Limiting options: sit quietly and wait, or struggle and be denied access to reward.
Guiding choices: the leash disables any attempt to jump on the person greeting the dog, lying down, or escaping altogether.
Controlling outcomes: dog's attempts to acquire access to reward (the guest's attention and potentially the treat in her hand) is denied until he is motionless.
It is that easy.
When you are ready, we are here.
#marylanddogtraining #puppytraining #dogobedience #dogtrainer #positivereinforcement #dogtrainingtips #marylanddogtrainer #dogtrainingmaryland #dogtraining #obediencetraining #trainyourdog #carrollcountymd #dogtraining101 #dogbehavior #puppy #puppytrainer #puppytraining #dogobedience #puppies
People hear me say "quiet hands" all the time, primarily because most dog handlers and owners don't think in terms of controlling the leash, in favor of trying to control the dog.
Humans are what's wrong with dogs. They over-handle, snatch at the leash, and are entirely too handsy. This dog has never worn a collar of any kind. Raised on a harness and never made to do anything, he learns in about 5 minutes that he is the harbinger of his own discomfort.
He's a Pit Bull/Presa mix and already starting to show some genetically predisposed defensive behavior. He's still young, but he's got a lot going on.
This is how we start to fix it.
When you are ready, we are here.
#dog #dogtrainingwestminster #dogtrainingtips #dogobedience #lionheartk9 #marylanddogtraining #westminstermd
Controversial Conversations in the Dog Trainer Space
For many years, my associates Jill Morstad from Nebraska's Prairie Skies K9, Julia McDonough from New Hampshire's Fortunate K9 have always wanted to create a panel or participate in a panel of dog trainers to cover the topics germane to dog trainers and the dog trainer trade.
So we gone and done it. Occasionally we will extend an invitation to a 'fourth chair' to join our kibbutzim and discuss the nonsense that has pervaded the animal industries and try to make sense out of the ever changing landscape of dog.
What is 'reinforcement'?
Reinforcement is the action or process of reinforcing or strengthening. In this case, a dog's behavior.
The problem is understanding what the *dog* finds reinforcing.
At any given moment, it can be many different things. A hungry dog will want food. A playful dog will want access to its favorite toy. A prey-driven dog may want access to game, but the average companion dog home is usually calling a trainer to remedy that!
The pursuit of reinforcement has rules. They are simple but powerful...
"Access to what the DOG wants is avaliable through cooperation with the HANDLER."
Identifying what the dog values and pairing it with actions you want the dog to perform, reliably, without prompting, is the Majik Elixer.
It takes the ability to identify what the dog considers of value, and understanding how to successfully incorporate that into a training regimen.
#marylanddogtraining #puppytraining #dogobedience #dogtrainer #positivereinforcement #dogtrainingtips #marylanddogtrainer #anatolianpyrenees #dogtrainingmaryland #dogtraining #marylandsbestdogtraining #lionheartk9university #dogtrainingthatworks #dogtrainingwestminster #carrollcountymd
A worn-out old saying, it's true-
Be nice to your dog if you want him to come to you!
Want to train a reliable recall to your puppy? Make it something he wants to do by giving him a reason to *want* to do it!
Just think of when you were a kid and your mom used your full name to call you. You knew you were in trouble then! You only went to her because you knew refusal would be worse for you.
When you want your dog to come to you, you catch more puppies with treats than you do with harsh words or running after them like a threatening maniac.
If you have a dog that thinks your recall command is an invitation to run in the opposite direction, we're only a message away!
#dog #dogtraining #lionheartk9university #moderndogtraining #marylanddogtraining #marylanddogtrainer #dogtrainer #dogobedience #positivereinforcement #dogtrainingtips #puppytrainer #puppytraining #puppies #puppy #canecorso
From The BattleAxe Broadcasting Network, The Angry Old Fat Broad Returns, and SHE BROUGHT FRIENDS
WAZZZZAP?
"What, in the animal kingdom, makes high-pitched, squeaky noises?
That's the sound an animal makes when a dog is killing it."
Of course it's going to make a dog excited, but not for the reasons most people think. The dog is already in an emotionally charged state. Why would I want to make it worse?
We can pair all sorts of things as reward markers. Let's save the Big Party for those fractional moments where the dog has overcome a giant learning obstacle or volunteers a behavior we are interested in hardening.
'Good Dog'-ing your dog to distraction or using those high-pitched dying animal squeals randomly (or for everything) devalues their meaning as a marker that indicates reinforcement is available.
Telling your dog it's wonderful for breathing creates lazy, de-motivated, pouty individuals that have lived a life of entitlement, and where the relationship is skewed from one of cooperation and respect to one of lackluster, contrary existence.
Nobody said that you can't love your dog, nor did they say you can't show affection for your dog. That is a figment of the imagination.
If you time your praise to coincide with behaviors you wish to see repeated and stop allowing the dog to reinforce itself with frantic, highly aroused behavior as you touch it, chatter at it like a magpie, or both simultaneously, you'll be surprised how quickly your dog responds with calm, expectant behavior instead of over-the-top, over-stimulated, undirected behavior.
Timing is everything.
We are only a message, email, text or phone call away. Feel free to pass this along to others since I am able to reach folks outside my standard service area digitally.
#positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementtraining #marylanddogtrainer #puppy #puppytraining #dogbehavior #toydogs #clickertraining #marylanddogtraining #dogtrainingtips #puppies #dogtrainer #puppytrainer #puppycamp #dog #dogtraining
When it comes to dog training, people (owners and trainers) are more inclined to *make* things happen rather than wait for them to happen.
Each strategy has value, but there are times when waiting yields faster, more permanent results.
These two littermate youngsters are fast learners. The little chocolate male spent time with us training through our Right Start Puppy camp program, and his sister Prudence, the lighter colored pup, is experiencing her first private lesson with us.
You can see how they trigger each other as I approach, but you can also see how *not* feeding that behavior enables their owner to control both dogs at the same time.
These two learn very quickly that calm, settled behavior provides them with appropriate feedback and are rewarded for their efforts.
Create scarcity. Make the presence of something of value contingent on behavior. Only reinforce the behavior you want to see in the future. Deny access to and/or ignore anything else.
#dog #dogtraining #marylanddogtraining #puppytraining #dogtrainer #dogbehavior #positivereinforcement #trainyourdog #dogtrainingtips #toydogs #puppy #puppies #marylanddogtrainer #positivereinforcementtraining #clickertraining #puppycamp #puppytrainer
Learning is universal. It doesn't matter if your dog is big, small, tough or soft, the applications of obedience affect all dogs the same way. Toy dogs shouldn't get a 'pass' on their behavior just because they're small...
They are as capable of learning as any other dog.
#dogtraining #dogbehavior #marylanddogtraining #dogtrainingtips #dogtrainer #puppytraining #positivereinforcement #obediencetraining #trainyourdog #toydogs
Failure is ALWAYS an Option
Apologies to folks who think they are seeing double.
Failure is always an option. Human history is peppered with the struggles of entire species to survive, including our own; where whole civilizations were exploited into extinction, and civilizations that couldn’t survive the changing landscape.
A litany of self-help gurus have made extraordinary sums of money preaching that failure can catalyze future success. We should be aware that our survival is predicated on our ability to overcome failure; as a species, as business owners, parents, spouses, whatever.
If you think hard enough about it, the most remote and insignificant aspects of our lives are all colored in some way by having survived a failure that improved our skills and gave us insight into a more successful approach.
Our initial inability to perform that skill acts as a catalyst that motivates us to try harder, try a different approach, or practice more. Daniel Coyle, author of "The Talent Code" describes success as practicing until you stop failing and then mindfully practicing until you *can't* fail.
Children begin to practice strategies for life from the time they are self-aware. The human voyage is manageable because we have survived one catastrophic failure after another throughout every stage of our lives; from learning how to eat with a spoon, tying our shoes, and falling off our bikes once the training wheels come off.
How we learn to navigate relationships more selectively as we mature is framed by the experiences of every previous relationship that failed.
This is relative to dogs for the same reasons. Dogs only continue to practice behaviors they have had success with. Knowing why might be helpful, but it doesn’t solve the issue of stopping it from happening.
Although some may perceive fighting as a failure of management or leadership, the dog sees it as a survival strategy.
What the dog requires is a better strategy.
An easy way to help encourage a new behavior is to create a s
The difference between 'correction' and 'punishment' is fairly straightforward.
To 'correct' is to make things right. To 'punish' assumes the dog knew better and chose not to *do* better.
Once we have established communication, "sit," the assumption becomes that we expect sitting behavior.
If the dog moves, it's not necessarily wrong, not at this stage of the work, but we want to prevent anything other than sit, until we are at the point where the dog understands the cues for stay behavior, implied or otherwise.
Punishing a behavior after the fact isn't helpful nor is punishing in an attempt to control future behavior.
Maintaining control through leash management while the dog is still learning helps create that willing cooperation we all want from our dogs.
Creating an environment where reward is more likely to occur than punishment helps the dog choose 'right action'.
Good dog training never goes out of style.
#marylanddogtraining #marylanddogtrainer #dog #dogtraining #experiencematters #dogtrainingtips #obediencetraining #obedience #dogbehavior #trainyourdog #dogtrainer #positivereinforcement #dogtrainingtools #dogobedience #lionheartk9
A little bit of ad libbing in the truck on the way home from a private lesson.
I am proud of the 52 years I have spent involved with dogs in some way. You can't help but learn something during all that time.
One of the things I continue to learn is...
...to never stop wanting to learn.
I specialize in results. I am a specialist in being able to analyze dog behavior and create meaningful, permanent change in that behavior.
If that's ego, I'll own it. At least I am adult enough to admit when I don't know something.
Do I know everything? No.
Do I want to know everything? Absolutely. Who wouldn't? I love what I do. I want to know as much as I can possibly stuff into my oversized pumpkin head.
Education matters. Practice matters. Experience matters. The more ya know, the more ya can share.
Have a productive day, all!
#dog #dogtraining #weknowourstuff #experiencematters #knowledgeispowerful #marylanddogtraining #dogtrainingtips #obedience #dogbehavior #trainyourdog #EducationMatters #marylanddogtrainer #obediencetraining #puppytraining #puppies
I have many images and videos from the day and a half I spent in Southern Maryland this last weekend, in a great atmosphere. It was insightful to have a front-row seat to watch dogs at varying stages of development and to understand the nuances of what was happening and why.
Special thanks to Drew Fischesser, Amanda Kreig Essington of Happy Active Dog, LLC in Hollywood, Maryland, and my friend Julia McDonough for making it possible for me to attend.
From the selection of specific bite wedges, tugs, sleeves, and other bite work paraphernalia, it was clear why these choices mattered based on the skill being developed in the dog being worked.
Creating clear-headed dogs with full, firm grips is an art form. Watching dogs overcome superstitions that may have been created accidentally is also an exceptional opportunity, and developing drive in dogs that are not traditionally known for their predilection for the work is always of interest to me.
The video I am sharing enables folks to see what effort it takes to help a dog understand how to toggle between competing motivators when one of them has the gravitational pull of the sun. It is silent because of the extraneous sounds, and it affords concentration on the work being done.
In less time than it took to set up the scenario, the dog learned that even with the decoy present, access is not assured. Learning that there are other paths to reinforcement is a critical element for this dog, as he learns to be more discriminatory about his choices and to control his emotions.
Enabling the dog to make a decision organically will always have a deeper impact than trying to compel it with force, which is possible, but runs the risk of fallout and behavior 'leaking' later on in training. Being clever about what the dog can access and allowing him the latitude to form his own opinions will always yield a superior result.
I am thankful that I had the opportunity to do this!
#dogbehavior #marylanddogtraining #riskmanagement
One of the symptoms of a dog who has been spoiled by food is the constant needling for acknowledgment. The pants ants, the 'leaking', the constant movement.
I repeatedly corrected her movement out of the sit and punished her directly for the demand whining.
Her problem is that she has always expected feedback for every little thing. A constant 1- 2- 1 schedule of reinforcement without action has led her to believe that food is a foregone conclusion instead of something to work toward.
The invasive nose pokes, forward movement, and expectation don't get reinforced. Only cooperation will. Expecting reinforcement and demanding it are two entirely different things. The reward happens when the work happens. Its presence does not assure access. Only cooperation does.
Scout has yet to learn this.
For edification- I was moving far faster than I would have in introducing multiple behaviors. It would have been less provocative to relocate the dog to a different direction or different table entirely before starting a new exercise.
In spite of that, we got where we were headed with the handling, and in helping Scout understand that she gets what she wants Only when I get what I want.
#dog #dogtraining #planningforsuccess #dogtrainer #dogtrainingtips #marylanddogtraining #dogbehavior #doggrooming #positivereinforcement #obedience #fearfuldog #marylanddogtrainer #dogobedience #riskmanagement #anxiousdog
The second installment of re-conditioning touch to a fearful adult dog-
In this clip, you can clearly see the dog's reaction to being approached from the side. She gets 'flinchy' and it's easy to pull her off the food because the threat of my presence is greater than her desire for food and it takes her a bit to accommodate *my* presence at her side, touching her in unusual, non-threatening ways.
And we haven't even gotten to the hard part yet...
#dog #dogtraining #dogtrainer #dogbehavior #petsafety #trainyourdog #obedience #positivereinforcement #dogtrainingtips #marylanddogtrainer #marylanddogtraining #commonsense #doggroomer #dogobedience #doggrooming #riskmanagement #fearfuldog #anxiousdog
"Give Paw" is a cute party trick, but it does absolutely nothing to enhance the dog's ability to cope with the pressure of nail trims.
This dog has been liberally reinforced for cute paw waves and hand 'shaking' but still gives her owner a hard time with nail trims or just touching her legs or feet outside of the context of 'fun' or 'easy'. On top of that, when she 'volunteers' these behaviors, she demands reinforcement. Put any form of pressure on her to perform outside of immediate reinforcement, and she becomes easily offended.
The problem with that is it sets the dog up for failure. And not of the small kind. What's not so apparent in this clip (that is clear in several others) is this dog's obvious concern with human touch beyond her willingness to allow it, as long as she controls the dialog.
So we changed the rules and are incrementally increasing the pressure. She is corrected for demanding, while she is increasingly expected to endure the pressure on the foot.
Using the same strategy to get a dog to offer an appendage is not the same as manipulating that appendage in ways the dog might not like.
There are two different skills, and they are at odds. Offering a foot for a treat is not the same as allowing that foot to be controlled.
This dog has become defensive when people touch her in ways she disagrees with.
As I explained to the owner, we don't jump up and down with joy when we go to our accountant's office or the OBGYN, but we do these things because we must.
The reinforcement is dubious- a better tax return than we anticipated, or a medical "OK" IS NOT ASSURED.
Just like us, there are things dogs need to tolerate. Enjoying it isn't necessary, but cooperation is.
#dog #dogtraining #dogtrainer #commonsense #marylanddogtrainer #marylanddogtraining #positivereinforcement #obedience #dogobedience #dogtrainingtips #doggrooming #doggroomer #trainyourdog #dogbehavior #petsafety
I'm all tied up with a seminar this weekend, so a little bit of show-and-tell with a young Aussie that has a very reluctant recall and a bit of stranger danger.
She loves to play fetch, as long as the rules favor her, so with a little bit of modification on delivery, we start supercharging the recall and her willingness to cooperate.
The "just out of reach" recall improves with only a few repetitions, enabling a little more precision with each repetition. She runs a drag line so we can control outcomes should she refuse to come to us or refuse to relinquish the toy.
Not a permant effect after only one session, but instead of being confrontational or chasing her, this is a great way to help the dog understand that approaching a stranger isn't necessarily fraught with danger, and coming to her owners on command is nothing to fear.
Have a great Saturday!
#dog #dogtraining #experiencematters #smarternotharder #dogtrainer #dogtrainingschool #obediencetraining #marylanddogtraining #marylanddogtrainer #dogobedience #dogtrainingtips #reactivedogs #aggressive #positivereinforcement #fearfuldog #anxiety
This is probably the most useless bit of training kit I have seen in a couple decades.
It is manufactured by the PetSafe brand. I don't know why.
They went out of their way to improve the Starmark Collar and should have left it at that. This thing is pretty pointless.
The intention is fairly lofty, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The collar material is slick and cheap, the wings on the little contact points are flimsy and do not adhere well, to the cloth material itself and especially where the material has to be doubled over to fit the collar to the dog. The design leaves little room to place the contact points where they would have the most useful impact.
I think trying to create an effective tool that panders to folks offended by the "look" of a standard Starmark misses the mark entirely.
As a training device, it is not very clever; it is awkward and poorly designed. If a dog is so soft that an owner would consider this design, a standard well-made martingale would do the work, and if an owner purchased this item with the intention of putting it on a more robust dog, it would fail miserably.
I admire the attempt, but this is not a tool that I would advise anybody to waste their 18 doll hairs and .02 cents on.
#dogtrainingtools #prongcollar #starmarkcollars #martingalecollar #dogtraining #puppytraining
The topic of arousal has been at the apex of my frontal lobe for weeks now.
I deal with dogs every day. I own them, train them, talk about them, and study them every spare moment. I guess you can call it an obsession.
Recently, I have had the fortune to attend several seminars that focus on dogs with jobs, and it occurred to me how similar the problems of the working dog owner/handler are to the problems of the companion dog owner.
I see far more companion dog owners than working dog handlers, but the problems are universal.
I have written in the past about 'drives' and where the working dog handler needs to channel and exploit them. The companion dog owner simply wishes to suppress them.
The work to accomplish each, unsurprisingly, looks very much the same if done correctly.
The little dog in this video vibrates with enthusiasm. She is well-matched for a speed sport like flyball or FastCAT.
She thrives in chaos, and at about 6 months of age, she easily becomes that excited atom that absorbs energy so she can jump to a different orbit.
In a small dog, it's construed as cute. In a larger breed, it can easily become quite dangerous.
The chaotic behavioral 'bleed' is easily, if inadvertently, self reinforcing with her actions, eliciting a responses from the folks around her.
And this is why I am fat. I don't have to move fast, or a lot. I just have to move at the right time.
Reinforcement for a companion dog is going to look far different than reinforcement for a working dog. A retriever may get an option to retrieve, a pointer to find birds, a ringsport dog, the opportunity to engage physically with a decoy.
Every dog has a preference, and once we identify that, all we need to do is make the opportunity available and wait for the dog to provide us with the correct answer to that question, "how can I get that?"
As I have witnessed repeatedly over the course of the 3 seminars I have attended since April, controlling arousal needs to start much so
