Lots of fun in our last fun foundations class today. Look at all this confidence ⭐ absolute superstars!
Our superstar puppy class working on confidence building ⭐
Long, but important post 🐶
I caught this little clip of Koda on our walk yesterday evening, and thought I would share it to show the importance of allowing our dogs (especially those that are anxious) the choice to just observe and process things in their environment.
The video highlights a few things:
- How subtle a dogs body language can be
- How we can create conflict by trying to ask something of our dogs when they want/need to do something else
- Leash pressure, and how it should be taught to be a positive experience
In this video, two dogs appear from a side street ahead of us. Koda becomes alert and focuses on the dogs. Koda is reactive, and in this moment I chose to ask her to engage with me as I wasn't sure if the dogs were going to turn and walk towards us - in which case I need to move away to create more distance. I also instinctively want to have control of the situation, and of Koda.
The video shows her ears were twitching in response to my verbal cues, but she wasn't disengaging from the other dogs. Because she can hear me and is not overtly reacting, she is not yet over threshold, however she is not disengaging because she is (likely) just trying to observe and process the sudden change in her environment.
I then decide to add some gentle lead pressure. This is not a sharp pull/jerk/correction, it is an even and gentle tension. She responds to this well and turns back to me which she is rewarded for.
It is important to note that we need to teach our dogs that lead pressure is positive and rewarding, as lead tension can unintentionally communicate that the sudden change in the environment (i.e. dogs appearing) is concerning, and tightening the lead can (and often does) actually trigger reactive behaviour.
After watching the video back I noticed a lip lick when she responds to the lead pressure. I sought some peer review, and learned that it is possible she is conflicted between wanting to observe/process the dogs, and wanting the reward that
I was working with Sunny on some basic cues and engagement today when I spotted someone coming towards us with another dog. Sunny gets very excited when he sees other dogs and has some pretty big reactions. I practice playing "find it" multiple times on our walks when there are no distractions around to get him familiar with the exercise - and here it is put into practice with a huge distraction approaching.
This is the closest another dog has been to us and Sunny was so engaged in sniffing for the treats that he didn't even notice them pass 🙌
Loose-lead walking progress with Sunny the superstar ⭐
We had ALOT of distractions out and about today and it was a challenging start for Sunny, so a fair amount of time was spent just in his driveway building the expectation for polite walking through repetition and reinforcement.
We then ventured just a little way up the street and were able to achieve walking up and down a pathway lined with grass (a big challenge for a lab who loves to use their nose!).
Sunny still gets lots of sniffing time while we're training as it's such an important outlet for our dogs, but he's learning to go and sniff on cue so that he still spends time engaging with me and defaults to walking politely rather than pulling and lunging his way through every walk.
Beautiful Sunny did so well today ⭐
We've gone back to basics this week to really set the expectation for walking nicely on lead.
True to his nature as a Labrador, Sunny LOVES finding tasty surprises on his walks, but when this happens he forgets his manners and will lunge for anything that smells good.
We came across some empty salami packaging today which he found very interesting, so we used it as a training exercise - walking back and forth (at a distance) and rewarding him for remaining engaged with me. Staying at a distance from the exciting smells sets Sunny up for success by preventing him from practicing the unwanted behaviour (lunging), and allowing me to build the more desirable behaviour through repetition and reinforcement
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#positivereinforcementtraining #walkandtrain #labrador #forcefreetraining #canberradogtraining
Pattern Game (featuring Sunny)
Pattern games are fun, simple and repetitive exercises, and they are a great activity to have in your training toolbox!
You can quickly engage your dog in a pattern game in many scenarios such as:
🐶 when waiting somewhere (e.g. the vet)
🐶 to calm your dog after a stressful encounter
🐶 to re-stabilise your dog when they haven't responded to a cue (instead of repeating the cue)
🐶 when introducing distractions at a distance
🐶 to prevent your dog from fixating on something in their environment
🐶 to strengthen your relationship and build engagement in all different environments
This is an example of a pattern game introduced to sunny today. It's a back-and-forth motion which gives them an outlet for chasing and sniffing, but also builds engagement by marking and rewarding (with the treat toss) when the dog orients to you.
You can build on this by:
🐶 waiting for eye contact before marking and tossing the treat
🐶 waiting for your dog to return to you before marking and tossing the treat
🐶 moving away from your dog when they are getting the tossed treat, so they need to travel a further distance to get back to you before marking and tossing the treat
🐶 introducing a station in front of you (such as a mat) and mark and toss the treat when your dog puts their front paws on the mat. Then build up to all 4 paws on the mat, sitting or lying down on the mat
Quick tips for loose-lead walking!
✅ Condition a marker, such as a clicker, or the Word "yes!"
✅ Have high value rewards. Kibble won't cut it when you're competing against a distracting environment
✅ Mark and reward good choices. Allowing our dogs to make choices increases confidence, and strengthens the learning process
✅ Stop if your dog pulls ahead. No need to pull or jerk the lead, just stop and wait for them to make a good choice which you can mark and reward (use that opportunity to re-position them). They quickly learn that tension in the lead means no forward movement
✅ Deliver rewards when your dog is in the desired position e.g. beside you (the more you reward in the same position, the more your dog will move to that position)
✅ Mark and reward all behaviours you want to see more of (such as a 'check-in" )
✅ Let your dog sniff! If you provide them with the freedom to sniff, pulling to sniff will decrease (you can put this on cue with further training)
#dogtraining #forcefreetraining
#looseleadwalking
𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠
A short video demonstrating how I use two different markers and reinforcers to help manage pulling on lead.
When Sunny pulls on the lead, I simply stop and wait for him to make the decision to loosen the tension in the lead and/or re-focus on me.
When he makes this choice, I will either:
🐶 Mark it with "good", and reinforce his action with forward motion/sniffing (this reinforcer is generally used when he really wants to sniff something)
🐶 Mark it with "yes", re-position him next to me and reinforce with a food reward
In this video, Sunny was getting a little overstimulated with the environment, so I decided to re-position him back to walking alongside me and then continue to reinforce the position with food rewards.
Towards the end he offers a wonderful voluntary check-in - I mark and reward just about every voluntary check-in as this helps to build engagement.
The more you reinforce a behaviour, the more they will offer or practice that behaviour 🙌
I caught a little head turn just as we were approaching the road, so I marked it. Benji's perfect response bought me a little time to check that the road was safe before we crossed.
Sighthounds love to scan their environment, and it's common to have trouble getting them to engage while out and about. Building a really solid positive association and response to a marker is one simple strategy to have in your toolbox to use when you'd like your dog to engage with you
