This makes me wonder… Why is it so difficult for some people to be willing to “pay” their dogs when they behave well? Sure, “payment” can come in many forms (throw the ball, tug the toy, give attention, etc.). But what is wrong with payment that comes in the form of a tiny piece of chicken, a mini-treat, a piece of jerky or a whole juicy meatball? When working with dogs I provide “pay” equivalent to the “labour” and the “location”. At home a cheerio or a piece of kibble is often suitable. Working on something new…I pull out the cheese. Walking in the forest and when my Luna turns away from a tempting, teasing squirrel because I asked her — I pull out the jerky. When she ignores the strange dog that’s barking and lunging at us across the street — then “it’s raining meatballs”!

I think a fellow Karen Pryor Academy trainer, Sarah Owings, is on to something when she offers that it might be the actual word “treat”. For people, treats are usually something sweet, or fattening, or expensive. Something that you might feel guilty or indulgent about. For dogs, treats are simply food — one of the key components to any predators survival.

With that in mind I asked Sarah if I could share her recent blog on this topic. So take 5 minutes, grab a coffee and enjoy Sarah’s blog. Better yet, make it a Caramel Macchiato — and don’t you dare feel guilty about it — you worked for it!

And BTW, next time you head out with your dog, put poop bags in one pocket and treats in the other — reward any behaviour you like — and enjoy how both you and your dog reap the benefits.

http://zdogsblog.com/2013/10/22/lets-talk-about-treats/

Now that summer has finally, and officially, come it’s time help your fur-kid adjust to the heat. Fur coats aside, please think about how the heat can burn their paw pads and give them heat stroke.

A fellow trainer & friend has written an great, short article I highly recommend you read:
Six Summertime Hazards for Dogs

Puppy paw pad alert! If the sidewalk is too hot for you to hold your hand on it for 30 seconds — it’s way too hot for your puppy & dog to walk on!

And please, NEVER leave your dog in your hot car alone — it’s at lease 10 degrees hotter inside your car than it is outside.

Better yet, enjoy some water play in your yard!

What can you do? And no, shouting at your dog does not translate the “no digging memo”. In fact, that often leads to “sneaky digging”.

I’d like to offer you a couple of choices. Give your dog a dedicated digging spot, or teach your dog to “dig” on cue.

If you’ve got the room in your yard, one option is to put sand in plastic kiddie pool/sand box. Encourage Max to dig for treasures in this box by hiding chews or toys in it, then bring him over and let him see you hide something extra. Happily encourage him to dig for these treasures (pointing to the object or partially digging it up yourself is usually all they need to figure this out). Then regularly hide stuff Max enjoys right in the box. Do this more frequently in the beginning, so Max gets frequent rewards for his appropriate digging.

What do you do when Max goes over to the flower bed to dig? Get his attention and gently guide or call him back to his sand box – then let him see you hide a treat or toy in there and encourage him to start digging.

My limited yard space makes me prefer to go with a “dig” cue. I taught my dog Luna this by bringing her to the sand-filled play parks in our neighbourhood. During quiet times, I would dig into the sand with my foot or hand and say “dig!” with excitement. As soon as she would dig, I’d continue to say “dig!” with a lot of animation (the kids helped with this as they loved shouting “dig!”). This was all the reinforcement she needed from me to continue digging with gusto (she found the digging activity extremely self-reinforcing)! I’d then move to a different spot and say “dig!” and she’d begin digging in a new spot.

I used to fill in these holes, until the local kids started playing in them. And it feels so good when the kids come up to me and ask if Luna could dig them a hole. Honestly, she has never declined a request to dig.

And when we are at the cottage, she has a great time digging in the sandy beach. Fortunately, my family doesn’t seem to mind filling in the holes after we leave ☺.

Is it messy? Well, at bit (more so if the sandbox is in your yard). Sure, she gets some sand stuck on her fur – but I just hose her down while I water my plants after our walk.

But she’s a dog. She lives with a lot of people rules. I like it when I can let her do those natural “doggy” behaviours. And you can tell by the smile on her face in this photo, that she LOVES digging.

And by the way, this is not just a summer activity. Luna has become a local “snow tunnel hero” to the neighbourhood kids who delight in getting her to dig them tunnels in giant piles of snow all winter long!

It’s actually for a campaign run by Shell Canada to support environmental projects and organizations selected by voters (Shell will grant a total of $2 million annually to projects that improve and restore Canada’s environment — yea Shell!). And it made me think — if a huge gas company can see the benefit of how one “click” at a time can change the world — maybe it’s time pet owners see the benefits of the “click” too?

The “click” I’m referring to here is the power of “clicker training” — a behavioural science-based method of learning used by modern trainers (and savvy pet owners), like myself, to communicate and teach animals.

This force-free method of training is so simple, it can often seem almost too easy. How in the world can a tiny, hand-held clicker make such a difference in teaching dogs and other animals new behaviours? Well, when you follow a “click” immediately with a treat — EVERY TIME — it takes less than a minute for most opportunistic dogs to realize the “click” is the promise of awesome yummies. The next dog thought is…how can I make my human “click” (& therefore give me more yummies?)! And that, my friends, is when the fun really begins. Your dog starts to really THINK! And when they start offering you a behaviour you are looking for (like making eye contact, or lying on a mat, etc.) you will be hooked! There must be magic in that clicker!

It’s time people, to hold your clickers proudly! Say goodbye to old-fashioned, traditional training methods, leash corrections, intimidation techniques and stupid dominance “theories” when training our family pets.

Let’s change the world, one CLICK at a time!

Introducing a small, rodent into a house with a fun-loving, squirrel-chasing German Shepherd is the story here. Previously I took to “managing the environment” when hamster-sitting (basically keeping Luna out of the room with the hamster). But now, the hamster will be living with us, so I thought this would make a great training opportunity.

Cage = Cue to Lie Down
My ultimate goal is to make the hamster in a cage a cue for relaxed behaviour from Luna. So, we need to take babysteps and break-down this behaviour.

Today, I prepared the cage. Then for our 1st session, I got super-yummy leftover sausage and chopped them into tiny pieces. When I put the prepared cage on the floor I began clicking/treating (C/T) for interaction with the cage — sniffing and touching the cage. Then I began to wait for her to look/touch the cage then look up to me — I C/T’d this progression with about 3 clicks. I would toss the treat so Luna would move then re-orient to the cage. Then I asked for a “down”, after 2 C/T I waited and she freely offered the down — this opened the “treat bar” and she got 5 treats, one after the other (“big payout for lying down near this cage” Luna’s thinking).

I then began to move the cage to the kitchen, then the coffee table, then upstairs on the floor of the girls’ bedroom. During this time she offered the “down” every time. I’m training her to generalize that cage (no matter where it is) means she should lie down & when she does, she get lots of yummy treats.

Then we took a break to play some tug-of-war, because she LOVES that game.

Eager for more (she’s a hard-working GSD), we did one more short session where I put the cage on Brianna’s dresser (where it will likely remain), then opened the cage, etc. All the while Luna would offer a “down” and get her C/T. We ended with 5 treats in a row for lying down, then one more rousing game of tug!

Total training time: 12 minutes (train & play)

Stay tuned for more from “The Hamster Diaries”.

That’s it! They go to the dedicated basket of things they can use to “stuff” — kibble, dog/cat treats, peanut butter, etc., and get creative.

The hiding part is fun for them too. They have to be sneaky (so Luna doesn’t see them and find the stuffed Kongs too soon). And they know that they must hind Kongs places she’s allowed to go (NOT on the counter for example).

Spread the work and spread the love. Enjoy the fantastic creations kids come up with. Make Kong stuffing fun — your dog will thank you for it as she spends time alone blissfully chewing on appropriate items.

[*For more stuffing ideas, go directly to Kong at www.kongcompany.com]

My dog has leash reactivity issues. What’s that mean? Well, she does not like, trust, and is often afraid of strange dogs when she is on her lead. What does she do? Well, her response is normally considerably less than a year ago, but she may bark, lunge, and jump towards the strange dog.

Why are her reactions less than a year ago? Well, I have been working through Behaviour Adjustment Training (or BAT*) with her. What’s that? It’s a force-free training approach I have taught her that means that it is, in fact, OK to look at the scary strange dog — and when she does this without barking, lunging or jumping she gets a “click” and a very special piece of home-made jerky or a yummy meatball. Plus, we normally move away from the scary/threatening stranger creating a safe distance, and a nice comfort level for both of us.

My job when we are outside, is to watch for strange dogs and increase our distance so Luna is comfortable, so that she can effectively respond with socially acceptable behaviours (not reacting).

Most of the time, I’m very good at my job (even my kids help with a “Mom, there’s a D- O-G”). But sometimes I fail her, and walk around a corner into the path of an oncoming strange dog — if I’m not quick, this can put Luna over her “threshold” (and she’ll bark, lunge, etc.). Bad for everyone.

But one thing that frustrates me is owners of strange dogs who, despite my request “Can you give us some space, please?” walk towards us asking “Is your dog not friendly?” — all the while Luna has gone over her threshold and is barking and lunging at them. Holy smokes, would you walk up to a strange person yelling on the street? I doubt it.

My goal is to be able to walk on the sidewalk, past a strange dog, with my dog not reacting or getting stress out. I’m optimistic this is in our future, as Luna has developed the ability not to react to strange dogs in the dog park (she still gets stressed, but this passes quickly and she gets to play with new dogs). But until this happens, can you please — just give us some space. Thanks.

(*I use BAT training techniques from U.S. trainer Grisha Stewart www.functionalrewards.com.)

I love playing with my dog. Luna gets totally into it, and doesn’t get distracted by texts, TV shows or the phone (although the squirrel running along the fence is another story/blog entry!).

But I find I can squeeze in some really great training — during playtime. Like “tug-of- war”, for example. We have a very special, very large rope toy that only comes out for our games of “tug”. And when does that happen? Usually after a short clicker training session, when I’m working on a new behaviour with her, we’ll break with, “Wanna play tug?” and have fun battle of wills holding onto that rope. During our “tug” session we also practice “off”, “go to your mat”, “touch”, etc. And the faster she responds to my cues, the faster we get back to the business of tugging!

She’s also a fetching machine. So to space out my throws, I’ll ask for “drop” — of which there are two responses at the moment (I know, I know…even a professional trainer’s 2-year old dog is a work in progress ). Luna will either: 1) look at me then start bouncing around, teasing me, and looking extremely cute in the hope that I will chase her; or 2) drop the ball. And what do I do? Well, since I’m currently reading “Culture Clash, by Jean Donaldson” I will no longer cave to the cute and crazy “please chase me” antics, and I will walk away from her, then ask her to “drop” again. My other response when she actually drops the ball is to either give her a “click” then say “I’m gonna get you!” and chase her (ending that game with “All done.”), or I will pick up the ball and ask for one or more known cues like: “around”, “weave”, “down”, “sit”, etc., then “click” and throw her ball.

So next time you think you might be “spoiling” your dog with some play, make it a “2- for1” deal with a fun session of play AND train.

N.B. Please only play tug-of-war with your puppy/dog AFTER they have a reliable “drop/off” cue. That’s something I can help you with.