Foundation Module 1
There are going to be 4 main focuses when we very first start training a puppy:
Play & Engagement
Developing an operant minded puppy
Basic Positional Cues
Socialization
PLAY & ENGAGEMENT
This is EVERYTHING when it comes to raising a puppy that is easy and fun to train. When you teach your puppy that YOU are their very best playmate it becomes so much easier to work past distractions, to build confidence, to redirect and to end up with a dog that LOVES to learn. But here’s the thing, puppies don’t just come knowing the rules and come with their own motivations and preferred ways to play, and often those preferred ways are painful to humans! So many people completely ruin a puppy’s desire to engage and play with people because they don’t know how to teach a puppy to play politely and that is going to be our first goal. To as quickly as we can move these games to being enjoyable for us both. Avoid the temptation to have so many rules when you start and prioritize your bond and connection over what you want this finished game to look like.
Game one: Tug of war. Most all puppies come with an extremely strong desire to chomp you and if you don’t have a game you can work this into your puppy is quickly going to be no fun at all to play with as they leave you riddled with tiny pin holes from their razor sharp teeth. Do NOT believe the BS that teaching a puppy to play tug of war makes them aggressive, it is simply not true. Also, if you don’t I promise you whether you want to or not you will end having to play tug of war with your pant legs, shoelaces, leashes, sweater sleeves, etc. You puppy will find a way to make you play this game and all those ways are far more problematic than just using a tug toy to teach this puppy how to channel that chainsaw mouth in a productive way.
GUIDELINES FOR TUGGING WITH A YOUNG PUPPY:
Let the puppy tug against you, you just provide the resistance for them to tug against (think of that shoelace fun, it’s just because your foot and gravity create the toy) so do NOT yank your puppy around trying to win the toy back.
Just give it gentle movement to make it a little lively (again think about your moving pant leg and how fun and easy that is to grab).
Use a long toy so your hands are far away from their chompy teeth, I like long braided fleece tugs or fluffy toys with long handles, you want your hands at least 6 inches to a foot away from their chompers. (you can also tie some rope or a leash to a toy to give you that distance)
When you tug your puppies neck should be parallel to the ground so NOT at a 45 degree angle, and their front feet should be on the ground. It might look cool to get a puppy to latch on and hang them from the toy but that is horrible for their developing neck, jaw and teeth. It’s ok if that happens for a moment as they jump up and grab on, but get that head down to normal position as quickly as you can.
If the puppy let’s go of the toy and comes at your hands: say “ouch” and freeze. Do not scold, swat, grab their noses, or punish them in any way. They are trying to play, don’t shut this desire down. Just pause the game and show them you don’t play if their mouth is on you instead of the toy. You can let go of the toy or if it is long enough make sure their is no resistance to it so they don’t have anything to tug against. If this happens a lot I am willing to bet your toys are too small and you don’t have that foot distance I am suggesting. Nice long toys you are able to see those chomps coming and move your hands away.
When your puppy is teething: usually starts around 18-22 weeks old, you might see them suddenly change how they play tug with you as their mouth is sensitive. Use very little pressure and let them win the toy rather than having their sore teeth pulled on, this is a good time to shift your focus to fetch. Some puppies you have to avoid tug altogether as it’s too uncomfortable and some are so driven you don’t notice until your tug toy turns red, even with these tough driven puppies gentle your play, as the discomfort itself can change the nature of the play and make it edgier and rougher and we don’t want that.
Have two of the same toy! This is the easiest way to keep your play from becoming possessive and from the get go we want to make OUR engagement the most rewarding part of the play, rather than the toy itself being the goal.
ENGAGED PLAY GAME ONE:
Switching toys during play. Again the goal is that our interactive play is the reward rather than winning the object.
Start playing with your puppy, for a very young puppy sit on the floor with them. An older pup you can sit in a chair or stand up.
Once your puppy is following the tug toy and biting it and keeping a little hold of it, let go of the toy and let them win it.
As soon as you let go, start moving your second toy around to entice them. You might have to keep wiggling it and making it fun, as long as the puppy is looking at your efforts keep trying. If the puppy doesn’t give up their toy, don’t take it from them. Just walk away and stop playing. Don’t set the tone this will be about control and you being all grabby from the get go.
When they let go of the toy they won and grab onto your live toy give that gentle resistance and play with them until they are really into it and as you do so, pick up that original toy.
After a little bit of play, again repeat that step where you make the other toy live again.
If you use different kinds of toys your dog might have a preference and not be as quick to let go.
Be sure during your play to talk to them in your happy voice, to touch them and to be engaging and fun.
Don’t worry if you hear play growls and barks, many puppies are vocal players.
Here is a video of me playing with Nick when he first came home so you can see the two tug toy game in action.
DEVELOPING AN OPERANT MINDED DOG
Behavior shaping is one of the most powerful training tools available! It is a game changer for what you can teach dogs and how much easier it is to get a puppy working for and with you rather than chasing around things you don’t want them doing. When my puppies come home the majority of the early training I do is teaching them tricks using shaping so I can learn how they learn and get a sense of who they are before I work on cues I will really care about. Dogs that do a lot of shaping as a young dog grow into such flexible learners that you can teach them almost anything you want to. They also tend to be a lot more confident as they learn they can control their environment and problem solve through things rather than always needing you to show them how things work.
CONDITIONING A CLICKER
Yes a clicker, not a marker word. Why? Because I said so ;) Just kidding, because a clicker is such a valuable tool you want to be proficient at using it. The noise it makes helps your young puppy learn noises are fun not scary and your timing accuracy can be honed to be super efficient. I’m serious, this thing can be like teaching a puppy magic and I want you all to be good at it. We won’t be using it for everything in the class, but the tricks and body awareness exercises are so much better done using a clicker.
You want to do two to three days of simply pairing your clicks with food before you move on to the games.
Not sure if you are ready to move on? Post a video of your conditioning session to the FB group and ask me and I’ll let you know if I think it’s time you can use it.
CLICKER SHAPING GAME ONE:
The Box game. This is my favorite first shaping game because you do several things at once, not only are you teaching them how to learn but they gain physical awareness and better body control, they gain confidence from interacting with an object, plus it becomes a tool to create so many foundation behaviors.
Get your box, you want to start with a box that is lower than your puppies elbows, unless they are hella bold ;) You might even have to cute one down. You want it also big enough for your puppy to stand in with all four feet.
Do NOT put the box down around your puppy until you have EVERYTHING ready!
Get your rewards ready, I just use their kibble I would normally feed them. And by get them ready I mean you have a whole stash ready for the entire session and you have a bunch in your hand ready to immediately give. Do NOT set the box down and then go fishing for rewards.
Get your clicker in your hand in position ready to fire.
Then set your box down and BE READY.
So you have to grow an extra arm ;) How I do it, I put my clicker in one hand, treats in the other and I then pick up the box with the hand also holding the clicker.
Most all puppies are super curious and will want to see what you just set down. Be ready to immediately click and then set the treat down into the box. At first they might not be sure about getting the treat out of the box so be ready to point it out to them or helping them get it. If they are acting real scared of the box you can also just set it down right outside of the box, but don't feed it our of your hand. We want them focused on the box not you.
After they eat the treat wait for them to anything related to the box, if they sniff at it, look down in it for more treats, circle it, paw it, anything! As soon as they do, click again and drop another treat in.
Keep the sessions super short! 2-3 minutes tops! Your only goal for session one is that your dog figures out this box has something to do with cookies showing up. That’s it, it’s not to get them all the way in, if they start doing that, great. But our goal is simply they make that connection.
Be sure to video your attempts and share to the FB group so I can learn more about you and your puppy!
BASIC POSITIONAL CUES
TEACHING YOUR PUPPY TO SIT
You will see here that I teach my sit very differently than most trainers in that I do not lure over their head with a cookie, I just place it at a height slightly above their heads near my legs and I wait for them to offer the sit. This creates a sit much closer to you that is no dependent on a big visual lure.
TEACHING YOUR PUPPY TO DOWN
As with the sit I also don’t use the typical down lure for any young puppies I train, I instead use my body and hand position to create the behavior and then capture it. With bigger older pups sometimes you need to use a lure so you will see those examples of how use lures to teach a down in this video as well.
WHAT FOOD TREATS DO I USE?
Mostly I use their kibble for all the training I do at home where I am not competing for their attention. Try really really hard NOT to give your puppy tasty treats just because. Save them for when you need to get their focus in the big wide world. Use the food they are happy to work for and save those big guns for later. If you do, you will end up with dogs like mine that will happily work for any treat you hand them and it’s never about how valuable it is. If you feed raw, you can get sample bags of high quality kibble. Personally I feed a split of raw and kibble with my puppies so half of what they eat in a day is raw food fed at a meal time and the other half of the food is a high quality kibble that I have in a baggie that I use for that day’s training sessions. I don’t go to actual treats until I start distraction training or if I am shaping and my puppy is a little unsure about the thing I’m working on and I want to give a little extra. This way I don’t have to worry about upsetting my dog’s digestive system with a lot of rich treats, I don’t have to worry about upsetting the balance of nutrients, and I know they are eating a high quality diet still. DO NOT use things like real chicken, steak, cheese etc for normal training yet! If your puppy has never eaten roast chicken and the first time they taste it is when you are outside in a very distracting area working on come commands, guess how much more successful you will be!!!
SOCIALIZATION
People really get stuck thinking this means letting every dog in the world and every person in the world steam roll your puppy until they love it. Nope! Socializing is about exposure to all the things they will encounter in life while their minds are still more flexible to social imprinting. I want you to think hard about this one: IMPRINTING is crucial, your puppies FIRST encounters with things are the most influential. So be selective!!! The first dogs my puppies meet are the ones I trust the most to be kind and gentle. The first people my puppies meet are the ones I know that will follow my suggestions on how to interact. Socializing doesn’t have to mean CONTACT. You're looking for vast numbers that are super low stress. So a dog that sees at a comfortable distance 100 dogs is going to be more socially sound than a dog that plays with twenty dogs and one of those bullies them and scares the crap out of them. For very young puppies I want you to think of if more like window shopping, you want to take your puppy our safely in your arms or vehicles and let them see the world they will live in. Protect them from idiots. Guide people and listen to what the puppy is telling you with their body. If your puppy is leaning towards someone they want to engage and be pet, if they are leaning into your body away from the person don’t let the person keep touching them. Have them stop and let them feed the puppy some tasty treats (while NOT petting them) Don’t let the petting resume unless the puppy is leaning towards them with a happy wagging tail. I’m serious people can be real idiots and set puppies back so far so advocate for your pup and don’t be afraid to be socially awkward and tell them to hands off your pup.
Do not let your young puppy meet dogs you do not know unless it is super apparent by looking at them that they are super chill and friendly. Look for loose soft body movements. Ask the person directly “are they experienced and friendly to puppies” not just “friendly” not all dogs have experience meeting puppies so don’t let yours be the one they experiment with.
If you take a puppy socializing class ensure the following:
They are super specific age grouped. Puppies under 6 months old should NEVER be in a group with adolescent puppies who are the age group that make the worst choices. Ideally the group is further split to 2-4months and 4-6 months as they grow and change so fast! A 12 week old puppy hardly compares to a 6 month old.
If free play is done it is expertly supervised by a trainer that knows when puppies are not appropriate for that group. I prefer puppy classes where the puppies are not directly interacting but are instead learning how to prioritize people in that setting. Not all puppies are capable of “just working it out” so a trainer that just lets dogs be wild bullies and ignores puppies hiding under chairs freaked out is showing how little they understand about canine behavior.
If your class has free play and your puppy gets too excited and the trainer makes you put them on leash or behind a barrier as the other puppies continue to play, get the heck out of there, that is a recipe for complete disaster and should not ever be practiced and this is a sign of a very inexperienced trainer. That is a fast track to creating frustration reactive dogs, so just leave!
The class is entirely positive motivation reward based. I don’t care what your feelings on balanced training is, NO PUPPY should be punished during learning. THEY DO NOT NEED IT AND IT IS NOT OK.
All puppy groups are a little different as the puppies set the tone, so don’t be afraid to go find another class if the one you are in doesn’t feel productive.
There is SO much more than just getting your dog to play with other dogs when it comes to socializing! It’s about getting them confident about their world. You can do so much of this at home! One of the MOST important is sounds. With early exposure and regular sound desensitizing you can make a gigantic difference in whether or not your puppy grows into a sound sensitive dog. This has been proven by research that if this is a part of your puppy raising routine you can change the outcome for a dog who has all the genetic predisposition to be sound sensitive. So start right away with things like: play fireworks and thunderstorm videos or sound cds during feeding and play sessions. Start with the volume so low you barely hear it and each day just increase it a tiny bit so they don’t ever even seem to notice it. Play noisy games, like giving them empty milk jugs and soda bottles to crash around the kitchen with. With all things start low and build volume gradually. Any time your dog acts spooked don’t over do your reaction, just give them a moment and if they come back into the game resume, if they don’t lower the volume.