Several Easy Behaviours to Teach Your Puppy
1. The "EYE CONTACT GAME."
You are teaching your dog to "check in" with you. And you're doing it in a way that is so reinforcing, that soon the behavior of turning his head to look at you will become part of his muscle memory. It will become habit.
You can then make the eye contact game become also a "Name Game". If the dog learns that each time he hears his name, it means to stop and look to the person calling that name, then you'll have less worry about him bolting across a busy road and getting hit when he hears his name called.
He'll listen for the *next* cue word which will tell him what to do. His name, by then, will mean "Stop, look, listen to human for cue of what to do next." The next cue might be "Sit" or "Down" or "Come" or "Back." His name is his cue to look to you for the next cue. His name only means "give human the attention."
Be careful not to reward moving toward you, only looking at you. Be very accurate in your clicking and catch him just as the head swings to you and the eyes touch yours.
2. "TOUCH" or "TARGET" with nose game
Grab an object close to you. Say, an ink pen. Rub something smelly the dog really likes on the end of the pen.
Hold the object (called the target stick) out in front of you. Wait for your dog to come sniff it. When he extends his neck to sniff,--while he's moving toward that pen, CLICK and treat.
Repeat several times, and begin altering the height of the stick randomly. Hold it a few inches higher, lower, to the right, to the left. Turn around, do it in a different direction. Take it into other rooms, and practice getting the dog to touch the tip of the ball in each direction you face.
Broaden your movements, slowly pulling the target stick across the room as your dog follows, as if a magnet were pulling him.
Why this crazy behavior? It's easy! It's fun! Puppies LOVE it! And it is the base, most important behavior you can teach for quickly learning many advanced behaviors down the road. You're teaching muscle memory now to your puppy. Teaching him to target and move with the target.
This is also really helpful to keep the dog working for the CLICK instead of being lured with the food.
Work on really rapid reinforcment. This means, right after you click and treat, immediately hold the stick out again and let your dog move to it. Click and treat. Move your body a little bit. Repeat.
3. BACK UP (move backwards)
When dog is in front of you, walk toward him. Catch the first step me makes backwards, and click and treat. Gradually build up steps, a step at a time. Add cue once dog is reliably quickly moving backwards when you start stepping forward.
4. RECALL GAME (teaching dog to "come")
Have a family member or two help you. Sit in a big circle on the floor, with everyone holding a clicker and having some treats securely in a pocket or in a pack in back of them. At first, let one person tap on floor to coerce puppy toward them, and when the puppy begins moving toward them, have them click and treat when the puppy gets to them.
Let each person in the circle take a turn doing the same thing.
When the puppy is doing this quickly, begin adding the recall word, "Come" or "here" or whatever is chosen. Say the word AS the pup is moving toward the person, just before the click.
5. WAIT AT DOOR (stop walking and pause until cued to move through the door)
This is a GREAT safety behavior, and one all dogs should have. Then you won't have to worry about forging at the doors, or her slipping out. Just make it a habit to always pause and CUE dog before moving through the door, never letting him go out before you give the cue.
Steps:
- Move forward with dog on leash at your side, toward a closed door.
- We hold your hand out flat, palm facing dog, and slow down. C/T for dog slowing down, incrementally coming closer and closer to stopping, but without the automatic sit. (In our "Wait" cues, we want the dog to stop at the door, but remain in a stand).
- When dog is stopping each time hand signal given, we begin adding verbal cue, "wait."
- Put your hand out toward the door. If dog moves, turn around, walk back to the door and start over. Don't correct the dog for moving, just begin the exercise anew.
- Work toward turning the door handle, just a little bit at a time. Click for any movement you make while your dog is in place and not moving.
- Work toward opening the door one inch. Then two. Then three, etc. Very incrementally, while the dog holds the position.
- Eventually begin moving through doorway while dog waits in the position you left her in. Then call dog to you.
If you have rapidly clicked and treated, the dog will quickly come to realize a click means "treat is coming". Look for the muscle twitch of the head, that little head jerk so subtly given, that indicates he recognizes the click means something good is coming.
At that point, You just jump in and start clicking when the dog offers a behavior you like. Work on only one behavior per very short 1-3 minute session. Don't overdo it. You can do as many sessions as you want through the day, but make each session at first working on just one behavior.
You are teaching your dog to "check in" with you. And you're doing it in a way that is so reinforcing, that soon the behavior of turning his head to look at you will become part of his muscle memory. It will become habit.
You can then make the eye contact game become also a "Name Game". If the dog learns that each time he hears his name, it means to stop and look to the person calling that name, then you'll have less worry about him bolting across a busy road and getting hit when he hears his name called.
He'll listen for the *next* cue word which will tell him what to do. His name, by then, will mean "Stop, look, listen to human for cue of what to do next." The next cue might be "Sit" or "Down" or "Come" or "Back." His name is his cue to look to you for the next cue. His name only means "give human the attention."
Be careful not to reward moving toward you, only looking at you. Be very accurate in your clicking and catch him just as the head swings to you and the eyes touch yours.
2. "TOUCH" or "TARGET" with nose game
Grab an object close to you. Say, an ink pen. Rub something smelly the dog really likes on the end of the pen.
Hold the object (called the target stick) out in front of you. Wait for your dog to come sniff it. When he extends his neck to sniff,--while he's moving toward that pen, CLICK and treat.
Repeat several times, and begin altering the height of the stick randomly. Hold it a few inches higher, lower, to the right, to the left. Turn around, do it in a different direction. Take it into other rooms, and practice getting the dog to touch the tip of the ball in each direction you face.
Broaden your movements, slowly pulling the target stick across the room as your dog follows, as if a magnet were pulling him.
Why this crazy behavior? It's easy! It's fun! Puppies LOVE it! And it is the base, most important behavior you can teach for quickly learning many advanced behaviors down the road. You're teaching muscle memory now to your puppy. Teaching him to target and move with the target.
This is also really helpful to keep the dog working for the CLICK instead of being lured with the food.
Work on really rapid reinforcment. This means, right after you click and treat, immediately hold the stick out again and let your dog move to it. Click and treat. Move your body a little bit. Repeat.
3. BACK UP (move backwards)
When dog is in front of you, walk toward him. Catch the first step me makes backwards, and click and treat. Gradually build up steps, a step at a time. Add cue once dog is reliably quickly moving backwards when you start stepping forward.
4. RECALL GAME (teaching dog to "come")
Have a family member or two help you. Sit in a big circle on the floor, with everyone holding a clicker and having some treats securely in a pocket or in a pack in back of them. At first, let one person tap on floor to coerce puppy toward them, and when the puppy begins moving toward them, have them click and treat when the puppy gets to them.
Let each person in the circle take a turn doing the same thing.
When the puppy is doing this quickly, begin adding the recall word, "Come" or "here" or whatever is chosen. Say the word AS the pup is moving toward the person, just before the click.
5. WAIT AT DOOR (stop walking and pause until cued to move through the door)
This is a GREAT safety behavior, and one all dogs should have. Then you won't have to worry about forging at the doors, or her slipping out. Just make it a habit to always pause and CUE dog before moving through the door, never letting him go out before you give the cue.
Steps:
- Move forward with dog on leash at your side, toward a closed door.
- We hold your hand out flat, palm facing dog, and slow down. C/T for dog slowing down, incrementally coming closer and closer to stopping, but without the automatic sit. (In our "Wait" cues, we want the dog to stop at the door, but remain in a stand).
- When dog is stopping each time hand signal given, we begin adding verbal cue, "wait."
- Put your hand out toward the door. If dog moves, turn around, walk back to the door and start over. Don't correct the dog for moving, just begin the exercise anew.
- Work toward turning the door handle, just a little bit at a time. Click for any movement you make while your dog is in place and not moving.
- Work toward opening the door one inch. Then two. Then three, etc. Very incrementally, while the dog holds the position.
- Eventually begin moving through doorway while dog waits in the position you left her in. Then call dog to you.
If you have rapidly clicked and treated, the dog will quickly come to realize a click means "treat is coming". Look for the muscle twitch of the head, that little head jerk so subtly given, that indicates he recognizes the click means something good is coming.
At that point, You just jump in and start clicking when the dog offers a behavior you like. Work on only one behavior per very short 1-3 minute session. Don't overdo it. You can do as many sessions as you want through the day, but make each session at first working on just one behavior.
posted by Katie @ 8:52 PM
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