Training the Dog 1: A Discussion on Distraction Training

Training isn't just about solving or stopping behavior issues from happening, it's about working towards being a team with the dog of your dreams. Every single time you train behaviors, you are teaching a dog--a living creature with her own thoughts, emotions, and personality.

In Basic Obedience class, where the dogs learn sit, down, come when called, etc they are laying down a strong foundation. However, many trainers, for dogs at this level, are focused on the behaviors, and, as stated before, every time you train behaviors, you are teaching a dog. So, other than the behaviors, what is the dog learning? Trainers who know this can better choose methods for each behavior which support their overall program and support the growth of the dog-owner team. Teaching actual behaviors comprises perhaps 10% of all training you do with your dog. The other 90% is maintaining behaviors and making them stronger in the face of distractions.

Let's focus a little bit on distraction training. Dogs will choose not to listen for many reasons. The top 3 reasons why dogs will get distracted, in my experience, is because: They want to play with that thing over there more than they want to play obedience with you, their nervous systems are overloaded with stimuli, and they don't understand what you want out of them.

I tell my students that we are building thinking dogs. I want a dog who has the ability to weigh the two choices in their mind, obedience vs distraction, and can clearly choose obedience over distraction. If they can do that, then the dog will actually be motivated to problem solve their way into achieving obedience in the face of difficult distractions. Which will mean that, when the dog is put into a difficult situation, they will not only be able to choose the choice that benefits the team (picking obedience over competing reinforcers), but that choice will create a dog that will value work even more. It's really cool. Here's an example of one of the games I play in Level Two to build this:

I also tell my students that dogs are emotional creatures and that, like people, they either make good decisions or emotional ones. When their nervous systems are overloaded, a dog is either just a crazy-bean going around and jumping on everything or they are super stressed out and withdrawn into themselves. Dogs stress up or down. The crazy dog stresses up. The dog that practices avoidance (looking away, trying to escape obedience) is stressing down. With my dogs, I try to build emotional self-control and a habit of calm. I also build the skill of the dog being able to calm themselves after being energized and to be able to think even while intense and hyper. This is one of my students showing the calm mindset I am talking about while playing another "choose work over reward" type of game. I tell my students that dogs usually have a lead foot, they get to 100mph pretty easily, but don't know how to apply the brakes and that's what gets them into trouble. Basically, the foundation the dog has learned should teach him how to drive at a speed (be at a level of arousal [excitement]) where he can best listen to you.

And sometimes, the dog doesn't understand what is asked of her. Some people can be frustrated with this one even though it's the most obvious. Dogs do not generalize well. What works in the living room, they don't know also works out in the real world until you explain it to them. One of my students didn't understand how to do a stay out in the middle of the pet store. I told the owner to break it down as if you were teaching it anew. Ahhhh, I see. The dog seemed to say. That thing works out here, too! He then added ten or fifteen feet to the stay plus added faster movement away from the dog. Just took an extra minute of explanation, then the dog was all about working and the team could progress. Imagine how unfair it would have been if the dog was corrected for not complying with a command when the problem was simply that he did not understand or was not confident in that environment.

When you train a dog, it's more elegant and cleaner training if the foundation games will eventually turn into distraction training and will help the dog be able to finish her behaviors in different environments. I believe that choosing work (obedience) over rewards, teaching healthy ways to cope with stress, and showing the dog you will always be a fair teacher are important things you should not neglect in your foundation.

New Page with Links and Resources

I decided to make a new page full of my favorite books, videos, and other easy-to-access resources. I also typed up the reasons why I included them on the list and how they helped my dog and/or could help other dogs. I highly recommend everything on the list. I will definitely add more to it once I think of more. I will, in addition, post links to any cool articles I find.

Thank you guys for following my blog! Here is the link:

Recommended Books, Videos, etc.

Low-Stress Handling Tutorial Notes and Explanations

This is my dog getting her nails clipped. When I first got her, her nails were overgrown and she was afraid of the clippers. The reason she's so calm is that I've built a system of consent with her. What this means is that if she needs a break, she can ask for it and I will honor her request. Before I manipulate her paws, I ask her if she's ready before I do so. When you give your dog more power and control in this sort of situation, you also give her more confidence and more reason to trust you.

When you go to the dentist, the dentist doesn't hold you down and put things in your mouth against your will. Rather, you hear "say ah" and the dentist will explain what he or she is about to do to you and if you are ready for it. Small things like this helps you feel more at ease.

The focus of a training program to get your dog to be able to get the nails clipped should not be to get the nails cut. Believe it or not, the only thing you should ever focus on is how comfortable your dog is. That was all I focused on for my dog. Within a month, she was as comfortable as she is in the above video.

Below, I have a video tutorial of the process I took to get there as well as an explanation for the training choices I have made and why they were important:

Step 1. Start with impulse control exercises to teach a calm marker word

A calm marker word is important when building calm behaviors where it will be useful to mark the exact moment the dog has succeeded in a task. The calm marker word tells the dog "yes, you've earned the cookie, but wait for me to calmly hand it to you." 

I usually just start teaching it with a normal leave it. When I say good, I pick up the treat and hand it to my dog. That's it. Note in the video the difference between good and Pip's normal marker word yes. Also notice how she gets calmer and calmer with each good.

Step 2. Touch the dog while the dog is leaving the treat.

I gently touch the dog's toes. All she has to do is hold still and then I'll mark with good as I touch her feet and after I say good, I take my hand off of her and reach for the cookie. The dog is actually working for both the food and for the hand to retreat. A good trainer recognizes every reward the dog is working for--not just the one you intended for the dog to work for.

Note the calm treat delivery. What that means is that I put the treat under her mouth so she has to lap it up out of my hand rather than snatch at it. 

Step 3. Practice with a cookie pile and feed from the pile

Pip is aware of the cookie pile, but is not obsessed about it. But the point is that the dog stops focusing so intently on the treats and is more focused on what you are doing and what you are asking of her. If your goal is to do this exercise without the cookie pile, you may start fading the cookies by putting them further away and eventually hiding them.

If the dog pulls her foot away, let her. It's important feedback for the both of you: It tells your dog that you will honor her requests for space and it tells you that you pushed your dog further than she was ready for. My dog Pip is a rescue from the shelter and she typically begins every nail clipping session by pulling her foot away to see if this is still true. It always is. Then, she proceeds with confidence.

I use low value rather than high value cookies for this training for several reasons:

1. High value rewards skew the dog's threshold. Many dogs will do things that make them uncomfortable for the sake of a reward that they really, really want. There used to be a game show on TV that was based on this concept, where people did things that they would never do for the sake of a substantial cash reward.
2. The dog's focus should be on what's going on--not on the reward. In addition, I don't direct the dog's attention onto or away from anything. I want the dog to look where she needs to look. Doing it this way also helps the dog have an easier time transferring the coping skills they are using to times when there are no rewards. The dog is working more for feeling comfortable and safe than for the cookies themselves.
3. Using low value rewards also forces the trainer to work at the dog's pace. Dogs are very honest. If she won't let you touch her paw for a piece of kibble, but will let you have your hand reach towards her as long as it stays 18 inches away, that's where you have to start.
4. Low value rewards help promote calmer behavior. Using low value rewards brings down the energy level of training in general for a dog. Handling a nervous dog is absolutely a place where you want the dog to display a calmer affect.

Final Notes

Once again, the dog sets the pace. The reason why this method works is it gives the dog a safe structure in which to feel mildly stressed, learn to process, and cope that stress at the pace the dog needs to do so. You can adapt this structure for different behavior issues as well.

Why I Train the Way I Do

I want to describe my training method today. In another month, I would have had my crazy shelter dog for a year. She has blossomed into an amazing little dog in the almost-year I've had her. No longer is she the afraid-of-everything, bitey, barky, adrenaline junkie who just couldn't stop. Now, she's an eager training partner who gives me everything she can. We're going to chase titles in our next year together. I attribute our great progress to the training methodology I chose to use with her.

I'm a positive trainer. That means that I reward good behaviors to teach my dog to make good choices to avoid or solve behavior issues. If you've followed my blog or Youtube channel, then you will know how I handled many of my dog's behavior issues without resorting to pain, fear of pain, threats, application of force, discomfort or intimidation of any kind. I do this because what I want is a dog who is confident, responsive to cues, and eager to learn without losing her spark of life. Below is a video showing Pip off leash at a picnic.

I utilize clicker training. Clicker training is using the clicker as a tool to build behaviors in ways that luring alone could not accomplish. I think that the most important method clicker training introduces is shaping. Interestingly enough, you don't need a clicker to clicker train. All you need is a distinct marker. Pip has a couple that I have conditioned in different ways, including the word "yes." I do this because I want a dog who understands a system of communication and is able to learn new skills extremely quickly. She has a sustained nose touch because she completely understands what she's supposed to do to earn her reward.

I also focus on my dog's emotional state. How does she feel in a given situation? A lot of people neglect this aspect when making sure the dog feels safe, secure, and happy first would prevent a lot of "my dog is too distracted" or "my dog won't take rewards." I always focus on if Pip feels safe first. I carry this over to my dog training classes with dogs that are too stressed or overwhelmed to take rewards. I do this because it creates a dog who trusts me, who knows I will keep her safe, and who knows I will listen to her needs before I ask her to do difficult things. Below is a video of her nails being clipped. I hope you notice her brighten up when she sees the clippers! 

Pip gives me 100% when she works with me because I really try to make the training all about her. I threw the item badly in this video, but look at how she just never gives up on her task. 

She's my little diamond in the rough. I can't wait for what incredible things we'll do next year! 

Pip Progress: Pip's Picnic

I always focus on my dog's emotions and stress levels in a situation. I teach Pip to make good choices when she's stressed and teach her healthy coping mechanisms such as being able to look at and look away from the things that used to trigger her into an aggressive display (barking and lunging). I teach her she should sniff the ground when feeling mildly stressed instead of fixating on her triggers until she reacts. 

In the above video, which is from April 2016, I'm teaching her that she has the choice to move away, ask for space, and you can actually see that this has carried over to so much of her other training as well. Her behavior issue of biting me after walks is completely gone and I can safely take off her harness after walks without risk of a bite. And... Pip went to a picnic!

These two videos above are of Pip at a picnic which are very recent (June 2016)! She did amazing and was comfortable and quiet. I could not have done in a few months ago and she would have been panic-barking at everyone without all of the work I've made on teaching her how to cope with stress, make good choices, and trust me.

Pip was very easy to manage at the picnic. She didn't bark or lunge at anybody and was mostly quietly moseying around. To the left is a photograph of the Pipster being comfortable at the picnic.

What helped her a lot was Otis being there. Otis is the black and white dog. He's a chow-dalmatian mix and is, believe it or not, ten years old. He's my dad's dog, but I was the one who trained him, so I often say my dog when referring to him. Otis used to be incredibly dog- and human-aggressive, but you can see from the videos how Otis is always welcome at picnics and parades now. I used the same training I used for Pip (teaching to make good choices and stay relaxed). I used all positive methods and did not introduce punishments in any part of the behavior modification.

I can't wait until Pip is able to be chill like Otis. Her temperament underneath her nervousness is actually a lot better than Otis's anxious one so I believe she'll eventually be confident enough to trial.

Otis sniffing Pip calmly. It's very important to me that my dogs are able to
show calm interest in other dogs instead of being aggressive or too excited.

Otis walking away after sniffing while Pip shows interest in a person.

Otis is probably the most photogenic dog ever. Show him a camera, he models.

In comparison, Pip really has to work on her modelling skills.

Pip Progress: Graduation and Distraction Training

Pip has graduated from her Basic Obedience class with flying colors. She started as the creepy kid yelling in the corner and just a whirlwind of mayhem and stress and fear to the best little doggy I could ever hope for! She still needs help with her fear of people, but lately it has been easily manageable as she doesn't really have the intense freak-outs that she used to have. At the end of the class, she held a stay in a crowded room with a happy expression. "I got this," she seemed to be saying with confidence. I just have to keep working with her.

Now that she's less fearful all around, I have been able to really amp up the difficulty of her distraction training and have taken it outside. She does great near our apartment and in grassy fields, but still falls apart in pet stores and other enclosed, indoor spaces with tons of people.

Look at this video, I can't believe how far she's come. She's my lovely girl. You can see directly how difficult games indoors and asking her to choose me over the reward over and over again helps her to be able to process the distractions outside and tune them out. To me, she looks like a typical, young dog in this video. Before, she wasn't able to do this. But she's been improving steadily day by day.

Most of my training had been on what I consider important foundation skills as well as teaching her how to be less afraid of the world. Now, I'm finally able to work on fun tricks. She learned "tall" (standing up on her hind legs) and "wave" (lifting her left paw in the air) rather quickly.

Here I'm attaching a verbal cue to her wave behavior. I've also been teaching her backwards circles around me. She's actually getting it really fast and I didn't need the wall since she backs up directly straight from my hand, so I just sort of chase her around me with my "back up" hand signal. Once she has muscle memory and fluency with this exercise, I will attach the word and then fade my hand. She's already starting to get the rhythm of the trick. I'll try to film the progress we're making on that trick.

Increasing Difficulty and Handling Mistakes

When training your dog, you want to vary the challenges you give her. Sometimes, it will be hard and sometimes it will be easy. And sometimes, you'll hit that sweet spot where it's hard enough for the dog to feel challenged and easy enough for the dog to win, over and over again.  Challenge and mistakes are a natural part of training, especially once you get into the more advanced stages of your training. When laying down foundations, you want the learning to be as errorless as possible.

I started the training session by combining two well-known behaviors in a training session, matwork and platformwork. I expected her to make a few mistakes, but she did it perfectly from the get-go, even with the cookies on the floor. She didn't even look at the cookies on the floor. I finished this set (I train so that the short sets contain only a few reps) and continued with the session. Some sets were easier than this one and some were much harder. And it's okay if the dog makes some mistakes on the harder ones. It just all depends on how the mistakes are handled and what the team learns from them.

Here are some of the mistakes Pip made in this session. I picked out the two reps that I think show some good ways to teach your dog about how the team will handle mistakes. In the first rep, I show Pip she's allowed to take alternative routes if the temptation is too great. She follows my direction and hops onto the mat when asked. After she finished that, I asked her to hop onto the platform. It is obviously hard for her to make that choice, but in the end, she made it and didn't need to take the alternative route. I reward her not just with treats, but with a couple easy reps.

After a few easy sets, I ask for another which is too difficult for her. I try to make it easy by calling her away from the food, but the temptation is too great and she runs over and starts eating the food on the floor. I don't chase her or move her or rush her. Instead, I hurry to save the rest of the treats and then I put away the props so that it's very obvious that the consequence for deciding "Well, now it's too hard, I'll just do what I want" is that the training session ends. You can see how she begs to try again. When I set up the props, she tries them both in turn.

However, this time, notice that I make it only slightly easier for her because I understand I pushed her way too hard in that rep and I knew I did (bad trainer). I didn't want to make it too easy (which would teach her that if she doesn't feel like doing something, she should mess up and then I'll make it easy for her) so I put the treats not between the two props but alongside the path she would take. On the way to the mat, she slows down for a second to look at the treats. She knows it's too tempting when I ask her to go to the platform, so notice that she makes a slight arc away from the treats (perfectly OK) and makes it to the platform. I end the set and the session there.

Pip Progress: Bathtub Progress, Replacing Fear with Joy

A lot of people don't realize how much anxiety, worry, fear quashes confidence and joy. I remember when I first brought her home, Piper was a quiet and shut down dog. Most people who met her thought she was polite and sweet. I find it very sad that most people prefer a shut down dog over one who is bursting with confidence and joy. But once a dog can stay calm and keep that confidence and joy, they really notice.

Some of you may know that Pip used to be deathly afraid of taking a bath in the tub. Nowadays, she's actually excited to hear the word "tub" because it means we are going to play her favorite training games using highly valued treats in the tub.

Watch how, in the beginning of the video, she perks up at the word and hurries to the bathroom. She is so excited that she forgets to use the green platform to climb into the tub. Once she puts her brain back inside her head, she uses the path I showed her. I want to replace her fear with joy.

You can't just feed the dog their favorite treats in the scariest place in the world to them. Even if they get used to it, there is a lot more involved in dissolving fears. You need the dog to understand that, at any moment, they could leave the situation. Teach your dog she has choices. Build a system of consent. Empower them

One of the most important games we play in the tub are in and out games which she accomplishes on her own volition. I give her a path to safely hop in and safely hop out. I play a lot of impulse control games in situations where I want my dog to stay calm in. Remember that dogs do not learn only by consequence, but by association. Most impulse control training creates a calmer, more focused dog and if the tub = calm and focused, it's easier to work on things like water and bubbles in the tub.

I'm also taking the online course for cooperative canine care, as showing an animal how to be an active participant in her care is something I am passionate about and wanted to expand my knowledge on. 

Think about Sets and Reps! Building Intense Focus and Love of Learning.

I get a lot of compliments about how much attention my pets give me when I train them. There's a lot of reasons for this. I carefully build a love of learning and today I'm going to share a huge tip that I use all the time.

When training a dog, a very common mistake is to go on and on and on in a training session until a dog checks out. This is very easy to do, especially when your dog is doing awesome! However, it's important to remember that dogs don't just learn through consequences, but also through associations and the habits they build. In addition, training in sets helps nervous or high-strung dogs stay calm enough to learn and gives them much-needed relief from the pressure of learning and thinking.

Here, I use short sets to work on making Pip's downs nicer and quicker. Note how short I keep the sets. Note the small breaks between sets to keep her from getting overstimulated (and for nervous dogs, from getting too overwhelmed). 

With short sets, it's easy to keep the dog's motivation throughout that small moment. Thus, the dog associates training with focusing on you and trying her best. She'll build a habit of trying and working hard instead of walking away and ignoring you. With this method, you'll have a dog who begs for more training at the end of a session!

Pip Progress: Super Pup Pip

Pip has been really awesome this past month. From silent mornings without a peep to choosing to be calm rather than crazy in the daytime to snuggling with me rather than biting me. She's really such a neat little dog! We've tackled all of her issues with lack of self control, lack of confidence in general, as well as how she becomes easily overstimulated and bitey. Her only real issue remaining is her fearfulness towards humans, but that was the big issue from the beginning.

Pip's off switch in action! But really, once you teach a dog how to calm down, relax, and unwind, the dog is a lot easier to live with. It's not just constantly trying to wear the dog out until they cannot physically move any more.

Her classes have been going well. She's now the little overachiever and can participate in all of the class activities. She is doing awesome and I know that, in no time, she's going to be a little Rally dog and earning titles and feeling so proud of herself.

We've made more progress with phasing treats and toys out of her training here and she can go a full minute without any sign of them. She trusts that I'm good for it down the road: She knows that, as long as she works her heart out, I'll appreciate all of her efforts.

Now, the last blog post, Order of Events: How Best to Introduce Cold Trials, introduces the idea of following cold trials with training sessions, walks, and other things. These are excerpts from the session following the above cold trial session.

Something new (about 2:15) that Pip is working on is being able to be called away from treats which I've said she could have. I love how she rushes to the food, but stops dead in her tracks to listen to my words. This has only worked because I built a strong habit of choosing work over rewards. I am going to build distance to it and work so that she will be able to run away from me to take her reward, but stop to listen if I give her a cue. This is building towards being able to stop on a dime and listen when she is mid-chase after squirrels.

Order of Events: How to Best Introduce Cold Trials

An important part of training is teaching the dog how to perform whether or not there are rewards on you. Many trainers start to introduce "cold trials" to their dog's training once they are fluent in the behavior. Cold trials test a dog's understanding of the behaviors she has been taught. However, if you constantly work your dog with no reward in sight, your dog will look at you and say, "No cookies?" and opt out. Many people make the mistake of, when their dog refuses to perform, show the dog just how good the reward is going to be if only they'd listen. This teaches the dog to wait until you "show them the goods" before they decide if it's worth it.

You don't want cold trials to teach your dog to do this. You want them to teach your dog to listen to you whether or not you have cookies on you. A good way to do this is to pay attention to the order of events each day. I know when I'm going to break out the toys to play with Pip, when I'm about to start a training session, when we are going for a walk, when I'm about to feed her. I know all of this because I take care of her. Why not use it to my advantage?

In this video, I am training Pip. I have not gotten any toys or food out. All she has is me and the training I've done. When you do a cold trial, it makes it very clear what you need to work on. Pip needs work on sits and downs on verbal cue only. She is great with heel.

Notice the small amount of time I work with her (about 30 seconds). It's better for these cold trials to be short and rewarding, at first. Stop while your dog is doing amazing, when they give you a little more, and reward that with whatever fun follows. In this case, it's a training session. Sometimes, it's a play session. Other times, I give her breakfast or take her on a walk.

Some tips for cold trails:

• Only work on behaviors the dog is fluent in.
  If your dog fails at anything or just doesn't do it to the standard you like, do not continue or drill it during the cold trial. Move onto something else.
• Do not correct mistakes
  Even an "AH AH" or "no, that's wrong" can teach the dog that they can't do it right without the cookies. Also, do not reach for treats to make sure the dog can do it right. Mistakes tell you that you need to work on it in training sessions.
• End it while your dog is on fire and is doing awesome!
  You want your dog to associate trying her hardest when you don't have cookies or toys on you rather than her weakest. If you end it when your dog is weak, she will learn to drift off to escape the "sucky no-rewards are ever coming" time.

Pip Progress: No More Miss Bitey

Pip is no longer Miss Bitey after walks. It wasn't a hard behavior to manage at all, but now it is history. She still is Miss Bitey when over-excited, but now I'm noticing her threshold for stimulation is improving.

In addition, I've been taking her to her dog training classes. She's been doing amazing!!! We worked a lot on matwork to help her be able to bring her calmness out on the road and it worked really well. I wish that I filmed her in her class, but I really had to be focused on the things we were learning and making sure she was relaxed and comfortable.

The important thing is that you have to proof this behavior. Proofing means you test it against the 3 Ds: distractions, distance, and duration. We practiced this behavior in different locations as well: The hallway outside of our apartment and outside. Because we tested it to her limits, she could easily lay on her mat for nearly the entire class while the instructor told us about the different exercises we were going to do that day.

She went from angry girl yelling at everyone from her corner to actually participating in class and being a total overachiever. I could not be more proud of my bright girl!

Pip Progress: Love My Piper and Positive Solutions to Behavior Issues

Did I mention I love this dog?

I got myself a little project dog, but she was exactly what I was looking for. Most pet owners would not want a Pip. I love her and she makes me proud. I love seeing her personality evolve and develop into the exact one that I wanted from a dog. My ideal dog is a wild-eyed, silly-eared, tall-legged demon of a dog who is quirky and smart like a herder but has the spit and fire and cuss of a terrier. Independent, but handler focused. Aloof, but sweet. Pip is all of that. When she's comfortable at home, she is all of that. And, more and more in public, she's starting to show her true personality, as she's not being suppressed by her anxiety and fear.

But now that her fear issues are starting to get less pronounced, other issues are coming to the fore. Issues normal to her breed mix type such as biting from overstimulation, barking, chasing after movements, actually hitting the end of the leash a couple times, jumping on people, etc. Most people would be tearing their hair out by now. The people in my household and I are ecstatic to see these changes, as this means she's feeling more comfortable.

I'm a dog trainer and I love my job. A little project dog like Pip is just the best match for me. I'm not as interested in earning titles and excelling in dog sports (at least not yet) as I am about figuring out dog training. I love figuring out what works for real issues that pet owners deal with every day and how to solve them quickly and elegantly using positive training techniques.

I'll give an example. One of Pip's issues which have come out now that she's no longer completely suppressed by fear is simply being overstimulated/overexcited at certain points during the day. And when she gets overstimulated, she bites. Hard. Most people would have grabbed her muzzle. Or grabbed her and forced her to do what they wanted. They would have said, "NO" and probably squirted her with water or yelled at her and said, "You will not bite me." And that's the more gentle things they would have done.

I didn't do any of that. Rather than simply reacting to what she was doing and use punitive methods, I thought about what she was doing, why she could be doing it, and created an approach which addressed the reason. Look at how quickly and easily the issue is solved:

I make sure to train my dogs so that they have a useful foundation so managing behaviors like this and working through them is easy. Why does this work? Because I taught Pip the following things:

1. Crate as a calm place/settle

2. Listening to cues even when excited (trained this using high-value toys)

3. Building a habit of choosing me

If you teach your dog correctly, behavior issues, even ones which other people would deem serious offenses are extremely easy to deal with. Also, less than 10 days since the behavior issue of biting me after walks first started, Pip no longer bites me after walks.

Pip Progress: Remember; Slow is Fast

Sometimes, the day by day struggles of teaching your fearful dog to be less afraid causes you to not see the amazing progress your dog is making. I recommend taking videos or making journal entries about your dog's training progress so you can revisit them when you feel frustrated with training or feel like you aren't making much progress.

I shared the following video over a month ago. It is of an average walk with Piper. She is stressed, afraid, and starts to shut down at one point of the video. This was normal at that time. She wouldn't take treats in the walk back then.

 I took her out places which were safe and fun (such as the park) and if she wanted to leave, I would take her back home. Even if we only stayed out for less than 5 minutes.  I scoped out safe and easy places with her at first, where I knew she would take treats. I didn't ask her to do anything and simply fed her treats in the new location. I would carefully hand her a treat. If she seemed curious, I'd let her sniff at the end of the leash. If she seemed afraid, I'd come up the leash to comfort her. After 5-10 minutes, we'd load back into the car and go back home.

Soon, she was relaxed enough in these locations to look back at me. I started to wait for offered attention since she wasn't shutting down or was overly stressed anymore. When she did, I would mark with a click or a "yes" and then give her a treat. Because I was waiting for behaviors now, the sessions were usually 10-15 minutes now.

Eventually, she was ready for me to ask her for her favorite behavior of all time: the Nose to Hand Touch. I teach this behavior in my puppy and adult classes, too. It is very popular with the dogs and also the owners. Sometimes, however, she would not put her nose to my hand.

So many people would use leash jerks or call for their dog's attention in these moments. I'm a huge advocate of taking into account the dog's emotional and social needs. A lot of the time, when a dog can't listen in a new location, it's due to stress or excitement. You have to address those issues before you can really ask your dog to do things. You have to train behaviors to help your dog cope with stress.

The reason why Pip would not put her nose to my hand in those times was because she was very stressed. I never pressed the issue and simply moved on without dwelling on it. We could always work on it later. A common argument is that this approach is slow. That people don't have months and months to work with their dogs. That their dogs need to change now. I see so many people that, a year or two later, are still yanking on their dog's neck to get their dogs' attention or yelling their commands louder and louder to get the dogs to do a simple behavior such as sit. So much for the fast track, huh?

This is Pip less than a month after the video above. Not only is she no longer shutting down, but she's attentive and willing to work on a rather complex behavior (heeling).

While she is still stressed, now she can cope with it using the skills I taught her. And I didn't take the best out of that session. I wanted to show our struggles as well because where she struggled and succeeded were places where she would have shut down only a month ago. In the session, I only saw the stress. I forgot how far we had come. 

When training any animal, you can only go at the animal's pace. When you try to rush things, you risk losing trust and confidence--these are the two most important things for your dog to have when you start working with distractions. Especially with distractions that your dog is worried about. If you go at your dog's pace, you'll be surprised with how quickly they progress.

Even if you don't see it day by day, if you take videos or write a little bit, then you'll see that the two of you have accomplished amazing things. I can't wait to see what where Pip and I will go next and I'll be sure to take videos!

A How to Guide to Building an Off-Switch

A lot of people desire a high energy, intelligent dog. And I see a lot of times, when they are looking for a new puppy, they say, "I want a dog who can do this, this, this and that, but also have an off-switch." The thing is that a lot of what makes a good off-switch for a high energy and intelligent dog is the training.

So what is an off-switch? An off switch is the dog being able to relax and calm down when you aren't doing anything with her. A dog without an off switch is the dog that brings tennis balls to your lap, that breathes on your shins as you sit on the computer, that begs with her eyes for you to move and for you guys to do something, and destroys the house out of boredom.

From the first day I brought Pip home, I practiced off-switch and settle behaviors with her. She's a dog that is extremely easy to rev up. For dogs like her, it's important to practice taking a breath, calmness. So often, they live on the edge of imploding with excitement over every little thing: People, food, toys, treats. It's not fair to them and is hard on their nervous systems.

So, I now present a tutorial on building the off switch. This is only a small portion of the training you'll need. You'll also need to build impulse control and the ability to choose you and what you want separately and then together with this training. Below the video link are more tips to help you be successful.

Step 1: Building value for the crate/mat/bed
- use a calm treat delivery
- do not add a cue "go to your bed" right away, you want to simply reward good choices
- do not be stingy with the treats!

Step 2: Build duration
- Start by adding seconds at a time between treats
- Ping-pong the duration around once your dog understands staying on the mat is his job (for example: 1 minute, 30 seconds, 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 2 minutes)

- Reward your dog when she isn't staring at the treats or treat hand. I have posted a video below on why this is important. This video is from Kikopup. She has great tutorials online.

Step 3: Add distractions

- If you taught impulse control, this step goes much easier!

- Do not give the leave it cue. You want the dog to choose the right behavior on her own. If you constantly give cues, you'll have to micromanage your dog using the cues you've taught her.

- Only start this step if the dog values calmly laying on the mat very highly

Step 4: Rewarding the dog offering calm behaviors off the mat or bed

- Use a high rate of reinforcement (give a lot of treats and praise) to the dog.

- Be aware of these moments. So many times, a dog offers calmness and is ignored.

EXTRA TIPS!!!

You'll find that in some situations, your dog will not know how to relax in a certain situation without the bed or mat. That's OK. As long as you continue to reward the dog for calm behaviors, she will build a habit of being calm.

I remember when Pip would just tear things up and run around and bark and look at me so intently that she was vibrating. She was always ready to go and didn't know how to relax.

Believe it or not, your crazy dog doesn't want to be crazy all the time. It's hard on the nervous system and it's hard on the dog.

Here is my earlier post about building Pip's off-switch for more ideas! Pip was an extreme adrenaline junkie, crazy dog when I first adopted her. Now she is quite calm inside the house.

Off Switches: Just Breathe!

10 Tips for Fading Treats

Fading treats in training is less about coming up with a systematic way of slowly phasing rewards out and more about using rewards more effectively in training. If you use the rewards cleanly, effectively, and smartly, fading treats comes pretty naturally. Hopefully these tips help you guys out!

1. Fade the lure quickly, if using lures.
A lot of times, the reason why the lure stays in the hand for so long is because the dog doesn't cleanly follow the lure at first. Instead of trying to get a sloppy, complete follow of the lure into a position like sit or down, you can break it up into little pieces. Reward the dog for following the sit lure up with their heads without jumping up. Reward them for leaning backwards, and then for sitting. If the dog can follow the lure cleanly, it is far easier to fade the lure.

The important thing to remember is not how many repetitions you've lured your dog, but the length of time you keep the lure in your hand. So focus on getting rid of the lure in the first or second session of using it and switch to the dog following your hand without treats in it.

2. Teach hand targeting as an essential skill

If you teach your dog to touch your hands when they see them, then you have a tool to move and reposition your dog without needing to have food in your hands. I use the hand targets in several flexible ways in the video. As a check-in behavior (good for off leash play to have your dog periodically touch her nose to your hand), as a way to refocus, to aid in teaching hand signals, and to give security and confidence. And, the video above showed my guinea pigs doing it. If guinea pigs can do it, your dog absolutely can do it, too!

3. Use a high rate of reinforcement while training new behaviors
Rate of reinforcement is a phrase which means the number of reinforcers (rewards) given per minute. A high rate of reinforcement means you are giving around 30 treats every minute. And it's also very counter-intuitive for people who want to eventually use fewer treats.

Treats are not just rewards. They are also a form of feedback for your dog. If you are stingy with the treats, chances are, you are stingy with feedback in general. And it's very hard to learn with a lack of feedback. It's also very hard for the dog to be successful if you try to fade the treats before your dog has a solid understanding of the behavior.

4. Expand the list of reinforcers that you use in training
When you are working with your dog, don't just hand your dog treats. If you do that, you'll get a dog who will only work for treats. Teach your dog to enjoy multiple reinforcers (rewards) in training. Make a list of everything your dog enjoys out of life and try to figure out creative ways to use them in training. An easy way to inject fun in training without using treats is to use praise and toys in training. Here, Pip shows you how you can start playing with your dog and how to introduce obedience and structure in play as well.

 Other reinforcers include: praise, petting, going somewhere fun, playing with other dogs, playing chasing games with you, running, bubbles, water (for water loving dogs), interesting smells.

5. Teach training skills which help aid in communication
Just like hand targeting can help, teaching your dog to do things like, fetch a leash when she wants to walk or ring a bell when she needs to go out can help to teach her that she doesn't always have to work for food. Here, I've taught my guinea pigs to load themselves up into carriers in order to communicate if they want to go into or out of the cage. No treats are needed because feeling in control over this aspect of their life is the reward, in and of itself.

6. Reward for effort to build a habit of working hard
When you first start training your dog. Sits and downs are not the easiest thing. But once your dog becomes proficient at them, start to ask more and more from your dog. Consistently challenge your dog so that they feel they have to work as hard as they can to earn the goodies. If sits at home are easy, ask for a sit while asking the dog to leave it. If that's easy, work multiple behaviors with an open container of food on the floor.

In addition, if the dog has worked long and hard, give her a reward worth that effort. If you asked for ten different behaviors when that's hard for her, don't give her a piece of kibble and a pat on the end, give her a piece of steak and a tug session! You'll eventually see a dog that, the longer she goes without a reward, the harder she works because she believes she'll get the best reward in the end!

7. Get the treats off of you!
Train with the treats off of your person. You want to get the treats and toys off of you or hide them on you (in a way the dog can't know you have them). If you use a treat pouch, take it off. Don't hold the toys or treats in your hands. Instead, hide them in your pockets or under your shirt (toys). Once your dog is confidently trained in the behavior, your dog should perform whether she sees the rewards or not and trust that you'll reward her in some way, whether it's praise, treats, a chest rub, toys, or a fun game of chase.

8. Clean up your training mechanics
Too many people will mark (with the word "yes" or a click) at the same time they reward. Or, if their dog is doing well, they'll put their hands in the training pouch. Or, they get a habit of touching their pocket and their dog suddenly becoming attentive. You want to train as cleanly as you can. This means, you plan the steps you take before you train. You don't move for treats until after you mark the behavior. And you don't work with the treats and toys right in front of your dog's face. And you need very clean training mechanics in order to train a guinea pig!

9. Don't just "up the value" of the treats constantly
You hear it all the time! You should increase the value of the treat if the dog is not attentive. While it is important to make sure that the value of the treat matches the level of distraction your dog finds herself in, it's better to look at the environment and whether or not your dog's ready for it.

If the dog isn't listening at home during a training session, don't reach for the better treats. Just end the session. Your dog is missing out of the great chance of working with you and playing the training game. Bad training is asking the dog to do something and when she doesn't do it, breaking out the good stuff so she'll listen and pay attention. This teaches her to blow you off so that you will get the better stuff out.

Sometimes, your dog will not listen is because the environment is too distracting. My dog Pip gets overwhelmed easily. When I take her someplace new, I let her sniff and take in the sights. I used to wait until she finally relaxed enough to offer attention to me. When she does, I know she's ready and I'll make training super-duper fun. She is already starting to ask for training almost right away in distracting places because of this approach.

Asking her to do things while she needs to process her stress will just stress her more. Attend to your dog's emotional and mental needs before you do training. Pulling out the high value treats in this situation is ignoring your dog's needs and may create a relationship of conflict when training.

10. Build a love of working and training with you
Training should be a super fun time. While food is feedback, you want rewards to be moments you share when your dog is successful. For example, when you ask your dog to come to you. Don't just hand her a treat for a "job well done." Tell her she's the best dog in the world. That she's smart and brave and beautiful. Let her cover you with her kisses. Make her feel like she made the best choice in the world for coming when called. When you get frustrated, just stop working. Training should be all about the relationship between you and your dog. It should also be about having fun with your dog.

My last blog post explained about how to build intrinsic value in working and training with you.

How to Build Intrinsic Motivation: Using Flow in Your Dog's Training

How do you get your dog to listen to you? You motivate your dog. Extrinsic motivators are things like food, toys, play etc. Intrinsic motivators is what it's called when the task itself is rewarding to the dog. A good training practice is to use them both effectively.

However, the thing about intrinsic motivation is that it's typically hard to use in training scenarios. It's easier to access if you do something that is more in line with your dog's natural instincts. You don't need treats and toys to get a Border collie to enjoy herding or an Alaskan husky to enjoy pulling. So, what about things like obedience? How do you access intrinsic motivation when you ask your dog to heel or come when called or stay?

Easy answer: You become a better trainer and clean up your training mechanics: rate of reinforcement, clear criteria, clean treat delivery, using the proper reinforcer for the dog, reading the dog, challenging the dog without overwhelming him, etc...

And really, it might just be easier to understand how important all of that is when we explain it through something called flow. This is a psychological phenomenon described by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi. There are three main aspects in using flow in training:

• Defined goals
• Clear and immediate feedback
• Balance between perceived skill and challenge

Now, to cover my butt so I'm not accused of anthropomorphism (attributing human traits to animals), I'm not going to say that dogs go into a flow state. But I will say that giving a dog defined goals, clear and immediate feedback, and balancing the dog's skills with challenge cause a dog to be more focused and motivated on the tasks, as well as learn faster. And most trainers have had these perfect training sessions or the perfect run in a trial where the dog is completely focused on the task and performs to the best of his ability. Hopefully, understanding how and why everything went right will allow us to make it more likely to happen in the future.

Below is a video of Pip, in real time, learning a new trick. I throw the treat to reset her so that she can run up to the target with all the enthusiasm she needs to feel like she's having fun. Note that her focus is so immersed in the task that she doesn't care that there are people outside the door, despite being normally reactive to that trigger.

What happens when you have an animal with a history of working with defined goals, clear and immediate feedback, and a balanced between perceived skill and challenge? You get an animal who finds intrinsic value in the work and who would choose to interact with you over any other distractions in the environment. It also improves attention span and allows the animal to recover quickly from incorrect responses in training. Below is a video of Fiona NTD, my guinea pig (yes, this applies to guinea pigs, too), learning a more advanced version of a trick she has already learned.

Interestingly enough, this has been explored in training methods already. Something called Loopy Training demonstrates this by giving the dog a loop in which they can start to work in a comfortable rhythm. This gives them immediate feedback and clear goals with no pause in the training. When the loop is clean (easy for the dog), the trainers are advised to move on.

Pip's Progress: Working with a Fearful Dog

Pip is definitely a fearful dog. It's sometimes easy for people who watch her on YouTube to forget that when she's doing so great in her training sessions at home. So, this blog post is all about the progress we've been making so far on that front!

She has been doing awesome with her bathtime desensitization. This isn't a recent video (have to take a recent one!) but it's shows how much improvement she's made. She used to run and hide every time we even opened the bathroom door. Now, as you can see in the video, she hops in the tub with her trademark joy. The wet weather last week made her have allergic reactions to the grass and she soaks her feet in the tub now to help her feet.

The progress we got from this was because we've been feeding her wet food in the tub. We started with the least scary exposure that she could handle and built it up from there. We used a very high value reward (wet dog food) and slowly built up her tolerance to her fear trigger by exposing her to small steps.

First, just coming into the bathroom. Then, feeding near an empty tub. Feeding in the empty tub. Feeding in the tub while we poured water from a measuring cup directly over the drain. Feeding in the tub while we poured water from a measuring cup further up the tub. While the tap was on in the sink. While the tap was on in the sink and we were pouring water from the measuring cup. Then we started turning the tap on in the bathtub. And slowly increasing the flow until it is what you see in the video above. Right now, she can sit in the tub with the tap off but the tub filled with water.

You can see that it's a slow process, but going at her speed has changed her perception of the tub from the scariest thing in the world to something she gets excited about.

It's very important to not use the food to lure her into a scary situation. It's important that she make the choice and then food appears as the reward.

She also got a Kong Wobbler! And goodness was she scared of that toy! She wouldn't go near it and barely touched it.  She tucked her tail and shut down as soon as she heard the kibble rattling inside. I can only speculate, but I believe that someone used the method of filling a can full of stones or pennies and shaking it to punish her for being her normal, hyper self.

I used clicker training to encourage her to interact with the object on her terms and she quickly learned to touch it. She needed help and encouragement in order to touch the object and I often placed a treat near the toy because it was hard for her to touch it hard enough to get the treats to come out.

Soon, she was able to attack the toy on her own! She went from shut-down scared of this toy to batting it around the floor in about a week! Below is the video of the very first time she played with the toy on her own. My boyfriend filmed it as I was at work.

She's been great on her walks. Slowly, her confidence is building. She used to be scared of everything. Now that she has more moments of being able to think and not being too scared, we have finally started working on loose leash walking. Most of the walk is still all about helping her manage stress and coping with her fears. However, more and more, I see my happy, playful, silly girl while we're out and about, as you can see in the video below.

Notice how much emphasis I'm putting on giving her the time and distance she needs to process the stressors in the environment. If she chooses to move forward, it's only when she's ready. In my other blog entry, I briefly mentioned how choice builds value for whatever the dog has chosen. Choice can also be empowering.

I've used these same methods when training my guinea pigs. Guinea pigs are notoriously skittish, but mine are quite brave. I've written an entire taming and training guide that uses the same concepts of choice. The methods I used with the piggies I've actually adapted from my work with shy and fearful dogs during my internship at a dog training facility.

Making Choices: The Dog, not You!

"I don't want him to choose to disobey."
"When you command the dog, make sure you can make him do the command."
"Take away his choices, so he can't make mistakes."

Sound familiar? These are all very common things that you'll hear a dog trainer say. The most common scenario is watching dogs on a leash being asked to come when called and, when they don't, reeling them in with a leash. "They should have no choice whether to come or not."

However, it doesn't matter what you do, once the leash is off and the dog is free, they always have a choice. If you train so that they never have to make that choice and you make it for them, then they'll never know how to make the right choice. They've never practiced it!

I don't make the choices completely easy for Pip all of the time. Once she has a good foundation, I ramp up the difficulty in training so that when she has to make a hard choice outside of training, she's better equipped to do that.

In the video above, I'm giving Pip the choice to either work with me or eat the kibbles on the chair. If she ate them, then the session would have been over and she wouldn't get to interact and have fun with me. That said, this was not an easy session for her, but one where I helped her and praised her for her good choices. I love this session. We both learned a lot.

The reason why you want to use choice in training is that it builds value for whatever the dog has chosen. This effect is stronger if you are NOT using a reinforcer which is much higher in value than the distraction (environmental reinforcer). It's the strongest if the dog has to choose between two similarly valued reinforcers. If the only difference between the reinforcer and the distraction is you, then, when the dog chooses you, it builds value for working with you. You can reward the dog handsomely for the choice, but not bribe the dog.

Here, I do a cold trial. This means Pip doesn't know I have treats or toys on me. She's very bright and happy to work with me. In fact, she's a lot more clear headed here than if she knew I had a toy. (If she knew I had the water bottle, she would not be able to do this. She would be so excited that she would not be able to work at all.) She clearly chose to work with me in this situation, so I rewarded her with her most favorite thing in the world! That will leave an impression on her for the next time.

So, what happens when your dog chooses wrong?

Here, Pip is destroying something. I was filming her and she decided to run off and chew up a notebook. Instead of yelling at her or rushing her or saying "NO" or "Eh-eh," I simply asked her to do a behavior to redirect her and went and picked up the notebook and put it away.

Sometimes, she gets overstimulated and crazy and bites our hands in play when we just want her to calm down. Just asking her to go into her bed calms her down. Now, she chooses to be calm more often and we will even see her trying to calm herself down. She settles easily now, even if she was super overstimulated only a few minutes prior. We just need to ask her to do what we want. And this only works when you train the dog to make good choices by giving her the ability to make choices at all.

Rev It Up, Cool It Down: Using Arousal Levels in Training

A lot of trainers make the mistake of thinking that the more revved up a dog is, the more the dog enjoys training, and the further you'd go. I touched upon this a little bit in my last post Off Switches: Just Breathe! That post was about how I taught my dog to relax. Now, most people think that it makes sense to teach your dog to relax when you aren't training and then to teach them to be crazy when it's time to train, but... that's not quite right either.

There are theories about arousal (how excited you are) and its affect on motivation. The Yerkes-Dodson Law is about optimal states of arousal. Too low and performance suffers because the dog is disinterested in the task and will find something more interesting to do. Too high and the dog's performance will suffer because the dog is now too frantic. Depending on the task, there are different levels of optimal arousal levels.

I have seen dogs trained who find training to be boring and would rather opt out. They need more excitement to truly enjoy training and most people can understand that and they work on making training more and more exciting. I have also seen dogs who are so overaroused from training that they cannot relax once their owner gets the treats out, the toys out, or even the clicker out. You want a dog who doesn't spin out of control when they see anything that says "training." Likewise, your dog doesn't have to spin out of control when you come home, when you feed her, when you have guests over.

The history of all of those interactions will tell her how to behave. If you feed her when she's crazy, she'll be crazy when you feed her. If you have guests come over and she's crazy and you don't help her calm down, then she'll be crazy when guests are over. If she gets crazy and offers a thousand behaviors when you get the treats out, then she will be crazy when you get the treats out. That's how it is.

And, you can control how aroused your dogs get in different situations and you can teach her how to control herself by teaching the dog how to relax herself and by asking for thoughtful, confident behaviors and only rewarding clear-headed behaviors. Feed a calm dog, not a crazy one. Help your dog relax when guests are over. And reward your dog for thinking, not for reacting while training her.

So, what are some ways to change arousal states in training? Increasing arousal is easy enough. Instead of food, use play as the reward. And, if using food, instead of feeding in position, toss the treat for your dog to chase and/or catch. You can use very high value treats as well to increase excitement for the task. The more your dog moves, typically, the more excited your dog is.

What about lowering arousal? To lower arousal, use lower value treats in the training or use food exclusively. Use calmer treat deliveries. You can also ask for behaviors from the dog as well as reward the dog for thoughtful rather than frantic responses. 

Look at this video of Pip working on heels and fronts. I'm feeding in position for the heel for precision. However, notice how I'm tossing treats for fronts and asking her to move around a lot. I keep the game very fast paced. Now, the reason I'm tossing treats here is because I want a very flashy heel from her, eventually, and heelwork usually bores a dog unless you make it fun. However, if you always and only rev the dog up, the dog will start to make mistakes and will stop working well. In this case, more excitement doesn't mean better performance.

Now compare to this video with tugging with Pip. I'll revisit this video in a tug-centric post about teaching good tug play that will be easy to use in training, but for now, I'll use it to illustrate a situation where lowering arousal is important. It's very easy for her to get overaroused in play. You'll notice that her out gets really chompy when she starts to get too excited. Also note that her sits aren't as clean as usual when too excited by the play (that's okay as I'm focusing on the outs). Watch how I lower the arousal level a tiny bit by asking for a behavior and how the next out was perfect again.

Eventually, I know she can be super intense and still listen. Underneath her fears and craziness, is a dog with a fantastic temperament. Next blog post on this topic will be about flow in dog training and how to use it.