Clicker training does not mean you will never tell a dog “no.” Behaviors that are reinforced with a click/treat will repeat; behaviors that are ignored will go away. Ignoring behaviors and/or NOT clicking/treating is telling the dog “no, that’s not what I want.”
2. A Clicker Is Forever
Some people think, “I will have to carry a clicker and treats with me everywhere for the rest of my dog’s life.” Once the dog’s history of reinforcement for a behavior is built and the behavior is on stimulus control, the click/treat reinforcement is no longer as important. It is, however, important to remember that to maintain behaviors, reinforcement of the behavior should still occur.
3. It’s A Juggling Act
You need to have three hands (or more!) to clicker train. Practice clicker mechanics just like you practice “sit” and “down.” Get your leash, clicker, and some treats (candy or something rewarding for you) and practice without a dog (hence the treats for you!). Another way to practice is to have someone bounce a ball while you click/treat when the ball hits the ground.
4. It’s Bribery
Some people also think, “My dog will only listen to me when I have a clicker/treats.” Dogs will not do what they are asked to do until they have learned the cue and the behavior. Once dogs understand the cue and know the behavior, this is no longer an issue. Using proper clicker training mechanics is also an important part in preventing bribery – keep those hands out of the treat pouch!
5. It Isn’t Applicable To Other People
Do you want your dog to listen to someone else? Then have that person train with your dog. Or if what you want is a dog who will listen to a variety of people (vet tech, groomer, dog walker, etc.), have a variety of people train with your dog so that your dog gets used to listening to a variety of people. It is not about training method — it is about generalization and training in general.
6. A Classroom Full Of Clicking Will Confuse A Dog
Life is not lived in a vacuum and dog training is not done in a vacuum. Dogs pay attention to the whole picture – body language, verbalization, emotion, clicker, treats, etc. Your dog absolutely knows which click is for her.
7. Clicker Training Is Limited
You can train everything with a clicker – from sit to housetraining to dog sports to working dogs. Everything.
8. You Can’t Use A Clicker For Dog Sports Or Therapy Dog Work
Clickers are not allowed in the ring or on therapy visits (with many registering organizations/groups). But you can certainly utilize clicker training to train and prepare your dog for these things (remember it’s about history of reinforcement and stimulus control). Fortunately, you can utilize the clicker in your warm-up routine (at competitions it is polite and good trial etiquette to warm up outside or away from the ring(s) if you are using a clicker so as not to distract the working dog(s)).
9. Clickers Won’t Help With Reactive Or Aggressive Dogs
Using a clicker to work with a reactive or aggressive dog can be very calming for the dog. Once the dog understands that click means reinforcement, it helps the dog feel more comfortable and confident. They enjoy knowing that a click means the same thing in the training space, at home, on the street, alone, with other dogs, etc. A clicker increases comfort and confidence in reactive dogs because it consistently reinforces the behaviors they should do in a trigger situation while creating a positive association.
10. Sound Sensitive Dogs Hate Clicker Training
There are a number of different clickers with different levels of sounds for dogs and for humans. Experiment! If you can’t find a clicker that your dog is comfortable with, try a clicking pen, a canning lid, children’s toys – be creative. You can also put your clicker in your pocket or behind your back to quiet the sound a bit. Always be careful not to click too close to a dog, especially his ears.
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
It is our job to start puppies off on the right paw.
As a dog trainer, we know that those first few months of a dog’s life are the months that shape who he’s going to be for the rest of his life. Socialization and structure for a puppy are incredibly important, especially when they begin turning into adolescents. Part of puppyhood should include access to a well run puppy class which you can provide for your clients. There are many things a good puppy class can include, these are 10 of them.
1. Socialization To Touch
An important quality for a family dog to have is the ability to be handled by the family members, especially if children are present. Although tugging and pulling on puppies is inappropriate handling, we want to build a positive association with different handling so the client’s puppy can be a good family pet. Focusing on handling ears, paws, muzzles, and tails while receiving treats will help a client build a good association with their puppy.
2. Socialization to Vet Procedures
A location that quickly becomes scary to puppies can be a veterinarian’s office. Something that we can market to veterinarians is our ability to make a veterinarian’s job easier by training for a vet visit. This can include introducing puppies to low stress handling techniques, weight scales, muzzles, and routine procedures such as ear drops, teeth brushing, or nail trimming.
3. Potty Training
Everyone knows that puppies come with potty training. It’s very important in a puppy class to touch on potty training strategies like routines, management, and reinforcement.
4. Resource Guarding
This is a very important subject for all families, whether their dog or puppy currently shows symptoms or not. Going over what resource guarding is and how it can present itself is important, along with modification techniques and prevention such as adding food to a bowl as you walk by. This can easily be practiced in a puppy class.
5. Socialization to Sounds
Noise sensitivity can show up in dogs when they are not properly socialized to sounds as a puppy. MP3s on your phone or mp3 player can be used softly during puppy class and slowly made louder throughout the class to desensitize puppies to noises like thunder, construction, fireworks, and other loud noises. Calming music such as Through A Dog’s Ear can also be played to keep class a little bit calmer.
6. Focus
Before an owner can expect their puppy to perform basic obedience cues such as sit and down, we need to work on their puppy’s focus. This is something they can constantly work on throughout the whole class.
Puppies are always go, go, go. As a trainer and an owner, we have to teach them to stop every once in a while and be calm. Mat work can be a great way to teach puppies to calm down and hold still for longer than two seconds. It can also help less confident puppies feel more confident in new locations during socialization.
8. Socialization With People
As a family dog, owner’s want their puppies to be comfortable with house guests and anyone else they come in contact with. When appropriate, games like pass the puppy can help puppies meet different people in a positive light.
9. Toy Play
Reinforcement training requires many different types of reinforcement in our tool bags when we work with dogs and puppies. Having owners get down and actually play with their puppies to reinforce good behavior gives us one more tool. Keeping a puppy’s drive for toys through adulthood will make training easier. Sometimes people don’t know how to play with their dogs and it is our job as a trainer to teach them. Toy play can also teach puppies how to respect their owner’s hands when it comes to puppy biting.
I like to include touch in my puppy training because it teaches a puppy how to interact with people and hands in a positive light instead of biting. It is also a gateway to training many different obedience or modification cues. When highly reinforced, this can also become another reinforcer for the owners.
Puppy class shapes a dog’s life. When we can start a puppy out on the right paw, this will lead to better socialized dogs who can enjoy specialized classes that you offer with their owner. It’s our duty as a trainer to improve the well-being of the canine species. This starts with puppies.
What exercises do you include in your puppy class that you feel are important?
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
The way to success in becoming a star athlete or a master criminal is achieved in the same way. The more a skill or behavior is rehearsed the better and more natural it becomes. So often dog parents may come to you wanting to change a dog’s behavior. Of course we are interested in the behavior at hand, but we should be even more interested in what is happening the “other 23 hours of the day”.
Having tunnel vision by focusing on the unwanted behavior isn’t enough. We’ve got to look at what is happening behind the scenes at all of the rehearsal time before the curtain goes up. A pro-golfer is likely to practice other calisthenics to improve his game and I’ll bet your clients dog has his own version of cross-training, too. It reminds me of Mickey, the inventive trainer in Rocky. Mickey had Rocky chase chickens to find a new and more agile way of becoming quick on his feet. Somewhere when you aren’t looking, the pup has invented his own technique for getting the result he desires.
Let’s say you feel like your client’s dog is unnecessarily barking for attention and you are at your wit’s end with this. First, we’ve got to figure out when and where else this behavior is being reinforced. Does he get practice barking away “intruders” like the UPS man or a neighbor dog being walked by the window? Although you might not be directly rewarding the pup for this action with a cookie, just the act alone of the “trigger” going away can be the reward itself to the dog. “I bark, and it goes away”, thinks the pup. “Success!” The repetition of this story is in itself a rehearsal. In turn, the rehearsal of the behavior gets stronger and more habitual. The behavior will eventually become second nature for the dog.
As a professional dog trainer even I get stumped sometimes. Imagine my astonishment when I saw my dog, Dexter with his paws on the kitchen counter! I racked by brain trying to figure out where he had learned this behavior. How had he been rewarded, and where was this rehearsed? After a week of question and observing him like a hawk, I saw him jumping up on the gate in the back of my van to gain a better vantage point. That was it! If it worked for him in the van, he’s bound to “learn” it will work for him in the kitchen. Because animals are such excellent problem-solvers they can piece together the puzzle through masterful trial and error learning. This can make the pup both clever and sly quickly, but it’s also why they are so fun to shape and train.
If the rehearsal of behavior is the key to success, then eliminating or, at least, minimizing the opportunity for the unwanted behavior is the way to begin. Common sense tells us that we aren’t going to keep the UPS guy from coming to the door, or keep other dogs out of our neighborhood, but what we do have control over is what our pup rehearses.
Let’s imagine that I am a master car thief with years of practice. Although I’ve been successful for years, one day I get pinched. I go to jail. I’m kept from practicing my craft. If one day my sentence is up, and I return to society without rehabilitation (learning a replacement behavior) I’m likely to fall back into my old ways to achieve success with my desired result. Moral of the story: If you prevent the villain from rehearsing the behavior while rehabilitating (teaching them alternative actions and behaviors), then they are much less likely to go back to their old crime.
So how do you prevent the pup from repeating bad behaviors? I teach and reward the “opposite” behavior or a DRI (Differential Reinforcement for Incompatible behavior). With barking, for example, I teach and reward a quiet cue. For jumping, I teach and reward a solid “down” or a “belly up” behavior. We should work to reward an appropriate behavior rather than starting by punishing the inappropriate behavior. We must also keep in mind those other 23 hours in the day.
Addressing the time when the dog is alone or not around us is important. For example, you can recommend crating the pup while leaving upbeat music playing to drown out sounds from outside to prevent perimeter barking. Employing simple preventatives, such as making sure the pups are well exercised and left with a food-stuffed toy to keep them engaged, can prevent them from rehearsing old behaviors.
Dogs will always be rehearsing behaviors. It’s up to us to teach and reward the behaviors we want rehearsed. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice.
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
Loose leash walking. *insert ominous music* Sometimes teaching loose leash walking to clients can feel like the bane of every dog trainer’s existence. It’s not that the skills needed are difficult. No, it’s the consistency and patience that are required that can make it so tedious. So, as a modern dog trainer, what are some ways you can help teach loose leash walking to your clients? Here, we’ll examine three videos that may be of benefit.
“Polite Walking On Leash” by Ines Gaschot
This first video shows how starting simple can make such a big impact. Ines starts on the porch with her dog, Loker, simply clicking and treating for a loose leash while working in a small, relatively low distraction location. Ines illustrates how to increase difficulty via distractions and duration of behavior. She then does some troubleshooting for forging and offers alternative ways to reward dogs (changing up treat delivery, sniffing breaks, etc). She offers helpful tips at the beginning and end of the video. This video is fantastic due to its simplicity. It will be easy for your clients to grasp this concept and put it into play, even after you are gone.
“Clicker Training Loose Leash Walking” by Casey Lomonaco
Casey’s approach to loose leash walking is to emphasize the placement of treat delivery. Careful and consistent treat placement means the dog learns that being beside the owner is a Very Good Place to be. She starts slow, just standing in one place. She then begins pivoting 90 degrees each time to encourage the dog to start moving into position. After the dog is confidently doing that, she begins taking large single steps, changing direction frequently. To introduce longevity into the loose leash walking, Casey uses the “300 Peck” method. By the end of this short video, her puppy, Cuba, is politely offering loose leash walking even though he is off leash.
“How Do I Teach My Dog Not To Pull On Leash?” by Kevin Duggan
Kevin takes a different approach from the two videos above. His method is incredibly useful for dogs that aren’t as food motivated, or dogs that are in a highly distracting area. He teaches the dog that all forward movement stops if the leash gets tight. He then turns and goes another direction (“penalty yards”), teaching the dog that pulling towards a desired object actually makes it go further away. Kevin uses his voice as praise a great deal, some treats, and also a toy that his dog desires.
Conclusion
These videos all are highly simple and effective even though they use three different methods. Your clients will all have different learning styles, so being able to offer them several options for teaching this skill will ensure they have success.
What other methods do you like to use to teach your clients loose leash walking?
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
Many clients are averse to the idea of crating their dogs. Being able to explain to them how crating can help their dog’s training progress may open them up to the concept.
Housetraining
Crating can be of immense benefit when it comes to housetraining a dog, regardless of age. It keeps the dog confined to a relatively small space, keeping them from being able to roam and squat wherever they desire. Feeding the dog in the crate makes housetraining go even faster as most dogs will not go to the bathroom where they eat. Obviously it is important to stress to your clients the importance of taking the dog outside on a regular basis. Also, be sure to emphasize that crating is not to be utilized 24/7, but only when the dog is not able to be immediately supervised.
Settle
Crating can teach a dog that it’s okay to relax. Starting with very small amounts of time, clients can put their dogs in a crate with something yummy to chew on. Doing this consistently can teach the dog that good things happen in there and it’s okay to relax and settle down. This can be helpful at times when visitors are coming and going or the dog just needs to be out of the way for some reason. Having a dog that will settle in its crate can be a great management tool.
Home Base
Group classes are a great time to utilize crating. When you are talking and your attendees need to listen, they can put their dog (who knows that settling in a crate is a good thing!) in the crate so they can focus on you. The crate can also act as a home base for the dog when things get stressful or he just needs a break. Or make a training game of it – have your client do some work with the dog and then they and their dog can run to the crate together and throw a party when the dog enters.
Separation Distress/Anxiety
Separation distress/anxiety can be a nightmare to deal with, but crating can sometimes help ward it off. If your client’s dog has learned to associate the crate with Very Good Things, and has learned that its crate is used for settling in and relaxing, it can help the process of treating the separation anxiety. It is also useful to prevent a dog from pacing back and forth from window to window and barking at people/animals passing by, thereby keeping their stress levels elevated. Crating can encourage the dog to just relax and sleep or work on a chew toy. Note: Separation anxiety can be dangerous for the dog – if you are not confident in your ability to recommend a course of action that will keep the dog safe during training, please refer your client to somebody who is!
Preparation For Emergencies
Nobody ever wants a tragedy to occur, but sometimes they do. What happens if your client’s dog gets sick and has to spend the night at the e-vet? If the dog isn’t accustomed to crating, it can get incredibly stressed out, hindering treatment. If you and your clients live in a location with natural disasters that might prompt evacuation, having a crate trained dog can make it much easier to find a place that a client can go with their dog. Or even something as basic as your client wanting to take a vacation – dogs that are not accustomed to crating are more likely to panic in a kennel setting.
Crating responsibly can be incredibly beneficial to your clients’ progress in training their dogs. Being able to explain the usefulness may open some otherwise closed minds.
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
One of the first behaviors we recommend teaching every client a nose target. There are many behaviors you can teach with a nose target, and even more you can teach with general targeting. We also believe it is a good behavior to teach in the beginning because it can help clients sharpen their clicker mechanics. Clients are able to physically feel the behavior they are supposed to click. Here are 10 good behaviors you can train with basic targeting.
1. Loose Leash Walking
Once the dog is able to nose target your hand well, it can be a big help for teaching loose leash walking. Instead of luring the dog with food, you can place your hand exactly where you want the dog to be (lined up with your leg), and click/treat them when they target your hand. If the dog is very target savvy, they can follow your hand for multiple steps before you click/treat. You can eventually fade out the hand target and have a very nice loose leash behavior. This can also help with heeling.
2. Mat Work
Mat work is very popular. It can provide a dog their own space whether in the house or in a foreign location. It can also be a helpful tool when trying to teach impulse control or relaxation methods. Instead of using just a nose target, mat work is a whole body targeting technique. You are teaching the dog that when they see their mat, they are to place their entire body on top of the mat. You can decide if you want only a down, or if you will accept a sit or stand on the mat. This can be applied to their cage, or a certain spot in the house when doing a certain activity. For example, when I’m cooking in the kitchen, you are to stay on the kitchen rug out of my way.
3. Platform Work
Platforms are very useful for many different dog sports or training techniques. You can use a platform as a ‘home base’ if you are working with multiple dogs. You are training the dog to target their whole body to a platform and to stay until you call them off. Another form of platform work is to teach the dog to target their two front paws on a platform and to pivot. This helps the dog learn hind end awareness which is very helpful for many dog sports including obedience, rally, agility, and freestyle.
4. Close The Door
A fun behavior to teach with targeting is closing the door. Using a nose target, you can train the dog to close the door through small approximations. If the dog can nose target a sticky note, have the dog target the sticky note on an open door and click for any movement of the door when they target the note. Once the dog knows what you are asking for and can close the door, you can begin to get rid of the sticky note by making it smaller and smaller until you no longer need the sticky note. People love seeing this behavior and will love to show off this skill to their friends. You can also work this with dresser drawers.
5. Recall/Come
Many people do not think of a recall as a targeting behavior, but it definitely can be. If you ask for the target cue from further and further, you are essentially asking the dog to recall from further and further away. You can eventually switch to a recall cue if you want to use something else, or you can just continue using your target cue.
6. Basic Obedience Cues
Your basic obedience cues such as sit, down, and stand can be taught with targeting instead of luring. Once the dog has the hang of a nose target, instead of using a piece of food to lure their nose up for a sit, you can just have the dog target your hand up into a sit. The same can happen for a down or a stand behavior. Some people prefer targeting over luring for these behaviors before you do not have to fade out the treat lure. It can be easier to fade out your hand movement or simply create a hand signal for the behavior.
7. Leg Weave
You can teach the dog to weave between your legs very easily with a nose target. Have the dog sit and stay and make a triangular space with your legs large enough for the dog to go underneath. Ask for a nose target on the opposite side of your legs and click as the dog targets your hand and moves between your legs. Once they catch on, you can ask for multiples weaves before rewarding. A very impressive, but easily taught behavior.
8. Saying “Hi!”
If the dog is an excited greeter, you can use a hand target for greeting in order to keep the dog from getting over excited. Having the dog on leash when guests come over gives the dog time to calm down before greeting the guests. Once they have calmed down a bit, the guest can ask for a hand target and then the dog can reorient to you for reinforcement.
9. Medical Behaviors
Targeting can be used to help a dog become comfortable with handling or procedures at the vet’s office. Targeting behaviors are used with large animals in aquariums and zoos to help veterinarians get samples or perform procedures on them. A prolonged target behavior can make it easier to give vaccines, take samples of blood, or get a physical exam. If the dog is doing a job, they will be more focused on the job than on what is occurring. A highly reinforced behavior like targeting can also help to calm the dog during a stressful situation. These targeting behaviors can even be done muzzled if you need that extra protection for veterinarians and staff.
10. Take A Bow
This cute finisher can easily be taught with a nose target. It is very similar to a down, but your precise clicker mechanics will come into play here. As the dog is going down to target your hand between their legs, you click as the behavior is happening, but before they drop their rear into a down. Too many bad clicks in down position will confuse the dog and will get you a down instead of a bow. Once the dog is getting pretty good, you can begin to fade the hand target and you will end up with a nice finishing behavior for all your future demonstrations.
Targeting is a very fun behavior for dogs and quickly becomes very highly reinforcing for them. These are ten behaviors you can teach with targeting, but the possibilities are truly endless when it comes to behaviors you can teach with targeting. What behaviors do you teach your clients with targeting? Do you prefer fun tricks or behavior modification with targeting?
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every month! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
Open enrollment dog training classes are a big leap from traditionally scheduled and planned classes, but the conveniences they provide to our students are outstanding! Many students are looking for convenience in their classes and this concept can be a delightful change in your class schedule.
Set Up An Orientation Time For New Students
Orientation time can be a separate class time (for example: orientation is each week on Mondays at 6:00 p.m.), 15 – 30 minutes before each class, or a film a video you can send to new clients to watch before class. During orientation, cover topics such as clicker basics, classroom philosophy, and housekeeping items.
Create Your Schedule
Determine how often you want the class to “roll over” or begin again. Make a list of topics you want to cover in a typical series and how many classes it takes to include all of them (my classes “roll over” every six weeks). Also determine how many times each week you will offer the same class, adding to the flexibility factor of this structure.
Be Prepared To Have Students At Different Levels
Open enrollment classes mean that potentially every student in your class could be at a different level on the same exercise. Be prepared to address these different levels. Using the three D’s (duration, distraction, and distance) is helpful in preparing your classes to address the different needs of students at different levels.
Make Flexible, Open-ended Lesson Plans
Having flexible, open-ended lesson plans for each class gives you direction and purpose. It will make each class session more productive if you have goals set ahead of time.
Educate Your Current And Potential Students
Remember, this may be a new concept to your students, too! Explain your new class structure, outline the benefits, and show them how this will the flexibility will suite their needs.
Give It Time To Work
We have taught traditionally planned and scheduled classes for a long time. It’s going to take some time for you and your students to get used to this new concept. Give yourself time to settle into this new routine, but make sure your plan is clear to your clients to avoid miscommunication.
Comment below if you run open enrollment dog training classes and what you think of them!
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
Ken Ramirez, Liz Wyant (the author of this article), and some of her friends at his Cleveland seminar.
A Weekend With Internationally Recognized Animal Trainer, Ken Ramirez
Ken Ramirez has been in the animal training/behavior world for over 35 years. He has worked with guide dogs, law enforcement K-9s, zoo animals, and marine animals. He has worked at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium for 26 years, most recently as the training advisor. In October of 2014, he started a new role as the Executive Vice-President and Chief Training Officer of Karen Pryor Click Training. Ken is an avid proponent of force-free animal training.
In November, Ken presented a two-day seminar we were able to attend. 26 pages of notes later, here are some of the concepts we felt were most important.
Training 101
Ken describes training as teaching an animal what the rules for living in a particular space are. He emphasizes that it should be a shared process; the animal should WANT to be with that person and should WANT to train.
Ken feels the cornerstones of animal care are:
Health Care
Nutrition
Environment
Behavior Management – As Ken says repeatedly, “training is not a luxury.”
That last point is what struck me the most – training is not a luxury. So often our clients factor in costs of health care, food, and grooming, but not training. Training is only used when something goes bad, not to provide the mental stimulation that dogs need to have a basic, happy and healthy life.
Least Reinforcing Scenario/Stimulus (LRS)
Ken explained the LRS as the most positive approach to dealing with unwanted behavior. It was developed in the zoological training community as a way to operationalize the mantra of “ignore the unwanted behavior.” Though very basic, it can be a powerful tool. The Least Reinforcing Scenario is simply a 2-3 second neutral response after an animal gives an unwanted behavior, followed immediately by another opportunity to earn reinforcement. For example, you cue a dog to sit and it lies down instead. Immediately when the dog lies down instead of sits, give a neutral response for 2-3 seconds and then cue the dog to do a different cue that you are positive they can successfully complete.
So what is a neutral response? There is no straight answer to this. It is not a freeze, it is just a continuance of what you are doing – if you are looking at the dog, keep looking at the dog. If you were in the process of scratching an itch, keep scratching the itch. The key is to just maintain the environment so the dog is neither punished nor rewarded. This is only effective for a dog that is accustomed to working in a positive reinforcement environment. When you reward, reward, reward and then don’t, the dog will notice the lack of rewarding. There’s no need to extend the time or get emotional – just 2-3 seconds of a neutral response is enough feedback.
Alternative Reinforcers
Alternative reinforcers are learned reinforcers. They can be anything – clapping, toys, touch, play, words, or anything else the animal values. They give you a chance to provide some variety in your reinforcers to keep the dog excited about working with you. Alternative reinforcers need to be trained as behaviors so the dog understands what they mean. This means it needs to be paired with food and marker signals and practiced for weeks. Once the dog begins to value the alternative rewards, you should still use treat rewards 80% of the time during training sessions.
For alternative reinforcers to be effective, the trainer and animal must already have a predictable and solidly established relationship. It is incredibly important to constantly maintain the strength of the alternative reinforcer by keeping it paired with food. Also, be mindful that if a dog’s behaviors deteriorate after using the alternative reinforcer, the alternative reinforcer is NOT a reinforcer at all!
These are just a few of the topics that Ken discussed. He kept everybody captivated for two full days and we left feeling invigorated about training and ready to try his ideas. Should you get the opportunity to see him, we couldn’t recommend him highly enough!
Have you tried using LRS’s or alternative reinforcers? Tell us in the comments!
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
The very nature of training can be stressful to a dog. Not all stress is bad. However, when a dog has many different stress-inducing factors piled on top of each other, this can become overwhelming and cause the dog to act out or shut down. When a dog is too stressed out, learning does not occur. For this very reason, we must try to minimize the amounts of environmental stress our dogs experience during training. Here are three ways you can reduce stress in dog training.
1. Clean Clicker Mechanics
If a teacher were asking you questions in class and then having to look up every answer you gave them to make sure they were right, you’d become incredibly frustrated after a while. The same thing can happen with our dogs. If our marker words or clicks are too slow, our treat delivery sloppy, or our attention is not completely on our training session, the dog is likely to get frustrated and may stop trying. Making sure your mechanics are clean and on time will do a lot for a dog’s confidence and stress level. It’s also our job, as the trainer, to make sure our client’s mechanics are clean. Playing some clicker mechanic games before introducing your client’s newly acquired training skills to their dog can go a long way for the stress level of their dog. You can find more about clicker mechanics here.
2. Appropriate Distraction Levels
When a dog is worked in an area where there are too many distractions for their level of training, they can become incredibly stressed for a few different reasons. If the dog is prone to being anxious, too many distractions can cause them to go through information overload and they can become stressed out. When a dog is stressed, they cannot provide their owners with the attention their owners want. When the owners see their dog’s attention elsewhere, the owner can become stressed with the training process. Feeding off the owner, the dog becomes even more stressed. It is a stressful cycle to get in. To make both the dog and owner successful, lowering the distractions around the session to a level the dog can be successful is key.
3. Small Steps
When we are working with clients and their dogs, we are generally helping them build behaviors for their dogs. We have to take small steps towards the big picture goal. When we expect dogs to take leaps in training, they can become lost and get stressed when they don’t know what we are asking for. Training will go quicker when we ask for smaller steps that they can build on quickly. Taking larger steps may slow us down as the dog has to guess and interpret what we are asking for.
Some level of frustration will always be present in training, however, we should always do our best to make sure the least amount of frustration is present when training. Showing our clients how to use a clicker and how to build behaviors appropriately is our duty as a trainer. When our dogs are happy, we will get cleaner, quicker, and better behaviors.
What other ways can we lower our dog’s stress during a training session?
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
In the dog training world, there seems to be two big groups of clients. On one side, there are clients who are incredibly stingy and hoard treats like they are gold, and on the other side, there are clients who never let a treat leave their hand or in front of their dog’s noses. For those clients who find it hard to put down the treats, we have to get creative and find ways to get those treats out of their hands. Here are some tips on how to prevent bribery in dog training.
Treat Bags
If clients are working away from their ziplock bag of treats, it is likely that they will take handfuls so they don’t have to keep going back to the bag every click. A treat bag on their waist or a treat vest will keep their treats accessible so they do not have to load up a handful before a training session.
Let Me Help You
As a teacher, we are there to monitor our students. If we hold the treats for our clients, then we can monitor when they go for the treats. This can make our clients more aware of their clicker and treats, and prevent them from grabbing a treat before they click. This technique does require you to accompany the client as they work so their treats are accessible. An approach like this may not be appropriate for everyone or every dog. Assess your situation before utilizing this approach.
Positions
If your client consistently grabs for a treat before the click, try finding a ‘home’ station. Collaborate with your client and find a position that their hands can go back to every time after clicking and treating. Once they use the position enough, it will become second nature and will get rid of the premature grabbing of the treats. This technique can also be used with the previous suggestion.
TAG Teaching
TAG teaching is the human equivalent of clicker training. You, the trainer, will come up with a TAG point for your client. A TAG point is the criteria of what you want. An example could be, “The TAG point is hand on thigh.” It would be your client’s job to return their hand to their thigh after every click/treat. When your client does place their hand on their thigh, you would click your own unique clicker just for your client. In this case, the click is reinforcement to your client for a job well done. TAG teaching makes your client aware of what is expected of them and makes them more aware of what they are doing. After enough times, it becomes routine for your clients to keep placing their hand on their thigh. To learn more about TAG teaching, visit their website here.
Being a trainer means that we must be good teachers to our clients. When our clients have good clicker mechanics, they can achieve anything they want. Sometimes we have to use our creativity to help our clients become proficient at training.
What other creative ways have you used to get treats out of your client’s hands?
Get Dog Training Business Tips!
Receive valuable dog training business tips and resources every week! Subscribe to The Modern Dog Trainer now by submitting your name and email below.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
