Obedience Training – Page 2 – Dog Puppy Behavior Training Help

October 22, 2009November 28, 2009

Positive Reinforcement & Dog Training: Identify and Manage the Reinforcers!

Reinforcers include anything your dog currently desires.
Food is a primary reinforcer.
Attention, touch, toys, opportunities to interact, playtime, training sessions, opportunities to receive adrenaline and many other objects, events or actions can be reinforcers.

The bottom line is: if the animal wants it and you can control it, it can be used as a reinforcer. Rewards can be added or subtracted. They can be delivered during or immediately after a behavior to increase the behavior (positive reinforcer) OR they can be removed or withdrawn to decrease behaviors (negative punisher, i.e. time out). The best trainers use a variety of reinforcers.

If you want to increase behaviors using positive reinforcement, you must have something of value to that individual animal.

Do you think Donald Trump will be motivated to give you advice for $10? Do you think laboratory rats will run through a maze to get food if they just ate lunch?

Animals that already have rewards will not perform behaviors to receive the same rewards they already own.
Animals that get rewards without any behavioral requirements will not examine and modify their own behaviors in order to receive the same rewards they already have.

Identify and Manage Reinforcers

Before you can implement dog friendly training methods, you should:

Identify reinforcers in the environment
Manage the environment to control the delivery of reinforcers
Identify reinforcers you own
Manage reinforcers you own and you will “become relevant” to your dog

Identify Reinforcers in the Environment

Many reinforcers are in the environment, but not in our control. We are constantly competing with these environmental reinforcers!

Two of many reasons that dogs dig are to stimulate their olfactory senses and to regulate their body temperatures. We cannot control the odors in the soil or the temperature of the soil that reinforce digging. We cannot control the flow of adrenaline our dogs receive when they bark out-of-control at the postman or when they chase vehicles. Heck, we can’t even control our relatives that insist on petting our dogs when our dogs rudely jump up! Even though we can’t control these reinforcers, it’s important to recognize them.

Manage the Environment

Although we cannot control the reinforcers in the environment, we can manage our dogs’ opportunities to receive the reinforcers.
In some cases, managing the environment is the most effective method to prevent our dogs from repeating undesirable behaviors.
Ideally we should modify our dogs’ perceptions and modify our dogs’ behaviors and eliminate the problem behaviors.
In the short-term, we must manage the environment so our dogs’ unwanted behaviors are not reinforced

We can manage our dogs’ access to flower beds. We can provide our dogs with wading pools and warm shelters to regulate their body temperatures. We can manage our dogs’ access to postmen and moving vehicles. We can manage our relatives’ access to our dogs.

Identify Reinforcers We Own

We own and control a few reinforcers that most normal dogs desire. These are food, attention and touch or FAT.

Food – Food is a primary reinforcer, something a dog naturally desires. If your dog has conditional access to food, the value of food as a reinforcer will increase and your significance to your dog will increase.

Attention – Our attention (interactions with our dog) is another strong reinforcer. Dogs are social animals and seek social interaction with their humans. You do not have to teach your normal socialized dog to seek your attention. Dogs that have unconditional access to your attention learn to perform attention-seeking behaviors like barking when you are on the phone. That’s just rude! Once you teach your dog acceptable behaviors for earning your attention, barking for attention is not necessary. If your dog has conditional access to your attention, the value of your attention as a reinforcer will increase and your significance to your dog will increase.

Touch – Touch or tactile stimulation is another reinforcer and rounds out the top three reinforcers over which we have control. To social mammals, touch is grooming and grooming is performed by the subordinates. If your dog has conditional access to your touch, the value of your touch as a reinforcer will increase and your significance to your dog will increase.

Access to territory is another reinforcer that we can control. Dogs that have free access to FAT are more likely to disregard their humans because they have no idea that the humans own the FAT. Often times, animals (and people) are unaware that we are delivering good stuff to them. Your dog may have no idea that FAT comes from you!

For example, can you tell me who is directly responsible for managing the utility crews who deliver your water? Of course not! Although you value water, you don’t really need to know who is responsible for delivering this great resource. You turn the handle and water comes out. The crew chief is not significant to you. You probably never think of the manager even though he or she is indirectly delivering water to you several times each day. Details about the manager are not relevant to you.

Now suppose your water service is interrupted. When you phone in to discuss your situation, the customer service rep tell you that you must find out who manages the crew and you must give that person a gift that they will like – before your water service will be restored. Your behavior will change; you will make an effort to find out who is in charge and what they like. You will examine your own behaviors and carefully choose to perform behaviors necessary to get your water service restored. Now the manager is very significant. Now you are very aware who is delivering the good stuff to you!

Manage Reinforcers We Own

Some dogs who have unconditional access to FAT can become pushy and demanding.
Teaching dogs how to earn these reinforcers adds structure to their environment and contributes to a balanced relationship.
Dogs are less anxious when they learn how to earn food, attention and touch.
Learning when and how to deliver or withhold these natural reinforcers is important for developing your relevance to your dog.

Avoid situations in which your dog demands and receives FAT from you without any behavioral requirements.

October 21, 2009October 21, 2009

Tips for Making Your Dog’s Behaviors Reliable

Here are some ideas on how to get your dog to perform anytime, every time!

Loose Training – Practice the behaviors in many different areas, while adding distractions

Discriminative Stimulus – only reward for learned behavior when signal or cue is given

Intermittent Schedule of Reinforcement – use intermittent schedules

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcers – vary the rewards

Food Treats – fade treats ASAP – move the treats off your body – place treats in other places. Place treats on your body and do not give your dog a treat.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley – Memphis TN

Reactive Dog Specialist

October 21, 2009October 21, 2009

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 patience.

The trainer must be experienced “setting the stage” for the behavior(s) to occur and the trainer must be ready to reinforce the instant the behavior first occurs or miss that opportunity. Some behaviors may never take place. In addition, the dog may become disinterested before s/he succeeds.

Lure – risk for teaching your dog to perform only when food is present

Use food to get the behavior and then reinforce the behavior. Luring creates an additional risk for creating a dog that only works when food is present. The dog may or may not realize what behaviors s/he is performing because s/he is so focused on the food.

Shape – requires patience and perfect timing skills. Break down the target behavior into many small steps, get and reinforce each step until your dog knows that step, then get and reinforce each of the next steps which are progressively closer to the target behavior. Shaping requires patience and is a slow process (compared to bridge-n-target).

Bridge-N-Target – is the most efficient, but requires more skills from the trainer. Bridge and Target is a component of Syn Alia Training System, developed by Kayce Cover. .

Teach your dog to touch (or touch and hold for duration) a target with the applicable body part(s). This provides your dog with a physical location where success will take place. Communicate the correctness of the behavior(s) while in progress. Communicate a signal to indicate success.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley – Memphis TN

Reactive Dog workshops

October 21, 2009November 28, 2009

Schedules of Reinforcement

Schedules of reinforcement are consequence sequences or rates for teaching and maintaining behaviors. Different schedules are used at different stages of teaching and maintaining behaviors. There are three schedules of reinforcement.

Extinction
Continuous
Intermittent

Extinction – when a previously available reinforcer is withheld or no longer available

Some trainers suggest extinction to reduce unwanted behaviors like barking and jumping up. Extinction will reduce the long-term frequency and magnitude of a behavior, but will increase the frequency and magnitude of the behavior in the short-term.

For example: suppose your dog barks when you are talking on the phone. You tell her to ‘shhhh’ or pet her and she does for one moment, but resumes barking in a few moments. Remember, any behavior that is repeated is being reinforced. In this example the touch and ‘shhh’ is reinforcing the barking behavior. To use extinction, you would remove the reinforcers and just ignore the barking.

When you remove the reinforcers that were previously available, your dog will increase her short-term barking efforts to get your attention before she discontinues her long-term ‘barking strategy’. This is called an extinction burst. Your dog will bark at a different pitch or bark louder or add jumping and nipping, or any other behaviors that she considers to be magnifications of the barking behavior. The extinction burst signals that the reinforcers have been successfully removed and your dog will soon abandon her ‘barking while you are on the phone’ strategy, but not before she increases her efforts. If you can survive the short-term increase, you will successfully reduce the ‘barking when you are talking on the phone’ strategy.

Trainers often suggest that clients place ‘jumping up’ behavior on extinction. Dogs jump up for our attention, so the idea is to remove the reinforcer of attention. Just ignore the dog. The problem is that the behaviors during the extinction burst may become dangerous. The dog will jump higher, make more bodily contact, nip, grab clothing or whatever else that dog considers to be in the same response class as jumping up. Suppose the person cannot survive the behaviors during the extinction burst, so the person ‘gives in’ and gives the dog attention. Now the dog has learned that in order to get the person’s attention, she must jump hard, jump high, grab clothes and nip! How rude! It is not advisable to place ‘jumping up’ on extinction if your dog is large enough to knock you over!

In addition to the extinction burst, there is another problem with using extinction to reduce unwanted behaviors. Your dog may very well give up on her barking strategy and replace it with something worse, such as destroy your furniture, counter surf, jump on your table, chase your cat, nip at your child, et cetera. It is much more efficient to teach a polite behavior that is incompatible with the unwanted behavior!

Behaviors that are reduced through extinction are subject to spontaneous recovery. They may reappear later but can usually be extinguished more quickly than before.

The schedule of extinction and the resulting extinction burst is a helpful tool for trainers that use shaping. Trainers place a desirable behavior (that has a history of reinforcement) on extinction and the behavior increases in magnitude and frequency. The trainer waits until the magnified version is closer to the target behavior. If the trainer can reinforce the magnified behavior at the correct instant, the behavior will be repeated. It’s tricky and requires excellent planning, timing and patience.

Continuous – each instance of the behavior is reinforced

Continuous is used for teaching new behaviors or when your dog is extremely distracted. To use a continuous schedule, reinforce the behavior anytime you give the cue and your dog gives you the behavior. You’ll switch to an intermittent schedule as soon as your dog has learned the new behavior well.

Intermittent – the schedule between extinction and continuous, of which there are four sub-categories – variable ratio is the most useful for family dogs. Intermittent schedule is great for maintaining behaviors because we teach our dogs that reinforcement may not occur each time, but it will occur sometimes.

Behaviors that have been placed on a intermittent schedule are much more difficult to extinguish than behaviors that are continuously reinforced. This principle applies to unwanted behaviors as well. If you sometimes give your pup attention when she jumps up on you and sometimes you ignore her, she will keep jumping up – forever and ever! There are four sub-categories of intermittent schedules.

Fixed Ratio – reinforcement occurs after a specific number of desired behaviors
Variable Ratio – reinforcement occurs after an average number of desired behaviors
Fixed Interval – reinforcement delivered the first time a behavior occurs after a specific amount of time
Variable Interval – reinforcement delivered the first time a behavior occurs after an unpredictable amount of time

Schedule Thinning – changing from continuous to intermittent schedules

Methodically changing from a continuous schedule during teaching, to an intermittent for maintenance is called schedule thinning. Behavior that is reinforced on a continuous schedule will not continue if the reinforcement is removed. For example if you place $1 in the soda vending machine and do not get a soda, you are not likely to keep feeding the machine dollars because you are accustomed to a continuous schedule (you always get a drink when you perform the “money insertion behavior”).

On the other hand, slot machines at the casino deliver an intermittent schedule of reinforcement and people offer the “money inserting behavior” for many trials without any reinforcement. If our dogs learn that the reinforcement comes intermittently, they will continue offering the behavior –even if it is not reinforced every time. A behavior that is placed on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement is resistant to extinction.

Schedule thinning should be done in a deliberate exacting process or the behavior will reduce in magnitude or become extinct. Use Continuous schedule when teaching new behaviors, when your dog is slow to respond or when you are warming up at the beginning of a session. Intermittent schedules should be used after the behavior is well established and you have already added the cue. Let’s suppose you are ready to place a behavior on an Intermittent – variable ratio schedule. The idea is to slowly increase the average number of responses before you deliver reinforcement. For example, first you will reinforce an average of 4 out of 6 responses, then you will reinforce an average of 3 out of 6 responses, then 2 out of 6, et cetera. You may need to thin it more slowly. For example, first you may reinforce 19 of 20 responses, then 17 of 20, etc. Mix it up so that your dog never knows if you will reinforce or not, like a slot machine!

Choose the best performances to reinforce when thinning the schedule. If your dog starts to ignore the command, you should increase the rate of reinforcement.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley – Memphis TN

Reactive Dog Workshops

October 12, 2009January 7, 2010

Part 1: Teach your Dog to Walk on Human, Motorized Treadmill

With the popularity of Caesar Milan’s TV show, The Dog Whisperer, occasionally a client will ask me to teach their dogs to walk on a treadmill.

Caesar promotes treadmill workouts as a good way to exercise dogs, and they are!

You can buy a non motorized, or motorized treadmill, made for dogs. Or you could use your human motorized treadmill.

Many of us already have a motorized treadmill, but our treadmills don’t have sides to act as guides to keep the dog facing forward.

How do you get a dog to walk on a motorized, human treadmill that does not have solid sides?

If you are reading this, I’m guessing you’ve already tried to “get” the dog walk on the treadmill via a harness, leash, food treats, cetera.

If your dog is new to the treadmill, like Duchess (pictured in this post), you may need a bit more instructions than, “place your dog on the treadmill and turn it on”.

My client already introduced Duchess to the idle treadmill by tossing a few treats on it. He reported that Duchess was comfortable walking onto the treadmill to eat the food. And she was.

The flaw I noticed was; she would step on the treadmill belt with one, two, three, or all four feet, but she wasn’t necessarily “lined up” and facing the front of the treadmill, as she would if it were powered up and moving. And Duchess was cautious to step up onto the treadmill.

So, I formed a plan.

With the treadmill turned off, I decided I would teach Duchess:

to walk along side of the handler, on leash
approach the equipment from the end, as a person would do
to step onto the belt, and continue to walk very slowly (about the speed of the treadmill will be on slow),
walk to the front end of the belt and exit from the end

So it began. I attached a short leash and walked around the room with Duchess at my side. She did well. I praised her for turning with me and we did several laps around the room. Duchess was perfect, until my path made it so that she would have to step onto the treadmill to continue walking at my side. She balked, and the treadmill was not even turned on! Yikes!

So I switched gears and decided to shape the behaviors. Shaping is when you reinforce actions that are closer and closer to the final goal. You teach the dog in small steps, each step is closer to your final goal.

My first step was to get her to place one foot onto the treadmill (from the entrance end), then two feet, three, four feet, until she was comfortable stepping onto the treadmill. I spent a few minutes shaping Duchess to step on the treadmill, until she would step up on the treadmill, with all four feet. At the end of the session, Duchess would step on the treadmill, without hesitation. I asked the client to repeat the exercise, in preparation for our next session.

There you have it. You are up to date!

Any good animal training plan is flexible, and constantly adjusted for the animal’s success. I’m not quite sure how I will proceed, or if I adjust my plan. For our next session, I expect that Duchess will very happy to step onto the powered off, treadmill.

Here’s my plan. The treadmill will still be in the off position. I’ll ask her to keep walking, until she reaches the end, where she can step off the treadmill.

Once Duchess is happy with that, I’ll teach her about the motor and the moving belt. Then I’ll ask her to step on it and walk towards the end.

Curious about the outcome. So am I.

I’ll post details about the next session, as soon as I have them.

CLICK HERE Video PART 2.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley – Memphis TN

Reactive Dog Seminars

October 10, 2009October 11, 2009

You Should Not Stop a Dog from Jumping Up on Counter

Forget about stopping naughty behaviors.:) Instead, spend a little time with your dog and teach him a behavior that is incompatible with jumping up on counters such as to Go-To-Place.

If you focus on stopping behaviors, you are destined to make a full-time hobby out of training. For example- If you focus on stopping a dog from jumping on the counter and succeed, you really haven’t taught the dog what behavior is acceptable, or how he might behave politely and earn a reward.

The dog may abandon the counter jumping behavior only to start scratching the lower section of the cabinet under the countertop, start barking at the counter, or worse!

Go-To-Place is one of my favorite commands.

The “Place” is a very comfortable dog bed strategically placed in the kitchen where you can reinforce Go-To-Place behavior!

CLICK HERE for Go-to-Place instructions.

If you focus on teaching this one behavior, you won’t have to “break him” from jumping up, licking the dishes in the dishwasher, barking, object stealing or any number of behaviors that annoy you!

It’s much more efficient to teach dogs a few basic behaviors that are incompatible with many unwanted behaviors.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley – Memphis TN

October 8, 2009October 21, 2009

Dog Training & The ABCs of Instrumental Conditioning

There are three distinct pieces to a voluntary behavior, called the ABCs.
The “B” represents the behavior.
“A” is for Antecedent, which is anything present in the environment before a specific behavior. The A precedes the behavior.
“C” is for Consequence, which is the immediate result of the behavior.

Here’s an example of the ABCs of a voluntary behavior. A dog jumps up on a counter and gets food.

Dog sees and smells food on counter  Dog jumps up  Dog gets food.

A B C

The A – food is on counter, dog has access to the counter area, dog is hungry
The B is the behavior, which is any response to any stimulus.
The C is the immediate consequence of the B.

Suppose you would like to reduce “jump up steal food off counter” behavior.

In order to change a voluntary behavior, we modify either the events / environment before the behavior (antecedent), or we modify the events or environment immediately after the behavior (consequence), or both.

You could modify the antecedents and the behavior would be less likely to occur. For Example: attach a leash or tether, place the dog outside of the area, teach the dog to sit or go to place while you make a sandwich, and so forth. Some of the changes could happen immediately, others require that you train your dog.

Now let’s take a look at a few consequences and how they might influence behavior.

Types of Consequences

If consequences are to have an effect on the preceding behaviors, consequences must occur during or immediately after behaviors. Consequences are grouped into two categories, reinforcers or punishers. For consequences to be considered reinforcers or punishers, their effects on behaviors must occur now and anytime in the future when the animal is presented with similar circumstances.

Reinforcers increase behaviors.
Punishers decrease behaviors.

Consequences can be added or subtracted.

A consequence that is added or begins is called a positive consequence.
A consequence that is subtracted or stopped is called a negative consequence.

There are four possible consequences for any given behavior. Two of the consequences will increase (or reinforce) the behavior, and the other two will decrease (or punish) the behavior.

Positive Reinforcer – add or begin to increase behavior
Positive Punisher – add or begin to decrease behavior
Negative Punisher – subtract or remove to decrease behavior
Negative Reinforcer – subtract or remove to increase behavior

Dog sees and smells food on counter  Dog jumps up  Dog gets food. In this example, the behavior of “dog jumps up” is being reinforced (assuming the dog likes the food). A stimulus is added and the consequence increases the behavior, therefore the consequence is a positive reinforcer.

Dog sees and smells food on counter  Dog jumps up  Dog gets squirted with water. In this example, the behavior of “dog jumps up” is being punished (assuming the dog dislikes being squirted with water). A stimulus begins and the consequence decreases the behavior, therefore the consequence is a positive punisher.

Dog sees and smells food on counter  Dog jumps up  Human makes food disappear. In this example, the behavior of jumping up is being punished (assuming the dog wants the food). A stimulus is subtracted and the consequence decreases the behavior, therefore the consequence is a negative punisher.

Dog on counter is being squirted with water  Dog jumps off counter and onto floor Squirting of water is stopped. In this example, the behavior of “the dog being on the floor” is reinforced (assuming the dog dislikes being squirted with water). A stimulus is stopped and the consequence increases the behavior, therefore the consequence is a negative reinforcer. Negative reinforcers usually include escape and avoidance behavior.

Dog friendly training focuses on using positive reinforcement and negative punishment to teach our dogs desirable behaviors. Although we will use all four consequences, dog friendly training focuses on using positive reinforcement and negative punishment to teach our dogs desirable behaviors.

Alan J Turner – Dog Training in Memphis Collierville Germantown TN

How’s Bentley Aggressive Dog Seminar

September 30, 2009October 2, 2009

Help! My Dog Races Through Open Doors!

Why wouldn’t a dog bolt through an open door? Because you teach him not to, that’s why! 🙂

Does your dog race through open doors and gates? Most people either pick up their dogs or hold the dog’s collar to prevent door bolting behaviors. Both of these actions “pay” the dog for trying to run through the door.

The ultimate pay is the chase and adventure of escape. Every time your dog escapes, and you chase him, you are increasing naughty behaviors!

Here is a simple exercise to teach your dog to wait patiently when people pass through doors and gates. The concept can be applied to other doors and gates after your dog perfects the skill at home.

Off leash obedience is an advanced skill, even when the dog is in a fenced area. Before you can expect your dog to obey when he or she is 50 feet away, first you should practice when the dog is on a short leash, then a long line.

Don’t let your dog be the last to know if he or she is invited to pass though the doorway and explore the neighborhood.

Teach Door!

Here’s how to teach your dog to wait while you pass through open doors or gates.

Prerequisite:

Time to perfection varies with the experience of the handler, the handler’s goals for distractions, and the experience of the dog. A dog who has already perfected a few commands, and has not practiced escape behaviors can learn the general concept in one, 15 minute session.

Description: Teaches the dog to remain in one location when people enter and exit doorways.

Function: Default behavior when people open doors or gates

Before your dog learns this command, attach a leash and hold it so that your dog cannot practice bolting through doorways!

Like many training exercises, you’ll teach your dog in cycles. Each cycle introduces a bit more information and teaches your dog about distractions.

If, during any of these cycles of learning, your dog moves towards the door, communicate with actions, not words. Here’s what you should do if your dog moves towards the door.

A) Do not praise and treat.

B) At the first sign of failure, block the dog’s path with your body and body block or herd the dog back to the desired location. This teaches the dog that moving towards the door (when you say “door game”) is impossible.

C) Close the door (if applicable) and return your hand to your side. This teaches the dog that moving towards the door “makes” the door close.

D) Repeat the cycle, with a lesser distraction.

Step 4 of each cycle is when you increase the distraction.

Get creative with your distractions. Think of daily occurrences at the door, and magnify. Make your practice sessions “tougher” than real life.

For example, you may want to teach your dog to wait when you walk through the door backwards, dancing and singing a song!

Ideas for distractions:

marching in place;

reaching for the door;

touching the handle;

jiggling the handle;

turning the handle;

opening the door 3 inches and closing it;

opening the door 10 inches and closing it;

opening the door 2 feet and closing it;

taking 1 step towards the door;

taking 1 step away from the door;

walking into the door way;

walking through the door and back inside;

walking while carrying an interesting item;

items, people or animals on the “dog side” of the door;

items, people, or animals other side of the door;

people passing through the door

people passing through the door with items in their hand

Here are examples of how the initial 5 cycles might progress if the dog succeeds on each cycle. If the dog fails, back up a cycle or two and start again.

If you are working at an exit door without a fenced yard, attach a leash and hold the end of the leash during each cycle, or tether the end of the leash to something inside the house.

Notice the only difference between cycles is step 4.

Cycle 1

1) Say “Door” in an upbeat tone.

2) Push your hand outward towards your dog, palm facing the dog like a stop signal.

3) Wait 1 second and withdraw your “stop signal”.

4) Stand still for 3 seconds.

5) Deliver your reward marker.

6) Toss your dog a treat so that he moves from his current location to get the treat.

Cycle 2

1) Say “Door” in an upbeat tone.

2) Push your hand outward towards your dog, palm facing the dog like a stop signal.

3) Wait 1 second and withdraw your “stop signal”.

4) March in place for 3 seconds.

5) Deliver your reward marker.

6) Toss your dog a treat so that he moves from his current location to get the treat.

Cycle 3

1) Say “Door” in an upbeat tone.

2) Push your hand outward towards your dog, palm facing the dog like a stop signal.

3) Wait 1 second and withdraw your “stop signal”.

4) March in place and reach towards the door handle.

5) Deliver your reward marker.

6) Toss your dog a treat so that he moves from his current location to get the treat.

Cycle 4

1) Say “Door” in an upbeat tone.

2) Push your hand outward towards your dog, palm facing the dog like a stop signal.

3) Wait 1 second and withdraw your “stop signal”.

4) March in place and reach towards the door handle, jiggle the handle.

5) Deliver your reward marker.

6) Toss your dog a treat so that he moves from his current location to get the treat.

Cycle 5

1) Say “Door” in an upbeat tone.

2) Push your hand outward towards your dog, palm facing the dog like a stop signal.

3) Wait 1 second and withdraw your “stop signal”.

4) March in place and reach towards the door handle, jiggle the handle, open door 3 inches and then close the door.

5) Deliver your reward marker.

6) Toss your dog a treat so that he moves from his current location to get the treat.

Introduce more distractions during additional cycles. After each cycle give your dog a short tension rest. Deliver food treats, or verbal praise, quick game of tug, toss a ball, etc.

Once your dog is patiently waiting when the door is wide open, and you are walking in and out the door; enlist friends and family members to knock on your door. Once he perfect the ‘Door” command, you can add another cue. My favorite is a hand signal, a sort of back away motion with my hand, as my back is turned towards the dog.

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Happy Training!

Alan J Turner, Companion Animal Behavior Counselor & Trainer – Canine Specialization

Private and Group Dog Training in Memphis, TN

Owner: How’s Bentley

Member: APDT

September 30, 2009August 18, 2011

Want to Teach Your 10 Week Old Puppy to Sit? Forget About it. :) It’s Too late. . .

Did you want to teach your 10 week old puppy to sit? Forget about it. 🙂 It’s too late.

That turbo charged puppy already knows how to perform every basic obedience command!

Your dog knows how to sit and lie down. He can stay. Your pup knows how to walk towards you. Your puppy knows how to run to you. Your puppy dog can walk the same speed as you. That fellow knows how to dig, or “not dig”. Your puppy can bark, and he knows how to “not bark”. He can certainly choose to jump up, or “not jump up”.

Your goals are to learn how to communicate to your dog WHEN, WHERE, HOW LONG, and WHY he or she should perform basic commands. You will succeed if you build a relationship based on clear communication, and well managed rewards for cooperation.

21st Century dogs live in our homes and sleep in our bedrooms. Unlike most of the the last century when dogs were outside pets or workers, raising a dog to live inside your home requires much more than basic obedience.

Your dog’s behaviors are influenced by your behaviors, and the relationship between you and your dog.

My goal is to help you achieve your goals via private or group services, and by providing free information.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley Memphis TN

September 23, 2009August 18, 2011

Untrained Dog Misbehaving? Attach a Leash. You are a Zookeeper.

If you have a new puppy or dog, you need to manage the environment so your puppy does not practice rude behaviors. Use baby gates, crates, leashes, tethers to control your pup’s access to territory.

Many people overlook the most basic tool for controlling a dog inside the house, the leash. It’s a neat device that has a coupler on one end that attaches to your dog’s collar.

Several times a week, I hear people say, “my dog jumps up on guests or runs out the door at every opportunity”? I suspect these people do not have a leash attached!

Off leash obedience is an advanced skill. No one would take their untrained dog for a walk, next to Poplar avenue, without attaching a leash. Why? Because they know their dogs are likely to go into the street, or chase a car ,or otherwise get into trouble. They realize their dog is not trained, does not respond to voice commands, and they manage the environment by attaching a leash. With a leash attached, the dog is safely connected and unable to make stupid choices. GREAT!

Off leash obedience is an advanced skill, regardless if the location is inside or outside. Instead of waiting for your puppy to make mistakes, and attempting to teach via corrections, help your puppy make the right choices and reinforce good behaviors with rewards. You can kindly prevent your utrained dog from jumping up on guests, counter surfing, getting into the trash, or other wise destroying your home by attaching a leash or tether.

The long term solution for naughty behaviors is simple. Learn how to train your dog and then do it!

Here is an outline of your tasks:

Dog Training Success

Meet your dog’s social, emotional and physical needs.
Kindly prevent your pet from practicing unwanted behaviors. Attach a leash.
Learn how to tell your dog exactly what you want.
Learn how to motivate your dog to want the same things as you.
Change your behaviors in order to change your dog’s behaviors.
Form a global training plan.
Teach your dog coping skills.
Teach your dog basic commands.
Practice with your dog every day.
Practice with your dog in many different locations.
Practice with your dog while increasing the level of distractions.
Practice with your dog on a short leash, and then on a long line – before you go off leash.

Happy Training!

Alan J Turner

Certified Companion Animal Behavior Counselor & Trainer – Canine Specialization

September 20, 2009July 9, 2019

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 method to establish a conditioned reward marker is to use classical or pavlovian conditioning to pair (or associate) a marker with the primary reinforcer of food.

Regardless of the marker you choose, the steps for conditioning the marker are identical. You only need to condition the marker this one time. Your animal is not asked to perform a behavior during the conditioning process.

Do this when the animal is attending to you and not distracted. Do not speak or touch the animal before, or after, you deliver the marker and the treat.

Remember, a marker can be any signal the animal can perceive. My favorite audible, conditioned reward markers are: the sound of a clicker; the word “good”, and the letter “X”.

Here’s how to condition a reward marker.

You are not asking the animal to perform any behavior during this process.

In this example, I’ll use an audible marker, the letter X, spoken abruptly, like a sound.

Speak a crisp “X”; give a food treat. Wait until the animal has finished eating the treat. Say “X”; give the animal a food treat. Repeat 3-5 times. Next, capture sit for folded arms by following the instructions below this sentence.

Capture Sit

The first signal (cue for sit) you teach will be visual. The act of folding your arms across your chest will become your first cue for “sit”. You can teach your puppy the word “sit” after he learns the folded arms cue.

I prefer starting with this visual signal for several reasons. The primary reason is because folded arms and hidden hands discourage jumping.

Dogs jump up because we touch them with our hands. Dangling and moving hands entice dogs to jump.

Folding your hands out of sight sends a signal to your puppy that you are not likely to touch.

In addition it makes it very difficult for clients to repeat the signal over and over, as they do when using a verbal command.

Another reason I use the “folded arms” visual command is because it helps clients control their behaviors. Most people automatically reach and touch a cute, jumping puppy, without thinking.

It seems we humans have an automatic urge to pet or touch puppies that jump up to greet us. This teaches puppies to jump up for greetings.

The folded arms cue is easy for anyone to perform and appears relatively the same to the dog, no matter who is giving the command. This is helpful when you start asking friends and neighbors to ask your dog to sit.

Ask 3 people to say “sit” to your dog. You will witness 3 very different techniques. Some will bark the command as if this will make it happen quicker; others will add meaningless words to the command, and some may tilt their heads forward or swing their arms.

All these additional actions may confuse the dog, because the dog is very likely to process voice tone, motions and body language as the cue.

The delivery of a visual, folded-arms cue is less likely to be clouded by voice tones and body language, since the voice is absent and the body language is the cue!

Here’s how I usually teach a dog to sit on cue via the capture method.

Do not say “sit” or speak any other words during this teaching session. The only sound you will make is the sound of your conditioned marker, the instant your dog’s bottom touches the floor.

Go to a quiet location where your dog will not be distracted.

Attach a leash and instead of holding the end, just drop it on the floor.

If the dog jumps or decides to walk away, you can step on the leash to prevent either of these behaviors.

Stand a couple of feet away from your dog.

Do not speak to your dog, just give your dog a small food treat. Do this three times. Now you have your dog’s attention!

Fold your arms across your chest and tuck your hands underneath your armpits.

Do not speak, just smile at your dog and wait until he sits.

Mark the instant his rump hits the floor by delivering your reward marker. Give him a treat by tossing in on the floor so that he must get out of the sit position to get the treat. Do not praise or talk to your dog.

As soon as your dog finishes the treat and looks at you, fold your arms across your chest, remain silent and wait. He will sit. Mark the instant his rump hits the floor. Give him a treat.

Repeat 3-5 times.

At the end of this quick session, you can talk and play with your dog. Now you can use the act of folding your arms across your chest as a silent signal for Sit!

To teach your dog the word “sit” means the same as the folded arms, visit this page.

Troubleshooting Sit for Folded Arms

Attention-on-Cue, While Standing

The goal is teach the dog to look towards you on command. Attention on Cue is helpful when you are not interacting with the dog but do wish to start interacting. It is helpful if the dog gets distracted and you want his attention.

Teach your dog to attend to you when you say “now”, “chickie”, “hey”, “look”, “hup”, “turn”, or whatever short word you choose.

I do not use the dog’s name for the attention-on-cue signal.

The signal (command or cue) for attention should be unique! The dog hears his or her name countless times and it doesn’t necessarily mean “Look towards me, I will pay you”.

In order to increase behaviors using rewards, first you must get the behavior.

The recipe is for teaching is:

set up the environment to get the behavior
mark and reinforce the behavior
practice in many areas while adding distractions

For this exercise, we’ll use nothing but the signal and food to initially get the behavior to occur.

Then we’ll use the marker to bring attention to (and reinforce) the behavior of looking towards us when we give the cue.

We’ll follow the marker with food treats the first few trials.

Once the dog learns what is expected of him or her, we’ll mark the instant of success and deliver FAT as a reward for looking when we give the signal.

Get the Behavior

Your dog can be on a leash or not. I like to do it off lead in a secure, small area, but if that’s not available to you, attach a 6 foot leash.

It’s okay if other people are nearby, but you don’t need distractions for this step. If other people are present, just ask them to stand quietly.

With your dog nearby, speak your “attention signal” and immediately toss or hand your dog a treat (unless he or she is jumping up on you or performing some other rude or obnoxious behaviors). Say the signal, deliver a treat. No markers are used in this step. Repeat 2 times for a total of 3 trials. By now your dog should be focused on you. If not, discontinue the session and move to a quieter area, or choose a higher value food treat and try again.

Mark and Reinforce the Behavior

You might need a very small distraction for this step. Ask a family member to stand nearby, within sight of your dog. Instruct them to tap with their shoe, make a small noise, or whatever it takes, to momentarily attract the dog’s attention towards them.

Wait until your dog is close by, but not looking directly at you. Speak the cue and watch closely. Mark the instant he or she begins to turn his or her head towards you. Toss your dog a treat. Do this 2 more times for a total of 3 trials.

Behavior will be Repeated

Practice “attention-on-cue” at odd times throughout the day, inside the house, in any room that is relatively quiet.

Ask for the behavior 3-5 times during short time periods at different times of day, in different rooms.

Once your dog is obeying this command in rooms without distractions, add distractions by asking a family member to make some sort of noise or slight motion.

Once your dog is obeying, while inside the house with distractions, it’s time to practice outside. Choose quieter areas at first. Attach a leash and go to your patio, yard or any other familiar area. After you can succeed in these areas, go to other places with more distractions.

Randomly ask for the behavior at odd times when you are not conducting a “training session”. Your goal is to practice this behavior in so many different areas, with so many different creative distractions, that your dog will always look when you give the command!

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Happy Training!

How’s Bentley

Alan J Turner – Companion Animal Behavior Counselor and Trainer

Memphis, Collierville, Germantown Private and Group Dog Training

Fear, Aggression,Anxiety, et cetera

September 16, 2009October 2, 2009

Does Your White Lab Get Too Excited To Obey When People Visit? Practice With Distractions!

Many of my clients report that their dogs jump up on visitors and pretty much ignore them whenever the dogs are excited. The people often say their dog is stubborn. This is an indication that the people have not practiced basic obedience commands with distractions. Practicing with distractions is called proofing.

You should proof your dog with all commands in various locations, with various distractions. Otherwise, your dog will not obey when the environment is filled with exciting people or dogs or events. People with very well trained dogs have spent hours practicing.

Teaching your dog to sit or shake or lie down is the easy part. The real work is practicing in many locations with various distractions!

People and other dogs are a huge distraction to your puppy or dog. The outdoors is full of distractions. Before you can expect your dog to obey when guests visit, or outside at the dog park, you’ll need to practice with smaller distractions that are under your control. Each time you ask for the behavior (called a cycle), you’ll increase the level of distraction.

Suppose you want your dog to sit, no matter what is going on around her. Here is a sample of instructions for “proofing” the sit.

Introduce your dog to “sit” in a quiet location.

Practice in many locations inside and outside the house, until your dog will always sit when there are no distractions. Now, you are ready to proof the sit. At this point, you will create small distractions as you practice.

Before you begin, get a empty, shopping bag. With your dog nearby, wave the bag over your head and ask for a sit. I’m guessing your dog will not sit, but will be excited about the movement of the bag. That’s okay. Now we have a baseline of behavior.

Next, ask your dog to sit when you hold the bag in your hand, without any motion. Then you ask for the sit when you are gently moving the bag in your hands. Next you might slowly move the bag from one hand to the other. Each time you ask for another sit, you increase the movement of the bag in your hand. Be creative. Rattle the bag in your hands, wave it slowly from side to side, et cetera. Slowly raise it over your head and ask for the sit. After several cycles of increasing the movement / noise of the bag, you can wave the bag over your head and ask for the sit. Your dog will ignore the waving bag and sit!

There are many types of distractions that you can introduce and you can control. Try marching in place and asking your dog to sit. How about clapping your hands and asking for a sit?! Be creative. Your goal is to set up proofing sessions with distractions that are more exciting than real life!

If, during these proofing exercises, your dog fails to sit, do not repeat the sit command! Just walk away for a few seconds, come back to your dog and try again, this time with less distractions.

Once your dog will sit, no matter what type of distraction you provide, it’s time to go outside and work with real-life distractions! If your dog is too distracted by the truck passing by, or the bicyclist, that’s okay. Just move your dog away from the distraction and try again.

The key to having a puppy or dog that will listen to you, when the world around him or her is full of distractions, is to PRACTICE with distractions.

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Happy Training!

Alan J Turner – How’s Bentley – White Lab Trainer