Some favorite child-dog games

On the topic of kids and dogs...
Depending on the age of the child/children - and on the "jumpiness and mouthiness" of the puppy - one of the first games even a really young child can be taught (as in 2-3 years of age) to play with the new family puppy - is "Four on the floor". This game is a really great way to get young kids involved in training, and also teaching a jumpy puppy about what we want him TO DO rather than getting frustrated and trying to solve something we "don't want the dog to do" (as in "Greet kids/ and adults with Four on the Floor" rather than trying to say to a dog what "not jumping" means)
The set-up is really simple: start this game in a quiet indoor location, such as your kitchen or living room...arm your child with a clicker and either

• put several treats in child's pocket (if your child is able to fish them out?) or
• stand next to the child and hold on to the treats and hand them over as needed or
• have a treat container up on a counter or shelf that the child can reach (but the dog can't).

Stage 1: When puppy approaches the child; as long as all four paws are on the floor - instruct the child to "click" and then either give the dog a treat or drop a treat to the floor in front of the puppy. Even a very young child can usually master this skill quite easily: instruct them to look for all four paws on the floor (or say "Both front paws need to be touching the floor") and CLICK while you see that. After the click - toss the puppy a treat. Repeat.

If pup takes treats from small hands too roughly, it is probably a good idea to just have the child toss/ drop the treat to the floor for now instead of trying to work on taking treats gently at the same time. Just work on "Four on the Floor". Puppy should be rewarded generously for approaching nicely and keeping all paws to the floor beside the young child: therefore, your toddler can be instructed to click and treat quite often (!) - as long as all four paws are on the floor! Once puppy gets the idea (and may even start sitting to earn the next treat!) - you can insutruct your child to "click" - and then toss the cookie a little further away so that you "re-set" the game and let puppy run a few feet away - only to return to the child for a new click and cookie-toss.

A little troubleshooting hint: If there is a lot of jumping up on the child, or pup is trying to grab cookies from the hand; it may be because the rewards for "four on the floor" are not coming often enough....if the timing of clicks is off and don;t come very often in the beginning/ if you miss opportunities to click and wait too long, the pup may not understand what is wanted and may start to jump because of timing issues and arousal. Solutions to this problem: perhaps have puppy drag a light line/ leash so you can put a foot on it to prevent jumping or You may need to also have a clicker yourself so that you can click appropriate responses and give the pup more feedback about good choices. Remember also that every "click" should be followed by a treat! Don't click and not follow up with a treat! Click = a promise that THAT behavior will be reinforced with a cookie!

A quick word about the clicker.

Instruct kids (and adults?) to hold the clicker with one hand - hand held by the side of their body - NOT pointed toward the dog! It is not a remote control and dogs can hear quite well so it does not need to be stuck into their face or ears. The click always comes first, THEN the treat. If using a clicker is a foreign concept - there is a ton of information on the internet about "how to". A great and trustworthy source can be found here: http://www.clickertraining.com/basics 

Stage 2: "Four on The Floor" becomes a  Puppy Come! game. In this game we want puppy to really start to listen to his name and come running to you when he hears his name. Puppy should now already understand that approaching with four on the floor is a good thing and there should not be much jumping (if any) when you start Stage 2. If puppy still jumps alot/ and especially if your dog will be a big dog - stay at Stage 1 until that is resolved. When you feel pup is ready for Stage 2; Start calling puppy back and forth between two family members;  mom and child for example. As puppy approaches, he earns a click and a treat...then the other family member will call him "Puppy, Come!" and reward as soon as he gets there - keeping four to the floor. Great fun - and great exercise for the pup! Play in short sessions, two-three minutes is plenty and will probably have the pup run back and forth several times. You want to end this game before pup ends it! Always leave the dog begging for more :-) You can do several sessions in a day - but each little training session should be very short!

Stage 3; when puppy recognizes his own name;  teach puppy the names of his family members.
This is a fun thing to do. Once you have worked through stage 1 and 2 and puppy loves this game of running back and forth between family members as he gets called, you can start to teach him what the names of his family members are. A great set up for this is in a back-yard or a safe field where you can let puppy run from one person to the next - creating a big circle/square.
Let's say we have Buster, the puppy, Lisa - mom, Nick-6 years old, Paul-dad, May-3 years old. The four family members are standing (in this order) as in a big square about 6-7 feet apart initially.
Lisa (mom) starts with Buster in front of her, holding on to his collar/or leash, saying to Buster "Go to Nick". Now, Nick entices Buster to come running to him..."puppy, puppy, puppy!"....Mom lets go of puppy, when Buster gets to Nick - he immediately rewards him with tons of praise and treats. He now takes a hold of Busters collar/leash and instructs Buster "Go to dad!" next. Now dad calls the dog, enticing him to come. Dad then sends Buster over to May, etc...

If at any point the dog goes to the wrong person, don't say anything - and don't give him treats (!) / only reward the dog when he has gone to the person instructed to go to. In the beginning this will of course be confusing to the dog, until he starts to put two and two together. You may need to help him out a lot on the beginning - sometimes it may help to walk the dog over to the younger members of the family especially. Many dogs have much more of a reinforcement history going to an adult, so going to a child may not come as quickly. Another way to speed up the process and have some great success is to have the adults/ or the ones pup is most likely to go to - have "relatively boring" treats, whole the youngest kids have the most amazing, yummy and fantastic treats!
Once puppy is racing around the circle from person to person, just roaring to go again - reverse the circle...have him go in the other direction - and ultimately - start to really mix up the order so he does not do the family members in the order they are standing. This is how he will really start to understand that "May" and "Nick" are specific names.

After puppy understands THIS game, there are many more versions you can add on: Hide-and-seek, for example - where you gradually start to put a specific person out-of-sight and ask the dog to go "Find May" or "Find Nick"....TONS of fun!

And as always; play in very short sessions. End the game before the puppy is ready to end; that is how you will build motivation for puppy to always be ready to go again!

From a mother: living with kids and dogs...

My three kids have pretty well all grown up with dogs, cats and various other "critters". Along the way, my journey as a dog trainer and mother has gained new insight, taken new - and sometimes unexpected turns regarding "do's" and "don’ts" when it comes to living with kids and dogs. I thought I should share some of what I have learned; some thoughts about maintaining peace between kids and four-legged beasts.

Todays’ instalment will mainly be about management and stepping in to help the dog before there is trouble. There is a lot that could be said about the “Dogs and Kids” topic – here, examples are mainly intended for families where there is already a family dog or a new puppy, but not a problem. I am neither intending to address already existing problems nor giving suggestions for situations for a dog with a history of biting – those are problems needing different kind of intervention, way beyond the scope of an article.

Parents’ #1 Friend should be management tools and devices (baby gates, crates, ex-pens, long lines, harnesses, head halters - that kind of thing). Installing a few permanent baby gates in strategic places around the house should be on every parent's list! Baby gates are not just fantastic for babies - they are equally fantastic for dogs. They are so handy for maintaining safe spaces for whoever needs the space / keeping toddlers and kids away from dog / keeping dog away from (fill in blank) - you name it. Baby gates are truly a blessing!

Secondly: using a combination of these management tools should really be seen as RELIEF for parents. It's not a cop-out or being lazy. It is being smart - and preventing potential future problems!  Management is not the same thing as training.
The whole idea with good and clever management is just that: to manage a situation, ensuring that nothing unwanted can occur. We don't want our dogs to practise problematic behaviours - so let's be proactive and smart about how we manage the dog in the environment instead!  

With really busy households, sometimes "less is actually better". Rough and noisy kids and play-dates for example...perhaps the dog is OK to come and visit the kids for a short period of time (might need to be on leash?) - but if you tried to have the dog free in the midst of all of that activity and commotion for too long - you'd run into problems and issues. It's way better to make it short, sweet and successful, put the dog away in his safe zone before any problems occur.

With really young and busy kids, a safe zone for the dog is a must. This is a place for the dog to go/ or for you to put the dog/ where kids are taught to respect the no-go rule. There should be no walking up to the crate to talk to the dog or sticking a face to the crate while the dog is in there...but leaving the dog completely alone and at peace.


Parents need to actively parent children around dogs and be prepared to actively help the dog out.
The better parents can get at reading dog body language to notice early signs of stress in the dog, the sooner parents will be able to intervene and “save the dog”. Sadly some of these so called “calming signals” - early signs of stress - often go unnoticed; such as when the dog is lip licking, yawning, looking away/ turning head away…those are typically all signs where the dog is communicating stress and trying to say “This is stressful - please help me!” THAT would be the time for a parent to intervene and help the dog, not waiting until the behaviours escalate. If we don’t help the dog out when he is communicating with these early signs, we’re taking a chance to see how much the dog can tolerate (? yikes!) and especially if he feels cornered - he may feel that he has no choice but to “behave more”…and will thus escalate – and this is where people can run into issues …

The often mentioned vague words “actively supervise” should be understood to be a short form for something like “Be present in the moment with your child and dog; Try to ensure that child-dog interactions are good and safe experiences for both to begin with but be ready to help the dog out as SOON as/ IF and WHEN you see signs of stress”. Of course; don’t allow kids to treat the dog roughly, loudly or “in their face” – but beyond that, dogs tolerance of kids varies incredibly. Some dogs, even the breeds that have a reputation of “being great with kids” – may be able to TOLERATE a lot – but when you observe the dog closely – he is showing a lot of stress.
(Some of these dogs will repeatedly yawn, turn and look away – and when you know that the yawn and look-away is a sign of stress, is it fair to the dog to not intervene when he clearly is not enjoying the interaction?)
Other dogs (just like people) have low tolerance and a very short fuse…there may be a few stress-indicating signals and then that’s that: a quick escalation into full warnings? As a parent; try to intervene before it ever gets there.

It’s the parents’ responsibility to be completely present in these interactions and be in tuned with what the dog is communicating with his body language. Don’t delay with stepping in to help the dog out! 



The next instalment will talk about child to dog play and some thoughts on how kids can be involved in the dogs’ lives even if they are not old enough or capable to do it all…

CARO Rally trial last weekend



Maggio clearly thinking "gee, I really hope I get a tennis ball for doing this..."

Another Rally trial behind us...
...When we started trialling in Rally Obedience, we did not start in all three organizations at the same time (APDT, CARO and CKC). It was only in the last year that I started considering perhaps also doing CARO trials, and because of this - Maggio is working on finishing his level 3 in APDT - but we were now entered to finish level 1 in CARO. And indeed we did. Actually both Pinot and Maggio finished their level 1 CARO title...Pinot being a bit stressed and quite barky (sigh) and not scoring the high scores, but Maggio, on the other hand - comfortable, confident and having a great time... finishing his level 1 with a High in Trial; perfect 200 score!


Looks like he's had enough of holding those silly ribbons...

 We also jumped onto the opportunity to get a leg of "Level One Team" together with a lovely golden and her owner (looking for team partners), and continued on with two more trials of Level 2; recieving placement ribbons in each trial. Maggio is now only one leg short of completing level 2.

Pinot; I had only entered in Level 1 - which I'd say proved to be a good thing. She was not relaxed about having all eyes on her and being in the ring - and she was completely comfortable letting everyone know that!

Being a young and quite inexperienced dog, my focus with her over the next 6 months (or however long it takes) will now be on working her in training in as many novel environments as possible....hopefully seeing her relax more and just settle into the world and gaining a sense that things are okay. She did get a title, but the work was not smooth or very focused, not what I know she's capable of and the amount of barking...oh sigh...not exactly how I want to continue. We're in the midst of Prime Adolescence...I do have to remember this :-) and just keep training and give her time.

"Here we go - NOW can't you see I am posing??? This is the way to do this shot!"

Maggio in Novice B obedience; video

So - here at last - is a video of Annette and Maggio; our proud 197.5 in the Novice B obedience ring with all the elements in the video (except long sits and downs, which no doubt would have viewers fall alseep). There it is: many, many sessions of training over a looong period of time - several Rally trials in order to work on "ring nerves"...and now - it all culminated in some 3 plus minutes in the ring...repeated three times over a weekend - and now it's done (!) now we're onto new goals, new training. We're close to feeling ready for Open - I think the individual pieces are actually in place but I do need to do some more work on putting the whole flow of the exercises together, the retrieve over jump, the broad jump, and out-of-sight stays in different venues...

To give ourselves a break from obedience work, we are currently working weave poles as well as just doing long daily walks in the woods, playing and retrieving. I decided to teach weaving to both dogs, even though I don;t have aspirations to actually compete in agility with Maggio. But who knows...maybe something along the way will have me change my mind. We're certainly all having a lot of fun with it! We're up to 4 poles...almost ready to go to 6...wishing the snow would melt so it would be easier to find new locations to take our weave pole training to!