Coming when Called - Leash Training Tips
Many of you who train with me know how much I emphasize good timing. So, I am sharing one of the timing tips I teach when you're working on your dog's recall. This tip can be used by anyone looking to improve their dog's recall.
So there are four different things to consider here:
1. Your voice command
2. Whether your dog can see you or not
3. The pressure and release of your leash and collar
4. Your body language
So there are two possibilities that I would consider very beneficial.
Here is the first one.
While your dog is facing away from you, put slight pressure on the leash. Next, call your dog and begin to use backward body language. Now, when your dog has turned around, continue to walk backward at least three steps and simultaneously relieve all pressure from your leash. Finally, when your dog gets to you, reward them appropriately.
Now, I said that there were two possibilities. So, the next one would reverse the order of the voice command when you start the leash guidance. In the second variation, there is a slight delay between the voice command and the start of the leash cue.
This is intentional.
I recommend using this because the gap between verbal cues and leash guidance allows your dog to come without needing the leash to respond.
Get good at this.
If this tip was helpful, tag a family member and practice when you get home tonight.
Don’t forget to have fun along the way!
In this clip, you are watching me put a couple of puzzle pieces together for Alpha and me. I want her to stay focused on me when we are heeling, move quickly away when I send her, come around the cone, come back rapidly, and sit in front straight and close.
Overall, I’m delighted with what I see here, but like always, there is an opportunity for an even better performance.
Yes, I’d like it to be perfect, but just the process of being with Alpha and working with her has always been enough.
What do you enjoy about training with your dog?
Kreed, Cones, and Crate
In this session with Kreed, I mainly was free-shaping two behaviors: going around the cone and loading into his crate.
Free shaping is when the trainer gives the dog little to no clues about what will earn a reward. There are no voice commands, no baiting and luring, no body language cues, and no leash guidance.
Free shaping gives the dog the freedom to discover what works. In doing so, the behaviors, which are the trainer's idea, become the dog's idea from their point of view. They are pushing the trainer to reward them with their choices.
This training requires a lot of patience. It’s also best practiced with a conditioned terminal marker, like the clicker you hear in this video.
Overall, I’m pleased with Kreed’s effort and how he worked through the scenario.
Protection Work Assessment
Yesterday, Kreed and I had the opportunity to work with a protection decoy. I aimed to evaluate Kreed’s potential for bite work while ensuring he was having a blast.
In this clip, you can see a drill where we are building a tiny bit of frustration for the leather rag before Kreed is released to play. One of the goals is to develop some early barking behaviors and a love for chasing.
He also had the opportunity to do some play fighting with the decoy and showed excellent stable nerves.
While we didn’t get an actual bark, Kreed showed some drive and good nerves and will be considered for more development here.
Kreed will be 11 weeks old on Tuesday, and he’s making wonderful progress with his focus heeling. I’ll be baiting and luring him for several more weeks to help his puppy brain understand where exactly is the best position for him to receive the reward. In this session, I did add in some leash pressure to help him through the left turn and also when I was going to open my hand to give him access to foodOverall, I’m delighted, and I'm just going to continue to put the repetitions in. Thanks so much for watching his journey. Your encouraging comments are always appreciated. #puppy #dogtraining #germanshepherd
I took Kreed out to run chores with me this morning. He was a hit everywhere we went. People just loved his fluffy coat and, of course, how well-behaved he was. This training is necessary for those dogs that will go into sports homes and possibly even some K9 work.
We hit Sport Clips Haircuts of Atascocita (Humble, TX), the AT&T store, Pet Ranch Inc., Kingwood Town Center Park, and WhiteWater Express Carwash. I appreciate those business owners and managers for allowing us to come inside to socialize and train.
Here is a tiny clip of us practicing some at the park. The heeling and downstay are making progress.
Training Kreed has been a wonderful experience for me. It’s been a ton of fun having a puppy in my home. Yes, I’m waking up in the middle of the night to take him out, but it’s been worthwhile.
As I set out on this training endeavor with him, one of my missions is to instill a love for training into him. I’ll admit, he’s made it easy for me.
I tell you all this because, as many of you know, dog training is a high-repetition undertaking. Many of the drills we do are very similar. Yes, there is nuance, and I’m thankful for that, but for those who want a highly trained dog, we will reinforce certain things an extraordinary amount.
Kreed’s foundation is highly rewarding. I’ve worked him for almost every piece of kibble since he arrived. By choosing to work him this way, he’s going to have a tremendous upside for the work that he’s going to be asked to perform as an adult.
I’d encourage those of you who want a highly trained dog to consider getting a ridiculously high repetition count for consecutive weeks for the behaviors you want your dog to perform when they are adults.
My experience tells me that making this sacrifice won’t leave you disappointed.
I wish you all the very best in training!
Repetition with my eye on the prize
In today's first session with Kreed, I didn’t introduce any new skills, but I did bring him out to the driveway for the first time.
I’ll share more of some of the other drills we did, but I wanted to get this little 30-second clip out to you before I get busy.
Here is a tiny bit of heeling, a down stay, and then a release that brings him back to me.
I’ll be doing some scent detection stuff here in the next session or two.
What would you all like to see us do?
Kreed is approaching 11 weeks old, and I'm starting to put together some more complex drills with him—nothing that is too hard but something fun we can both do.
In this clip, I’m having him run up to me, get lured into a down, and then when he hears the click, I throw mini jackpots behind him.
The jackpots do several things, but I'm after these two things:
1. Build speed into the down.
2. Make him anticipate reward behind his body to prevent future crawling forward.
Number 2 can be a big problem for protection dogs when we ask them to guard the decoy, and they slowly inch forward, waiting for the release. Doing this now will put a buffer against that.
Kreed Learning Puppy Jumps
Young puppies should not be doing a ton of jump training. Their bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, and other parts of their structure need time to mature. With that said, here is some training I do with young dogs to imprint them on what they will do in the future.
What I love about this training is that it doesn't cost you anything more since you are not buying the jumps. You’re just using your legs as the hurdle.
You can also do this training without having to utilize a clicker. Just bait/lure your young pup over your leg and reward your puppy on the other side.
How do you all feel Kreed did in this video?
Working Mister K For His Dinner
So tomorrow marks week number 10 for Mister K, who, by the way, now has a name! (I’ll leave it in the comments) You can barely hear his name somewhere in the middle of the video.
I just wanted to highlight the skills you will all see in the next 60 seconds.
1. Basic position
2. Down stay with me moving around him
3. Down stay with me in front of him
4. Sit in front of me
5. Spin counter-clockwise and clockwise
6. Come when I call
7. Go out on command
8. Get handled and look cute
Thanks for all the long-time followers, and welcome to all of you who have recently started to watch.
What should I work on with him next?
Place, Positons, Stay, and Release
In this 30-second clip, you’ll see some of the daily little training moments that Mister K, a nine-week-old German Shepherd puppy, is learning.
Here, I want to reinforce several behaviors:
1. Getting onto the place board.
2. Going into the down, sit, and stand positions.
3. Holding a position while I bring him more reward.
4. Being released from position to a reward
This may not look like much, but as we accumulate repetitions, his little puppy brain will look to do these more and more.
Also, notice the lack of voice commands. I’ll not be introducing those until some time in the future when I feel Mr. K loves doing all these things.
Teaching your puppy to stay is a skill near the top of the training list for almost every pet owner. I will show you how I began to build a stay with Mr. K, a nine-week-old German Shepherd puppy. Over the past week, I have been rewarding Mr. K for going into a down. I never expected that he would stay. I just wanted to convey that it was good for him to lie down. Once I felt that he liked laying down, I moved the food reward away a short distance and then immediately brought it back. I wanted him to see that if he held the position, the reward would return to him quickly. As I used this technique, I then began to insert the word “good” slightly before I would bring the reward to him. This way, in the future, I’ll be able to say “good,” and he will understand that the reward is being brought to him. Lasty, when I was happy with the stay, I clicked to release him. Don’t underestimate how many repetitions you’ll need to say “good” and then bring the reward to your dog for them to learn it. As you go through this process, throughout several sessions, increase the distance you are from your dog and how long you wait before you say “good” and reward. #germanshepherd #puppy #dogtraining
Puppies love to take things that we may not want them to have. This is why I’d like to share how I teach a dog to let go. You'll see me get this little nine-week-old German Shepherd riled up and to a point where he will not want to release. Watch how long it takes for him to let go finally. A full 20 seconds the first time. Then you’ll see how I immediately reward him with more play. The very next go-round, he is much faster at letting go. It only took five seconds. I also very quickly got in the command to play gain. If you're struggling with your dog not letting go, this protocol is sure to help you make some progress.
Cones are used in a variety of ways in dog training. One of the ways trainers like myself enjoy using comes is to send a dog away from us and to the cone, then call them back. Here is one of the many ways to introduce a food-motivated puppy to this skill. The process went something like this. 1. Bait, lure, and reward the puppy for small little bites around the cone. 2. Begin to place fewer and fewer food rewards with each repetition slowly, but make sure to reward effort over precision. 3. Finally, lure the puppy all the way around and then reward well. When you try to do this with your puppy, steps one and two are more important than step 3. Take your time and have fun! #puppytraining #germanshepherd #dogtraining
Clicking immediately before you reward will help your dog understand what they need to do. Here are 5 things you could click: 1. Getting on an object. 2. Staying on an object. 3. Being in center on an object. 4. Chasing you off of an object. 5. Rotating their back legs around an object. There are so many more. Which one would you add to the list?
Puppy socialization is not your dog's ability to play well with other dogs but to be environmentally sound in our human world. They should largely ignore other dogs and be calm yet confident in their interactions with people. You always want to protect your young puppies from diseases like Parvo, but it’s of critical importance to get them out during this age. Talk with your trainer and veterinarian to ensure you set your young puppies up for success! #dogtraining #germanshepherd #puppy #NePoPo
