The Zen Den Dog Training

Teaching walking backwards to little D'Artagnan Walking backwards is not only a really cute trick, but actually a really good skill for dogs who become easily highly stimulated. I'll be covering why in my 10th Birthday Workshop which is only 9 days away! There are a couple of spaces still available so jump on over to www.zddog.com.au/events to register

Teaching my puppy to make some noise! It's really common that puppies and adolescents go through stages of being worried by noise. One of the ways I can assist my pup through this is by giving him the opportunity to control noise making. In this video, you'll see a very short session we did where I shapped D'Artagnan pushing down on the end of the see-saw. You'll see I'm not luring, he's very food motivated, which is great, but I don't want him to be so focused on the food that he's unaware of the movement or noise. I'm sure some people will question, will that 'wreck' how he goes on the see-saw if I decide to do agility with him. I don't believe so. If we went down the track (and he's only 5 months, so I'm not making too many plans yet), I would spend a lot of time teaching the foundations of this piece of equipment.

Look at that recall! While I am very proud of this recall, I'm also very proud that my friend here has been brave enough to go away from (us person is right next to me) and explore. He has had struggled with confidence in the big wide world in the past and previously we would have been concerned about him panicking in this type of environment. While we have worked greatly on his engagement and recall, we have also been building up his confidence to he is able to go more places and have more freedom.

Some of my Saturday class participants learning how to slow down their bodies. Obviously going fast can be fun but slowly down a dogs body can be a good way to encourage them to focus more on their movement. For our young dogs in this class this activity was great for assisting them to move and remain focused. For our older dogs, it is so important to keep them moving but preventing injury is a top priority

When working with dogs who are reactive on lead, your mechanics make a huge difference! This is an example of a skill I often teach my clients to help get them and their dog away from something that they may find stressful, fixate on or react to. When the person spot the stimuli, they slide their hand down the lead so that it is shorter but so they have not pulled their dog back (as this may escalate the situation quickly), they take a step in front of their dog to block visual access, if they have time, offer food and walk quickly in whatever direction is safe to. I don't recommend this for dogs who have a history of aggression towards their owners or redirect. Given my dog here is quite small, I hold the lead in one hand and actually switch hands. With a bigger dog, I'd keep both hands on the lead. Practicing this type of skill is just like practicing defensive driving, hopefully you won't have to use it, but if you do, you want it to come naturally.

I often see dogs who guard things that people drop. One reason for this is when we drop things, we tend to rush towards the item to pick it up before the puppy does. This may lead to the puppy seeing the item as valuable or feeling threatened if we move too quickly into their space. We can lessen the chances of this behaviour developing if we are proactive and do 'set up' situations. In this video I'm practicing dropping paper towel on the ground. I'm using that because it's boring but also if Dart does pick it up, it doesn't matter. I also do not want to drop something noisy too close to my pup in case I scared him. This is the first time have practiced this skill so I don't mind if Dart shows interest in the paper towel as I am capturing the disengagement from it and rewarding with something I hope he finds more valuable. Over time I want him to learn that humans drop things that are so boring, they are not worth investigating.

Stationing! This behavior is referred to by a few different names, but my criteria is go to a board and remain there (though of course if he is uncomfortable or stressed he's allowed to get off). This skill to me is a real foundational skill. It is different to the mat or bed behaviour as those are places are where I'd like the dog to switch off, my dog's station is usually a place where they will be to either perform different behaviours or as part of a training sequence, so I want a certain level of stimulation. One of the reasons I teach this early on, is in a multi-dog house hold, I need the dogs to 'wait their turn' and I can use the stations for this. When I teach this, I personally don't lure the dog onto the station. I find it easier to create distance if I've captured or shaped the action of going to the station. The steps I have here are positioning the station in a manner that will lead D'Artagnan to naturally step on to it, mark and provide reinforcement on the station (I give multiple pieces of food to build duration), give the release cue and throw the food so he can run after it. This will also lead to a loop of him coming back in and stepping up onto the board again. From there I move myself creating either more distance from the board or different angles of approach to the board.

Just like I often work closely with vet staff, I also often work with other trainers, as we all have areas of interest. Recently I was sent this video of a client from Jess at The Mindful Canine. Jess has been working on games that provide an outlet for herding behaviours. One of the reasons that I sent these guys over to Jess, was to build more of a relationship as this dog is very bonded with one family member. That's not a bad thing in itself but it has meant he is less comfortable with the other household member. It's so great to see how these games can both allow a natural outlet and build relationship!

A bit of shaping fun! Last week I needed some footage of shaping a new behaviour for the Give More To Your Grey workshop. Here's my clever Brittany shaping drink in 2 minutes. I love shaping as it really encourages thinking in the learning process. The end goal (in this case drinking) is broken down into tiny steps, each step is taught, reinforced and then an extension may be offered. You can see here how quickly Merlot can progress through the exercise. This is because she has been encourged to learn and try new things. When training behaviours, I want my dog to be part of the team!

I love seeing this type of progress!! This young boy becomes very easily stimulated which can flow into problems such as displaying repetitive behaviours. This meant being in group classes was difficult for him. His person has put in some serious hard work and is now not only able to be in group classes, but even an agility class! I'm also impressed she was able to give cues and hold the camera at the came time 💪

Co-operative care strengthening exercise! Risky recently injured himself and his amazing vet gave us a few exercises to work on with him. He's now 8 years old and looking after his body is really important to me. As he will need to do daily exercises, I've been working on teaching them in a co-operative care manner. Here's an example of one of his exercises

A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo of this beautiful boy along with a caption about how much effort big (if not all) adolescent dogs can be. They can be a LOT of effort! However, you also have lovely moments like this. This dog's person is working on using a chin rest for teeth checks, and she is doing a brilliant job! I am crazy proud of this team for persisting with training and how much they have already achieved. They are really developing a lovely bond

My Canine Atheletes class being atheletic!

👏Check out the communication 👏 Billie the Welshie is deaf and also has a condition which makes her wobbly. Her person has developed a series of touches and signals to communication with. And wow! She has done an amazing job! In this short clip you'll see she gives Billie the wrong touch cue for engagement and Billie does not respond. I've left this in as you can see how quickly Billie responds when given the right cue. I also love that Billie's person immediately realises why Billie didn't respond. That shows some really great understanding of the human role in training and is and something many of us struggle with. We're often quick to blame lack of a response to a cue on the dog. Also she had just given Billie the correct cue multiple times before I pulled my camera out ;) This is one of those special teams which I know will have a great time together

Here's a little skill I've just started teaching Merlot. I'm teaching her to turn and tuck in in front of me in a sit position. This is an exercise I have taught Assistance Dogs who need to sit right in front of a wheel chair but is also useful for just if you take your dog places where you want them to be right up against you.

At this week's drop-in class, we practiced teaching our dogs to follow gestures. This is a really useful skill, especially for people who, like this team, would like to get involved in dog sports. A hand cue should be your hand positioned in a very distinct shape, where as a gesture may be a point or open palm and may mean "follow this hand over here" or "interact with this piece of equipment which you have previously learnt about". As someone who forgets all her cues quite regularly, I like to be able to gesture towards something and for my dog to be able to realize it means "hey, see that thing I'm flapping at? Do you remember what that's for?". Many people take this concept for granted and some dogs do seem to understand it without it being purposefully trained, however many don't (and why should they). I want to make learning as frustration free as possible for my dog rather than have them just guessing what I mean.

Although my dogs are not assistance dogs, I often teach them assistance dogs’ skills, mainly so that I can be familiar with the skill before trying to teach it to others. One skill I often teach is a chin rest on a client’s leg. Many of my clients find physical pressure from their dog can assist them if they start to feel anxious or overwhelmed. Eventually a physical symptom will be the cue for the behaviour, here I'm teaching it as a leg jiggle. The movement adds an extra layer of difficulty for the dog as the client may not immediately stop jiggling the moment that their dog does rest their chin (I also teach a paw or two for small dogs) so the behaviour has to be proofed. This is Merlot’s first attempt at remaining in a chin rest position with the movement. I am always extremely conscious of the mental welfare of assistance dogs, I want them to want to perform these skills because they love to do so I always teach them as fun tricks and use lots of food and play to reinforce them.

On the weekend we had a little setback with Merlot's 'don't fixate on birds' training as she had the opportunity to chase one of the overly confident magpies at work. This was very much my fault, I was chatting and not paying enough attention to what she was doing. This was frustrating as those behaviours are highly reinforcing to her and the more she practices it, the more difficult she can be to engage with around birds. Luckily as we were finishing up with some training, one of the magpies appeared and we were able to do a bit of practice with the birds. I've added an explanation of what I'm doing here as if you haven't had a dog who is predatory or shows a level of fixation on certain stimuli, it looks like I'm just throwing food around. Predatory behaviours can be quite intense and my 2 minute explanation doesn't sum up all of the work it's taken to get here.

Shaping with a puppy! I love teaching via shaping (breaking the end goal into tiny successive approximations, reinforcing each one and allowing the dog to offer the next one). When done with young pups, it can really help build value in trying new things. Here I'm shaping stepping through the hoop, this was his first ever shaping session. I taught this skill to help Charlie learn to put his head through things (such as into a harness). You'll see I help him out by drawing attention to the hoop when needed, this isn't 'cheating', you don't want the dog to become frustrated in the process. Charlie walks away to sniff or do puppy things a few times, it's important he has the freedom to do this (I don't believe the sniffing is displacement, he was genuinely interested in things on the ground). I've sped up the video as it was quite a long session but it's really cool to see how much a little puppy can achieve in his first shaping session!

Tricks for treats! Merlot's latest trick ;)