LEAVE IT CUE // In the real world 👏🏼
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Young puppies and adolescents can be pretty notorious for picking up items along a walk. This is completely “normal” behavior for our dogs because they investigate everything with their mouths. Plus if our puppies find something that tastes good or is fun to chew is a big win!
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Sawyer here is a 6 month Labrador who loves everything about life, including what she finds along her walks. Here’s what we’ve implemented to try to discourage this.
✨Practicing a solid “leave it” cue with the end result meaning look to the human
✨Provided her with opportunities to find appropriate items on the ground with the pattern game “find it”
✨Reinforced that checking in (offering eye contact) to the human holding the leash pays off really well
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Once we had really good response going on in the house with the “leave it” cue, we took it to the streets! We picked up an object that Sawyer would likely find on her own but was a safe item if she were to pick it up. We randomly tossed the item nearby and quickly asked her to leave it! if she showed interest and moved towards it.
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And as you can see, she rocked it!
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#sciencebasedtraining #moderndogtraining #dogbehavior #snackleadernotpackleader #positivereinforcementtraining #forcefreetraining #treatyourdog #trainyourdog #arizonadogtrainer #phoenixdogtrainer #westvalleydogtrainer #arizonadogsofinstagram #dogsofarizona
Adding a dog into a home with resident cats?
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Nala is still a newer addition to this wonderful family and has 3 kitty siblings that she sometimes enjoys their company a little too much (gets excited and wants to chase!)
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Here she is practicing her Settle On Mat exercise that she’s rocking 👌🏼By teaching her to settle on this mat, her humans are able to reinforce calmer behavior despite some of the distracting movements that the cats do. This process does take time to build duration but in the meantime here are some other management options that have been implemented
✨Baby gates with cat openings
✨Keeping Nala on leash if she is more distracted to prevent chasing being practiced
✨Ensuring Nala’s mental and physical enrichment needs are met. Giving her appropriate outlets to chase toys and other ‘yes!’ items
✨Make sure cats have high places they can get to
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Overall, she’s doing wonderful with her cat roommates.
#sciencebasedtraining #moderndogtraining #dogbehavior #snackleadernotpackleader #positivereinforcementtraining #forcefreetraining #treatyourdog #trainyourdog #arizonadogtrainer #phoenixdogtrainer #westvalleydogtrainer #arizonadogsofinstagram #dogsofarizona
Rusty here has lots of big feelings about his horse friend, Nina (can’t see her in the video).
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We’ve been working on these feelings for a few months now and this is the first time they’ve been in the paddock together without a barrier between them.
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Watch how he looks towards Nina, then soon disengages and looks back to mom. Boom! Treat party each time he does this 👏🏼
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This engage and disengage exercise works to help change our dogs emotional response to triggers from negative (scary!) to positive (treat party!)
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Outside of this exercise, his humans are doing a great job setting up management in his environment to prevent him from practicing reacting to Nina when they aren’t actively training
#sciencebasedtraining #moderndogtraining #dogbehavior #snackleadernotpackleader #positivereinforcementtraining #forcefreetraining #treatyourdog #trainyourdog #arizonadogtrainer #phoenixdogtrainer #westvalleydogtrainer #arizonadogsofinstagram #dogsofarizona
✨ENGAGEMENT✨
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Here’s a real life {slippers and all 😜} of a simple engagement exercise I have been doing with Beau.
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I toss food on the ground for him to pick up. Once he brings his attention back to me, I mark it and toss another treat on the ground. Repeating from there.
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He brings his attention back to me sooner and sooner overtime because it’s paying off really nicely for him. We usually will start and end some leash training with this exercise.
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The rate of reinforcement you use will depend on your dog. Beau’s pretty laid back and a slower moving puppy, so I am not tossing treats down at rapid fire - with a much more energetic or quick moving dog, I would need to
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Teaching him that whoever is holding the leash is the center of everything awesome is going to be a big plus in building some nice leash manners.
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#sciencebasedtraining #moderndogtraining #dogbehavior #snackleadernotpackleader #positivereinforcementtraining #forcefreetraining #treatyourdog #trainyourdog #arizonadogtrainer #phoenixdogtrainer #westvalleydogtrainer #arizonadogsofinstagram #dogsofarizona #rhodesianridgebacksofinstagram #rhodesianridgeback
✨Proactive Training✨
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Beau is obviously going to be a big guy when he’s full grown. He could easily take food off the table (that would be VERY reinforcing for him!). Rather than waiting for that to happen and “correct” the behavior, we are reinforcing what we want him to do instead!
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Going to the bed = lots of treats
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When we aren’t able to actively reinforce this behavior, we limit his access to the table or set up crate time.
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When you aren’t able to train, have management set up!
