Training Tips

 

• Shaping Polite Walking - Part 1 of 3

• Shaping Polite Walking -

  Part 2 of 3

   

• Shaping Polite Walking -

  Part 3 of 3

 

 

Note:

return to previous step if your dog has difficulty, becomes frustrated or confused.

Gradually, by reinforcing each step and rewarding each success step by step, your dog will be leash walking politely in no time.

 

Frisbee Freestyle! by DOGSmart Associate and contributor Katherine Mutzke.  Follow Katherines's blog My Happy Houndz adventures

I LOVE finding ways to teach polite behaviours through play.  The behaviours you work on to teach a frisbee retrieve are:  give, take, stay, off, jump on cue ( and not on you) and focus.  Not to mention, the physical exercise and fun can't be beat!

*Puppies have a hoot learning this too,  just be careful to follow your veterinarian's guidelines about stress on their skeletal structure.

Easy as 1, 2, 3.  Start off by teaching:

1. "Give" and "Take" - building value to interact with the frisbee is the first step. Here's puppy Milo and Neil demonstrating how much fun playing "Give" and "Take" can be, just in itself!



Giving something up at first, means something better's coming their way 100% of the time. "Give", release the frisbee from your mouth  when I trade you for something of the same value (like another frisbee).   Even better yet I'll trade you for a favourite treat, then you can "Take" the frisbee back once you have four on the floor and focus your attention to me.   Soon the interaction of "Give' will mean the games begin!

2. Teaching "Jump" or POP! as I like to call it.



Dogs LOVE to jump when they're excited so this is their opportunity to jump up on cue, but not on you :P  If your dog knows how to hand target, just hold your hand above their head and have them target it, then put it on cue.

3. Add the frisbee and practice in place, so they find a rythmn in jumping and taking the frisbee.  Soon enough you'll be adding distance to your throws and you can be creative about the jumping tricks and retrieves!



Happy Jumping!


Teaching your dog to "Wave" A plan to shape a dog to wave its paw using a clicker by Linda Dear

Assumption: that the dog already knows “shake a paw”.

1. Cue the dog to shake a paw.
2. Dog places paw in your hand.
3. Click and reward.
4. Cue the dog to shake a paw but raise your hand one inch higher than usual
5. If dog places paw in hand, click and reward
6. if dog does not place paw in hand, lower hand to usual position
7. if dog places paw in hand, click and reward
8. Continue steps 4 to 8 slightly increasing the height of the paw touch
9. When you get your hand to the dog’s head height or just below, when the dog reaches out its paw to shake, remove your hand just before the dog’s paw touches it. The dog’s paw will drop down without your hand there.
10. VOILA, you have a wave. Click and reward.

Note: if the dog does not give the behaviour at any step, go back to the previous step to get success again before carrying on. Do this very quickly so that there are many successes - clicks and rewards - within a matter of a few seconds. You want to get as many clicks as possible and as little "dead" time as possible.

 

Top 10 Training Tips from Patricia McConnell Ph.D:  We carry Patricia McConnell's booklets and books mentioned in this article in our DOGStore.


Trainer Linda Dear's Top 5 things she learned from CLickerExpo, 2011.  Follow Linda's blogs My Dog Sam & SmartyDogs

1. The more you reinforce (click and reward) your dog's behaviour the faster and better your dog will learn the behaviour
2. Beware and be aware of what behaviours you may be inadvertantly reinforcing (or maybe what the dog is training you to do!)
3. Break down behaviours and plan what and how you want the dog to learn before attempting to teach the dog
4. Set the dog up for success right from the start and be super observant to catch the dog for being "right".
5. Keep it short!  Training in 10 one minute sessions with breaks gets better reults than training for 10 minutes.  Also, this gives the trainer a chance to evaluate and refocus if necessary.

Learning Lab