Foundations Module 2

FOCUS AROUND FOOD GAME 1

So to use food as a reward in training it’s important that very early on we also work on teaching our puppies to have some self control around the food and to make the connection between our food rewards and a connection with US. We don’t want to become Pez dispensers, we want to create a relationship with engaged rewards from the beginning. So this is a simple game you can play to help your puppy learn how to offer eye contact in the presence of a reward.

  • Have two treats, one in each hand.

  • Bring your hands together to your dog’s nose and let them smell the treats.

  • Stand up and put your hands, with the treats protected in a tight fist at your side (if you have a very small puppy you might want to kneel rather than stand so your eyes are closer for them to see at first)

  • Keep your hands welded to your side, if they nose or nibble at your hands lock them and press them into your legs so the puppy can’t move your hands around

  • Do not scold your puppy for bothering your hands, just keep them still.

  • Wait until your puppy looks at your eyes (watch the first look might be very fast, try to catch it) when they make eye contact say “yes” and give them one of the treats.

  • Put more food in that hand and start again, repeating the above steps.

  • As they get the hang of it start to wait for more prolonged eye contact before releasing the treat.

  • Play this game over the week until it becomes automatic for your puppy to look at your face when you are holding the treats.

  • Make sure you are using two hands, this helps them as they will start by pestering one hand and when that doesn’t work they will look to the other and since you are in the middle, those eyes will flick up to yours as they try and sort it out.

TROUBLESHOOTING DEMAND BARKING

Sometimes when you are training games that introduce a bit of a possibility for frustration you can end up with some demand barking. personally I feel like it’s good to find easy controllable ways to address these things very early in a puppy’s life and training so I can address and fix these things before they become totally ingrained behaviors when a puppy wants something. I want them to extinguish this as a technique early on in our training together. Many trainers will just seek to avoid all frustration during training, but personally I want a puppy to know how to work through these things with me.

Leave it method 1

There are a few variations to how I teach leave it and I will show you both. How do I choose which one I will use? It depends on the puppies overall nature and their food drive. A soft puppy that tends more towards worrying, being anxious about things, that takes a cautious approach to life, I am going to use this first method that makes it nearly impossible for the puppy to get it wrong since you are doing all the work to prevent the mistake. When would I choose the second method then if I could always do this using a more positive option? Because some dogs have dangerous levels of eat first ask questions later approaches to life and for these puppies I want to bring in the aspect of avoidance that using a little carefully orchestrated negative punishment (taking away something good to decrease behavior) can create. As you know by now I am a trainer who uses the least amount of aversion in my training as I can, but there are situations where I feel the use of some is necessary to keep a dog safe. And living in an area where I know of 6 recent cases of puppies dying from mushroom poisoning from eating things on a walk or in the yard, it is worth it to me to use a very minimal level of low stress training to create some avoidance when hearing “leave it”. So I choose the second option if I have a puppy with a voracious appetite that hoovers up everything they see, if the puppy has a sound solid temperament and is not showing any indications of anxiety or fearful natures.

Also when choosing when I might use a less positive solution I can look at whether the concept is somewhat natural in a way the puppy is better set up for success because we are utilizing concepts the puppy is already familiar with. So when teaching leave it, we are already in possession of the food, puppies understand possession, so asserting possession over food already in your possession is not naturally fear inducing, puppies already come to us having learned from littermates what’s mine is mine. But for example using a punishment like a collar correction for a puppy diving for food on the ground, reaching for food you want is a completely natural behavior, so us adding the discomfort of a collar correction over food neither of us possesses now puts us in conflict, we are now fighting over the resource and our corrections are more aggressive and can cause fear. So much of puppy training is matching method to the learner to help them being the most successful with the least amount of stress and the highest likelihood of safety and survival.

  • Have a treat in each hand

  • Present a treat in an open hand about 1 foot away from the puppies nose

  • immediately! deliver a treat to the puppy with the other hand before the puppy has a chance to go for the food in your open hand

  • be FAST, if your puppy goes for the food just close your hand and try again and be faster, and you can move the open hand further away so it’s even easier for you to get the treat to them before they move for the food they see

  • after a few reps the puppy should start to catch on and expect the other food to arrive when they see the food, if they are starting to wait for that second treat you can start adding in your “leave it” verbal cue as you open the hand to show the food

  • gradually (so gradually the dog doesn’t notice it’s getting harder) delay just slightly the delivery of the second treat, if they make a mistake start again and make it easier again

  • once the puppy is waiting patiently for the second treat when they see the first start moving the open treat hand closer to the ground and eventually putting it on the ground

“LEAVE IT” method 2

We want our food rewards to be calmly taken and we want our dogs to understand how to think and problem solve to get food, not to push and party crash for it. So this game is to shape the dog how to offer leaving food alone as a way to earn the food. When you teach this how you hold your hands make a very big difference in your comfort with baby teeth and puppy nails digging at you. So, watch the video and see how I tuck my fingers and create a tight fist that is not easy to get a grip on to mouth, and see how I hold my hand at my feet so they can’t shove it around. Obviously if they are too rough on your hands with digging we can modify this and you can sit in a chair so your hands are off the ground. But if your timing is good and you catch that exact moment they stop trying, you quickly go from mouthing and digging at your hands to completely leaving your hands alone with no prompting on your part.

  • With very small puppies as in the video, sit on the floor, older pups you can sit in a chair.

  • Place a treat in your fist.

  • Put your fist on the ground braced against your feet, or if sitting lay it on your lap.

  • Use your muscles to keep your hand as still as possible as your puppy bashes it about (they will be better about this if you work on the above exercise first)

  • The exact moment your puppy stops bothering your hand, open your hand and let them eat the treat.

  • Repeat, expect the pestering of your hand the second time to be a bit worse as they have now eaten some of the food which will excite them, but hold strong (unless of course your dog is hurting you)

  • As you keep repeating you should start to see little clues your puppy is about to give up, they might sigh, pull back, make eye contact, lay their heads down, etc. If you see a repeated pattern start to wait for that as your signal to give the food.

  • Do not say leave it yet! We don’t bring that in until later.

  • As they get the idea start to delay just a little before opening your hand to create a little duration of them leaving it alone.


RECALL FOUNDATION GAME

Before we start heading out to teach our puppies how to come when called there are a lot of games we can play to create a very strong association with coming being a super fun thing! There are also a lot of common pitfalls we want to avoid!

  • Create a very strong positive association with their names! Use it before all the fun things, say their names as you give them their food bowl, as you pick up their leash for a walk, as you open the cookie jar, as you pick up their favorite toy. Let them associate their names with all the good things.

  • Try very hard NOT to use their names when you are upset. Don’t shout their names and scold because they are chewing on something or doing something wrong.

  • Don’t use a come command before it is trained!!!!! This is probably the number one mistake people make with puppies and recalls.

  • Don’t use a come command for something a puppy doesn’t like: for example don’t call them over so you can shut them in their crate!

  • Don’t call the puppy away from doing something fun: for example don’t call them away from playing with another puppy, or barking at a squirrel, or digging in the yard.

  • Don’t use a come command as a stop doing something cue, it should be a blast to come to you, not a drag that means the fun is over.

  • Understand that most all puppies when they come home are naturally more sticky since they don’t know how safe the world is or isn’t. Don’t mistake this to mean they know what it means when you call them over. Their natural independence and confidence is going to kick in and when it does, they are not being disobedient because they stop coming, it just means they don’t yet thoroughly understand the behavior and you need to TRAIN IT.

Here is a video of a simple game you can play inside or in your yard to start laying a foundation that responding to their names and come is great fun!

  • Have lots of treats ready (you can use their kibble)

  • Give one treat a nice clear toss (with young pups you have to really make sure they are focused on the treat and slowly toss as their tracking skills are not always very good)

  • Once you see the pup has eaten the thrown food, say their name and call them.

  • When your pups comes back to you, don’t worry about a sit, just focus on getting them to come all the way into your reward and pet them as you give the reward.

  • From day one we want our hands on our pups during training to mean good things and to be expected and enjoyed.

ADVANCING OUR SITS & DOWNS

Once our dogs are easily getting into the sits and downs as we worked on in Module One, I want to work on generalizing this behavior by practicing it in many different areas. If your pup is still too young to have out in public locations then just work in various places around your home and property, or with more distractions by training around family members or other pets.

  • You can start adding in your verbal cues once your dog is easily offering each behavior when you put yourself into the starting position for each.

  • If your pup gets distracted, don’t scold them or fight it, just wait for the moment they reengage with you and be fun to train with! They will learn you keep bringing the good stuff.

  • If you are moving to a much higher distraction area you can bring in a higher value reward.

  • Use toys to reward sits if your pup loves to play, tuck the toy under your armpit and hold your hand like you have food, when they sit “yes” and bring out the fun toy and start playing.

  • Keep getting your hands on your pups during rewarding.

STAY FOUNDATION PREPARATIONS

First of all so we can begin working on a stay in a down we need to make sure our dog is laying down in a comfortable hip rolled position.

  • Have your dog down

  • When they are down bring a treat near their nose and then slowly move it towards their side, like you are going to take it to their belly

  • Feed when they roll the hip

  • If they won’t flop that way try the other side, sometimes some dogs prefer a hip roll on one side

To prepare a dog to be able to stay as we move around them we first want to get the comfortable with our motion while they are still

  • Have your dog sit

  • As you go to give them a treat, step back and forth in front of them

  • When they are successful with that try walking all the way around them as you give a treat

  • See if you can lure them into a sit facing away from you

  • Lean back and forth behind them and reward each time they switch their head to follow you without breaking their stay

HEELING INTRODUCTION

Our very first moments of focused engaged heeling at our side should be done hands off and leash free! You can do this in your house or yard, somewhere safe where you don’t have to worry about holding onto your dog.

  • Have your dog sit at your side

  • Show them a treat in the hand next to them

  • Take off and after that initial take off step immediately reward them before they can get out of position

  • Repeat until they are happily stepping off with you

  • Then add your verbal cue and signal to walk next to you

  • You can do this with very young puppies, just get that treat all the way down close so they stay focused on it as you step off

FOLLOW ME

To get ready for teaching our puppies how to walk on a loose leash we want to play some games to make following us fun and not about physical control. So let’s see what things you can come up with in your house or around your yard that you can use to have your dog’s follow you.

  • Reward when your dog is walking nicely at your side

  • Use your voice and engaging emotions to make walking with you fun

  • If they don’t stay with you and run off ahead, stop and use a treat to bring them back to your side before trying again

  • Reward frequently until your dog starts to get the idea

  • No scolding or saying no or physically making your dog stay with you, this is all about them wanting to be with you

MORE FUN THINGS YOU CAN SHAPE WITH A BOX AND YOUR CLICKER!

This is a video showing a typical training session with Emily when she was a puppy that shows you a collection of things you can work on once your puppy knows how to offer getting in the box. Using tricks to teach a puppy body awareness and confidence is so important. Not only is it fun exercise, the interaction with the box helps build confidence and is an important part of the socialization process as it’s giving your dog tools on how to overcome obstacles and control their environment and reinforcement.