Wags' Puppy Drop-in for the summer of 2013

A lot of people have a hard time making a several-week long commitment for training during the summer months. People travel and go away on vacation, host guests etc etc. 
It's understandable that a long training class would be put to the side in favor of Summer, we all want to enjoy time for camping, travel and other things. 

The Great News is that for the Summer months, we're switching our schedule to meet the many needs of Summer: Wags' Puppy Foundation Skills class will operate as a Drop-in program. We'll work on basic skills, manners, answer questions, do confidence building exercises, puppy play-time, do leash work and Recall. We will incorporate themes for the summer: how do you teach your puppy to settle at your feet by the campfire? How to keep your puppy from destroying your camper van? Is it a good idea to tether your puppy outside at your campground?

Puppy Summer Program will be fun and very useful stuff to both you and your puppy!
Your puppy must be less than 20 weeks old.

You need to do nothing else than get in touch prior to the first time you would like to come - there are a few health requirements that all puppies need to meet, I want to send you info about where to come and what to bring: and I would like to know that you are coming. 

No 6-week commitment needed! 
A full list of Tuesday drop-in dates will be published to the website shortly. 

Now that's good news for all the busy-bees who love their summer freedom?! Bring your friends and come and do some drop-in training!

Puppies...

A couple of shots of two new Puppy Foundation Skills students: Rosetta (above) and Rocky (below). Both are currently enrolled in the class, learning some basic puppy obedience, getting some exposure to "stuff"...grates, weird surfaces, tunnels, other puppies, people...learning and experiencing things about Life.


Every puppy class and group is a bit different as the dynamics will continually change and be different depending on who the puppies / and the people / in the group are. Right now, with three puppies ( a fourth one joining us next week) - two are quite a bit larger in size than the very tiny Rosetta. Besides the "curriculum", I think one of the biggest learning that puppy owners can take home is to learn a bit about "reading their dogs". 




















The main emphasis in Puppy Foundation Class is really on developing the human-puppy bond and working on some simple skills, but we do break for short play / when appropriate / where pups have a chance to be off leash and meet one another. 


When setting these puppies free to go explore and meet on Tuesday night - there were some great real-life examples of some actual "dog-demos" of how dogs communicate with their bodies to indicate how they feel about a particular interaction. I think the group learned some very valuable life skills...and hopefully also took home the message that just like parents would intervene (hopefully) in a playground of kids if the play gets too rough or if a child seems to feel unsafe - being an in-tuned puppy parent also includes interrupting puppy-play, keeping a close eye on the interactions and watching and monitoring carefully.


From here we shall continue. What I personally love about the new (since last year) Open Enrolment format, is that new puppies can join the group at any time..therefore bringing in some unfamiliar elements from time to time - which is great for a developing little puppy! Once a new pup joins, they stay with us for 6 weeks (or 8 weeks in some cases) and graduate once through the 6-week class rotation. I'm already looking forward to meeting the new addition next week...dynamics will again change and the environment gets more distracting to work in. But it's amazing to see the learning and soaking up of skills that go on with the little ones! 


Next week - Puppy class participants: remember to bring toys (!!) we'll work on some play as well as Puppy Come! Recall Games...

Working for....Praise or Food or checking to see what you've got first?

Making eye contact is a Foundation Skill we work a lot on in

the "Adolescent Mutts and Manners" Program. It teaches

several important lessons:

1. it teaches the dog to focus on the handler's FACE, not hands

2. it teaches the dog a lot about impulse control around food;

IE; just because we have food here,

does not mean it is automatically available and

3. it becomes a really wonderful connection tool for the human being;

there is hardly anything that is more "warm and fuzzy" than a dog

looking lovingly up into your eyes.

Eye contact builds wonderful connection!

Continuing on the topic from last time What happened to praise. There are a few things that can happen if we start to rely too much on the use of food (or toys) and also more specifically if we use those as "bribes" instead of "consequences" or not thinking about WHAT we are actually rewarding with the food. So maybe rather - if we are using food in non-effective ways.

I think all of us have seen the dog that comes when called - arrives at the handlers HANDS, checking/ smelling for food - and when finding none, he takes off again. How frustrating!

Another thing I see and hear complaints over very often in classes, is what we can call the "One-cookie Syndrome". This is something handlers create by only ever rewarding their dogs with One Cookie. The dog comes, gets his One Cookie and nothing more...and so he runs off again. Each time he comes to the handler, he is rewarded - but with one, very predictable cookie. And so it won't be long before the dog figures out that opportunities for praise/ rewards/ treats end with the first cookie, and so he starts to believe that after the one cookie, he is definitely free to run off again.

This is Currie. Another Manners class participant who

mastered the Eye contact game beautifully.

Attention starts here, this is a very powerful and useful game!

The third thing that often happens in conjunction with, or after these two are already in place, is that the handler - now wanting to prevent the running off - starts to grab the dog's collar as soon as the dog gets to them. I have seen many a student in classes do this with much rehearsed precision, incredible timing and speed; diving over the dog's head with a lightning-fast motion that captures the dog before he has time to think about making a decision about whether to stay or go. And thus, with this new capture-the-dog technique, we have created a new phenomenon: the Keep-Away-Dog.

So, as with so many things; one thing leads to another and before we know it, we have a whole host of new dilemmas to deal with.

Here's a simple little test you can do right now with your dog to see how much he values verbal praise or if you need to start to think about How you reward/ reinforce your dog and whether you are using food effectively.

Take a container with some yummy treats and place them up on a table/ counter next to you when your dog is in a different area of the house. Now, call your dog. When your dog comes to you - do NOT use the treats to reinforce him with immediately, but shower him with lavish praise. If he likes to be petted, give him behind-the-ear scratches, chest scratches and bum rubs- all the while praising him up like he's just done something amazing. Does he happily stay with you, soaking up the praise? Is he willingly letting you grab and let go of his collar? If you can keep him with you, fully connecting for about 20-30 seconds - THEN reach into the container of treats, take out a few (as in 5-6, Not just one!) and give them, one-at-a-time in a slow succession...all the while continuing to praise. If you pause between these treats, and only use verbal praise - where is his focus? On your face where the wonderful words came from, or your hands - where the cookies came from? If you now take a few steps away from him...does he follow you? and if so, where is his focus: on your hands or on your face?

When you are done with this interaction, next put the cookies in your pocket and take the same show on the road next time you can safely let him off leash outside. Same response? Different? What happens?

This is my Dear boy, Maggio who is excellent at
offering eye contact and asking
the question: "Is this what you want?"

This little interaction will tell you a lot about where your dog's focus is and where you have taught him to find his reinforcement. A lot of scenarios can play out. If he didn't care about you calling him at all, obviously that says something about his recall and ability to come when called. Maybe the rewards are too much in the environment and really not enough with you at all?
If he came, but could smell the cookies on the counter/ or in your pocket and was obsessed with how to get to the cookies instead of caring about your praise - that shows you an area that can be improved upon!

If he came, took his cookie and started to dash away from you...you know you need to keep him engaged for longer periods of time. It's the one-cookie-syndrome thing. Try really hard to draw out your reward sequence...starting with verbally praising your dog up, then rewarding in multiples to keep him engaged, all the while continuing to Smile and use your warm, verbal praise.

If you get way more focus on your hands than your face - this tells you where your dog has learned the reinforcement comes from.
One of my favorite things to teach dogs is the "Eye Contact Game" - but even beyond teaching it formally: NOTICE when your dog is connecting with your eyes! Notice when he checks in and seeks out your eyes! Smile back and tell him how much you love him for it! Don't wit until you have no connection to try to get it - but notice when you have it, and use your best, warmest verbal praise accompanied by a warm smile to tell your dog what a great choice you think that is!
There really is no better feeling than a dog frequently looking up into your eyes, as if asking "Is this what you want?"

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!