#muddydogtraining

[muddydogtraining]

We Stan Victoria in this house.

We do!

[muddydogtraining]

For those of you who pray, please pray for me. If you don’t pray, please send positive thoughts. I’m taking my CPDT-KA test tomorrow, and I’m having a lot of mixed feelings about it. 

I feel like I’m going to pass (but when I say that, I doubt myself), but I don’t know that I will do great. It’s a pass/fail, so as long as I pass I’ll be fine. I’m afraid that I didn’t study the right things. I will have to drive to the testing center tomorrow (technically today), and going somewhere new like that always gives me anxiety. And pray/send thoughts that I get some good sleep tonight without sleeping past my alarm in the morning!

Thanks, you guys.

[muddydogtraining]

Guide Dogs for the Blind calls this skill responding to Collar Cues. It is similar if not the same as the Silky Leash method. These are good skills to have for Loose Leash Walking.

The goal is to teach a puppy to respond to light pressure on the collar, to teach the puppy how to move backwards, forwards, sideways, downwards, and pivot into position.

This is a difficult skill due to the natural opposition reflex: when dogs feel pressure on the collar, they want to pull away from it. I will direct you back to my posts on Ground Tether part one and part two. Ground tether games set you up for automatic focus as well as an introduction to not pulling on the leash.

This is the fourth post from the Guide Dogs for the Blind videos. The first two are the Ground Tethers ones linked above. The third was on Loose Leash Walking.

[muddydogtraining]

Several of my students, especially the ones with the really small puppies, struggle with loose leash walking. So after watching an episode of “It’s Me or the Dog,” I bought this target stick off amazon.

It’s pretty neat. You teach your dog to target the end of the stick with their nose. This is easily translatable if your dog already knows a hand target cue. For both the stick and hand target, when their nose touches it, you mark it (with a click or marker word), and reward. Do this until it becomes reliable.

The concept is that the dog will follow the target stick whether it’s into a sit or a down (see above) or where he is supposed to be walking. It’s really helpful with walking small dogs. Small dogs can have a hard time with knowing exactly where to walk because it’s hard for us to mark and treat as quickly as with a taller dog. There’s just such a long distance between us and takes longer to get the treat to them. By the time we get down there with the treat, they have moved out of the correct spot.

This can also be accomplished with a “chuck it” tennis ball thrower with peanut butter on it. Another toy that can be used is a Kong safestick, but that can be pretty bulky. The chuck it might be bulky as well. I’ve only used the target stick.

I’m no good at videoing, but you can check out some YouTube videos.

[muddydogtraining]

Dominance theory is still a popular idea among some dog trainers and owners. Luckily a quick google search of “dog dominance theory” comes up with websites and articles naysaying the whole idea of it. Here are a couple of points from the book Coaching People to Train Their Dogs:

Social hierarchy is flexible depending on context, the dog, and the dogs around him. One dog might dominate sleeping areas but freely yields food to others. A dog might only dominate food when he is hungry.

Dominance does not equal aggression, and most dogs labeled as “dominant” by their owners simply lack manners and training.

So no, your dog is not dominating you by wanting to rush out the door first. He’s excited to go outside, and you never taught him to wait a second so he doesn’t pull you off your feet.

[muddydogtraining]

If your dog is struggling with something, take a step back and ask yourself what can YOU do differently.

I had someone ask me about their dogs getting into mischief between the time when her husband lets them out in the morning and when she gets up an hour later. The easiest thing to do? She just needs to wake up an hour earlier.

A man was concerned about how his new puppy will react if a kid goes over to her while she’s eating. The answer? Don’t let kids go over to her when she’s eating. (This man is even retired and doesn’t have any kids in the house.)

Remember that puppies are puppies and dogs are dogs. Don’t set unrealistic expectations.

[muddydogtraining]

That huge issue that you’re dealing with with your dog or puppy? What simple solutions can you think of?

Sit for: jumping on people, jumping when being petted, counter surfing, puppy biting, playing too rough, dropping things, etc.

Leave it for: jumping, counter surfing, destructive chewing, stealing things, barking, digging, etc.

Hand target for: focus, recall, leaving things, dropping things, barking, digging, not pulling on the leash, etc.

If you proof these simple behaviors, if your dog sits, etc. every single time you ask, that not only helps with any unwanted behavior, but it also sets you up for more complicated behaviors in the future. My favorite example is recall. Recall is a difficult behavior, and we often aren’t as consistent with it as we should be. But if your dog responds to a hand target cue flawlessly, then they head straight to you to touch your hand.

Don’t make training unnecessarily difficult.

[muddydogtraining]

Training Do Not’s

Do not put your dog with a choke chain on a retractable leash.