Category : Dog Tricks

Teaching Your Thief How to Retrieve

I am in a fairly new relationship.  I have never had the joys of having children of my own and so raising a puppy was always a fairly easy task for me, after all I am a professional  ha ha.  I have never dealt with someone giving the wrong commands at the wrong time, or reinforcing bad behavior, so I was dismayed the other day when my pup grabbed a piece of nasty trash and as soon as I noticed she playfully bucked and bowed and frolicked in the opposite direction.  Calling her sent her bounding in the opposite direction tossing her prize into the air and daring me to chase her.  “Ahhh” I thought, “Someone has been chasing her when she has confiscated a naughty item”.   My new family are not yet professional dog trainers!

The Grab And Chase Game has to be, hands down one of a dog’s favorite pastimes.  This interactive game requires a partner, who is often quite animated and angry and who haughtily chases the thief around and around the house.  Most often the dog is enjoying every angry moment and expletive as they spryly dance throughout owner’s legs and dash by, gaining grace and distance with every well timed movement as their owner crashes into furniture and throws themselves toward the walls and floor in an attempt to catch the robber.

Your dog is having the absolute time of his life, and because he does not have the ability to reason, he doesn’t really realize at some point he is going to slow down or give up and give you the upper hand.  This is normally when punishment arises and enters the equation.  Dogs don’t understand punishment, they go from having a great time to being toss around, yelled at, or worse kicked, beaten or abused.  Typically, no matter what the punishment and because it arises “AFTER” the deed is done it does not diminish your dogs excitement at the prospect of doing it again.

Often the item is swallowed, or ruined before the owner has the opportunity to take it from their pet and so the anger is magnified by the frustration.

So, what do you do then when Scruffy grabs your underwear and begins to dash through the house?  I use doggy psychology to my advantage.  I have two options that will work to MY advantage:

• Prevention: I make sure I NEVER leave any object out that he may get a hold of that he shouldn’t have  (I do recommend this for high priced items.  You will never see my $500 sun glasses on or near the floor) or I keep him on a leash so that I can pluck the item out right away, extinguishing the ability he has to run and be chased.   This is not always realistic.

OR

• Reward: I praise him and go get him a treat as exchange for my underpants.

Trust me the look on his face will be just as confused as the look on your faces now at reading this or on my clients faces when I recommend the same feat.  Yes!!! Praise and reward!!!  This also keeps you from playing the run and chase and frustration game.  Instead of being rewarded by the “Best Game Ever” (remember that for him chasing him and interacting with him IS a reward), he is rewarded for showing you and bringing it to you.

Reverse psychology, if you will, instead of chasing him when a bad situation arises; reward him for doing the right thing and bringing it to you.

Please, keep your expensive and dangerous things locked up so that a deadly situation does not occur.  But when faced with this situation, give up and give in and let your dog know if he has something and brings it to you instead of running there is a reward in it for him.

Won’t this “create a monster” out of your dog?  That is the most frequent question I get after the look of shock and horror goes away.  People are afraid that this will create a criminal and reward bad behavior.  Yes, to some degree you will watch the behavior escalate but if you know some key learning and behavior principles you can get the behavior you want.

At first, you will see your dog grabbing objects and bringing them to you for reward.  Just this morning my puppy spit a dime at me while I was getting my soon to be step-son ready for school, and yes I rewarded her for it.  Once she begins to realize that the game is bringing me the object, then I can determine if I like the behavior or not.

Personally, I like dogs that retrieve.  I have raised, trained and work with Service Dogs for people with disabilities for most of my career and I like having a dog that picks up the things I drop, heaven forbid I have to bend over and pick something up!  It is a skill I relish in and enjoy.  My dogs can retrieve anything from as small as a paper clip to as large as an over turned wheel-chair.

Once the behavior is consistent, (no more dart and dash) I either choose to continue to reinforce it with praise and rewards and then ask for it on command, or I never reward the behavior again and wait for the behavior to extinguish.

You see, dogs are just as shallow as we humans are if at first they are paid for a behavior but then never receive payment for that behavior again, they refuse to show it anymore.  Imagine your job decided to quit paying you, with no payout you would probably never go back there again.  However, if they increase your pay, reward you with onsite education, frequent bonuses and treat you with kindness and praise, you will probably be a happy employee for life.

If you don’t want to see this behavior continue, never reward it with anything but half-hearted praise again.  You will quickly see a decline in the thieving.

If you are like me, lazy, and like to have a dog around that retrieves on command then give it a command and start requiring more and more until you have a polished retrieve (more on this later).

Your dog is simple; even negative emotions and behavior elicited from you can be rewarding.  Use the knowledge of reverse psychology to your benefit.  It is a lot easier than chasing your dog out of frustration!

Achieving a Higher Level of Reliable Obedience

If you have ever taken an obedience class with your dog, and actually done your homework, you will remember and notice that for that period of time (usually 6 to 8 weeks) your dog begins to listen to you faster and his obedience improved.  But weeks after the class is over, his skills begin to wan and the dynamics of life before class take over and it seems as if he never completed an obedience class.

WHY?

It’s simple if you think about it; if you practice something together you are better at it, the more practice and time you devote to something the better you get at it.  However, once you stop practicing and working on something, often, the more things go back to the way things were and you forget what you had once learned.

Are You Smarter Than a 5^th Grader?

Most of us have either watched this show on TV or at least know the concept; adults (sometimes even doctors, lawyers and Yale graduates) are asked simple questions along the lines of the curriculum that we learned in and up to the 5^th grade.  Most of us learned these things a number of years ago, but how much do we truly remember?  To have a child in school and needing help with homework is sometimes humbling!

Without practice or applying our knowledge, we often forget what we have learned.  The same is true of your dog!  If you don’t make obedience and training a part of your daily lives together, you and your dog will slip back into the same patterns of life that lead you to frustration and into obedience class.

But, often instead of understanding that dogs, too, forget and slip back into previous habits, we often blame them, think they didn’t learn or that they are being obstinate and refusing to comply, when really they are probably reverting back to what they knew and know best which is the dynamics of your household “before” obedience class.

What to Do?

Set a goal

• Sit down as a family and come up with a plan.  What is going wrong in your current relationship with your dog?  Come up with a plan to address your issues and stick with it!  Consistency is the key to good dog obedience so everyone must be on board.

Take a Class

• You may need to take a class or re-take a basic class if things have deteriorated severely.  A class leads to accountability and homework.  A class often coerces people to make time to work with their dogs.
• I have been training dog professionally for almost 17 years and I still take obedience classes (I just don’t admit I am a trainer).

Compete

• I HATE competition!  I hated competition as a child and I continue to hate it to this day.  I also hate getting up in front of people.  Ironically, I can lecture to a convention center full of people about dog obedience and behavior, but I hate that competitive feeling and being put on display.  However, I often make myself face my fears and compete anyway.
• Competition takes a high level of practice and work, and the more time I spend with my dog the more he learns to listen to me in all facets of life.   Although I hate the feeling of the final competition (I am getting better ha ha) I LOVE the time we spend together preparing for our moment, and I also love our numerous blue ribbons!

Find a hobby you can both enjoy

• You can take classes for advanced obedience, tracking (nose work), clicker training, games, agility, or weight puling, sledding and skijoring.
• You can even play control games together.
• Invite your friends and family to get together and play doggie games and have your own competition.   You can also find dog board games online like Funagle and Do You Mind by Darfinc©.
• Buy a book and teach your dog as many tricks and commands as you can then have a party to show off your new skills!

To my clients I am known as the “fun” trainer.  I have been training dogs for almost 17 years and have seen all kinds of methods and I have taken my years of experience and knowledge and I have sculpted them into a program where I focus on games and fun ways to achieve my obedience goals.  I do this so that my dog enjoys his training but most of all I do it so that “I” enjoy training and working with my dog.  Fun does not mean there is a lack of skill or that my dogs are sloppy, it just means that my goal is to have a high level of performance and we both enjoy ourselves. The more things I can teach my dog, the happier we both are!  Even if I am just teaching him tricks, he is listening and learning and enjoying himself, and I am ending up with another skill to show off to my friends.

I try and make a point to spend time with my dog and invite him to join me as often as possible.  If I go hiking, biking or to the beach, I want to include him in my plans.  I enjoy teaching him new things and watching him enjoy life and excel at obedience.  It is a joy to have a well trained companion.

Every time you work with your dog in a fun and positive manner and you work together towards a common goal, you are solidifying your place in your furry pack and your dog is learning to have fun listening to you.  The more fun you have together, the more time you will find to spend together and you build a bond of respect that will last a lifetime.  So get out there and spend some fun time together as you reestablish your bond and your dog learns to listen to your every command!

Do you have a stubborn dog?

Have you tried training your dog to do tricks and just when you think you are making some progress, your dog suddenly decides it does not want to obey your cue?  Maybe you think your dog just does not have what it takes or is just being stubborn.  Read this article to find out why you may be spoiling your clicker training success.

Poisoned Cues: The Case of the Stubborn Dog

by Rebecca Lynch, 4/1/10, Karen Pryor’s clickertraining.com

When I arrived at my client’s house last week, she was very excited to show me how well her dog Missy was doing with hand targeting. “Watch this!” Megan said as she gathered her clicker and treats. Missy was at full attention in front of her. Megan gave the cue, “touch,” and presented her hand. Missy took one look at her hand, ducked her head, and sat down to scratch. Megan tried again. Missy began sniffing the ground. Megan’s face dropped. “We’ve been practicing all week for you. Missy knows how to touch. Why is she being so stubborn?”

Was Missy being stubborn?

Read the rest of this entry »

Doggie Lullaby

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Indoor Doggy Games

I live in Southern Georgia, most people move to the South to avoid the dramas of the weather known to our cohorts to the North.  Being from Wyoming, I know the joys and horrors of winter and most of the time I joke that we don’t even have seasons here in the South it is just one extended summer.  However, much to my chagrin we have had a winter this year.  My pipes have frozen, and I have had to scrape my windows more than a dozen times (after 3 years I had to buy a window scraper).

The whole country it seems has been experiencing a winter of record, so I thought while we are all cooped up inside we should discuss some of my favorite foul weather games to pass the time until spring comes and we can get outdoors and get the exercise we are all in need of!

Dogs need mental stimulation, without it they begin to choose naughty behavior and get into trouble.  Our dogs cannot watch television, they can’t read books or do any of the things we usually enjoy when exercise outside is not an option.  However, they still have the same amount of pent up energy building up day by day and they need a way to expel it.

The easiest way to entertain your dog is to give him something exciting to chew.  Chewing is a minimal form or exercise and mental stimulation for your dog.  Often, if we don’t provide an appropriate chewy, our dogs will begin chewing things that they shouldn’t put their mouths on.  Chewing gives them something to do.

I also like to play indoor games with my dogs when the weather is bad, or when their energy level is driving me crazy and I can’t take them outside for some physical exercise.  The whole point of playing games with your dog is for both of you to enjoy yourselves!  Pick games or invent games that you will both enjoy.

I love to play hide and seek with my dogs!!  Hide and seek not only builds a bond, it also teaches your dog to find you utilizing his other senses; his sense of smell and his sense of sound.  I want my dog to know how to find me using all his senses just in case there is ever an emergency.  Instead of panic at being lost, by playing this game, I have given my dog the tools to find me and he thinks he is playing his favorite game.  This is also a great way to teach your dog that the word “COME” is the most exciting and fun word he can hear.

• I often use a helper (or you have to tell your dog to stay), this is great for kids, and one person holds the dog’s collar while the other person dashes off and hides.
• Both people should stuff their pockets with great treats.  As soon as the person finds a fun hiding spot they should call the dog and encourage him with every step “Rover, Come…good boy, come, good boy, good boy, good boy COME!”  this excitement and encouragement gives him the motivation to find you.
• When he finds you, praise him and give him a treat while person #2 dashes off to hide.
• Repeat this process.  In the beginning, I like to hide in easy spots, like just in the next room, as play continues I enjoy hiding in funny places like in the bathtub, under the table or in his crate.  The one rule, have fun and enjoy, your dog has a sense of humor, make him laugh!

I also like to hide my dog’s toys and teach him to find them.  Find your dog’s favorite toy, first I like to wave it around in front of him to get him excited.  Next I hide it in an easy spot, beside me or behind me and tell him to find it.  Praise him and you can even give him a treat when he finds his toy.  Next try hiding the toy in a more precarious but semi-easy place.  You may have to use a helper or tell your dog to stay as you hide his toy.

• During this stage I hide the toy so it just sticks out and is barely visible.  Once he has mastered this process begin to hide the toy better so that he cannot see it.  Tell him to find it.  You may have to follow behind or walk past the toy to help him at first.  Don’t show him where it is, just stand near and encourage him to look or sniff for it.  The next step is to hide the toy on all different levels in your home.
• Don’t just hide the toy on the floor or in one room, also utilize higher surfaces like book shelves or chairs, next move it even higher and perhaps even out of his reach.  Challenge his brain so that he never knows where his toy might be.  Sometimes, I even hide it in my pocket or in other silly places.  Have a good time, mix it up and enjoy bonding.
• The next and final stage is to use a specific name for specific toys.  This gives you the option to hide 2 toys at once and ask for him to bring you one.  I like this game because I can hide a few toys and sit and watch TV while he has to go and find them!

There are many things to do inside to entertain yourself and your four legged friend when the weather is bad!  Teach your dog  a trick!  Let me know what trick you would like to teach your dog!!

Don’t let the weather get you down, grab your best friend and play some games, if you do this you will build a bond that lasts a lifetime!

Prison Break

You just can’t keep a smart dog down.  Here’s a neat video that proves patience and persistence pays off!

Dog Plays Fetch By Himself

Does your dog ever wear you out playing fetch.  Seems like he’ll never get tired of chasing a ball?  Check out this gadget that someone in that very situation came up with.  This would also be a great way to entertain your dog during the day while your away.

Check out our other methods as well to stop your dogs barking here!

Cool Dog Trick: Dog Plays Dead

Thought this was a pretty cool dog trick!

Would cool little tricks like this be something you’d be interested in me releasing a course on?

There’s just nothing like getting a laugh out of friends with funny tricks.

Let me know if that interests you?

Enjoy!

Chet