#positive training

[imalayla]

New reading material!

[ephilog]

For those of you who have a dog and use a verbal marker: what's yours? 😆💬

Kila is responding super well to this sort of training, she's so clever! Sometimes (ok, most times) I think I'm the slower learner of the two of us.😅

[trainingfaith]

A Force-Free Approach to Potty Training

Some of you may have been wondering why the blogging hiatus. That’s because I’ve been extremely busy raising a litter of growlybiteyjumpy things, er-- Hokkaido Ken puppies. Since two of them will be staying for at least another month until they can fly to their new homes, I thought I’d go ahead and share my tried and true methods for potty training.

Note: I’ll be using the term “puppy” in this post. However, this post applies to adult dogs just as easily!

The first thing you’ll need is a means of containment for your puppy. For now, start with a crate. All puppies coming from a responsible breeder or experienced foster home should have already been desensitized to being in a crate. If your puppy is coming from a shelter, pet store, or backyard breeder, I highly recommend starting with Susan Garret’s Crate Games DVD as quickly as possible. Crates should be just big enough for your puppy to curl up and lay down in. If the crate is too big, this will make potty training much harder because they will begin to designate a specific side of their crate for pottying in vs sleeping in. PUPPIES DO NOT LIKE TO POTTY WHERE THEY SLEEP! We’re going to work with this. Many crates these days come with wire dividers so you can gradually adjust the size of the crate to fit your growing puppy. If your crate does not come with such divider, using a cardboard box to divide the crate and gradually reducing the size of the box works as well! (Though you may have issues with your puppy chewing the box.)

Your puppy will need to be let out every hour during the day, and every time he starts to cry at night. Just because your puppy can “hold it” while he’s sleeping at night does not mean he can do the same during the day. When you let him out, leash him and take him directly to his potty place (typically outside, but I realize running down three flights of stairs if you live in an apartment isn’t always feasible; sod potty patches or piddle pads are also acceptable).

​Leashing him does two important things:

It builds a positive association between the leash and good things, and

It helps him differentiate between potty time and play time

You should do minimal wandering with your puppy when you are attempting to get him to potty. Hold the end of a six foot leash. If necessary, you may take one or two steps in any direction, but no more than that. Give him five minutes to do his thing. Once he does, and wait for him to finish so you don’t cause him to STOP going, shower him with praise/treats while saying “Good GO POTTY!” Only after he potties should you unclip his leash (if he’s indoors or in a securely fenced in location) and let him sniff around or play for thirty minutes before putting him back in his crate.

This teaches him two things:

“Go potty” is something he can do on cue, and

The faster he goes potty, the faster play time comes

It’s extremely important to be consistent about your praise and your cues. If you start slacking off, the inconsistency will show.

When your puppy starts getting the hang of this, introduce an x-pen to give him more freedom. Place his crate inside the x-pen, along with the potty patch or piddle pad if you are going that route. If your puppy is successfully using the potty patch, gradually give him more freedom and start moving the potty patch closer to the door until your puppy will go to the door when he needs to potty.

Keep in mind that a puppy doesn’t have full bladder control until 16-20 weeks of age, sometimes later! Forgive mistakes, and never correct for “happy pee” (puppies eliminating themselves when excited). Remember that potty training is a long process, and while many puppies will progress very quickly using the methods above, there may still be accidents if you aren’t careful about supervising.  If your puppy does have an accident and you didn't catch them in the act, promptly clean it up with an enzymatic cleaner and avoid punishing your puppy for it. All punishment does is confuse a puppy and it can cause issues further down the road.

Still having potty training issues? Stay tuned for my next blog post on potty training troubleshooting!

[thehappyfarmdogs]

Dog Books

Hey I’m always interested in future reading recommendations. I’ve read through stuff by a decent group of authors (eg. Patricia McConnell, Jean Donaldson, Pat Miller, Nicole Wilde, Alexandra Horowitz). Lots of dogwise authors.

I only deal with positive methods

[boofblr]

ALL OF YOU KIDS STRUGGLING TO TRAIN YOUR DOG FORCE-FREE BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE MAKE YOU FEEL BAD WHEN YOUR DOG MISBEHAVES, SAY IT WITH ME NOW:

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MY DOG! THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR ATTITUDE.

[snowysguide-blog]

Today's #caturday is brought to you by the well-intentioned but ultimately misguided tool: The Spray Bottle. 

 As far as aversives go, it's pretty benign. And I truly think that humans have good intentions when using them. They don't want to harm us cats, but need us to stop doing a behavior in the moment. This comes with a few problems: 

-It's not a precise teaching tool. We might learn that the spray bottle itself is frightening and continue when you're not home. 

-It doesn't teach us what you would like us to do instead, which may leave us with little choice but to continue. 

-It's a precise tool only in rewarding the human using it. We stop the behavior in the moment, but you've rewarded yourself at our expense. 

-It isn't kind. Never forget how important that is. 

With love, Your Cat

[veganerudition]

I know this might be controversial to some but just hear me out.

Crate training your pets is invaluable. 

Training your furry friends to associate a crate and/or cage with good things such as treats or something fun they can play with (classical conditioning) is not cruel in the slightest. If done correctly (positively!), it can result in an animal that actually wants to be in the cage, thinks of the cage as a good or safe space, and helps a lot with preventing separation and general anxiety. If this isn’t done, and the animal is suddenly in a situation such as at the vets where they need to be caged, it can be hellish for everyone involved and very stressful for the animal. 

A relevant example of this is if they’re admitted to a veterinary hospital, where animals must be kept in cages or runs. Way too many animals I have seen admitted to a veterinary hospital are anxious the moment they’re placed in those cages and left alone. If bad enough, they may go into full panic attacks and have to be supervised or medicated. If they go into these loud anxiety/panic attacks, vets and nurses cannot do their jobs optimally, and the animal suffers.

So how do you crate train an animal? I’ve provided some sources below that go through how to use a combination of positive classical conditioning (having something good happen in relation to the crate, such as there being a bowl of food, or toys, or treats in there) and active learning through positive reinforcement (i.e. rewarding the pet immediately when they willingly choose to go into the crate):

http://lakeharrietvet.com/faqs/Crating.pdf

https://www.karenpryoracademy.com/files/Karen_Pryor_Academy_Crate_Training_Guide.pdf

A video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5EAd1hLn38