I am so excited to be able to share how one of our clients took clicker training to the next level and her and her son clicker trained their horse!

See how Rawley (8 years old) and his mom Nikki Collins teach their horse Kruzer to perform some helpful chores and tricks - using  the same clicker training principles they learned with their dogs at Canine Craze!

Nikki & her family also breed Bull Mastiffs; here is a link to their website which includes clicker training videos with litters of puppies.  http://www.iowabullmastiffs.com/

I have recently been listening to the book For the Love of a Dog by Patricia McConnell, Ph. D.  This is just an amazing book.  It really defines what we so regularly miss about our dogs.  Because our dog’s don’t speak to us in words it’s important that we are able to read our dog’s expressions and feelings.  This book discusses how we so often misread our dogs, push our feelings onto our dogs, or we just plain don’t pay attention in the first place.  It’s important not only to observe your dog’s expressions and feelings but to acknowledge them in a way that allows you to control the enviroment or change what you are doing if you see your dog is stressed, confused or sad or how to continue on with what you are doing if your dog is happy, relaxed, and enjoying themselves.  Knowing how to read your dog is a very important part of having a healthy relationship.

In dog training this is a very important part and plays a key role in how your dog will repond to you in trianing.  If your dog is not having a good time then you will get a lot of avoidance.  With avoidance comes many of the superstitions that people have about their dogs such as “they are just being stubborn”, “they are trying to control me”, or “they are just distracted”.  I have yet to have a dog that enjoys training with me be distracted to the point that we can’t work together.  I have at times made training or learning not fun for my dog and by this caused a really distracted dog.  Don’t get me wrong their are some personalities that are harder to work with than others when it comes to dog training, but a majority of trianing issues always can be led back to the handler or trainer.  If you are having a hard time training your dog I highly recommend this book and before you continue trianing your dog learn how to read your dog’s expressions and feelings.

This book is an awesome book for anyone that wants to learn about dogs emotions and feelings.  Not only learn about them but learn how to read them so you can see if your dog enjoys the activities that you are involved in.  Once you can read your dog and see that they are having a good time and you use rewards that your dog truely enjoy you will be amazed at how easy training can be.

I was training Czar the other day and it was so rewarding to finally have the work I’ve been doing pay off.  The behavior I have been working on is focused heel.  For Schutzhund the judge likes to see the heeling pattern happen with your dog focused on you and this is something I have been bouncing around trying to teach for two years.  During the past two years I was not disciplined to stick to the little steps and would take giant steps while training that would diminish the entire behavior until I was back at the beginning; I had successfully untrained him multiple times…very well I might add.

I have finally stayed disciplined over the past fifteen days to develop a beautiful focused heel.  I was able to walk through a crowd, heel the length of the agility space and have distractions and he worked through it with me like a pro.  I couldn’t believe only fifteen days previous I was taking one step at a time and rewarding and now we are well beyond one step with distractions.

The progress that is made when you slow down and take everything at a steady pace is irreplaceable.  It is the old story of the tortoise and the hare, the tortoise always wins!

For those of you who are not aware I have recently adopted a five month of Australian Kelpie and her name is Audacious.  She is an awesome dog…but boy does she try my patience.  Her mind and body move 100 miles a minute and after training service labs that move at about 5 miles a minute its a change.  I think with any puppy or dog the very first thing you have to do is establish rules and boundaries.  For example you can’t chew on my hand; but you can chew on this toy.  You can’t jump onto the counter; but you can lay on the rug.  All too often people get stuck in the rut of constantly punishing the dog for what they don’t want but never take the time to teach their dog or puppy an alternative behavior.  The key to stopping unwanted behaviors is teaching them something else to do.  It’s not frequent I encounter a situation where an unwanted behavior is unpredictable; almost always the owners can say my dog always jumps when they greet people…or…my dog always barks at me when I am cooking dinner…or…my dog steals my families shoes every night while we are watching television.  With statements like this it is immediately clear to me that the behavior is predictable and in order to change it you need to prevent it and teach them something else to do.

Audacious is what I call a 50 time dog.  She is constantly pushing her boundaries to see what I will allow and it is common that I will remove her mouth from my arm and give her a different toy or take her by her collar to escort her back to her place mat that is where she is suppose to be staying 50 times before she actually starts to understand what the boundaries are.  The key to teaching clear boundaries and rules to any dog or puppy is patience, consistency and discipline.  As soon as your dog or puppy sees a weakness in your discipline your doomed to create a monster.

My last words of wisdom are: Even though it’s excruciatingly painful now, patience, consistency, and discipline will pay off in the years to come.  I think we owe it to our dogs to at least give them a fighting chance in this dog eat dog world.

Most people come to us to help them learn how to live with their dog; although when they first call they don’t know that’s what they want.  It’s not about obedience.  It’s great if the dog knows how to sit, drop, and heel.  But to me that’s a bonus.  The very first thing that needs to happen is learning how to live with your dog and creating a positive relationship.  You need to teach your dog or puppy the rules of the house.  Your dog doesn’t need to know behaviors on cue to learn rules of the house.  It’s a funny concept when you think about it, but it’s so very true.  I teach all my puppies when I get them at eight weeks old how to walk nicely on leash, wait at a door, sit to be let out 0f the crate, and sit when they want to be petted within days of bringing them home with the only cue being the environment and what they want at that moment.  I am successful with this because I control the dogs environment to ensure they don’t self reward or steal reinforcement on their own.  Or as retired Police Office Bob Eden would say, “Letting the dog train themselves.”  This doesn’t mean that within days the puppy is trained to fluency or even understands the behaviors they are doing.  That is where consistency and discipline come into the picture; that would be consistency and discipline of the handlers or pet owners.  But within our household the puppy knows and understands the rules and how to earn what they want in that moment.  It’s important that you hold strong in your expectations even when the environment changes this helps the dogs learn that the same rules apply even if the picture is different.  If you want your dog to walk nicely on leash with you then don’t move until your dog has let slack in the leash.  If you want your dog to go to a place and lay down when someone comes to the door, you need to operantly teach the go to a place exercise and in the meantime don’t let the dog rehearse charging people or jumping on people at the door and crate them when someone comes over.  The number one rule in our house is “If you don’t have time to train the dog, crate the dog.”  The worst thing you can do is allow rehearsals of unwanted behaviors.

Don’t mistake this for getting lazy and just always crating your dog, you should behind the scenes be working on a behavior you would like your dog to do instead.  Then when people come over it’s your opportunity to proof the behavior so you are that much closer to fluency.  It’s important that you expose your dog or puppy to as many situations as possible and expect appropriate behavior at the same time.  It is okay to restrict a dogs opportunities such as stepping on a leash to discourage jumping that way you are setting your dog up for success instead of waiting until they fail and correcting them or using adversives.  This allows for many more appropriate and reward-able behaviors that helps you along your path to a good relationship with your dog and training your dogs responses to fluency.

All to often people teach a dog a sit or a drop but never take the time to teach their dog these same behaviors in more places than one; they just expect that their dog should perform them because they taught them once.  But, unfortunately that is not how dogs learn.  They need to be taught over and over and over again until they can rehearse the same behavior in 100 different places 100 different times within three seconds of you asking for the behavior.  Next time you get frustrated with your dog for not performing a behavior or as some people state “being stubborn”, take a moment and really ask yourself; “Does my dog really know this behavior?”  If they don’t, stop, take a moment, and teach them.

I just recently received a five month old puppy from the Paws and Effect Service Dog Program and bringing in a new dog that had already had some life experiences was something I haven’t done in awhile.  I had always raised rescue dogs until I received my German Shepherd three years ago and then a different service puppy one year ago.  Both of these dogs I received at eight weeks of age with a clean slate; no baggage, and no previous training experience.  When I received this service puppy with some previous training it was really interesting to see how this dog understood a number of behaviors but had no idea what a concept was.  It appeared to me in that moment that its not about a behavior you teach the dog, it’s all about concepts.  The dog needs to understand the concept of self control or stay or release cues.  The behaviors we teach our dogs are only by products of the concepts we strive to achieve.  So, the next question always is; how do I teach my dog a concept?  The answer…teach the dog the same behaviors and hold the same expectations everywhere you go to create consistency within your training and through the consistency your dog will learn concepts.  This is where patients and discipline come in.  If you are not willing to be patient and stay disciplined it can be nearly impossible to teach your dog a concept.   

To share a little story in regards to my puppy.  When I first received him and I tried to train him with food; he looked at me like I was crazy; asking him to work for his meals, what was I thinking?  He looked at me as to say “What are you kidding, give me my food!”    So, we started off our relationship learning work ethic, both of us learning work ethic.  The first thing I did was not give in and feed him any food until he would work with me.  This took three days before he received a full meal.  For a few days he would work for a small bit of time and decide other things were more interesting like sniffing and licking the floor, or chewing on the leash.  So, when he started those behaviors I would put the rest of his meal away and he wouldn’t get another opportunity until his next meal time.  I don’t tolerate my dogs pulling me on leash, because of this it made potty breaks very interesting.  I didn’t have the resource of food available to train him to walk nicely for three days; so potty breaks were a hard time.  The first potty break I stayed true to my training criteria even though I was frozen, waiting on him to walk nicely before I would move forward.  First impressions are everything!  In our house just because a dog is five months old we still expect the same self control as if they were an adult in our home.  Thirty five minutes later we are back in the warmth of our home.  This is where discipline comes in it’s not disciplining the dog it’s disciplining yourself to commit to the training and consistency it takes to receive the results we strive for.   

So, the puppy has now been with me for a little over two weeks and he now has a fantastic heel and great impulse control with objects that are on the ground.  He rarely will leave me or steal something from the floor.  It was fun for me to watch the dog learn the rules and it always amazes me how quickly they catch on, but the key is consistency and discipline.  Without those two components your relationship will suffer.