Posted on

Mat Training Games: Tiny Tim

If you followed our post last week and gave it a try, then you know we are spending the next two weeks chatting about mat training games!

As trainers we will be the first to tell you it is a boring skill – both for your dog to learn and due to the high level of reps you need to teach it, for you too…but it doesn’t have to be if you get creative with the skills you use!

Last week’s game (the long down) focused upon building the dog’s ability to lay on the mat (duration) for longer and longer periods. If you haven’t checked it out, please do so here. The game this week focuses upon clarity and placement. In other words, does your dog know what to do when they see their mat? Do you need to cue your dog more than once to get them to perform the skill? Does your dog have a clear understanding of laying down on it, rather than sitting on it without being told? Can your dog do this without an immediate reward present?

These are all parts of the learning process known as proofing – getting the behaviour better, more refined and as close to perfect as possible (and eventually in any environment).

This game is meant to be a fun way to improve your dogs skill – it is geared towards an intermediate level of mat training so if you are new to mat training check back for our tutorial on the start up steps or contact us for some training info.

We want to make sure the dog is working at the level they can be the most successful at, so you can make this game easier by trying it in a familiar environment or by using your hand signals/verbal cues. Avoid luring the positions for the dog altogether.

THE DRILL

  • Have your dogs mat (ideally something like a towel) and treats ready to go, but not in your hands. Ideally, keep your rewards on a shelf or book case close by.
  • Set your mat down, cue your dog to go on their mat > Mark and reward when they complete their down and relax
  • Release your dog from the mat, pick it up and fold it in half.
  • Now that it is smaller, place it down in the same spot and cue your dog to lay on their mat. Mark and reward when they hit the desired position, release them.
  • Pick up the mat, fold it in half. Put it down. Repeat the steps above

Repeat the steps until you have a TINY mat your dog barely fits on (or doesn’t fit on at all) but they continue to perform the same set of skills (lay down and relax!)

TIPS

  • No lures. This drill is meant to test your dog, if you are still luring this skill, build your foundations first before trying it.
  • If you want more of a challenge, put the mat down in different spots in your ‘training zone’ (but keep it in the same room). See if your dog can follow the drill then!
  • Rewards should not be directly on you – rather your dog should remain laying down in position while you bring rewards to them. You must always reinforce the position you desire – therefore avoid feeding at any time other than when the dog is laying down.

Need a video? We got you covered!

Mat Training Game – Tiny Tim

Give it a shot and let us know what you think!

Posted on

Mat Training Games: The Long Down

If I am being totally honest, mat training is a behaviour that can become tedious and boring to teach repetitively. If you are new to dog training in general, Mat Training is a popular skill that involves teaching your dog to be calm and sedentry on a mat or a dog bed. The benefit of this skill can be seen when guests come inside your home, when you bring your dog out to a friends barbecue or for high energy dogs to learn to relax. Instead of being uncontrollable or jumping towards being, or bolting out the door – dog’s instead learn to relax and hang out. On top of all of this, the dog learns to be bored and to be ok with it. So, this is becomes an important life skill because being bored is likely to happen in a dog’s life, and it is something that should be taught rather than assumed to be inherited.

Little Ollie learning to relax on a raised bed!

So it is a great skill! However for me, ‘proofing’ it ( the process of ensuring the dog can perform the skill on cue in any environment) can become tedious. Afterall, we are teaching the dog to accept boredom and there are only so many repititions you can do before the skill starts to lose your own interest (as well as your dogs!)

As a result of this, over the years I have come up with some fun games that I implement into our training routine to keep things interesting, challenging and overall helps keep my dog’s skill sharp!

Its important to note that these games are meant to be challenging for your dog; therefore, your dog should have a basic understanding of mat training before you try them out. You want the dog to have a clear understanding of laying down on a mat beforehand, otherwise you are adding too much, too soon into your training. If you don’t know what mat training is, check out this great video here or message us for any training inquiries.

This game specifically focuses on building your dogs mat duration – so they calmer they learn to be (and the longer they can do it), the better!

The Set Up

Start these games in a familiar environment, and use a medium level value of food.

Have your dogs bed or mat available and ready to go.

Try not to over use your verbal cues (ie: ‘go to your mat’ should be used once)

You will be sitting in front of your dog in this game

The Game

  • Cue your dog to go to their mat/bed
  • Mark and reward your dog.
  • Once you are sitting down with them and they are on their mats, you will wait for them to offer a slight head tilt downwards

This is the first step towards a chin rest! You want to make sure you reward this.

Mark and reward your dog, then wait for them to offer it again. As they guess at the correct behaviour you are rewarding, you will start to get an effective head/chin rest or head movement towards the floor.

I recommend trying 10 Repetitions of this skill. Then end the training session, release your dog from the mat and do something fun!

If you need a video to help you out, check out the one below!

Riley showing off the game!

Trouble Shooting

  • This game involves free shaping – therefore some dogs may take a bit of time to think. This is ok! Try not to verbally cue your dog in any form. If your dog has never free shaped before, you will watch your dog and wait for them to ‘look’ downwards, or make any slight movement with their head. You’re reinforcement and reward delivery will communicate to the dog that they have performed a correct behaviour.
  • If your dog becomes frustrated, end the session early and try again later
  • Your timing should be accurate in this game, and you should be 100% focused on the dog in order to avoid missed opportunities to reward!

Implementing different skills and games in to your regular obedience training keeps things interesting for not only you, but for your dog as well. Give it a shot and let us know how you do!

Happy Training

Posted on

Auto-Downs and their Advantages

The most popular positions taught in basic obedience classes include a Sit and a Down. It is one of the first skills your dog probably learns when they are young! Both of these skills can be considered incompatible behaviours, and we can easily associate them with calmness. For example, if your dog is sitting at a crosswalk, they cannot pull you across the street and if they are laying down at your feet, your dog is likely nice and relaxed.

So what is an Auto down, and how is that different or better for your training?

An Auto Down is an automatic, fast behaviour. It is executed by the dog instantly after your cue, regardless of motion or distractions in the environment. It is more useful than your regular ‘down’ because it is fast and should be viewed more as an immediate ‘drop’ to the ground, rather than a slow relaxed position change to the ground.

For example, instead of the dog laying down relaxed at our feet (which is a great skill! just not the same as this one) the dog immediately ‘drop’s’ into position when cued verbally or with a hand signal, thus allowing you to manage your dog or avoid a problematic behaviour/encounter with a distraction. Need a visual? Check out the video below!

A quick response in a distracting environment

We teach this skill differently aswell. Most position changes in classes or lessons are taught primarily from a stationary position – you are either standing or sitting with your dog when teaching these skills. In an auto down, we prep the dog for movement right off the bat. We want the dog to enjoy this drill and we want to build a learning skill called drive, which is the dogs desrie to work with us and perform behaviours eagerly and accurately.

How does an Auto Down help your day to day life?

This is a skill that we have mastered from our competitive sport world, but we love it because it can easily crossover and benefit active pet owners (and makes your training fun too!).

In competition, our dogs must be able to ‘drop’ to the floor mid routine, the first time we cue it and with no immediate rewards…talk about pressure! They must also remain in this position until released or told otherwise by their handler. So if our dogs can perform it in highly distracting environments, yours can too!

If your dog is easily excitable, jumps, tends to run off or is easily stimulated during play, an automatic down can be very useful in interrupting behaviour from escalating. In addition, the fact that this skill is taught entirely with movement alows the dog to become prepared to easily perform it in comparison to stationary skills such as Sit. If you practice and your dog enjoys the skill, the chances of you succeeding in teaching them to perform goes up!

The Drill
• Lure your dog into a DOWN position, mark and reward and release your dog
• Play with them, allow them to run around and become distracted, and repeat the above steps. Release them to play/sniff/explore.
• As you practice this, and your dog improves, you will phase out a food lure and rely upon a hand signal for the position. You may even notice your dog begins to offer you this position more frequently, this is great and you want to reinforce it as much as possible.

A little tutorial to try!

Final Tips
Start in an easy location with your dog, and if they have trouble laying down due to age or sore joints don’t push them. You can teach this exact set up and create an ‘Auto SIT‘ instead.

Give it a shot and let us know how you like it,

Happy Training!

Posted on

The Secret(s) to a Solid Stay

If you had to imagine your dog’s ability STAY in one spot, in a distracting environment while you moved a distance of 5 meters from them, what would be the outcome?

Would your dog stay in position?

Maybe for the first few minutes?

Would they follow you instantly?

Would they catch a scent in the air and decide to follow it away from you?

If you answered YES to any or all of the above, we hope this blog helps you! Stationary behaviours in dog training (otherwise known as Stay’s or Place Training) are notoriously difficult to teach because they involve patience, accuracy in timing and ensuring solid foundations before they are built upon and finally, ‘proofed’ (the process of getting a complete behaviour in any environment).

There are many ways to teach a dog to Stay, but we prefer the most uncomplicated, simple and clear way for the dog. This skill is important and useful in day to day life with your dog – we therefore want it to be so accurate, asking your dog to perform it is easy rather than difficult.

So, what is a stay?

Simply put, a ‘Stay’ is a position (such as Sit/Down) with duration!

Thats it.

It’s not fancy, and when it boils down to it, it can actually be a rather boring skill for the dog to learn – which is where we come in as their trainers and handlers to make teaching this skill fun, engaging and worth the dog’s effort.

It is important to remember that we are advocates for our dogs learning. Our training should reflect fair and clear guidelines so that they can succeed quickly and with minimal frustration or stress. If your dog is frustrated with the learning process she is more likely to ‘check out’ and opt out of working with you altogether – something we want to avoid at all costs.

If your dog struggles with staying put – we are going to start their training with simple guidelines. It can be easy and tempting to work well beyond our dogs capacity at that given moment (for example, asking them to Stay in a challenging environment with out any precious practice) but this is one of the main culprits for incomplete behaviours and skills. Instead, we want to ensure that the dog can hold their position (sit or down) for an appropriate level of time before building upon any distance or distractions. Trainer’s call these the ‘3 D’s of Dog Training’ and can be viewed similarly to building blocks in learning.

Imagine these blocks are your 3 D’s! Duration, Distance and Distraction. You can’t build upon them until the first two are solid.

The first step we will focus on is the basic foundation of a STAY….which is your dog’s ability to sit still in one position for X amount of time?

How long can Zeus stay in this position?

To make things easy, we have outlined a little exercise and video for you to begin this process below!

To START:

  • Place your dog in a sit or down, whichever position is more comfortable for your dog (and easier)
  • Pause a moment, mark and reward them. Pause again, mark and reward them. Repeat this for a count of 5 (or use 5 treats for timing)
  • Once your 5 treats or ‘seconds’ are up, release your dog from the position (with a leg tag or a verbal encouragement to move), and repeat this process.

As you practice this successfully, increase the amount of time your dog has to ‘Sit and Stay’. There is no need to verbally cue or command your dog to remain still in this drill, because your timing of rewards communicates that for you!

If your dog continues to break from their position, shorten the amount of time your training (as an example, instead of 5 second duration being your goal, try for 3 seconds instead).

A final aspect of a solid STAY: ensuring your dog knows when its ok to move!

We add in a ‘release’ cue to all of our stationary behaviours such as sit, down, and stand so that half the work is done for us already; the dog doesn’t move until we cue them to. Keep this consistent in your training so you don’t create confusion.

Need a video to help you out? Check it out below!

Need a demo of the Stay Drill?

Happy Training!

Posted on

Work to Eat Drills and Skills

Finding the time to train your dog can be difficult and frustrating. Consistency and deliberate practice are the largest predictors of success in training, but sometimes it can be a challenge to find that quality one on one time to work with your dog on behavioural goals. We hear you!

Although classrooms are great places for dog’s to learn (such as puppy class), the real practice for everything taught in class is found in your home and neighbourhood. One hour of practice a week, crammed into a busy Saturday will do little for your dog, therefore breaking up your training into small bits throughout the week is the best course of action if improvement is your goal.

Great Focus guys!

Training sessions should be short, successful and productive. Your dog should enjoy the session and you should keep the ‘momentum’ of their success relatively high. In other words, the session should be all about the dog ‘winning’ or succeeding at the desired skill you are training. For example, if you are practicing Sits in your home, your dog should be enjoying the session, fully engaged and performing the behaviour at least 8 times out of 10 repititions.

Training sessions should also be frequent, since your dog is essentially learning a new ‘skill’ that will be used in your day to day life. In order for the behaviour to stick and to be ‘proofed’, repetitions are going to be an unavoidable part of your routine with your dog. This is where people tend to struggle. Like any skill (even the ones humans need to learn), if it is not integrated properly into our routine and it is not fun, following through with a training plan can be a big challenge….so we have created a little tip and training game just for you to try!

A simple way to implement training into your daily routine is to use your dog’s meal times as training times. This rule is called Work to Eat, but it doesn’t necessarily mean your dog has to work for their entire meal or at a specific time – do what works best for your schedule. Some options for your training sessions could be:

  • Train early in the morning around breakfast for 5 minutes, and at dinner time for 5 minutes before feeding your dog the rest of their meal
  • Use the entire meal for training, followed by some play time
  • Feed half of your dog’s meal through training, the other half through a treat dispensing puzzle or mental stimulation toy (need ideas? check out our post here)
  • Practice training games that are fun and keep learning interesting for you and your dog

By switching your dog’s meal times to training times (even if it is just for 5 minutes) you will create a dog who is eager, motivated and interested in working with you consistently, making your training schedule a breeze!

The Game

The Set Up

This game involves rewarding focus and direct eye contact, in addition to impulse control. It also involves rewarding the dog at a distance from you (from the bowl to be exact). If your dog loves and recognizes their food bowls (most do) this one will be great for you to try as it requires offering a behaviour before being allowed to feed from their bowl!

  • For Novice dogs, keep a leash on them for this game. For intermediate dogs or more advanced options, try having your dog off leash.
  • Set up your food bowl about 2 feet in front of you, and get your dog to sit next to you in heel position (close to your left leg or right leg).
  • Grab a piece or two of kibble from your pocket, and toss the food into the bowl ahead of you. Your dog will naturally stare, or pull towards the food. This is where your leash comes in handy (if your dog is a Novice) or your impulse control is tested (if your dog is advanced)
  • The goal is to have your dog look at you for 5 seconds. Despite the temptation of the reward in front of them, they are focusing on YOU. Once your dog has performed the desired skill, mark the behaviour and release them to take their food from their bowl!
  • Repeat this for 5 minutes and see how quickly your dog catches on!
Trainer Alison and her dog Kingston rocking the Focus Game!

Extra Tips

New dogs or young puppies will naturally spend more time staring at the food in front of them than you – this is ok! Try not to coax them to look at you; we want them to problem solve. If they are on leash, hold the leash back and wait for them to become bored with staring and glance at you. Mark and reward this and build the skill!

Meal times can be great training opportunities if we get creative and enjoy the process of learning rather than dreading it!

Happy Training

Posted on

The Power of Playing With Your Dog

The desire to play with our dog’s is one facet of dog ownership that just comes naturally. New puppies are almost always interested in playing with their toys (and with anything that you own too!) and we take pleasure in seeing older, newly adopted or re-homed dogs ‘re-learning’ how to play.

One of the most unique aspects of dog development is that they retain their juvenile desires for social interaction and play as they age. Their love of playing doesn’t end when puppyhood is over. So it is often the case that owners want to play with their dogs but are not sure how, because play also brings about behaviours that we sometimes may not enjoy. These behaviours include growling, barking, jumping and excitability. While these behaviours can be intimidating and alarming at first, we want to encourage you to seek what style of play works for your dog, and learn the benefits it can give your training routine, as well as your relationship.

Puppies love to play! It is how they explore the world so it is important to start them off on the right routine.

How Play Impacts Training

The benefits of play in training are often seen in dog’s who are trained for high level competition. Sports such as Obedience and Agility revolve around the dog’s ability to perform a specific set of tasks accurately, while demonstrating drive and composure. In most sports, food rewards are not allowed anywhere near the trial field – which means that dogs are performing these tasks without an immediate reward. So, how do trainers get this performance? The foundation of it revolves around play and building motivation to work together.

We include a large amount of play into our training sessions, sometimes with food and other times with toys.

Most puppies exhibit curiosity and interest in novel items, it’s what makes them so much work when they are little. Exposing your dog to ‘play time’ encourages them to become independent and confident, but directly playing with them sets an amazing foundation for their life long training plan.

Playing with them, whether through tug of war, food play, or ‘chase me’ type games allows your dog to create a bond with you that revolves around direct interaction with you. If they enjoy being with you and actively seek you out, then your training foundations become easier to solidify later on when teaching, for example, focus and engagement or loose leash walking.

You also create motivation for a reward that does not always revolve around food. A toy, or direct interaction with you becomes the ultimate ‘fun’ thing to do for your puppy and eliminates the obsession that some dogs have with food rewards in training. These types of rewards are called secondary rewards (toys) and environmental rewards (access to play), and both are long term reinforces for good behaviour. This is how our dogs are able to compete and trial successfully: they find the ‘training game’ (which is really just play disguised as rewards for good behaviour) fun!

Your dog does not need to be a competition prospect to learn and benefit from these skills. You can easily implement play to perfect behaviours and teach it in a way that is controlled and safe.

How to Encourage Your Dog to Play

  1. Find what motivates your dog

While some dog’s prefer tug like toys, others enjoy a ball (like Ebony!). Others prefer a frisbee and some enjoy stuffed animals. Whatever toy your dog tends to gravitate towards, use it. We do not choose what motivates our dog’s – they do. It is what makes them individuals and unique, and with some careful observation about the kinds of toys they tend to pick out of their toy bin more frequently you can likely see a preference emerge!

2. Keep the toy fun and novel

We are all guilty of letting our dog’s have access to ‘too many’ toys at once; your living room may currently be littered with them! Instead, keep your dog’s favourite toy hidden and bring it out for brief periods of play with you. When play is over, the toy gets put away. You can also rotate which toys your dog has access to at once, so that every time they see an old one, it’s just like new again!

3. Start rewarding simple skills

Getting our dog’s to start working for ‘toys’ is pretty simple: just start rewarding with it! When you bring out their favourite toy, wait for them to calmly sit for you before verbally marking that correct behaviour with a YES and tossing the toy for them. This can instigate a game of fetch or tug, where you can continue to reward good behaviours. A few examples of behaviours to reward are…

  • Eye contact
  • Sit or Down
  • An ‘OUT’ command
  • Loose Leash Walking for 5 paces
  • Heeling for 5 paces
  • Spin
  • Target

Need an example of what a controlled, calm play session looks like? Check out our video below and don’t forget to have fun with your dog. Happy Training!

Piper the border terrier loves to play! I reward calm ‘Sits’ and ‘Out’ with continuous play. It is controlled and heavily rewarding for her!