Category: Basics - Mannerly Mutts Making Dog and Owner Dreams Come True in York Maine

Treat Training and Luring Insights

9/22/2022

Today I am going to go over the very commonly used practices of treat training used with luring to train your dog.   Most of this training falls under the category of positive reinforcement. That is the practice of adding something to increase the likely hood of a behavior.   In this case, we are talking about food rewards.

CONSIDERATIONS WHEN TRAINING WITH FOOD:

Most puppy training starts with food training.   Puppies are maturing, and do not have the focus of an adult dog.   They are discovering the world with their paws, nose, eyes, and mouth. Therefore, humans need a good reward method to catch their attention for any period of time.

Adult dogs will have more maturity and focus (usually). Therefore, the first section does not necessarily apply to them.   Although, these are things you may want to consider, especially if your adult dog seems at all flat when training.   Both young and old dogs need a distraction free place to start learning at first.

Four Steps of The Dog Training Process

9/10/2020

A common question that I get asked as a dog trainer is "How long will it take to get my dog trained to do XYZ?" That question does not have any concrete answer, and of course it depends on a variety of factors. Age, temperament, owner commitment, behavioral challenges, and increasing distractions all change this answer. When I am training a dog here, I feel that I need at least 21 days of consistently working the dog on training commands and behavioral exercises to get a dog owner on their way to picking up where I left off easily (or easier). Training does not just happen in one day or in one environment. Dog training, as dog trainers understand it, when you have reliability of a command (and very dependent on whether you are talking about an adult dog or a puppy) without the need of going through much effort other than the verbal command at least four out of five times in various environments and distractions. That actually takes much more than three weeks if you want a full set of commands that can be worked in that way. It also depends on if this is a family's needs for their family dog, if this is a working dog, or if this is a sports and competing dog.

I don't know if most of the dog owning public is aware of the levels that we pass through when teaching a dog a certain command. Here are the four levels that I usually think of:

1) Demonstrate to the dog what you want him to do.You can do this by positioning or luring your dog into position. Dogs need to be shown what to do, because they don’t naturally know the things we take for granted that older dogs have already been taught. Obviously they don't understand our verbal cues, and need to be shown what they will correspond to in the future. In the Demonstration phase, the command is verbalized in conjunction with the luring or placing the dog into correct position.

Calming Exercises for your Puppy or Adult Canine

8/17/2020

Lucy Black getting used to the benefits of relaxing. She is an anxious dog in general with separation anxiety.

Calming or relaxation exercises benefit all dogs, unless you have the rare very relaxed dog in any situation. In the majority of dog or puppies though, learning to relax is a very important skill. It helps those dogs of sound temperament, it helps dogs with behavioral problems, it helps young puppies, and it helps those older adults not exposed to the concept of self chilling.

I always hope to influence very young puppies with these exercises, but you don't always get that lucky. Many years ago, I myself had not discovered the very value benefit to my dogs of doing these. I discovered the value, when trying to figure out how to calm my dog, Jackie, before we got into the ring to do obedience and earn his Companion Dog title. This was the key to his success in that area, but this is also the key to a well rounded, confident dog, who has been exposed to many stimulus's that get most dogs all riled up, and cause dog owners many unneeded problems. These exercises are worth the time and the effort. Some may be very boring, but they are enormously valuable. I would not do them myself it they were not.

Sit on The Dog Exercise

8/14/2020

In addition to the following instructions, I have included a video of a dog that was really struggling with dog reactivity, especially when dogs were moving, playing, or barking. This was a mid week behavioral exercise with Lucy Black. If you watch the beginning parts where she gets anxious and reactive, and then scroll to the end, you will see how this exercise allows dogs to start to find their center and chill spot on their own. I always use this as part of a training plan that also includes nutrition, exercise, down time, and a more formal obedience training plan. This helps us especially get to the training in distractions.

Manual Training collars pros and cons

6/10/2020

I am not going to talk about head halties or harnesses in this article. I consider them management equipment and not training equipment. These types of equipment are designed to keep the pressure on the dog at all times, and not allow for decision-making ability on the part of the dog. There are definite uses for them both behaviorally and for the safety of the owner. We will be going over those in a separate blog post.

The following are all equipment that are used in a training program with other many other tools and methods. This is a small but important parts of training that is combined with handler confidence, body position, praise, rewards, consistency (arguably the most important tool), vocal tone, motivation (as in what does your dog naturally like to do, and use it) and training plan. None of these operate well without the others. Reading your dog and their response to tools and stimuli is also important. Have a trainer handy to walk you through whether your dog will not work well on the collar, or are just going through common avoidance antics. This is often hard for a first time dog owner/trainer to judge. You also need someone to help you fit these properly. None of these should be too loose, and the metal training link collar should have about two inches of extra link in it (depending on the size of your dog of course, this is the rule for most medium and large dogs—smaller dogs need much less slack as well their necks are teeny tiny). Generally, these tools and some training methods are used after a dog has become approximately six months of age.

Building blocks of dog training

5/18/2020

Most dog owners, especially first time dog owners, do not have a real understanding of what dog training is. How could they? This is not something taught to us in most schools, and dogs are a totally different species than we are. The building blocks of dog training are very important, and it is the understanding of these and why they are used that confuse most dog owners.

The first thing you should know is dog training is a process. There are many steps, and if you don't step off on the right foot in the first place, you will make your self a lot of unnecessary work later or just give up in frustration at a point where you could have excelled. This blog seeks to give you some insights to understand the bones of the process in hopes that when you start training you will continue on to a very enjoyable life for you and your dog with a fabulous working relationship.

So you have found a great adult dog to add to your family, now what?

5/9/2020

Harley the Great Dane and one of his many friends.

A decision has been made! You have decided to take in a new adult dog into your family. Before this action was taken:

You have already looked deep into whether you were ready for any dog.
Your lifestyle was analyzed so as to list the qualities in a dog that would fit well within your every day activities.
Breeders, Rescues, and ads to re-home adult dogs were looked at very carefully and vetted.

Now your new family member has arrived or will be arriving shortly. The next two or three weeks are for your new adult dog family member to learn they are in a safe and predictable environment. What are the immediate actions you can take to let that happen without the common pitfalls of many new dog owners or dog owners that have had no experience with a brand new adult dog. That is what we will be talking about in this blog.

Crate Training Tips

5/8/2020

Objectives: Using a crate is important for many reasons. House training, boarding, possible veterinarian visits where they are staying hours or overnight, safety in the house (puppies will try and chew wires and all sorts of things left to their own devices), just having a shower without worrying about what puppy is getting into, and separating out from company that may be afraid of dogs, in general. The objective is to create a peaceful place where your puppy or dog knows they are safe and comfortable to rest and relax.

Equipment: Crate, flat collar on dog (so you have some hold on him putting him in or out), toys placed in the crate already, and a lot of patience. You don't want your puppy to see you getting frustrated. This is all a learning experience for them.

Trick Tuesday-Spin or Follow The Hand

4/21/2020

This is just the beginning of the spin trick. There are more steps later on to have the puppy or dog doing this on their own for the verbal only or signal only command.

Equipment needed: dog or puppy, six foot leash, flat collar that does not come off of head, treats, place to sit or kneel down (can be done standing too, but usually you need to start lower down. NOTE: TREATS SHOULD BE SMALL FOR PUPPIES AND NOT THAT BIG FOR DOGS EITHER. THEIR KIBBLE CAN BE USED FOR THIS.

STEP 1: Hold handle of leash in one hand.
STEP 2: Put treat in the other hand.
STEP 3: Make sure you have the puppy fairly close to you on the leash.
STEP 4: Place the treat close to or right on the puppies nose if needed in a closed hand.
STEP 5: Then lure with your hand so the puppy's head turns to start. Don't expect more than a head turn at first. If they do go all around with their body at first, then great! The second time they may not. Just be patient with the puppy or dog at first, as they do not understand exactly what we want yet. This is the teaching or showing phase of training.
STEP 6: When they turn their head, say "good boy" or "good girl" (notice we are not giving a command at this point), and then open your hand so they can take the food.
STEP 7: Repeat for about 15 repetitions. Young puppies should only be trained for a short period of time, and ideally you want them wanting more at the end.

NOTE: If they start moving their body with the food on the first session, that is great but it might not happen. Do not push the puppy (or dog) too fast. Stay slow and steady and the exercise will perform better in the long run. In the next session, you may want the dog to do a complete spin before getting the treat. When that starts happening consistently, then you can use the command "spin" or "good spin" (if you are using a marker system) when the dog or puppy completes the spin.

So you have a new puppy what training to start with right away-Pandemic Series Day 28 of Social Distancing

4/7/2020

Sally Wally Woo as she is known here.

Puppies can do more than human babies can do, but do remember that these are babies. Everything is new to them. In this article, I am going to attach some basic puppy links of the things that you might not know about puppies, how they develop and how they mature. The real purpose of this article is how you go about training a puppy the right way, and with the knowledge that these are babies.

Growth Stages in Puppies (Many people consider a dog mature at 2 years, but with our breed, the Doberman, it seems like three years in when they get there)
Critical Periods in Puppy Development
Incomplete listing of things that are poison to your puppy
House Training Tips
Crate Training (be sure to scroll all the way down, they have specific instructions on this article)
A listing of all sorts of link in regards to puppies
Socialization strategies
Tips about your new puppy