May 2020 - 2 Minute Trainer

No room is no excuse

Your training space does not have to be large. — Our training space / home gym

We would love to have a big training space. The recommended size of a competition obedience ring is 40 x 50 feet. 2000 square feet. Wouldn’t that be great? It’s also bigger than our entire house. Or yard. Much bigger.

Reality is that we generally have, at most, about a 6 x 10 foot space. Because real people have lives and furniture, and not big, open spaces to play with our dogs. The six by ten foot area stays clear because it’s also the entirety of our “home gym” – also known as the space we found to put down some kids’ snap-together play mats.

It’s not elaborate, it’s not solely dedicated to dog training, and we don’t have a lot of fancy equipment. If your space, time, and budget are limited (whose aren’t?), you substitute thought and creativity!

Play in a very small space!

All of the games in the 2-Minute-Trainer method can be played in a very small space. For most of them, all you need is room for you and your dog! Maybe a mat or rug. A little bowl or jar of treats.

In our competition obedience classes, we call these “kitchen exercises.” Because they’re the kind of things you can do with your dog while you’re waiting for the microwave. It’s probably where you keep the dog treats. And if you’re in the kitchen, and if your life is anything like ours, you’re already tripping over at least one dog in the room.

Instead of staring at your food turning in circles – teach your dog to spin! Both ways! Put those couple of minutes to use giving your dog something to do and a smile for yourself. It won’t take very long, if your dog is already on board with training games. And you’ll feel like you’ve accomplished something.

Playing training games with your dog is always entertaining. But it’s also building your relationship and your dog’s understanding. As much as he loves you now, that devotion will only grow when he sees you as a partner in the fun stuff you can do together.

Dogs love having a job. And they love making you smile and laugh. They love when you tell them they’re good, and smart, and the best puppy on the planet. And you’ll find that those couple of minutes, waiting for the leftovers to reheat in the microwave, will become one of your favorite times of the day.

A favorite game: “Put your ‘toys’ away”

One of our favorite games with our dogs is “Put your toys away.” We don’t use anything elaborate – the “toy bin” is a kitchen wash tub. The “toys” range from actual dog toys to old plastic kitchen utensils; mixing spoons, spatulas, even a pasta fork. The dogs don’t know that they’re not “toys” and they don’t judge the value of the space they’re playing in or equipment they’re using. They just know they’re getting attention, playing games with their favorite person, and having fun.

Actually, your dog doesn’t know better

Ceilidh looks like she's feeling guilty about something. — Ceilidh looks guilty, but…

We hear it all the time.

“My dog peed on the bed to spite me.”

“Fifi knows better – she did it because she was mad at me.”

“Phydeaux is so stubborn – he just ignores me when I tell him something.”

“Rover is so defiant. He knows he’s not supposed to do that!”

Actually – no. That’s not how dogs think. If your dog is sitting there staring at you after you’ve told her to do something, either she’s confused or she doesn’t know what you want. And, chances are, she’s afraid of making the wrong decision.

Dogs don’t think the way we do. They truly live in the moment, without comprehension of “cause and effect.” We know that, for many dogs, eating grass will result in vomiting. Dogs don’t know that. The “eating grass” is far enough removed (even if it’s minutes later) from the “vomiting” that the dog is incapable of making the connection. Even though Spot throws up EVERY SINGLE TIME he eats grass, he will never connect the two (causation) and develop a dislike of eating grass.

We humans make that connection so easily that it takes some doing to “think like a dog.” Trying to adjust your thinking, see things from your dog’s perspective, will help you communicate better with your dog.

Causation vs. correlation

Dogs learning with positive-reinforcement games are willing to try and keep trying. The worst consequences of “getting it wrong” for our dogs is lack of reward.

That’s part of the difference in thinking. Dogs are good at connecting the dots – if I do good “stuff,” I get a treat, or I get to play. They excel at association, or correlation, especially if the things (behavior and reward) are close in time. Dogs see the relationship between the two events (correlation).

It’s why the “clicker,” which is a “bridge” to the reward is such a valuable tool. It lets the dog know that, right now, I was a good doggo. Even if the reward is delayed, the dog knows it’s coming.

If, however, a dog is punished or negatively reinforced for incorrect behavior, he may develop a fear of doing the wrong thing. The consequence can be that the dog either does nothing (stares at you), or, since he can never “win,” gives up and does whatever he feels like doing (defies authority).

It’s not easy to adjust your thinking. People are always in “if this” then “that” mode. From the time we’re infants we’re taught to think of the consequences of our actions and to plan for the future. Dogs’ brains don’t work that way.

We can learn a lot from our dogs about how to be “in the moment” and enjoy every day as it comes. It can be frustrating at times, like when you see your dog eating grass again. And it can be joyful as every single toss of the ball is as much fun as the first one.

Picture the result you want

If you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to get there?

When training your dog, picture the result that you want. Define it for yourself in your mind’s eye. See your dog doing whatever it is that you’re aiming for. Then it’s time to figure out how to get there.

Polite greeting

Let’s say that one of your dog’s most annoying habits is going nuts when the doorbell rings. It hasn’t worked to repeat “sit, sit, sit, sit, sit” at him. It hasn’t worked to grab his collar and try to wrestle him away from the door. So far, we have a picture of the problem, but not the solution.

As we’ve discussed umpteen qazillion times, dogs do what they find most rewarding. It’s fun to lose your mind and bark at the doorbell. It gets everybody paying attention to you. It amps up the noise and “fun” in the house. And, if the dog pays for it later with any sort of punishment, it doesn’t take away the fun that came before.

That’s one of the biggest differences between dogs and people. People, even young children, understand cause and effect. Little kids get that “if I do this, I will pay for it later.” Dogs don’t.

Back in the day, people would say to “rub their dog’s nose” in housebreaking accidents. Because the accident happened an unknown time earlier, dogs didn’t understand they were being punished for producing the accident. They thought they were being punished for their owner finding the accident. So they learned to urinate and defecate where the owner wouldn’t find it.

Think like a dog

Going back to our doorbell example – think about the classic Pavlovian experiment. Pavlov rang a bell and dogs got food. Eventually, dogs salivated when the bell rang. Classic stimulus/response conditioning. We can put it to excellent use to re-train your dog to “go to bed” when the doorbell rings.

Create the sequence in your mind: the doorbell rings, your dog runs to his bed in view of the door, your dog stays in the bed while you open the door and greet the newcomer, dog is released to a sit to say “hello.”

There’s a lot going on in that simple sequence. Each step of it has to be taught on its own before you can put it together.

The first step is teaching the dog that the bed has value. It doesn’t matter that it’s your dog’s favorite bed. We’re asking him to do something new and different, even if the furniture is the same. Move the bed or mat to a location where he can see the door and stand there, treats in your hand. When the dog shows any interest in the bed, drop a treat into the bed. The steps for building value for sitting in the bed include:

Looks at the bed
Sniffs it
Puts a paw on it
Steps in it
Puts multiple paws in it
Sits in it

Every single one of those steps has to be rewarded at least three times before asking for the next step. And your dog has to be performing it correctly at least 80 percent of the time before you move on. We’re building a pattern of value for particular behavior, in terms your dog can understand.

Sit on it

When the dog is reliably sitting on the bed, have someone ring the doorbell. If your dog dashes off to see what’s going on, just wait. Don’t react, don’t call your dog. If you’ve built up enough value for sitting in the bed, he’ll see you standing by it and dash back to sit in the bed. When he does, reward and release!

Then do it again. Over and over. Until you’re sure that your dog understands that, when he hears the bell ring, he should go sit in the bed.

Go overboard

Be incredibly lavish in your rewards. Give treats, praise, and pets. Doing the “right” thing has to be as much fun, as rewarding, as being “naughty” was. If you ignore your dog’s good behavior, he has no reason to do it again. Naughtiness always gets your attention. Angelic behavior deserves even more.

Laugh at your own risk

You and your dog share a connection. Dogs are particularly sensitive to our emotions – they seem to just know when we’re sick, upset, angry, or happy.

Dogs are attuned to our emotions

They’re so attuned to us that our laughter makes them happy, too.

An unforeseen consequence can show up in training. It happened recently with Simon, Fran’s 1-year-old Boston Terrier. She was teaching him to “roll over” and, when he got it right, she would giggle. Every single time. Because it was adorable. And because he’d mastered it, both ways, in very little time.

In no time flat, it became Simon’s “go to” offered behavior. Whenever he didn’t “get” what Fran was asking, he would default to “roll over.” And she laughed – every single time.

Normally, it’s not a problem to have your dog do something cute whenever you look at him. Cute tricks are one of the great joys of dog training. It’s entertaining and enriching for everybody – human and dog.

But when it matters, we really want our dogs to listen to what we’re asking them to do. We do have “freestyle” sessions where they offer behaviors, come up with new things, try anything they like, and it’s all rewarded. But when we’re working on a particular behavior or sequence, our dogs need to pay attention.

We know that Simon’s “roll over” was his way of letting us know that he was unsure. He didn’t know what Fran wanted, so he did something that always seems to make her happy. He was letting us know that he didn’t “get it.”

Past rewards = current behavior

When your dog seems to offer random behaviors rather than “paying attention” and “doing what you want,” he’s letting you know he’s unsure. And he wants you to be happy, both with what he’s doing and with him. So he’s doing something that’s gotten him rewarded in the past.

We found that we were going a bit too fast for Simon with a behavior that has lots of steps. Every dog has his own learning pace, and we need to recognize where our dogs are in each step. And just because a dog takes a while to learn one particular piece doesn’t mean he’s slow. Another part could be “no problem, I got this!”

Every dog has his own learning timetable

Just like people, dogs are individuals who learn differently. Hope is a terrific baker, but a so/so cook. It’s not that she’s terrible at it, just not particularly talented. She does fine with a recipe, followed step by step, but has a more difficult time improvising a good savory dish. Her brain just doesn’t work that way. Fortunately, there are lots of recipes available.

Just like the recipe for dog training success. If your dog is having a more difficult time with a particular behavior or piece of it, take a step back, reinforce what he does know, break down the next step even further. And move at your own team’s pace. There isn’t any timetable – there’s a lifetime of fun to enjoy together.

Video of Simon’s “Roll-over”

Watch quick or you’ll miss it!

All behaviors are equal

In our little morning training session today, Torque reminded Hope that all behaviors should be treated equal.

Most rewarding

Torque reminded Hope that all behaviors should be treated equally.

All dogs will, pretty reliably, do what’s most rewarding to them. They’re excellent at acting in their own best interests. Whatever got them the most valuable feedback (treats, toys, praise, pets, games) is probably what they’ll do again.

Lately, Hope and Torque have been focusing on his “bow” behavior. Mostly because he’s stuck in a “cone of shame” while his corneal ulcer heals and there are lots of things he can’t do in a cone. Also because it’s fun to teach and learn new “stuff.” And because Torque had started anticipating positions in practice, so it was time to mix it up.

One of Torque and Hope’s favorite behaviors is what the AKC calls the “Command Discrimination,” where the person asks the dog to either Sit, Stand, and Down. In the higher levels, it can be done in any order.

When we practice, we try to mix it up so the dog actually listens, instead of just performing a learned pattern. Dogs love routine and patterns, so if you always do things in the same order, your dog will learn that and do it automatically, rather than actually paying attention. Changing the order teaches the dog to listen and watch, rather than performing a memorized routine.

Difference in a nutshell

And that, in a single sentence, is the difference between old-school dog training and the science-based, positive training we teach. We’re teaching dogs to listen, understand, learn, and act. This way our dogs know what they’re doing, can do it in any order, always have fun doing it, and love playing training games with us.

Hope found herself in a bit of a pickle. With only three commands to discriminate among, Torque had a 50 percent chance of getting the next one right, so he’d gamble and “help” Hope decide on the next call. Which resulted in him getting rewarded about half the time if his timing was spot on. He wasn’t waiting to hear what Hope asked for, he was guessing. And he’s a really good guesser.

Bowing to the inevitable

So Hope introduced the “bow” as another command to choose. It’s not part of the competition, so it’s only for practice, but it’s also really, really cute.

It was only last week that Torque showed he understood what “bow” was – front legs flat on the ground, butt in the air. And Hope rewarded it enthusiastically. Torque and Hope were both smiling and proud of him.

So today, when Hope was playing the Command Discrimination game, Torque started “bowing” every time she opened her mouth to say anything. He was performing the behavior that, most recently, was most rewarded. Which was a perfect reminder to treat all behaviors equally – reward everything you like. Ignore what you don’t.

More of what you want

Fran and her 1-year-old Simon have been working on the “Stand” part, both for the Command Discrimination and the Novice “Stand for Examination.” Same thing – Stand has been heavily rewarded recently, so Simon was choosing it, regardless of what Fran asked for.

Every time we play training games with our dogs they show us what they’ve been learning. Whether or not it’s what we meant to teach them – it’s the information we need to do a better job of communicating with them.