EduCare for Dogs

06/17/2025

Welcome to EduCare, Maple!

06/17/2025

Time to check the mail!
Oh boy, this will be a fun one! This week we are using the free shaping method to guide our students to close a mail box (and maybe even put the flag up)!  Indeed this is not about sending your dogs off to gather the mail and pay the bills. The goal is to use the click and treat to isolate the desired behavior of the student pushing the mail box door closed.  This is a nose oriented activity with heavy focus on confidence building through risk taking, and problem solving. What this means is every student is going to use a unique approach to this activity based on personality.  Some students are more paw oriented and some students want to make sure they do the activity just right so guess work can create conflict. Other students will offer a multitude of behaviors until they figure out what it is we want them to do. These concepts make this activity complex BUT FUN!! The teachers are going to set each student up for success, this means we may reward your dog for sniffing the mail box lid out of curiosity.  Yes, how cute is it to see a close a mail box push the flag up, but even more prideful is seeing each student tap into their executive function and cognitive skill sets to learn!

06/13/2025

Wrapping up Father’s Day Projects🎸❤️

06/12/2025

Getting Father’s Day Projects all wrapped up🎸

06/11/2025

Students are excited about getting to complete Father’s Day Projects🎸

06/10/2025

06/10/2025

Father’s Day Projects-such good kids ❤️

06/10/2025

Father’s Day Projects Rock!🎸

06/10/2025

Father’s Day projects this week🎸

06/10/2025

Shaping a Ball

This week we are working on shaping. Shaping is a training process where we allow your student to choose the way to do the exercise. We simply give feedback when he or she gives us any behavior that is close to what we are looking for. This way your dog is simply working for the rewards and choosing behaviors that get rewards over behaviors that don’t. This activity builds the following skills: focus and relevancy, impulse control, problem solving, and confidence. This game can create a bit of frustration during the learning process so it is a good activity to help with patience and handling disappointment.
This exercise does require a clicker which can be purchased online. https://www.amazon.com/PetSafe-CLKR-RTL-Clik-R-Trainer/dp/B0057H1HZI The clicker will be the feedback the student gets letting them know they are doing it correctly so no praise will be needed. In fact, it is best to NOT use praise during this activity. Social feedback can add a stimulating element and can deter from the brain’s process with this type of activity. There are two types of shaping we will work on - free shaping and shaping with a goal.
Free shaping is where the dog chooses both the pathway and the goal. This is best illustrated in a foundational game called “101 things to do with a box.” This activity rewards the dog for interacting with a ball in any way. This includes looking at it, sniffing it, accidentally bumping into it, purposefully touching it, etc. Keep the ball between you and your dog and take the very first behavior that he/she does that has ANYTHING to do with the ball. When he does anything related to the ball, click and then put your hand with the treat close to his/her mouth - but then drop or gently roll the treat so your student has to leave the ball just a bit to retrieve the treat on the floor. Here is a video to show how to do this activity: https://youtu.be/6RcdWXcsa04
Shaping with a goal is where the student chooses the pathway for the activity but the trainer chooses the goal. For example, if you wanted to get your dog to touch the ball with his nose, you would only reward behaviors that are associated with doing so. This is much like the hot/cold game we used to play as children. This activity is a great way to work on place training, target training, or just a way to break down any behavior that may have several steps.
We will be doing both of these exercises - free shaping first to get a foundation, and then shaping with a goal afterward.

06/03/2025

Welcome to Educare Four!

06/03/2025

This week we are going back to place training for the kids. Many of the students already know it so for those students, we will work on duration or keeping them on their mat for a longer period of time. During that time, we will create some real-life distractions to try to decoy them off of their place. We will guide them and reinforce as needed based on the specific student’s skill level.

For those students that are new to place training, we will be working on helping the students to acquire the behavior associated with place training. That is - go to the designated place for a reward. During the acquisition stage, we are not worried about the duration of the behavior so we will get lots of repetitions of going to their place and being rewarded.

For those students that are at an advanced level,  we will work with two students playing ‘leap frog’. We will accomplish this by first, making a line of place mats. A student will be sent to their place on a mat and must hold his/her position while another student is sent to their place on a mat right next to the first student. Then that student must hold his/her position while the first dog moves around to another mat and so on.

Place training is a multi-skill activity. It builds skills in focus and relevance, confidence building, impulse control, body control, and overall compliance. Place training is incredibly useful at home. Here are some of the uses and benefits:

- It can prevent door dashing and rushing other thresholds you do not want your dog to rush through.
- It can decrease barking due to attention seeking, play solicitation, and some environmental barking. When a dog is on place he is either thinking and less likely to bark or very relaxed and less likely to bark!
- It keeps the dog out of the way, because sometimes, that is important such as when you have company over, are assembling anything including the Christmas Tree, during home work outs, during tummy time with babies, when carrying packages into the house, etc.
- It gives him a comfortable place to be which can help with overall anxiety. It may help with separation anxiety by encouraging independence.