Day Five -- On the Go

It's great to start training at home where there are fewer distractions but, once we have a little experience under our collars, it's time to venture out into the world to work on socialization and distractions.

It seems so small but even going to someone else's house is good for the puppy's socialization. It's new people, a new environment, and, in this case, new safe dogs. And when I say safe dogs I mean that they are vaccinated and they are good with puppies. Not all adult dogs are good with puppies so you have to be careful who you introduce your puppy to so he doesn't have a bad experience. Adult dogs who are good with puppies will tolerate certain behaviors from a puppy to a point. But, as that puppy gets older, they'll start telling the puppy that some of those behaviors are not ok. These are really important lessons for the puppy to learn so, as adults, they know how to appropriately interact with other dogs.

Before we go inside anywhere, we stop for a bathroom break. We're also careful to make sure he is not going to the bathroom in an area where a lot of unknown dogs have gone to the bathroom. One of the diseases that he is not fully vaccinated for yet is transmitted through infected animals waste. Just being thoughtful about where you take him is enough to keep him safe. That being said, I also like to make sure I'm getting a puppy out and about on leash to go to the bathroom so they get use to going in other places. If the only place he goes to the bathroom is in the back yard off leash, you will likely have problems if you leave the house with him or travel with him. I have known people who have spent most of their vacation trying to get their dog to go to the bathroom. Not a great way to spend your time.

I gave him time to explore the new environment so he could get use to everything. He adjusts very quickly and takes in new things with ease.

There are new dogs to meet which also means new distractions.

We're in a small enough area I feel confident I could follow through with him if he doesn't respond when I call him to come. But, like a rock star, he comes running to me even with these brand new dogs as a distraction. I cheer him on every step of the way as he runs faster and faster towards me. A beautiful recall! I reward with one small high value treat after the other while I'm telling him what a good boy he is.

If he were to have veered off along the way because he was distracted, I would just make more noise and start to move away from him to encourage him to divert his attention back on me. And, if he did, I would reward heavily because he made the choice to come off of that distraction. That's a really big deal.

Another part of his reward for coming when called is getting to go play again. That makes your reward pretty powerful; tons of praise, rewards, AND he gets to go play again. It makes it well worth his while to come when you call him.

While we are here and we have some nice distractions, we can work on his on/off switch too. It's really nice when you have a dog who can go from an excited, playful state to a nice calm state.

So every once in a while I ask him for a sit when he's playing.

We can practice our down too. Again, we can use that nice reward of getting to go play again. So he's learning that there is a time to be playful and a time to pull it all together and be calm and in control.

Such a good boy!

Day Four -- Teaching New Skills

There are several ways we can teach a dog a new skill. First we teach them a marker word like "Yes!" (used in the same way a clicker is used) that tells them when they have done the correct behavior. Dogs are very much "in the moment" so we need to tell them exactly when they have done the correct thing in order for the reward to be effective. Timing is very important. So we can use that when we "capture" behavior. Capturing behavior is a way to teach a dog a new skills by waiting until they offer the behavior, marking with a "yes," and rewarding the dog. We use this in dog training a lot like when he sits automatically for a greeting. But it can be a little slow when teaching other skills.

We can also shape behaviors which is marking and rewarding pieces of the whole until you get the completed skill. It's a great way to teach a dog to think for themselves and to offer up new behaviors when something doesn't work. It takes some skill and it takes a little bit of time but still a great tool.

A pretty easy and quick way to teach a dog a new skill is to lure them into the position by putting something in front of them that they want (treat, toy, etc.). This is a nice tool to have just so long as you wean off the lure quickly so he doesn't become dependent on it. It's also important, once weaned off of the lure, that you don't pull out a treat when you can't get your dog to do something. Then that becomes a bribe and you are likely to teach your dog to wait you out for that treat.

I wait until the dog has completed the task before marking and rewarding the behavior. I like that his elbows are down but his rear needs to be on the ground before I tell him he has done his "down" correctly.

That's it! Now I can mark and reward the behavior and I reward him with the lure.

Now, to transition him off the lure, I wait until he is readily doing the skill with the lure. I start out by faking him out. I might have the smell of the treat in my hand, but no treat. I always say the command first, before I move my hand or show him a treat. Otherwise he won't hear my words. I say to him "Ubu, down" and I pause for a few seconds. I want him to have time to process what I have said and see if he can figure out what I am asking of him. Then I move my hand in the same direction I would have had I been using a lure, in this case straight down. As soon as he completes it, I say "Yes!" and give him a treat. Now he's learning that he will still get rewarded even if I don't have that treat in my hand.

We also practice these skills in different locations so he learns how to do it in places other than just in the middle of the living room. Dogs don't generalize well but, if we practice in a variety of locations, he will start to really understand the task.

Day Three -- Human Behavior

A whole lot of dog training is about reinforcing behavior you want but it is also about behaving in a way that will promote the behavior you want. When I am teaching things like recalls, I want a fast and enthusiastic response. This is a time for me to drop my inhibitions and be a little silly, encouraging him to come towards me. I'm also going to move farther away from him as he comes towards me. So I'm loudly clapping, cheering him on, and moving away from him as he comes to me. In exchange, I get that nice big smile from him as he happily moves quickly towards me even when he was playing with another dog.

When he gets to me, I'm still going to be praising him and rewarding him with one small treat after the other. This helps him learn that it really pays off to come to me and it helps prevent him from taking off as soon as he gets the first treat from me.

My behavior is much different if I am working on stays. For stays, I want him to be calm and settled into his position so I want to mimic that behavior. My praise is quiet and slow. If I pet him, my strokes are slow and calming. If I were to praise him in an excited voice ("GOOD JOB!"), he's likely to get excited and break his stay. In dog training, we try to set them up for success as much as possible. The more he can do correctly, the more I can reward his behavior which equals more feedback to him and an increased learning rate.

It's never a black and white issue. Every dog is different. Getting to know your dog will help you determine how much or how little of something works for your dog. Some dogs need quiet praise or they get too excited. Others need really upbeat praise to keep them motivated. Some dogs need high value treats to work through distractions. For other dogs, high value treats can be the distraction that causes them to respond inappropriately. It takes a bit to figure out what works for each individual dog but, once you do, you'll find that work more like a team rather than at odds with each other.

We start out right away teaching leash skills, surprisingly without the leash. When we are teaching polite leash skills (aka walking on a loose leash), we're actually teaching the dog to walk by our side. The leash should just be a safety measure. I start out by rewarding him for walking right by my side. Ideally, his ear is lined up with the seam of my pants. I talk to him a lot and occasionally pat my leg to keep him with me, as well as periodically rewarding him. 

Pretty soon he's figuring out that it pays off well to walk next to me. We practice with a leash too but I find that doing it this way really teaches the dog what behavior we want. I also do not want him to learn to pull. This happens a lot with people because they want to take their puppies for long walks. But puppies have short attention spans and actually do much better with very short training sessions. And every walk at this point is a training session. It's too much to expect them to walk right next to you for long periods of time. It's like sitting a 2 year old down for a 3 hour lecture and expecting them to pass the test at the end of the class. And, when a dog pulls on the leash, that behavior is reinforced and so it makes it much more difficult to fix. You can use natural consequences to reward behavior you want so, in this case, stopping in your tracks if he gets ahead of you on leash. He does not get to move forward (i.e. get reinforced for that behavior) if he is pulling on leash.

We use a similar technique for a lot of the things he wants. We can use "sit" as a way for Ubu to "say please." Want to go outside? Sit first before I open the door for you.

Want attention from me? Sit first and I will give you attention.

It sounds like we've been working all day but, not to worry, there is plenty of play mixed in. Play is a very important part of training, bonding, exercise, and stress relief. Plus it makes a boy very happy.

Day Two -- Handling

This is a great age to introduce new things to Ubu. He's in his critical period for socialization which means that he is much more willing and open to new things and what he is exposed to now will help him be more comfortable with it in the future.

This includes handling. It's important to get Ubu comfortable with people touching his teeth, ears, mouth, and body in addition to being restrained. If he does not get this early on, grooming and health care could be a challenge in the future. These are good exercises for the adults to do in the family. I'll explain more about that in just a bit. We want to do this slowly at first to help him get use to it. While relaxing with him we can gently handle his feet.

When I start to trim his nails, I might just have a few sessions where I tap the trimmers to his nails and give him a treat. I also start puppies out on cat trimmers because they are a little less intimidating. If he's really stressed about having his nails done, I might do one or two nails a day to keep the sessions less stressful. I'm also feeding treats while I'm doing this. I want him to associate nail trims with good things. Most dogs don't care for having their feet handled so it's important to make this as stress free as possible.

I gently massage his ears and give him a treat so he has a nice, pleasant association with it.

For handling his mouth, I usually start out with brushing his teeth. This tends to get dogs very comfortable with people being in their mouth. Ubu only has his baby teeth in right now so they don't really need to be brushed but we're taking advantage of the developmental period he is in now and knowing that he will be more accepting of this now rather than later. I use only dog toothpaste (human toothpaste can make them sick) and I start out with a finger brush so it's less intimidating. At first, I just offer the toothpaste on the finger brush to him and let him lick it off. It's poultry flavored so he's happy to oblige. After a few days of this I can start to slowly work my way into his mouth until we get to the point where he is comfortable with people opening his mouth and exploring inside.

Through all of this I'm watching for signs of stress which will indicate to me whether we need to slow down or do more work in a certain area. Signs of stress can be panting, looking away, shaking off....

Licking his lips, yawning, or whining.

If all goes well, he's happy to have people handle him. It will make grooming and health care considerably easier in the long run.

One other thing to mention, On occasion a puppy will be mouthy when you are handling them. This is their way of telling you to stop doing what you are doing. But, I don't want you to stop. We don't want him to learn that all he needs to do is be a little mouthy with you and he gets his way. Instead, wait until he stops being mouthy before you stop doing what you are doing with him. But then take that information and know that you will need to do more handling with him. That's just one of the reasons why the kids should not be doing these exercises. Puppies also see kids more as their peers. Some puppies might not take to one of his peers doing grooming and handling.

There is also another kind of mouthing that happens with puppies. Puppies use their mouths in play all the time. If you watch a litter of puppies, they are all mouthing each other. They don't come knowing that they are not suppose to do that with humans. This is particularly difficult with children who tend to squeal, move fast, and jerk away if a puppy is mouthy. These are all things that, to the puppy, seem like the child is engaging them in play and encourages more mouthy behavior. It's important to teach children to stop, tuck their hands in and be really, really boring to the puppy so he learns that it won't get him what he wants. If he is being mouthy with us, we can say "Ouch!" pretty loud and quickly hand him something appropriate to chew on. Then we praise him when he is chewing on the appropriate item. We can also just end play and walk away from him. It takes some time but he will learn not to put his teeth on people. It's always a joyful day when the sharp baby teeth start to fall out and the nice, dull adult teeth start to grow in.

Day One -- Introductions

We were very happy to welcome Ubu today. Gayle got him off to a great start with his house training, crate training, and socialization. He adjusted very well to a new environment.

When he got here, I gave him time to explore on his own. I don't want to overwhelm him with a new person, a new environment, and new dogs all at once. That can be a bit much all at once and we want him to have a good experience. Socialization is about good exposures to new things, not just a lot of exposures to new things.

When I start to introduce him to the other dogs, I bring them out one at a time and I let Ubu approach when he is ready. He was a little nervous at first so I'm careful to call my dog to me if it looks like Ubu is overwhelmed. I can help speed up the process by petting the new dog. This shows Ubu that I think the dog is safe. I can do this with inanimate objects too. If he's nervous about something I can go up to it and touch it and tell him "It's no big deal." I avoid forcing him to check it out as that can really backfire and make him more fearful.

 Ubu quickly adjusts and soon we can have all the dogs out and he's having a grand time. His socialization with other dogs may not seem like a big deal since he won't be living with another dog but it really is a big deal. If he isn't exposed in a healthy manner to other dogs or if he has bad experiences with other dogs, he could develop a fear of other dogs. When dogs are fearful, they will tend to bark, growl, or lunge at other dogs to make them go away. That's not a behavior we want in a dog.

Ideally you have a dog who is comfortable with other dogs but really happy about being with people.

So far, so good! He's pretty into people and pretty comfortable around other dogs.

We started out with some real basics. They are easy exercises but very, very important to a good, solid foundation. One exercise is name recognition. Puppies don't come knowing their name and we want them to respond when we call them. Ideally they are looking at us when we call their name. I can easily teach this by saying his name and giving him a treat. I keep repeating this until he is readily looking at me when he hears his name. Even if it seems like he already knows his name, this is a good exercise to practice in increasingly distracting environments. This will help him learn that he needs to turn and look at you when you say his name no matter what is going on around him. It doesn't matter how good his other skills are, if you can't get his attention, they won't do you any good.

We can also work on attention where we reward him for simply maintaining eye contact with his handler. Just pretend like you can see his eyes...

Now that we've got his attention, we can start to get him to enjoy coming towards me. This is the beginning of walking nicely on a leash and coming when called. I can do this by talking to him in a happy voice, clapping my hands, moving away from him, and rewarding him when he gets to me.

Another thing we can start out on right away is sitting for greetings. Puppies jump to play or get attention. Of course, this is not very pleasant for people, especially children. Since he doesn't know yet what is expected of him (or more accurately he is just starting to learn), we want to teach a behavior we would prefer to jumping. I like teaching dogs to automatically sit when they want to be greeted by people. Dogs will repeat behavior that works well for them. If jumping results in people touching them with their hands (usually pushing them off) or kids squealing (which sounds like puppies playing), they get rewarded for that jumping behavior and are more likely to repeat it.

But if, in the beginning, everyone gives him a tiny piece of a tasty treat, he's praised, and pet when he sits in front of them, he is much more likely to repeat that behavior. This requires catching him when he's offering the behavior too. If he is sitting nicely and no one says anything to him, he'll try something else to get attention and it will probably be jumping. So catch him being good and reward him and turn your back on him if he starts to jump so he's not getting any attention for it.

This is a great age! Puppies are so enthusiastic to learn and eager to do what you ask.

I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks with this cute boy!