Don't repeat cues and other dog training tips

By Jeff Millman - Dog Training Examiner - www.greatdogtrainer.com

Here are some quick thoughts to make your life as a dog trainer a little easier. After training thousands of dogs, it still amazes me how the little suggestions can make the biggest difference.

Don't repeat cues. Each time you say, "Sit, sit, sit . . . SIT" you are creating more work for yourself. Why? Generally one of four reasons. Your dog did not hear the cue. Your dog doesn't know the cue. Your dog is distracted and you need to move farther away from the distraction. Your dog isn't motivated to do the cue. After you say a cue, you need to "help" your dog get the cue correct. For instance, if you say, "Come" and your dog doesn't come to you, gently put a leash on your dog, gently bring your dog to you, and . . . reward. Yes, you reward even if you are helping. You want to establish a pattern of your dog doing a certain behavior after hearing a cue and getting a reward. That is where the motivation comes in to play. Eventually if you follow the pattern of:

1. Say the cue once
2. Help your dog get the behavior correct
3. Reward your dog (even if you help)

Eventually your dog will do the behavior without help. You can see more examples of dog training techniques at http://www.watchandtrain.com

Train in short sessions. The best strategy is to do really short sessions (as little as one or two minutes) before EVERYTHING that your dog wants. For instance, before you take your pup for a walk ask for a "Sit", "Down" and "Stay" for 20 seconds. Then say, "Ok" (release) and put the leash on and go. This will force you to do training throughout the day, and will teach your dog that your cues have relevancy in her life. Motivation! www.greatdogtrainer.com

Pay attention to what your dog wants and use this as a reward. This goes along with the previous suggestion. For instance, if your dog wants to play with a squeaky toy, take it away, do a short session and then give it back as a reward. If your dog wants to say, "hello" to his friend Spike on a walk, ask for a "Watch me" and then allow him to say "hello". Then . . . do a quick "let's go" walk away 5 steps and then come back only if he is not pulling on the leash.

Stay close to home, if necessary. It is much smarter to stay 10 feet on either side of your front door for 20 minutes than to allow your dog to pull you around the block which teaches her to pull. Stay in a setting that is less distracting until the behavior improves before heading to a new location. www.greatdogtrainer.com

Use a Sensible Harness for pullers. There is a fantastic, humane harness called the Sense-ible harness. Find it here. Use it instead of chokes or prong collars.

Training mustn't cause pain if good behaviour's the goal

Yvette Van Veen

Q: One of my neighbours owns a dog who participates in competitive activities. I have seen the owner discipline the dog by grabbing his jowls – yelling until the animal yelped in pain. The dog was left lying on the ground whimpering. In another instance, when the dog failed to come when called, the owner grabbed it above the base of the tail, twisting until the dog screamed. I have voiced my objections to the owner. I was told the dog was not a family pet, but a working dog. It had to be treated such to maintain dominance and discipline when performing. Is this how performance animals are treated? Do I call the humane society or look the other way? www.greatdogtrainer.com

A: Having participated in competitive dog sports at various levels, I can assure you that not all performance animals are treated in this manner.

"The Ontario SPCA recommends positive reinforcement methods of training," says Alison Cross of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"Unfortunately, the law does not differentiate between training and abuse."

If a concerned citizen is questioning the training techniques being used by a pet owner, one should not hesitate to contact the Ontario SPCA."

A conversation between an officer and the owner may be enough to resolve the problem. If it is determined that the animal was injured, the owner may be charged under the Criminal Code.

People resort to the use of pain for several reasons. Discipline is often cited as justification. Although it is essential that dogs learn how to behave, discipline is not a synonym for pain. Other effective techniques are available.

Another buzzword used to justify the use of pain is dominance. Owners assume misbehaviour stems from the dog's desire to become alpha. They fear the dog will turn aggressive.

In fact, this way of thinking is not well supported by research into pack structure. Aggressive animals rarely lead a pack. Injuries are sustained when animals fight. The strong become weak or die, thus weeding them out of the gene pool.

Control is better achieved through effective leadership. It is similar to the traits of a good employer. Bosses who lose control generally get fired, but an individual who is fair and consistent earns respect.

The problem the writer is describing may stem from a mismatch between the owner's expectations and the dog's capabilities. Animals can't voice their objections or quit when inappropriate work is assigned to them. Dogs have three options when challenged. They can submit, flee or retaliate. Which leads me to a basic rule I adopted once I became a parent: "Don't do anything to an animal you wouldn't want a child imitating."

Yelling, hitting and shaking are not behaviours you want a child to imitate. And just because an animal submits to an adult, it does not mean it will tolerate discipline from a child. Sooner or later, an observant child is going to play "dog trainer." If the dog retaliates, the child is going to lose.

Owners of performance animals can demonstrate teamwork and sportsmanship. Training can be used to teach leadership skills. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case with your neighbour. www.greatdogtrainer.com

LEADER OF THE PACK Anson dog trainer teaches humans to be the top dog

www.greatdogtrainer.com
ANSON -- A dog is to love. Right?

But it's no fun when it pulls so hard on the leash, it almost yanks your arm out of its socket.

Or when it constantly pushes into your space to get petted, doesn't come when called or growls defensively at the food dish, as it chows down on kibble.

Then, there's destructive behavior, like shredding kitchen trash, when it's left alone in the house. And, how do you handle a rambunctious retriever who jumps all over your non-dog-loving friends?

Hey, who's the boss around here?

That's exactly the question that certified dog trainer Pat Avin of Anson asks of humans whose dogs are acting badly.

"You have to be the top dog. A lot of people can't control their animal," said Avin, whose business is called Pawsitive Motivation. She also works part-time at The Framemakers in Waterville. Her late husband was a computer technician who owned and operated Megabyte Solutions in Madison. She has two grown children.

"I use the path of least resistance; I don't use force. I will use a choke collar in extreme situations. But, I'm not a believer in e-collars (electric shock collars). That's really extreme."

On the other hand, electric "invisible fences" used to keep dogs contained within a designated area are necessary and useful, in certain cases.

"It can keep the dog from harm," she said. An alternative to e-fences is to walk the dog around your boundary line, on a leash.

"You have to do this repeatedly. A behavior becomes a set behavior after 600 to 1,000 times. It's not going to happen overnight."

She can teach a behavior, she said, but the dog owner has to be consistent in applying the behavior in an everyday setting.

"Dogs can't speak English and they can't read minds . . . People holler at a dog, but the dog doesn't know what is expected of them. People make a habit of talking too much. Keep commands simple," she said.

Avin uses behavioral, positive reinforcement techniques.

"I'm a positive trainer," she said.

By way of demonstration, she walked over to her kitchen and rattled a box of dog biscuits. Her three, sweet-tempered, well-behaved, greyhounds -- June Bug, Trixie and Amelia -- which she adopted five years ago from the Maine Greyhound Placement Service Adoption Center in Augusta, soon appeared in the kitchen.

She held a biscuit over June Bug's nose and moved it back over the gray brindle's head. When done correctly, the gesture will get a dog to sit without a voice command.

"It sees the food, and the motion naturally puts them into a seated position. When the dog starts to sit automatically, then you say, 'Sit.' After a while, you can use praise to wean them off the food," she said.

The lean greyhound breed is not really built to sit easily, she noted, which is why it's important to understand your dog's breed.

"Breed is probably the most important consideration. If you want a quiet lifestyle, don't get a Jack Russell. People see the movie '101 Dalmatians' and get a Dalmatian. A lot of Dalmatians are high strung and don't like children."

Once she got a call from a man who owned a wolf/dog hybrid.

"He wanted me to teach it to stop running away, to stay in the yard. This (running) behavior is instinctual. You're not going to keep it from running off. It's what he is. Huskies also run; they have wolf behavior. If you want a dog to hang with you, get a Lab," she said.

She does not work with truly aggressive, mean dogs. These require a specially trained, behaviorist dog trainer. For such cases, she recommended Don Hanson of Green Acres Kennel Shop in Bangor.

Avin received her dog trainer certification in 2006, through an on-line course offered by Animal Behavior College in Northwood, Calif. As part of her hands-on practical, she studied with dog trainer Marie Finnegan of Rockland. Her training also involved work at the Somerset Humane Society in Skowhegan and the Knox County Humane Society in Rockland. And, she has volunteered at the Augusta greyhound placement center, she said.

Sadly, people will often give up on their dogs and take them to animal shelters when they can't control them, she said.

"I like working with dogs and giving them that extra chance."
www.greatdogtrainer.com

The crucial role of the decoy in K9 training

Ed. Note: This article is adapted from the Jerry Bradshaw’s upcoming book, Controlled Aggression in Theory & Practice, available from the Tarheel Canine Pro Shop and is reprinted by permission of the author. www.greatdogtrainer.com

It used to be thought that to decoy for a police dog required no previous training or instruction, other than choosing a guy who had no fear of dogs. Get a guy to suit up, tell him to run, and send the dog! Those days have to be over if we are to progress our dogs in their patrol work.

Now, we realize, that is a poor way to train your dog. The decoy is the reward mechanism for your dog's patrol training, and so we need someone in the suit who can read the dog, and reward him with a grip appropriately, to increase the likelihood of all the critical behaviors the dog must master in the patrol phase.

A good decoy can go a long way to improving a dog's performance. Every training session is loaded with behavioral feedback to the dog. The decoy is the one in control of that feedback. Would you allow an untrained person to work your dog in obedience, or handle him in tracking? When you use an unskilled decoy you are doing exactly that. The decoy trains the dog in patrol work. Behaviors shown by the dog are either rewarded properly or not, and if we do not reward the dog for releasing, or coming back on a recalled attack, for example, we run the risk of seeing these behaviors deteriorate as the dog makes his own reward system by taking dirty grips or running through his recalls.

Proper timing, mechanics of catching the dog to avoid jams, technique to catch dogs in the front of the suit (not all bad guys are running away) on more confrontational bites, how to push the dog in defense and then relieve the pressure to improve the dogs ability to channel drives - these are some of the skills the decoy must learn.

Look at the four quadrants of operant conditioning below, known as the "Consequences of Behavior," and the associated examples of how the decoy, through his actions is the instrument we use to condition the dog during patrol training.

The Consequences of Behavior
The probability of a behavior recurring is affected by the consequences of the behavior itself. We speak of two consequences: Reinforcement (a reinforcing consequence is one that will increase the frequency of a behavior) and Punishment (a punishing consequence is one that will decrease the frequency of a behavior). Now, both reinforcement and punishment can be either positive or negative, thus we have four consequences we must define:

Positive Reinforcement: A particular behavior is strengthened due to a desirable consequence. For example a dog barks aggressively after the alert command is given, and receives a grip as a reward, increasing the likelihood he will bark when we alert him.

Negative Reinforcement: Eliminating some undesirable consequence strengthens a particular behavior. For example, in training the out with a difficult dog, we pull tight on the pinch collar (rather than making a correction) or choke collar, applying pressure, and when the dog outs, we relieve the pressure.

Negative Punishment: Withholding the reinforcing consequence weakens a particular behavior. For example, the dog stops barking in the hold and bark exercise for find and bark training. The handler snatches the dog back with the long line, and the decoy escapes out of sight. The dog is re-sent to the decoy, and the reward grip is withheld in this manner until the dog barks continuously.

Positive Punishment: A particular behavior is weakened by the presentation of an unpleasant consequence. For example, the dog wants to run out of a down command to the bite before we give the send command, so we apply a correction for the down, and send him only when he is holding the down properly. The same can be done with eye contact, heeling around decoys, sitting around decoys to enhance control over your dog when he is in "bite mode."

It is critical that decoys, handlers and trainers understand these consequences of behavior and how to apply them. Good decoys know when to apply each consequence, and why.

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If your decoy skills and dog reading could use a boost, contact TK9 to schedule to attend one of our decoy seminars.

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Girard William “Jerry” Bradshaw is the CEO and Training Director for Tarheel Canine Training, Inc. of Sanford, North Carolina. Jerry is a professional consultant to various Police agencies and private corporations for K9 training & deployment. Jerry is often featured speaker at Police K9 conferences and has been invited to instruct at workshops and seminars around the country. Jerry has written articles for Dog Sport Magazine and Police K9 Magazine, and is the author of the forthcoming book Controlled Aggression in Theory & Practice. Jerry is a co-founder, Judge, and East Coast Director of one of the fastest growing protection dog sports in America, widely recognized as the single most difficult protection sport there is, PSA . Jerry is also a co-founding director of the National Tactical Police Dog Association which applies many of the same successful scenario-based principles found in PSA to the certification of police dogs.

Jerry has competed in National Championship trials in both Schutzhund and PSA, winning the PSA national championships in 2003 with his dog Ricardo V.D. Naaturzicht. Jerry is the only competitor to train 2 dogs to the PSA 3 level, and has achieved the SchH 3 level numerous times, with “V” scores. Tarheel Canine Training is a nationally renowned training facility for police service dogs, and has placed trained police dogs at various federal, state, and local agencies nationally and internationally since 1994. For more information on Tarheel Canine Training, or Jerry Bradshaw, please click here. www.greatdogtrainer.com

Jerry’s latest book, Controlled Aggression in Theory & Practice, was written for police K9 professionals and covers basic foundation training such as testing green K9 prospects for patrol suitability, training drive development, drive channeling, working in the bite suit, human orientation (combating equipment orientation). The book further features key skills training including training guarding behavior, out on command, redirected bites and the out and return, and the best way to train a call off with little to no pressure on the dog. If you have trouble with the recall (call-off) exercise being reliable, the information alone on training the call off in a new and different way is worth the price of the book hands down. Pre-Order your copy (orders will ship September 1, 2008) by contacting Jerry directly via email at malinois_jb@mindspring.com.

Five ways of training a dog to do behaviors using positive reinforcement

Author: Jeff Millman

There are five ways of using positive reinforcement to train a dog to do behaviors.

1. Reward Acceptable Behavior
Dogs do what works to benefit them. We can use this to our advantage by paying attention to what they are doing and give them what they want BEFORE they make a mistake. A good example is if you are working on teaching your dog not to jump, make sure you talk to her and let her know “Good girl!” and give her a reward when you walk into a room and she does not jump on you.

2. Ignore Inappropriate Behavior
An example of this is begging at the table. If a dog gets rewarded for begging, she will do it again and again. If you stop rewarding this behavior, she will try something else. The first time she tries something appropriate such as lying down, give her a treat. Hopefully she will think, “How did I get that treat? Maybe it was that lying down thing. I will try that again!” Then, you make sure to catch her doing it right the next time and reward her again. Eventually, she should come over to the table and lie down because that is what has worked for her in the past.

3. No Reward Mark
This is a signal to your dog that she is doing something wrong. Dogs do not come from the litter with an understanding of our language. We have to teach them through the consistent use of associations and consequences. (Eh! Eh!) or another No Reward Mark (NRM) should be used to tell your dog “wrong answer!.” You can then wait for the appropriate response and reward that to clearly communicate which behavior results in a reward and which behavior gets nothing.

4. Timeouts
This is probably the most powerful positive reinforcement teaching method for most dogs. You give a dog three chances to get it right and then you remove her from the action for a short amount of time. An example of this is jumping on people. The first time she jumps you take the attention away from her because that is what she wants and we don’t want her to be rewarded for inappropriate behavior. You do this by turning your back and saying (Eh! Eh!) Then, when she is on the ground, you say “Good girl!” and pet her. If she sits, that is even better and you give her a treat. The second time she jumps on you do the same thing. The third time, say “Timeout” without anger or yelling and take her to a different area of the house or a crate.

Put her in there for 10 seconds up to a minute at the most and leave the area so she can’t see you. Then, come back and say, “Ok, let’s try again.” She comes out of the area and as she is doing anything that is appropriate praise her “Thanks for not jumping, it is such a good decision to stay on the ground!” If she jumps, however, she does not get three chances, she immediately gets another timeout.

What you are doing is communicating to her using timing and consistency is that her behavior has consequences. She can be with you if she does not jump, but jumping is not appropriate. Incidentally, if she is timed out for jumping and comes out of the cage and nips, barks or other inappropriate behavior that you are currently working on, you can instantly time out again.

Another method of timing out is by looping a 6-foot leash over a doorknob and attaching her collar to the leash and waking away. For jumping, you might walk a few feet away and then turn around “Good! You are not jumping!” If you walk closer and she jumps again, you would say “Eh! Eh!” and walk away again. The message is very clear. She jumps on you and it ends all her chances for interactions. She stays on the ground and she has a chance for rewards, pets and fun.

5. Withold or Remove Reward
You can practice this strategy during mealtimes. Have your dog sit and put the food bowl down slowly in front of her. Talk to her the whole time: “Good girl!” as soon as she stands up and breaks the sit, you say (Eh! Eh!) and remove the food bowl. You are teaching her that her behavior has consequences. Then put the food bowl down again. If she isn’t able to hold her sit or makes a mistake 3 times in a row for any behavior, we need to make it easier. In this case, put the food bowl down faster when she is sitting and then say “OK” which means she can eat. Make it harder each day by putting it down slower and having her wait longer and longer before she can eat.

All of these strategies can be used together. For instance, to teach a dog not to jump on guests, you can ignore jumping and reward anything but jumping. But, you can also time a dog out for jumping if ignoring the bad behavior did not work. Sometimes it takes different strategies to get the point across clearly to a dog what behaviors work and what behaviors do not. www.greatdogtrainer.com

Local dog trainer makes mission of fighting pitpull sterotypes

By Brian Babcock
Los Gatos Weekly-Times
Article Launched: 08/12/2008 12:49:25 PM PDT

Marthina McClay doesn't give in to all the hype surrounding pit bulls. In fact, she finds it ridiculous.

McClay, a certified pet dog trainer, has been trying to fight the pit bull stereotype since becoming interested in the breed in 2003. That was the year she began volunteering in animal shelters and reading every book she could find on pit bulls.

But it wasn't until a little more than a year ago that the Los Gatos resident's burgeoning love for the breed led her to start the nonprofit Our Pack Inc., which advocates understanding and education of the pit bull breed.

McClay knows she's fighting a tough battle. Many people still fear pit bulls and consider the dog the most dangerous breed out there. So she isn't surprised when she's hears people speak negatively about the dogs.

"I went through the exact same thing with the Doberman pinscher breed in the '70s. The exact same thing," McClay said. "And you know something? You don't hear about (Dobermans) anymore. And you know something else? The dog has not changed. The Doberman is still a Doberman, but the people who own them are different."

McClay said there are several parties responsible for the misinformation spread about pit bulls. She says the media is partly to blame for its over-reporting of pit bull attacks, and pit bull owners should shoulder some of the blame for a lack of training and socialization of their dogs.

"It's a multi-prong problem in that it is a lack of education
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on the part of the owners, because if they did have more education then maybe they could be more responsible," said McClay, who gives dog-training classes at the Saratoga School for Dogs on Fruitvale Avenue.

Fighting the pit bull stereotype has become a little easier with the recent publicity about Leo, the pit bull who has become an ambassador for his breed. Leo was one of 49 dogs taken away from football star Michael Vick after he was arrested in a dogfighting sting last year.

McClay originally became aware that many of Vick's dogs were being saved after reading one of the articles written on the former quarterback. So McClay contacted authorities and was authorized to take in one of the dogs. On Dec. 16, 2007, she was given custody of Leo, whose name at the time was Bouncer.

McClay renamed Leo because he reminded her of the cowardly lion character in the Wizard of Oz story. Although Leo outweighs Daisy, McClay's 12-year-old Chihuahua, by at least 50 pounds, he makes sure to stay out of her way.

"If Leo's walking by and Daisy's sitting on the couch, she'll just give him a look and he'll walk around the coffee table," she said.

McClay didn't know what type of dog Leo would be after learning about the abuse of dogs on Vick's property. She said 2-year-old Leo has turned out to be one of the sweetest dogs she's ever worked with.

He also turned out to be a quick learner. After just five weeks of living with McClay, Leo was certified as a therapy dog and now makes regular visits to cancer patients at local hospitals.

McClay says that Leo isn't a fluke and that pit bulls are inherently friendly.

"A dog doesn't wake up and think, 'Hey, I think I'll get into a dogfight today,' " she said. "They don't want to endure pain."

McClay does make sure to state that she doesn't advocate saving dangerous dogs or dogs that are too damaged from abuse cases. She does support evaluating each dog individually instead of broadly by breed.

"The worse the people are who own the dog, the worse the dog gets," she said.

Leo isn't the exception, McClay said; he's the rule.

"(Vick) made one type of dog and I made a different type of dog," she said. "End of story."


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