Chin Rests for Cooperative Care

• Start with your hands stacked one in front of the other, the one closest to you has food in it.

• Get dog focused on treat hand and gently bring hand under their chin

• Reward dog when chin is touching your hand

• Repeat and over time gradually increase time between the hand resting under chin and rewarding to build duration

• Mark and reward when you feel the head get heavier in your hand

• Build having object in your treat hand while they are chin resting

• vary the objects you use

• work with your dog sitting, standing and laying down

• Build your chin rest onto pillows, platforms to free up your hands

Start Buttons!

What is a start button? It is using the concept of behavior shaping to teach our dogs to give us a signal that they are ok for us to proceed.

We start by pairing a “thing” or action with reinforcement and then shaping a start behavior into us presenting the “thing”. Ex: we pair a brush with a treat, and then shape in the dog laying on their mat makes the brush appear and the treats. Or we pair a Dremel with treats, and shape in doing a chin rest makes the Dremel and treats come out.

Step 1:

• Both hands behind your back

• treats in one hand

• grooming tool in the other

• show the grooming tool

• present the hand with treats

• repeat 6-8 times.

After we have paired the grooming tool (or medicine, etc) with the reinforcement pattern, we then shape in our start button. We can either free shape in a behavior or mold in a previously shaped/trained behavior. For free shaping you start to delay between each step and wait for your dog to offer a behavior, when they offer the behavior you then start the pattern so for example: dog looks to side, you present comb, then treat, then wait for dog to offer turning their head again before you present the comb again. To mold in a specific start button, first capture that behavior, if it is on cue you can ask for it, then do the pattern, so: you say “chin” dog offers chin, you present comb and then treat, you repeat this several times, and then try instead of cueing see if the dog will offer the chin, most dogs if you have completed the pattern several times will try what last worked and offer that chin. It is helpful to prime the behavior by working on it before the session, as dog’s tend to offer behaviors that get them the most reinforcement, which is why most dogs sit and look at you, because sitting and looking at you gets a lot of reinforcement in many settings! (if they bark, or offer other behaviors that can also tip you off to what behaviors they are most reinforced for, even if you don’t reinforce it, or are not wanting to).

Above an example of shaping a head down for Dremel start button. Below an example of Nick’s start button hip roll for brushing. Both of these were shaped. By first working on the behavior (head down, hip roll) and then adding in the tool/reinforcement pattern, then working on them together. I primed the dogs by working on each thing first and then seeing if they would offer something close to the SB I wanted. So you will see me first reinforcing Leo for lowering his head and gradually getting him all the way to the head down. With Nick I started with beginning the pattern if he would shift his rear in any way, working up to the full roll.

 Food Station/Bucket Game for Cooperative Care

• teach your dog to focus on a treat bowl in front of them

• build up to being able to touch their body while they look at food

• keep food as close to chest height as possible so it’s easily visible and quick to reach

• starting with puppies you can generally be able to touch them and hold back, which allows them to get comfortable with restraint and helps prevent low frustration thresholds

• look for stress signals to know if they are ok with being physically moved or if you need to use food to reposition

• add in simple grooming while looking at bowl

• start with things that do not already induce stress, can use things like a wash rag on their legs, etc if they already dislike combs & brushes

• always stop what you are doing if they look away from bowl and wait for them to look back to continue or just release to the food

With these videos you can see the difference in a puppy that was raised with CC from the start (Leo) and a puppy I got older who was already touch sensitive (Nick). You can see with Leo I can move through steps fast as he has no negative baggage coming in. Nick I have to work steps much more gradually and take many more steps.

 Making a scratch board for toenail filing

MATERIALS:

Piece of wood larger than a sheet of sandpaper, you can make your board longer and add a second piece below (be sure if you add a lower piece you lay the high piece on top of the lower piece so their nails don’t snag the lower piece)

Sandpaper: Grit 60- 80- 120 (the lower the number the courser the grit)

Dogs under 25lbs start with 120 grit and once they are trained you can lower your grit but move gradually to see what works their nails best. Most smaller dogs a 80 grit is sufficient to keep their nails filed.

Dogs over 25lbs - 50lbs I start with 80 grit and once they are trained you can lower the grit. I use 60 grit successfully with my collies.

Dogs over 50lbs I start with 60 grit and move down to a 50-40 grit.

You need to start with that higher number (finer grit) until your dog has figured it out as they might be wiping their paws rather than scratching at first and the lower grit can scuff up their pads. All dogs have varying density of nails so you will figure out as you train how course a grit you need, for example Nick’s nails are not as dense as Emily’s since he’s a younger dog so his nails file more quickly than hers.

Staple gun and staples:

For a quick starter board you can use double sided tape but to create a nice firm scratch surface a staple is going to give you a nice firm flat scratch surface which will lead to less ripping and and slipping of the paper and the firmer the paper is adhered to the board the better filing you will get.

You only need short staples (1/4)

When Stapling make sure you place them vertically so the dog’s moving nails don’t catch on them.

Gorilla Tape:

This is an extra step I take that many folks skip, I find It makes my board last longer. By taping the edges and over the staples the paper doesn’t snag or rip as quickly and again keeps that firm flat surface longer. But you don’t have to do this step if you are just wanting to check it out and don’t have any handy.

Muzzle Training:

Before you plan on using a muzzle you need to help your dog feel comfortable with the muzzle itself so they are not worried about it coming towards their face.When using a muzzle we want a dog learning to push into the muzzle to have it put on, instead of us shoving it over their faces. If you take your time introducing a muzzle you can create a dog that doesn’t mind putting it on anymore than they do having a harness or collar put on. First, just reward the dog for checking it out either on the ground or in your hand.

Essentially I play the box game with the muzzle to start, clicking and rewarding any engagement they have with the muzzle. Once they are comfortable touching it, I set the muzzle in a container so I can work on shaping them to push their nose into it. If you are using a mesh style or closed cloth style of muzzle simply mark and reward near the muzzle rather than through it like you see me doing with this basket muzzle. Use the same behavior shaping from our clicker training box game and tricks to shape your dog to put their nose into the muzzle