Training Archives - Page 4 of 8

Category: Training Page 4 of 8

Sit Pretty

On April 20, 2014

sit pretty dog trick

Here’s another trick that’s maybe not so practical, but can be pretty cute.

Sit Pretty

The Sit Pretty trick may not be that practical but I thought it was something to do now and then to continue to expand Donna’s repertoire of cute tricks.

Some benefits of the trick when correctly done include:

Better balance
Build muscles that help Donna to sit on her back legs while supporting a straight back

I read that Sit Pretty is easy for small dogs to learn but can be harder for bigger dogs with longer backs who will find it harder to balance. (Did I mention that somebody at the Pet Expo actually mistook Donna for a dachshund??) So our kind-of-long dog here definitely needs a lot of physical support for this trick.

sit pretty dog trick

At this point in time, Donna may be able to Sit Pretty a couple of times on her own for 1 second (just lift up and then 4 paws on the ground again). We’ve been practising this, not consistently, on and off for perhaps a couple of months.

sit pretty dog trick

Being able to rest her weight on my arm definitely helps her to balance better while she takes the treat out of my hand.

sit pretty dog trick
I am the mystic palm reader!

Shhh… studying your destiny mapped out in the lines of your palm. Do not disturb!

Palm ~~licking~~ reading is serious business!

That’s it! Hold it up against the light.

Treat Delivery

There’s quite a lot of videos on Youtube, and they may show you different ways to deliver the treat as a lure to get the dog into a Sit Pretty position.

sit pretty dog trick

When I hold out the treat downwards, Donna appears to be more likely to jump up to try to get the treat out from my fingers.

sit pretty dog trick No longer sitting on hind legs.

She has a very soft mouth, so I don’t worry about her nipping or biting my fingers. But it can hurt if that were not the case.

So to create more instances where she sits, rather than tries to stand up on her hind legs, I try to deliver the treat on my palm instead of holding it downwards.

Today I watched the Kikopup video for this trick and found that she lifts her palm upwards for the hand signal, and that looked pretty smooth. I like that it should not be difficult to transition the treat on the palm to that hand signal later on.

But meanwhile, we’re just taking it easy so that Donna has the time to slowly develop the muscles necessary for Sitting Pretty for a longer duration of time. I need to make sure there’s more cushion under her to lessen the impact on her joints when we do this at home though!!

happy dog

This training video explains the trick and how to make it safe for the dog – http://youtu.be/IQUerO0woqw

Let’s not rush out the door

By weliveinaflat

On April 12, 2014

In Training

I was getting ready to leave the house for an appointment sans dog.

It didn’t seem quite possible. I could see the dog was getting excited all on her own. Her whole body language was screaming, “I’m going out!”

She was so self-absorbed, all she did was face the door as close as possible, wagging her tail all the while. She wasn’t looking at me, and it didn’t matter that she did not have her collar and lead on her. It was as if there was just this one dominant thought in her one track mind, and she could entertain no other possibility. She was going out. And so she crowded at the door, waiting expectantly.

I thought I would open the door a little so I could slip out while still keeping her in. I must have been a fool.

My dog doesn’t see the point of leg weaves

By weliveinaflat

On April 5, 2014

In Training

Previously we were training targeting using nose to hand so that we can use it to learn other things like eventually walking on two legs and leg weaving. Not very practical skills but it’s fun :P

Training standing on two legs

Do I get extra if I get creative and touch my chin to your fingers instead, human?
Or my paws to fingers?
Ok fine, so you want nose to fingers only.

Training Leg Weaves

I don’t wanna do the leg weaves anymore, human, no matter how your are waving your finger to get me to target through your legs. So I’m just gonna flop on the floor in protest.

And if my bum happens to land on your foot, I don’t care.
See, this is my I-don’t-care face.
But I still want the treat… ….. …. how about I trade you a rollover?
I rollover long time, human. *wriggle wriggle*
Shit, why do I think this is a waste of time?
Because the human doesn’t exactly want to reinforce behaviours I don’t want to encourage, so I can’t treat if I ask you to do a leg weave and you decide to rollover instead :P

Anyway, I guess Donna’s doing this from a combination of factors, she gets too bored of the treats and she wants to get the treats by doing the easy stuff that she already knows.

So I changed the treats after that…

The results?

Here’s a video of Donna doing the looping around my left and right legs.

leg weave from weliveinaflat on Vimeo.

Here’s a video of me awkwardly taking steps forward while Donna loops around my legs.

leg weaving stepping forwards from weliveinaflat on Vimeo.

It’s not smooth and I probably still have a ways before I can fade away the hand cues. But at least she does leg weaves now!! :P

For steps on how to train leg weaves, check out this Youtube video!

Friendly Friday – The canine condition

By weliveinaflat

On April 5, 2014

In Training

Friday again! Some pages that caught my interesting ;)

Quite a balancing act by this amazing two-legged dog
Labradoodle creator laments designer dog craze via Saved by Dogs
OCD genes found in dogs via My Positive Dog Training Blog
Dogs and gender, is it that important?
Leash reactive dogs, I’ve not really read up on BAT much but it sounds interesting.
How can you tell if your pet’s been abducted by aliens?, maybe when he/she disappears like this child
Feline: Grumpy vet is not amused

I’m kind of wondering should there be a reason to prefer male or female dogs. I mean, people usually think that male human children are naughtier and harder to manage than female kids. Is there such gender difference in dogs, you think?

Go to your bed or Go to your crate

By weliveinaflat

On March 29, 2014

In Training

donna in crate

One of the things that get reiterated online by dog trainers when it comes to helping the dog to adapt and learn to live in a new home is that Crate Training is highly recommended. Particularly if one brings home a puppy, with the associated teething and destructive issues, having the puppy in a crate when you don’t have the time to supervise can save you much heartbreak over the expensive, now ruined furniture.

I don’t talk to anyone about crate training much offline simply because I get told that Crate Training is cruel or the dog doesn’t like it in there. But I do like to write about it on the blog so that Mr P can read it in detail when he is in the mood. :P

Because we had planned to spread out our dog expenses across the months, we didn’t get the crate (which cost about $100) right off the bat in the beginning. I didn’t know much about crate training then and needed the time to do the proper reading before we commit to a crate.

But let’s start right at the beginning, shall we?

January 2013

When we first brought Donna home, the shelter advised us to let Donna sleep in the room with us for that first night at least. That was pretty good advice, if you think about it. Imagine what damage a strange, curious dog could wrought in a new environment unsupervised in the middle of the night! But of course, we were dog idiots at that time and weren’t aware of such … concerns.

That whole night Donna was restless and kept clattering about the room. So I was happy to kick both dog and her tub bed out of the room the second night so that I can finally get some sleep!

dog's first night at home
That’s the last night you’ll spend in this room, missy! *kicks dog out; dog flies out of the room; exit stage left*

Thankfully, Donna apparently had the wisdom to leave most things alone even when unsupervised for the night. So we did not suffer too much in terms of damage to both dog or property. One of the perks of adopting an adult dog perhaps?

The tub bed was old and I was finicky about things looking nice in our new flat so one day, it disappeared. :P (She preferred the towel anyway.) The poor dog had to make do with towels in the meantime. Luckily she is young and not suffering from aches that may plague an elder dog. That said, there was always a chance that she might pee on her towel when it rains. (She suffered from thunder phobia and her first instinct still is to pee on floor rugs, towels or anything of that texture lying around.)

And so we got her a new fluffy bed!

The problem was, Donna was a little like Jake, she hadn’t figured out what the pillow on the floor was for. And she didn’t really want to approach it. So it was time to build positive associations with the pillow by decorating it with food!!

February 2013

What's this, the dog thought to herself looking at the line of kibble on her bed. What's this line of treats doing here??
What’s this, the dog thought to herself. What’s this line of treats doing here??
Why's the human not saying anything? Am I supposed to leave it?
Why’s the human not saying anything? Am I supposed to leave it?

Shit, she is looking at me. What do I do? Maybe, I should pretend that I am not interested.
That's it. I am not interested.
That’s it. I am not interested.

NOT interested!

The only problem was, this cynical dog had just learnt two things during her short stay with us (1) leave it and (2) nothing in life is for free. And so she left her new bed and the food alone.

The human had to keep leaving food on her new bed, quit the scene and leave the dog to discover the food and learn to approach her bed by herself.

Eventually, she did start using it. I continued to reinforce her use of her new bed positively, by doling out treats every time I see her using her bed. By this time, I was also able to start positive training her to Go to her bed to get her treats.

March 2014

Donna, bright-eye and eagerly waiting for her treat for going to her bed.

I soon discovered the bed was an amazing tool for teaching her to Stay. Before, she could never stay. She always wanted to come towards me rather than stay at the spot that I asked her to. That bed somehow became an anchor that helped her to stay better than she ever did before.

“This is taking so long I am getting sleepy… zZzZzZzZz…” Yup, real good at staying.

Benefits of the Go to Your Bed Command

Gets dog out of the way to a specific location, e.g.
- consistent use during floor cleaning helps dog learn to automatically retreat to her bed when a human starts to clean the floor
- consistent use helps dog learn that the right thing to do is to go to her bed and stay when someone rings the doorbell and you answer the door
- when you need a time out from your dog
- when your dog needs a timeout from you

June 2013

We eventually got her an even bigger bed, and she had no problems using it right away.

For some reason or other, she developed a mania around digging the bed every single night. All that energy pushed the bed into the room that she was kicked out of the first day.

August 2013

After months of dawdling, we finally bought her a crate to function as her “bedroom”. At that time, these are the perceived benefits that I thought I would get out of the crate.

Benefits of Crate Training

the benefits of Go to Your Bed, plus…
calm visitors (friends, plumbers, electricians, etc, etc) who are scared of dogs by giving them the assurance that dog is crated and cannot approach them
gives dog a “room” of her own to run and hide in when the flat is invaded by too many strange and overly-friendly humans
gives dog a “room” of her own to run and hide during a thunderstorm
gives dog a chance to get used to and be comfortable with being confined, in case she ever needs to be, e.g. at the vet or at the dog boarder, etc.
helps dog learn that it is ok to be by herself and that she does not need to be overly attached to the human, which helps to lessen the chances of separation anxiety

When introducing the new crate to her, I stuffed the bed she was used to into the crate but she was still hesitant about it.

Based on my past experience getting her to love her bed, I used the same method to positively condition her to like the crate.

The top hatch of the crate proved rather useful for dropping treats into the crate.

And while at first, Donna didn’t really want to put a foot in, she at least tried very hard to stretch and crane her neck in to reach the treats.

Eventually she did put a foot or two in and she got a ton of treats. I continued with trying to positively condition her to be comfortable with going into the crate totally. This meant I continued to treat her when she did so. And I continued to scatter treats in her crate that she may discover on her own.

I forgot how long it took but she eventually was happy to go into the crate in anticipation of her food.

So by that time I started to feed her all her meals and her kongs in the crate because I really, really wanted her to love her new bedroom cum dining room. At some point, instead of of hanging around the child gate that barred her from the kitchen while I prepare her meals, she took it into her head to wait for it in her crate instead.

I'm going to have breakfast in crate, thank you.
I’m going to have breakfast in crate, thank you.

I can safely leave her crated for 2-3 hours with her Kong toy while I work on things at home. Sometimes, I get pre-occupied and forget she is still in there and the poor dog starts to whine so I know her patience has been exhausted and I should let her out :P

It took some months before I had the confidence to leave her crated for short periods of time with me out of the house. We started with short durations of 15-20 minutes to about a couple of hours when we go out for dinner. And I’m pleased that she has not damaged herself or suffered from any forms of unwillingness to go into the crate for her food when we are ready to head out.

In fact, she is always happy to rush into her crate for her own dinner and ignore the humans that try to depart from the house as quietly as possible. :P

Note: That said, I don’t really like to leave her crated at home when there’s nobody in the flat. It just doesn’t seem wise, say if there were an accidental fire and she was unable to escape because she was trapped in the crate. Although in some cases, it may be safer for the dog prone to destructive behaviour to be crated than left to roam freely at home.

Nowadays it has become her personal preference to take all her treats, food toys and dental chews into her crate, even if I had given it to her outside of it. So I think the crate training is pretty successful. ;)

However, although Donna learnt to go to her crate pretty fast for food, it took more than a couple of months before she went in there just to chill out or to sleep for an extended period of time. I read somewhere that dogs only sleep on their backs if they feel totally secure in the place. Dogs that feel a need to stay guarded tend to sleep in the donut shape, which is least restful but easiest for them to wake up fast to respond to a threat. For months, Donna has been sleeping in there as a round ball.

February 2014

It was only in the last month or two that I finally spied her sleeping on her side in the crate, looking so much more relaxed than before! I was ecstatic and needed to take this picture :P

Donna sleeping on her side in the crate

Perhaps one day, I may be lucky and find her sleeping there on her back. I hope it won’t take years for her to finally safe and secure enough in the flat to do that!

So there you go, a pretty long tale about how we progressed from Go to your bed to Go to your crate. Of the perceived benefits listed above earlier in the post, we were able to achieve most except for having her use the crate as a safe refuge from the thunderstorm. That is still something that we are working on when the storm season rolls around the corner.

Other than that, Donna still has her old beds about the flat so she has the freedom of using either the crate or bed. She uses both and the floor rather equally.

And of course, I have to say that Crate Training is NOT cruel and the dog can learn to love her crate. It’s the training methods we use that determine whether the crate is a cruel confinement tool or a cool, chill out den for the dog. Using positive methods to reinforce happy associations to the crate for the dog, it is not a hardship for the dog to go into the crate, enjoy her food or a little nap in there or just to get out of the way when you need her to do so. ; )

Given our own experience, I do think we could have invested in a crate right from the start, but we were tentative dog idiots then so no harm, no foul.

Did you get your dog a crate right at the beginning or did you wait to get it like us?

Advertisement
Useful equipment mentioned in this post that you can get on Amazon:

References

– Teach your dog to go to bed – http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/pets/dog-training/teach-your-dog-to-go-to-bed
– Five steps to teach your dog to go to place – http://www.clickertraining.com/node/3308
– How to crate train your dog – http://smartdoguniversity.com/crate-train-dog/
– When can I get rid of the crate – http://smartdog.typepad.com/smart_dog/2012/09/dog-training-ask-the-trainer-when-can-i-get-rid-of-the-crate.html
– Three Must Have’s – http://smartdog.typepad.com/smart_dog/crate-training/
– Crate training a puppy or dog – http://www.perfectpaws.com/crt.html
– Crate training on wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crate_training

Training Opportunities become clear with a Schedule

By weliveinaflat

On March 15, 2014

In Training

Donna has a limited repertoire of skills because I don’t really make time to expand it. That is what I want to do with her while she is still young and active.

How we took this photo “Leave it” so she knew to leave the kibble alone. “Nose” to get Donna to go near the kibble where I wanted her to be. She typically would sit far away from temptation otherwise. :P “Sit-stay”. She hasn’t learnt “Watch me”, so I just snapped when she happened to look at the camera. Patience required. It also helps to make weird noises that get her attention sometimes :P

What has helped me a lot in making sure she has not forgotten what she already knows is the Nothing In Life Is Free program. It basically means the dog only gets a treat if she has done something to earn it. Integrating that concept into our interaction with her means that she gets some form of instruction or reinforcement of good behaviour everyday.

1. Mealtimes are easy training opportunities

The table below shows how I tried to use key feeding times throughout the day for training. Normally I just get her to practice what she already know so she doesn’t forget. Integrating training into these points of the day helps me a lot because otherwise, it is likely I will not be as mindful about training her consistently on a daily basis.

Frequency	Intent	Behaviour	Rewards
Meal 1	Refresh basic commands	– Nose – Wave – Sit-Stay – Go to crate – Shake-a-paw – High-Five	kibble + canned
Meal 2	Mental exercise	Play with treat dispensing toys	Kibble
Meal 3	New skills	– Leg weaving – Spinning – Sit pretty – Backward heel	Canned food

Mealtimes are definitely the easiest times to train simply because the rewards are there and the dog is eager. She is already tuned in to the fixed feeding schedule and routines that we have.

Along the way, I decided to use different mealtimes for different purposes. This helps me not fall into the easy trap of just reinforcing her on commands that she already knows. The different purposes are identified in the Intent column for each meal.

2. Every walk is an opportunity for dog to learn good walking habits

Training during dogwalking is a huge incentive for me because I get very bored otherwise. I get absolutely no incentive for standing around doing nothing while the dog takes her own sweet time sniffing the dirt.

But I get inconsistent here too. Often I run out of treats or it is too hot or too hazy. But otherwise, just being outdoors in a distracting environment helps to reinforce the dog for behaviours that help hugely for when we bring her to highly busy environments like the Pet Expo.

Frequency	Intent	Behaviour	Rewards
Walks (morning/night)	Outside skills	– Loose leash – Off-leash – Come, Nose – Go sniff – Leave it – Jump/Up – Stay, Wait – Let’s go – Slow – Fetch – Stop	Meat cubes

3. Grooming time is opportunity to reinforce behaviours that make grooming easy but also most difficult to reinforce when dog is stressed

Tooth brushing

We recently bought two expensive bags of Greenies at the pet expo and I tell you she goes crazy for them. I give her one Greenies at bedtime when I’m too tired to struggle with her over tooth brushing.

And yes, there lies my dilemma. It seems recommended for no food 2 hours before or after tooth brushing so there’s no incentive for her to like toothbrushing. She gets too grumpy with me for play to be an incentive.

So right now, Greenies and tooth-brushing are interchangeable during bedtime. I want to make toothbrushing a discipline every night simply because Donna’s teeth are in such bad condition. But I need to find some way to help her like it.

And that also means I need to slot the Greenies somewhere else, since there’s no point in putting them together, is there?

Frequency	Intent	Behaviour	Rewards
Bedtime	Refresh tricks	– Go to crate – Sit-Stay – Come – Play dead – Rollover	Greenies
Bedtime	Toothbrushing	– Sit-Stay – Keep calm & Hold Still	Yummy toothpaste is not incentive enough :(

Bath, Ear cleaning and Nail Cutting

These are the three things we are really bad at. I used to throw kibble into the bathroom during mealtime just so that she can get comfortable walking into the shower herself. A lot of the preparation training during mealtimes help, but when it comes to the actual thing I still struggle to have her keep calm, lie on her side and play dead for her nail cutting for example.

Sometimes, she just doesn’t want to respond and throws the treats on the floor, refusing them altogether. The good thing is nowadays she refuses food because she is grumpy and not because she went beyond threshold and is too fearful to respond. *Phew*

Still having a reluctant dog makes grooming a chore for the human at times, so sadly there are days the human needs to incentivise herself to groom her dog weekly. :P

Frequency	Intent	Behaviour	Rewards
After weekly bath, ear-cleaning	Matwork	– Go to mat – Stay – Relax	Regular Kong
Weekly nail clipping	Relax while nail clipping	Play dead	Meat cubes

Three times the opportunity for progress

So training for Donna in our household has always been off the top of the head, ad hoc and “when I feel like it“. Making these tables has really helped me to clarify the results I want to get from the different opportunities present, and also where it seems most efficient to train what command.

The first time I accidentally cut her nail to the quick was just a couple weeks back. I was properly horrified by the drops of blood that leaked form the cut! Feeling kind of resistant to try to cut her nails since then still. *Goes and looks for chocolate, haha.*

I have the say my complaints about grooming, I’m sure it’s my own fault for not being consistent. For all I know, she might be very amenable to them by now if I had kept consistent at desensitisation and trying to counter-condition her to like it.

So hopefully now that I’ve gone though this exercise, I will be more consistent and successful with the grooming part of it. Wish me luck!

Nara Park Deer know positive reinforcement too!

By weliveinaflat

On March 8, 2014

In Training

Welcome to nara deer park
In this park there are many deer
Buy a pack of deer biscuits and the biscuit seller will tell you - you bow and then you feed.
You know what that's about cute deer?
well, here goes nothing...
the deer started bowing and they didn't stop
see me bow too, said the deer

You see how amazing this place is?

Just one line from the deer biscuit seller and you’ve got busloads of tourists unknowingly reinforcing the deer for bowing for their treat!

But there are some problems with this system as well, I’ll show you more in tomorrow’s black and white post. ; )

Ending this post with awful blurry pictures of this deer that strongly reminded us of Donna!!

Yeah, I want the biscuit but I'm too comfortable to move.
deer bowing while laying on the ground
huh suckers, said the deer.

About positive reinforcement training
Rewarding your dog immediately for the good behaviour he displayed, encourages him to repeat the desired behaviour. Consistent reforcement helps to form the desired behaviour into a habit for the dog.
– humanesociety.org

About Nara Park
This was a day trip we made to the Nara Deer Park, when we visited Kyoto, Japan. It’s a large park dotted with various temples across the wooded landscape. As tourists make their way from one pit stop to another, they have lots of opportunities to meet and feed the deer.
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara_Park
– official webpage in japanese

Related

Our first dog agility experience!

By weliveinaflat

On March 2, 2014

In Training

Donna climbing the A-ramp. Donna and I had a tiny taste of dog agility at the PetExpo Saturday morning (that’s yesterday!)

I had some difficulty trying to get Donna to weave through the poles, but Mr P says it’s because half the time I’m standing too close and blocking her from weaving. OMG!

Target Train your dog to Touch Nose to Hand

By weliveinaflat

On March 1, 2014

In Training

dog does not respond correctly to Touch or Hand to Nose targeting training command

“May I gently boop your nose?”

Is nose booping something that you do?

I don’t. In fact, the word wasn’t in my vocabulary until I got that comment on Instagram!

That’s ironic because I spent the last week encouraging Donna to “boop” her nose against my two fingers by herself. We were specifically training the Nose to Hand behaviour, also called Touch, which is part of Target Training.