Dog Puppy Behavior Training Help

Tough Boy Trick- Capture your Dog’s Cute Behaviors – Place on Cue

Imagine a photographer with a camera focused on a bird’s nest – just waiting for the baby birds to pop their heads up. The instant the birds show their heads, the photographer captures the image by releasing the shutter. Imagine a dog owner (me) walking his turbo Australian terrier (Bentley). Imagine Bentley scratching the ground with his feet (like a bull), immediately after he urinates....

Teach your Dog Inside Voice – Capture Dog’s Natural Behavior and Place it on Cue

One of the neat things about using an instant reward marker is how you can capture a natural behavior and then teach your dog to do it on cue. Here’s a recent email exchange with my client, Elizabeth, who has a 4-5 month old large mix breed dog, Big Mac. BETH’S EMAIL: Well, I taught him….Inside voice….and he acts like he is going to bark but doesn’t make a sound……Now he...

Troubleshooting: Capture Sit for Folded Arms

Truth is, most dogs default to sit when they reach the impasse, as presented during the ” capture sit for folded arms” exercise. The leash is a tool to reduce your dog’s choices. Ideally, the dog will not feel any pressure from the leash, unless he or she jumps up. The short leash will abruptly stop the dog’s upward progress, and the dog’s attempts to jump up will fail. Most dogs...

Easy & Lazy: Sit in a Chair & Teach Your Dog or Puppy to Lie Down!

Of all the methods to teach a dog to lie down, capturing is the easiest, but it is seldom used because people do not understand or believe it will be effective. Capture is when you set up the environment for the behavior to occur, or just wait for the dog to perform the behavior, then you mark and deliver a treat. You don’t say anything, or offer a food lure, or provide any other input before the...

Methods to “Get” your Dog to Perform a Behavior

Before you can use positive reinforcement to reward your dog (Food treat, Attention, Touch), you’ll need to get the dog to perform some version of the behavior. There are many methods to get behavior. Here are some dog-friendly methods. Capture – good for simple behaviors that are naturally offered, like sit. Just wait until it is occurring and then reinforce the behavior. Capturing requires...

Puppy or Dog Obedience Training First Steps – Condition a Marker, Capture Sit, Teach “Look”

Want to start an obedience program for your puppy or dog? You can start as soon as you bring your dog into your family. The first two commands all dogs should learn are “Look”, and “Sit”. Before you begin teaching, it’s helpful to learn a bit about rewards and reward systems. Please visit the START HERE category of posts before you begin. Conditioning a Reward Marker The...