to, place both hands near that side’s hip.

  • Work BOTH sides from the very beginning. Expect it to be challenging going the new direction and remember, click the smallest movement even if it’s in the wrong direction, and use your reward placement and hand position to turn their heads so they are moving their rears towards the new side. REWARD PLACEMENT IS EVERYTHING.

  • Once your dog can rotate both directions from the middle facing you to your side, make the new criteria their shoulders making gentle contact with your leg, teach them to target your leg as the click point.

  • Once your dog knows they need to touch your leg for the click, start moving away from them as they are nearing your side so they need to chase you a couple steps to get the contact and click.

  • Work up until you can circle the pedestal with them chasing you, in either direction.

  • You can add a verbal to differentiate which side (I use here & side).

  • Fade down the size of your pedestal gradually.

PUT YOUR TOYS AWAY

If you did the earlier clicker training with the box games and target training this is a fun way to get your dog building towards more cooperative training and tricks to help them learn how to target moving their toys in a deliberate way. Teaching retrieves and games like this really helps to prevent resource guarding and keep away, teaching puppies games like this with you creates a atmosphere of sharing rather than guarding.

Let’s talk a little about moving forward

This class is a starting point. The exercises shared here can bring you and your dog into a connected relationship based on positive reinforcement trained specific behaviors to help you both negotiate the world together. But it’s important to know training is never really “done”, behavior is fluid and relational, so if you suddenly stop practicing and sudden stop reinforcing good behavior you will see their responses start to fade and become inconsistent. So your behaviors have to be maintained, this means, occasionally you have to step back and remind your pup that these things are fun. You have to build to a schedule of random reinforcement so you don’t just stop rewarding, you start randomly doing so at a level that maintains your hard earned behaviors.

We will talk briefly about reward schedules as they are the secret to maintaining great manners and willing canine partners. Once you have taught a behavior you have to have a process of weaning treats that keeps your dog still engaged. If you simply stop rewarding because your dog “knows it” the behavior will decline, because knowing something and being motivated to do so are two entirely different things! You dog needs to know it and want to do it. When we first start training our puppies we begin with a CRF - continuous reinforcement, we reward every desired response, once our dogs understand we went through the generalizing stage and the proofing stage where we offered challenges and tests to see if our dog understands under any circumstance, during these stages we keep with a fairly high level of reinforcement to keep our dogs motivated as we pushed for more. Once we see that our dog can perform the behavior under any circumstances we then can begin the process of weaning treats, we do this employing the use of an Intermittent/random reinforcement schedule.

Intermittent random reward is like a lottery slot machine, we keep pulling that lever hoping this is the time it pays out vs CRF is like a vending machine, we put money in and expect something in return and if we don’t get it we get upset. We want our dogs thinking of rewards for behaviors like the slot machine, not the vending machine. We want to move their rewards to not a sure thing, but a I sure hope so thing. So we start to not reward every response, and when doing so we want to keep our emotional engagement high so our connection makes up for the drop in rewards. We want to still use our rewards but ask for more, better, faster, etc. Ideally you have done the suggested exercises where you have your food not always on you. Dogs learn patterns fast so when weaning you don’t want to be patterned about it, they will figure that out. So if you start rewarding every other response, then you will see they will do every other one well, and not so well the other.

They can learn what you look like when you plan to reward and not, thereby setting up the “he only listens when I have food” effect. Your puppy should not be able to tell if you plan to reward or not if you are doing things like having the food on the ground, or if you are good about petting and playing with them as part of rewarding. Stop yourself from reaching for that food before you ask for a behavior once you past that initial capturing phase when you first start training a behavior. Use your markers like “yes” and “good dog” to mark before you reach for the food. If your pup can’t read you when you intend to reward or not, then it is easy to maintain behaviors. And the single most important aspect to weaning treats is that when doing so, you are still reinforcing with your engagement and emotions. If you are great about keeping your hands involved in rewards, your voice is your most powerful tool, you can convey how happy you are and make those pups wiggle, if your voice can make your dog wiggle weaning treats it easy.

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES AND CHANGES

It’s important to know your puppy is going to go through a few phases that will challenge your training and you want to keep working through them or all this hard work you have done can unravel. As your puppies approach adolescence it is natural to expect some push back. This is NOT your puppies being disobedient and defiant, this is not about you. This is about them discovering more of the world and wanting to explore those things more. They already know how you work, they want to learn more about the world around them. Leash pulling and recalls can suffer a LOT during adolescence so you need to be prepared to take a step back in your training when it does, resist the urge to be pissed off and take it personal. Instead, be MORE fun, reward more, give your dog MORE motivation to choose you.

Adolescence is a phase and is temporary but you can create relationship issues that last a lifetime during this phase if you decide to take things personally, or you can take a lot of dee breaths and come out the other side of this with that same sweet puppy you headed into adolescence with. They come back. But things like bringing punishment and harsh treatment into your relationship because of your frustration causes shifts that alter trust and create dynamics that can take a very long time undo. It’s natural and normal to sometimes lose your temper and maybe do something you wish you hadn't, we can both recover from that, but a systematic change where you start routinely bringing punishment into your relationship takes away trust and can lead to fallout that can completely change the course of the way your dog views you. So trust the process, trust they will find their heads again as their bodies sort out what to do with all those new hormones and abilities. Provide a lot of clear communication and lots of motivation. And it’s a great time for a new sport like Nosework, agility, rally obedience, trick training, fun active things you can learn together.

Adolescence is also a terrible time to let other teenage dogs raise your dog. I do not recommend a lot of dog parks or daycare for teenage dogs. They don’t make great choices during this age and can push other dogs into lashing out against them. So do keep them social with other dogs, but try to have that be with dogs they know, it’s so much better to take a walk or hike with other dog friends rather than just setting them loose in a mosh pit of dogs. This is a great time for taking group training classes for socializing instead of dog parks.