Putting Together a 5-minute Training Session
Much of the training you do at home will occur during every day interactions with your dog. For example, when your dog jumps up, you should turn your back, fold your arms and reward him with attention only when all four of his feet are on the floor. Be conscious of all your interactions with your dog! Make an effort to reward behavior you like and avoid rewarding behavior you don’t like.
In addition, devoting a few minutes a day to a training session is invaluable. Many of the techniques we are teaching in class require you to develop new skills, such as timing, reading your dog and simultaneously juggling clicker, treats and leash. The ultimate goal, besides a better-behaved dog, is for you and your dog to learn to communicate effectively. Training sessions allow you and your dog to focus exclusively on each other. For this week, try to build a habit of at least one short training session per day.
Rules for training at home:
A session that ends with both of you happy is a successful session!
How to get started:
The whole session may last less than 5 minutes – don’t keep going so long that your dog loses interest in the game. A tiny amount of progress in any individual session is all you need. Add up all the tiny steps and you will soon see very big changes.
If you are getting frustrated, try again later. Continuing will do more harm than good. What is most important is that both you and your dog enjoy the process, so you are motivated to train again the next day.
Having problems? Does your dog seem anxious, confused or disinterested?
If anxious, don’t lean over your dog, use a softer tone of voice and don’t gesture or click right in his face.
If confused, make sure you click precisely when you see the behavior you want and that you click for the same behavior each time.
If disinterested, try better treats or a place with fewer distractions. Another possibility is that you need to improve your timing. Once your dog understands this is a game worth winning, he will be interested.
Challenging Your Dog to Improve Performance and Reliability
By this time, your dog can probably perform a few behaviors, such as “sit,” “touch” and “watch me,” some of the time. However, you’ve probably found that with any small change in the environment your dog may “forget” what he’s just learned. Teaching your dog the new behavior and its cue are only the first step. Your dog hasn’t truly mastered these new skills until he is able to perform reliably, which is at least 80 percent of the time, in the presence of distractions.
Mastering any new behavior usually involves these five steps:
Example:
“Stay” – your dog will hold a stay for sixty seconds while you stand right next to him, but you want to increase the distance you can move away from him while he stays:
Let’s say your dog will sit, but he stands and looks at you for several seconds before he sits and you are giving several cues. You’d like him to sit promptly on the first command.
First, perform the behavior a few times at the dog’s current level of performance and click and treat each successful sit, even if it’s very slow. Perform the behavior, “sit,” a few more times, but this time only give one cue and only click and treat your dog if he sits in 5 seconds or less. At this point, it doesn’t matter if he sits lopsided or not directly in front of you. Your only concern is time. If he sits but it takes him too long, speak to him with a happy voice, “that was a nice sit, but it doesn’t get a cookie.” Then, get him up and try again.
Soon you should see his average response time improving. Once he sits within five seconds, at least 80 percent of the time, decrease the time you give him to respond. Now reward him only when he sits in four seconds or less. Continue decreasing the time until you are getting an immediate response. Now put back any other requirements you have, such as sit directly in front of me, and only reward sits that are fast and straight.
Now you want to add distractions. For example, you have been training in the living room and your dog does great. Now you go to the backyard and children are playing across the street. Suddenly, your dog acts like he has never heard the word “sit.” If your dog is looking across the street and not at you, forget “sit” at the moment and try “watch me” a few times. When you have your dog’s attention, ask for a sit. Click and treat every sit, even if it’s slow and crooked.
If your dog is very distracted, you may need to go back to luring him into a sit, making the behavior easier. Keep the lesson short. You may want to give a big reward, the jackpot, when he gives you a good sit, then end the session. Remember, you always want to quit on a high note. The next time you train with children across the street, he will remember that paying attention to you is rewarding.
Improved performance and reliability will probably take many short sessions. That’s OK. A little progress each time is what keeps you coming back for your next session.
Article courtesy of Dumb Friends League
Reproduced by permission
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