Training Tip by Bette Yip: #10

(Check back soon for another tip!)

Don't wait for a behavior you don't like to become a well-rehearsed habit. When in doubt, work it out--NOW! Whether it was the first time your dog got into a trash bin, growled at your child or jumped out of the car before you were ready--it will be easier to prevent this new behavior from becoming a habit if you nip it right in the bud.

Some things to consider:
Why did your dog do this behavior? What was the goal of the behavior?
What were the surrounding circumstances? Was there anything different about your dog's schedule or environment when this behavior occured?
How did you respond to your dog's behavior? How did your dog respond to your response?
What training or behavior modification steps might you use to teach your dog how to behave differently if presented with this set of circumstances in future?
Since this step will take some time to achieve, how will you use management to prevent your dog from rehearsing this behavior while you go through the training process?

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #9

For a behaviorally healthy dog, a balance of physical exercise and mental exercise is needed. Certainly, the old mantra “a tired dog is a good dog,” holds true, but physical exercise isn’t the only way to tire out a dog.

Teaching your dog new behaviors, games such as hide & seek or find it and how to conquer puzzle toys can also help tire her out. I’d argue that the more opportunities a dog is given to learn new material throughout their lives, the more enriched and fulfilling their existence will be, and the fewer canine behavior problems you’ll see.

Try to balance physical exercise with mental exercise. Some people like to alternate heavy training days with exercise days. I, myselfĂĽsually recommend including a reasonable amount of each activity daily for most dogs.

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #8

Dog training takes time, patience and work. Quick fixes aren’t always as quick as they may seem, and sometimes come with unintended side-effects.

In order for a dog to learn a new piece of vocabulary, I tell my students to plan on fifty successful repetitions of the following sequence around each new situation in which they train:
1. signal
2. behavior
3. consequence (one strong enough to influence this particular dog’s desire to repeat the behavior)

When trying to change a canine habit that has already become a learned behavior (such as barking, chewing, or “having accidents” in the house), plan to use consistent management and behavioral work for at least twelve weeks. Keep in mind that there are many approaches one might take towards modifying a certain behavior, and that you may need to adjust your strategy to better suit a particular dog in a particular situation as you go along.

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #7

As mentioned in Tip #5, you can use management when you are not prepared to train. Leashes, crates, baby gates and “dog proofing” are all examples of management options.

For instance, when your dog greets a person who does not yet know that they should respond to your dog’s jumping up by shunning the dog, keep your dog on a short leash or behind a barrier such as a baby gate to prevent the person from accidentally reinforcing jumping up.

When you will not be around to give your puppy well-timed feedback for chewing on electrical wires or furniture, keep her in a puppy-proofed room or crate with appropriate chew toys to prevent her from experimenting with chewing forbidden items.

It’s important to schedule plenty of opportunities to train your puppy around these situations as well, but management options will prevent your dog from learning to enjoy these behaviors in the meantime, and will make your training process smoother and faster.

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #6

I’ll admit it. Sometimes it’s cute when a dog jumps up—only not when its paws are muddy, my knee aches or I’m wearing dress clothes. It’s tough for a dog to learn such complicated rules, so if you really want to allow your dog to jump up sometimes, consider teaching your dog to jump up ONLY on cue. To do this, you must also train the humans around your dog to ignore it or walk away if it jumps up uninvited. Step on the leash to anchor your dog around humans who don’t yet know the rules.

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #5

Notice the good dog! We humans have a tendency to “let sleeping dogs lie,” but we jump into swift action to scold our pets each time they make a mistake. This pattern can cause a pet to actually repeat the undesirable behavior simply because it works better than “good” behaviors to get us to stop what we are doing and pay attention.

Use management to prevent opportunities for your dog to get into trouble when you will be unable to follow through with appropriate responses, and use training to proactively help your dog discover a range of more appropriate behaviors to choose from in future.

And, don’t forget to acknowledge all desirable behavior all along the way! Notice the good dog!

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #4

Teach your dog to play with puzzle toys, then use these puzzle toys to help your dog stay self-entertained when you are away for the day, at the dinner table, watching a DVD or simply trying to get some work done.

A little extra dog training work when you first present your dog’s new puzzle toy can really help you to get your dog “hooked.” When you introduce a new puzzle toy to your dog, first bait the toy. Most puzzle toys are designed to hold food in one manner or another. For the first few trials, be sure to add in a better than average treat to the mix.

Now choose a small space in which to work and pick up all other items from the ground. Have a treat pouch of extra goodies available, but hidden out of sight. Set down the puzzle toy and ignore your dog. Most dogs automatically have the impulse to check out the unfamiliar object. Reward the dog with an extra treat, then pretend the dog is invisible again. Only acknowledge the dog and reward with extra goodies and attention when the dog is investigating the toy.

Some dogs may become focused on you each time you reward in the beginning of this process. It’s particularly important to ignore the dog unless it is interacting with the toy. If the dog gives up on the activity, just pick up the toy and try another session later, stuffing the toy with even better temptations. In this case, you may want to use lower value food rewards for interactions with the toy, as well. Keep in mind that we’re shaping for canine self-entertainment with puzzle toys. Eventually, playing with the toy IS the reward AND the target behavior all at once!

Gradually require the dog to show more interest in the puzzle toy to earn a reward. Especially notice and reward any experimentation with the toy! Nose bump—reward. Paw thwack—reward. Push the toy—reward. Toss the toy—jackpot!

Do not leave the toy out in between sessions. If you’re dog has unlimited access to the toy, it won’t hold it’s value as well! Once your dog knows how to have fun playing with the toy on its own, you can begin to use the puzzle toy to keep your dog busy and entertained when you need a moment to yourself.

In preparation for keeping your dog self-entertained when visitors are over, have friends over NOW to practice! Keep in mind that with the new distractions around, you may need to repeat the early steps of this training process and build back up. Since dogs don’t generalize most behaviors as easily as we humans do, it’s important to repeat these exercises in various settings around various distractions until your dog learns that the behavior “works” under all circumstances. Lots of short sessions frequently throughout the day will get you to your training goal faster than a longer block fewer times per day.

Once the dog has a strong interest in the puzzle toy, try leaving a forbidden item in
harm’s way, along with the puzzle toy. A shoe, a remote control or a kid’s toy might be good items to add to your list of forbidden items to practice with. You may wish to treat the forbidden items with a chew deterrent such as Bitter Apple for best results. Since the dog already knows that playing with the puzzle toy is enjoyable and sometimes causes extra rewards to appear, and since the forbidden item is particularly unappealing due to the chew deterrent, the lesson should be an easy one for your dog. Gradually add more and more temptations to the mix, graduating to ones that are not treated with chew deterrent.

Your final step to proofing your dog against picking up items that don’t belong to it will be to cause a startling (but not terrifying) noise that the dog doesn’t associate with you anytime the dog shows interest in a forbidden item. This is a version of the sting operation technique our entry level dog training students learn about.

Continue to reward the dog for all interest in puzzle toys during this phase. Repeat this activity with various puzzle toys and forbidden items in various locations until your dog gets the idea that its own toys always “work” and nothing else does. Even then, keep in mind that a dog will make a mistake from time to time, despite our best efforts. Use household management and supervision to minimize chances for mistakes to be made when you won’t be prepared to give well-timed feedback.

Also keep in mind that regressions are a part of life, and that they are a very big part of life during adolescence! For dogs, adolescence often lasts for about a year starting between six and eight months of age. Until your dog is an adult, plan to be especially diligent about management, supervision and reinforcing desired behaviors!

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #3

Here, there and everywhere! That is where you need to repeat all the steps of your dog training process if your goal is to have a dog who listens equally well no matter where you go together, no matter what the situation is.

Dogs do not “generalize” most behaviors as easily as we humans do. If you only practice around your home, you may end up with a dog who follows cues easily there, but seems to have had no training at all when you visit the pet store together! Until you have shown your dog exactly what a cue means around enough different disctractions, your dog simply may not understand what you want in situations that are new or even just slightly different from usual.

In addition to working a little bit of dog training practice into your daily routine with your dog, be sure to take frequent field trips with your dog to new places. Visit parks, wooded trails, city squares, pet stores, your dog’s veterinary clinic and groomer—any place dogs are welcome where you can practice repeating your dog training recipe from step one through completion.

Consider having dog training parties so your dog can learn to behave as you wish even when company is over. Send out invitations explaining to your guests that you’ll be serving refreshments and providing some sort of entertainment but that the main purpose of the party is to help your dog learn how to behave around company. Fill your guests in on your dog training goals for the session and make it fun for them, too. I’ll suggest dog training party activities in a future training tip, so check back in!

For now, remember that short dog training sessions done frequently will help you reach your dog training goals faster than long training sessions done less often, especially at the start of your training program and with young puppies and adolescent dogs. Always be sure to end sessions on a high note. Leave your dog yearning for more work!

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #2

When you have two dogs, you have three times the dog training work! This point has been on my mind a lot lately as I consider whether it’s nearing time to welcome another dog into my own home. At this time of year, despite all the warnings against bringing home a “Christmas puppy,” I know many others out there are considering it, too. For the record, mine would technically be a “birthday puppy,” perhaps to come home in early 2009. The insanity of housetraining a large breed puppy in the dead of winter is a topic for another day. For now, I’ll just focus on the insanity of the two-dog household

Even when you have a dog that has gotten a good handle on the basic canine safety cues and manners, when you bring a new puppy or dog into the household, you should assume that you’ll need to go through all the basics with your new dog for certain, and that you will likely need to do some refresher work with your resident dog since the new dog’s arrival may trigger regressions at least in some behaviors.

Once each dog is doing well with a dog training exercise individually, it’s time to work them both through all the steps of your dog training together! Plan to go back to easier versions of your dog training exercises and work your way back up through the steps of the process at the first sign of a regression or a lack of generalization.

If you are considering the possibility of bringing two new puppies or dogs home at one time, it’s even more important to consider whether you’ll have time to work with each one individually and then together. If you are considering adopting littermates, this becomes more important still!

Consider this: you’ll need to provide plenty of socialization opportunities individually, and then together. You’ll need to go through all the basics of preventative dog training with dog A, then dog B, then dogs A & B together. And if your dogs end up needing behavior modification for problems along the way, it’s that’s much more time and effort again.

I don’t mean to discourage families from taking on a second dog, nor do I mean to say it’s never a good idea to bring home two dogs at once. I’ve known families who have done this, and done it really well! However, I’ve also seen situations that were less than ideal arise. Having multiple dogs in a household to keep one another company and serve as playmates for one another can be a really joyful experience, as long as their humans truly have the training time and resources needed!

Training Tip by Bette Yip: #1

Why give your dog’s food away for free when it can be used as a valuable reward for canine behavior you would like to encourage?! Here’s one more way to follow through with the “Nothing In Life Is Free” (NILIF) program recommended by so many modern dog trainers:

Put half of your dog’s ration of kibble for tomorrow in a plastic zipper baggie tonight. Toss in a slice of strong smelling sandwich meat or cheese, as well. Tomorrow, you’ll use this super-scented kibble as dog training rewards! The other half of your dog’s kibble goes into its food dish so that you don’t end up with a dog that strongly prefers to be hand fed.

Carry your dog’s kibble around in a training pouch, fanny pack or sling bag and always wear this and your clicker when you are around your dog in order to avoid the “now we’re training, now we’re not” phenomenon. When you are with your dog, you are ALWAYS training! As your dog’s responses become more reliable, you will move to a random reward schedule and you’ll begin to use your verbal reward marker instead of a clicker, but don’t fade out signals such as the food reward bag and clicker at the same time as you move on to random rewards. Of course, you should also be using non-food rewards such as play and attention in addition to food rewards as part of your NILIF program.

Do your best to use up all of the super-scented kibble in lots of tiny micro-training-sessions throughout the day! Integrate a little bit of dog training work into every activity you do when your dog is present. Remember to work at your dog’s own level, going back to more basic versions of the exercise at the first sign of a regression or lack of generalization.

Have fun and happy training!
-Bette