Submitted by: Shannon MacBeth, Shakespeare's Legacy Labradors
"Empowering puppies to be all they can be with and for their forever families."
Understand this, a poorly socialized, but friendly dog will eventually start a fight he’s not looking for or prepared for. If I hugged everyone I met, eventually I, too, would get punched in the face. ~ Chad Mackin
The past 8 weeks of puppy rearing has flown by, and the puppies are now settled and thriving in their new homes with their amazing forever families. We’ve done our best to show them the world is safe, people are kind and dogs are friendly. Now the responsibility lies with their new families to continue their socialization, exposures, and training.
So, what’s next? Well, we decided to keep one of the puppies to potentially be part of our breeding program in the future, pending her health testing. So along with all the other puppy families, we are going to start stage two of puppy raising and training as well. Where do we start? What do we train first? Would you believe it’s not Sit, Shake-a-paw or Roll Over? While we tend to lean heavily into training the cute tricks, we fail our dogs by not training them to have manners when meeting humans and other dogs. We fail to train them how to stay safe, how to avoid conflict, injuries, and emergencies, and how to remain confident in their own abilities.
"Empowering puppies to be all they can be with and for their forever families."
Understand this, a poorly socialized, but friendly dog will eventually start a fight he’s not looking for or prepared for. If I hugged everyone I met, eventually I, too, would get punched in the face. ~ Chad Mackin
The past 8 weeks of puppy rearing has flown by, and the puppies are now settled and thriving in their new homes with their amazing forever families. We’ve done our best to show them the world is safe, people are kind and dogs are friendly. Now the responsibility lies with their new families to continue their socialization, exposures, and training.
So, what’s next? Well, we decided to keep one of the puppies to potentially be part of our breeding program in the future, pending her health testing. So along with all the other puppy families, we are going to start stage two of puppy raising and training as well. Where do we start? What do we train first? Would you believe it’s not Sit, Shake-a-paw or Roll Over? While we tend to lean heavily into training the cute tricks, we fail our dogs by not training them to have manners when meeting humans and other dogs. We fail to train them how to stay safe, how to avoid conflict, injuries, and emergencies, and how to remain confident in their own abilities.
After completing various, extensive training courses, reading many books, speaking with several trainers, and researching various training styles and outcomes, I’ve figured out positive reinforcement is the only form of training I will ever promote or use for training. We focus on capturing behaviours we want to see more of and naming them with what we call “cues.” We use a clicker to exactly capture the behaviour in the moment and then offer the reward. The sound of the clicker triggers a connection in the brain, thus making it clear to the puppy that what they are doing is pleasing and a reward is coming. Let’s break the myth that once you start using a clicker, you will have to use it forever. The fact is as soon as the puppy/dog is reliable with the cue, you can drop the clicker entirely. While we’re at it, let’s also look at the adage that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This is the farthest from the truth. Any dog at any stage can continue to train and be challenged for optimal behaviours. Training sessions should consist of these three things: fun, short and rewarding. Each session should be no more than a few minutes and always end on a positive note with lots of praise and play.
The first cue to teach a puppy, or new dog coming into your family, is their name. I know this likely seems silly, they should know their name already, right? The truth is animals don’t “own” their names like humans do. Think about it, Rufus doesn’t just go by that name, does he? No, he also goes by Pal, Buddy, Stinker, You little….., right? So, let's make their name the first cue that will lead to building so many other important cues. When training “The Name Game” the premise is so simple, say their name, when they look at you (and in the beginning it may merely be a glance in your direction) you give them a click and a reward. What is a reward? It could be many things, you just need to determine your dog’s love language and what is going to work best for them. Keeping in mind, the harder the cue, the more value the reward is going to need to be. The name game is a simple cue so everyday kibble would most likely work. For less food motivated dogs, tossing a ball or simple praise would work as well. Now some of you may be saying, but my dog was a rescue and came with a name. Take a moment to think about that. Did you get the background about why the dog was left with a rescue? Was it a surrender because the owner passed away? If so, keeping their original name is likely the best thing to do for that dog. But what about if the dog was rescued from the streets or a situation of neglect or abuse? Every time they hear that name it’s likely to have negative memories associated with it. Even if they received their name from the rescue, hearing it may bring back negative reactions to other dogs in close proximity during their stay. If you aren’t able to get their backstory, gauge their reaction to the name. Are they wagging their tail and seem happy when they hear it, or do they start to shake, tuck their tail, and show other signs of fear? See the name is the cue, the action and behaviour by both the dog and the human, comes after the cue. In cases like this, it’s best to give them a new name, just like the clean slate you’ve given them. Once we have the name cue well established, there are two noticeably clear directions to continue training. We build on the name game to the “Attention” or “Look at me” cues as well as begin training the “Leave it” cue. Both can be life saving. Attention is when you turn the name game into having the dog moving to stand in front of you, giving you eye contact. Start with the name game, but now the dog should be coming to you every time you call their name.
Once in front of you, wait for eye contact, clicking and rewarding the eye contact. Once they are reliable with giving eye contact, add the cue “Attention” or “Look at me.” This cue can help when you have a dog with reactivity, prey drive or excitability. You can redirect their attention to you immediately and away from the subject that could cause stress or issues for either or both of you.
Leave it - you’ll have them sitting or standing in front of you. Put a couple treats or kibble in your hand and hold it in a loose fist, open enough for them to easily determine where the treats are. They are likely going to lick and mouth at your hand at first. As soon as they back away, you’re going to click, say “leave it” and then open your hand for the reward. This one may take a few sessions before they get the hang of it. From there you’ll transition to placing the kibble/treats on the floor and cover them with your hand or foot, then follow the same action. As soon as the puppy moves away from it, you’ll say, “leave it” and remove the covering releasing their treat jackpot. You’ll eventually progress to placing a treat on the floor and just prior to doing so say “leave it” and they will wait until you give them the go ahead to indulge in their reward.
The final beginner cue is “Go to Place” or “Go to Mat” or whatever you’d like to call a place in your home that the puppy will retreat to whenever someone comes into the house, while you are cooking or any time they need to take a break. This is a cue that will be trained in stages. Picture a staircase, the first step is having the puppy acknowledge the mat, the second step is placing a paw on the mat, the last step is staying on the mat for a period of time. We can’t expect a puppy to jump to the top step immediately. Begin by placing a mat on the floor and rewarding when the puppy shows any interest in the mat, up the challenge to having a paw placed on the mat, increasing the expectation until all four paws are on the mat. At this point you’ll ask for a sit and eventually to wait or stay in that place until you release them.
Training a puppy can be one of the most frustrating and rewarding things you can do. It’s not easy and you’ll face setbacks, but having a well-behaved puppy is the best thing you can do for them. When they finally get that cue they have been working on or when they have no reaction to the dog walking by that is losing its marbles, it’s so rewarding. In the end, it keeps their brains working, strengthens the bond they have with you and keeps them safe. It will tire them out by challenging them and this will help prevent unwanted and dangerous boredom habits from happening as well. Take a few minutes every day to work with your dogs. At the end of their time with us, no one will ever say I wasted time working with my dog.
Stay tuned for next month's article where more training tips will be shared. Until then, happy training!
www.facebook.com/shakespeareslegacylabradors
The first cue to teach a puppy, or new dog coming into your family, is their name. I know this likely seems silly, they should know their name already, right? The truth is animals don’t “own” their names like humans do. Think about it, Rufus doesn’t just go by that name, does he? No, he also goes by Pal, Buddy, Stinker, You little….., right? So, let's make their name the first cue that will lead to building so many other important cues. When training “The Name Game” the premise is so simple, say their name, when they look at you (and in the beginning it may merely be a glance in your direction) you give them a click and a reward. What is a reward? It could be many things, you just need to determine your dog’s love language and what is going to work best for them. Keeping in mind, the harder the cue, the more value the reward is going to need to be. The name game is a simple cue so everyday kibble would most likely work. For less food motivated dogs, tossing a ball or simple praise would work as well. Now some of you may be saying, but my dog was a rescue and came with a name. Take a moment to think about that. Did you get the background about why the dog was left with a rescue? Was it a surrender because the owner passed away? If so, keeping their original name is likely the best thing to do for that dog. But what about if the dog was rescued from the streets or a situation of neglect or abuse? Every time they hear that name it’s likely to have negative memories associated with it. Even if they received their name from the rescue, hearing it may bring back negative reactions to other dogs in close proximity during their stay. If you aren’t able to get their backstory, gauge their reaction to the name. Are they wagging their tail and seem happy when they hear it, or do they start to shake, tuck their tail, and show other signs of fear? See the name is the cue, the action and behaviour by both the dog and the human, comes after the cue. In cases like this, it’s best to give them a new name, just like the clean slate you’ve given them. Once we have the name cue well established, there are two noticeably clear directions to continue training. We build on the name game to the “Attention” or “Look at me” cues as well as begin training the “Leave it” cue. Both can be life saving. Attention is when you turn the name game into having the dog moving to stand in front of you, giving you eye contact. Start with the name game, but now the dog should be coming to you every time you call their name.
Once in front of you, wait for eye contact, clicking and rewarding the eye contact. Once they are reliable with giving eye contact, add the cue “Attention” or “Look at me.” This cue can help when you have a dog with reactivity, prey drive or excitability. You can redirect their attention to you immediately and away from the subject that could cause stress or issues for either or both of you.
Leave it - you’ll have them sitting or standing in front of you. Put a couple treats or kibble in your hand and hold it in a loose fist, open enough for them to easily determine where the treats are. They are likely going to lick and mouth at your hand at first. As soon as they back away, you’re going to click, say “leave it” and then open your hand for the reward. This one may take a few sessions before they get the hang of it. From there you’ll transition to placing the kibble/treats on the floor and cover them with your hand or foot, then follow the same action. As soon as the puppy moves away from it, you’ll say, “leave it” and remove the covering releasing their treat jackpot. You’ll eventually progress to placing a treat on the floor and just prior to doing so say “leave it” and they will wait until you give them the go ahead to indulge in their reward.
The final beginner cue is “Go to Place” or “Go to Mat” or whatever you’d like to call a place in your home that the puppy will retreat to whenever someone comes into the house, while you are cooking or any time they need to take a break. This is a cue that will be trained in stages. Picture a staircase, the first step is having the puppy acknowledge the mat, the second step is placing a paw on the mat, the last step is staying on the mat for a period of time. We can’t expect a puppy to jump to the top step immediately. Begin by placing a mat on the floor and rewarding when the puppy shows any interest in the mat, up the challenge to having a paw placed on the mat, increasing the expectation until all four paws are on the mat. At this point you’ll ask for a sit and eventually to wait or stay in that place until you release them.
Training a puppy can be one of the most frustrating and rewarding things you can do. It’s not easy and you’ll face setbacks, but having a well-behaved puppy is the best thing you can do for them. When they finally get that cue they have been working on or when they have no reaction to the dog walking by that is losing its marbles, it’s so rewarding. In the end, it keeps their brains working, strengthens the bond they have with you and keeps them safe. It will tire them out by challenging them and this will help prevent unwanted and dangerous boredom habits from happening as well. Take a few minutes every day to work with your dogs. At the end of their time with us, no one will ever say I wasted time working with my dog.
Stay tuned for next month's article where more training tips will be shared. Until then, happy training!
www.facebook.com/shakespeareslegacylabradors
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