July 2020 - 2 Minute Trainer

Buzzword for today – enrichment

What is enrichment? According to Merriam Webster, it’s “to make rich or richer especially by the addition or increase of some desirable quality, attribute, or ingredient (the experience will enrich your life).

This polar bear is just waiting for some enrichment

Have you seen those feature stories about enrichment at the zoo around Halloween? Where all the elephants get pumpkins to play with? Or the polar bears get huge ice blocks filled with treats in the middle of summer? That’s enrichment. We’d also call it lagniappe, but we like taking our vocabulary out for a spin once in a while.

Making training game sessions part of life is enrichment for both your dog and for you. It’s something special – time you focus only on each other and playing together. It enriches your bond with your dog. Builds understanding between you. And, in a non-coercive, non-punishing way, teaches your dog all kinds of things that will make your lives together easier.

Any game will do

Some days you may not feel like playing any particular game with your dog. That’s okay. Gather a few different objects from around the house – plastic drinkware, mixing bowls, pillows, cardboard boxes, paper towel (or TP) rolls. It can be anything that your dog can’t ruin.

Take one object and put it in front of your dog. If he’s a regular 2-Minute game player, he’ll go check it out. Click and reward! See what he does with it. Does he paw at it? Good touch! Click and reward! Does he sniff it? Good sniff! Click and reward!

Sniffing game

If your dog loves sniffing stuff – you’re ahead for this game. Hope is now teaching her French Bulldog Torque to use his nose instead of his paws or mouth to explore. He’s never been a “sniffy” dog, and it’s a skill he may need if the world ever returns to a semblance of normalcy and he advances in Obedience competition.

She’s using a drop or two of essential oil on a cotton pad.

First step: he sniffs it. Click and reward!
Second step: Hope hides the cotton pad under something (in this case, it was a clean, empty tuna fish can). Torque finds it. Click and reward!
Third step: A second clean tuna can is added – can he still find it? (We’re not here yet!)
Fourth step: A third can is added – and now we’re playing the Shell Game!

Useful? Maybe not

Not every game we play with our dogs has to have a reason, or an objective – but it’s fun to try. If you have no intention of ever competing in any dog sport, your dog may never use her “Shell Game” skills. But learning the game enriched her life, and you had fun with it.

Enrichment can be anything that’s not part of your regular routine. Mix it up! At the Dolphin Research Center, sometimes the trainers just float around the lagoons on inner tubes, tossing ice or gelatin cubes for the dolphins to play with and eat. It’s just for fun. There’s a lot of laughing during these sessions – both from the dolphins and the trainers. And strengthens the bonds between animals and people.

You can increase the quality of your dog’s life with enrichment.

There is no “right stuff” in dog training

Will the right collar bring success to my dog training?

Remember back when you were a kid and one of the best things about going back to school was getting your new school supplies? How you were absolutely convinced the “right stuff” would set you up for success?

Embarking on a dog training adventure is absolutely nothing like that. All you really need is you, your dog, a plan, and a sense of humor. And treats. (Pay your dog.) Patience helps, too.

It doesn’t matter

Should my dog wear a harness for training?

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is about the stuff. Harness or collar? How long should the leash be? What if I don’t have a balance disc?

None of that stuff matters. You have everything you need.

Studies have shown that all collars have the potential to cause neck injuries in dogs. And many dog “experts” claim that harnesses just encourage dogs to pull, because it doesn’t hurt the dog to pull.

The goal is to get your dog to walk nicely beside you, regardless of what it’s wearing. That’s one of the reasons we train our naked dogs in our homes, or in our fenced yards. If your dog can go anywhere it wants, and do anything it wants, but chooses to stay with you and play your game – you’re doing it right!

Safe space

If you’re just starting to develop your teamwork, play your training games in a small, boring, confined space. If you’re the most interesting “thing” around, your dog is going to be fascinated with whatever you do. You know your dog can’t go anywhere. And you know you’re only going to be playing a game for a couple of minutes.

Once you and your dog develop a habit of playing training games, your dog will race to your training space. They love playing games with you. Our training space is usually in the basement. And our biggest headache was keeping the dogs from dashing down the stairs whenever we opened the basement door.

So we made that into a training game, too! Now we approach the basement door, tell the pups to “wait,” go down a couple of steps, come back, and reward! Good wait, doggos! Nice job!

You have the right stuff

Anything and everything can be an occasion for a training game. If you find yourself aggravated because your dog is standing on your lap when you’re trying to watch TV, make it a training game. If the dog is lying in the doorway, make it a training game. (In that case, we’d highly suggest making it a “stay!”)

Being ready to play games all the time, everywhere, will make your life, and your dog’s, happier. Not worrying about the “right stuff” lets you build your dog’s wardrobe with the fun stuff you love. Not that we know any collar addicts. Just mentioning it for a friend.

Mindful training

It’s odd but true.

Teaching dogs new stuff – fun behaviors like “Put your toys away,” or “give paw” are sometimes easier than solidifying behaviors that the dog already “knows” how to do.

We think it goes back to the most powerful force in the universe. Some may say that’s gravity. We know it’s habit.

Battling habit

Simon is sitting nicely. He's always paying attention

One of our students developed the habit of bending her arms up when calling her puppy. It was her way of avoiding her hands being licked, which she doesn’t like. What she achieved, on the positive side, is replicating the obedience signal for “sit.” Her dog approaches within about three feet and her dog, watching her hands go up, sits.

On the negative side, her dog never comes close enough to touch. Which means, even if he has a fantastic recall (come), she won’t be able to get hold of him if she needs to.

Be mindful of what you teach your dog! They’re always paying attention and always learning.

Another universal force

Just as powerful as habit, instinct is difficult to “untrain.”

Dogs are predators, so they chase moving things. Some more than others, depending on the breed and drive of the dog. If your dog is fascinated by moving objects, from balls to bicycles, it may be too much to ask to consider off-leash walks. A squirrel crossing your path could mean a lost dog.

Dogs are guardians, so they bark at sounds around their territory. You may not ever be able to stop your dog from alerting at the doorbell, but you may be able to modify his/her behavior. If you give your dog a “job” or routine to perform when the doorbell rings, with lots of practice and repetition, you may get habit to take over from instinct.

Fighting the status quo

It’s certainly easier in the short term to manage dog behaviors than to modify them. The problem with management, rather than training, is that you’re always the one responsible for your dog’s good behavior. If the doorbell rings and you manage your dog by locking him in a room away from the door, you’re always stressed by the time you answer the bell.

If, however, you’ve trained your dog to go “Place!” when the doorbell rings, your dog is responsible for his behavior. Your dog knows what he’s supposed to do, knows he’s making a good decision, and knows he’ll be rewarded for his effort.

And it’s much less stressful for everyone.

The stuff you can’t train

There’s a belief out there that dogs are ideal, perfect beings. Along with that comes the guilt trip that any behavioral glitch, big or small, is the fault of the owner.

It’s not true. There are some things no one can train away. In the last couple of weeks we’ve encountered several stories that break our hearts. And there was nothing these owners could do to spare their dogs.

Constant “bombs bursting in air”

Some things you can't train away in dogs. And some things are just heart-wrenching.

This year, perhaps because all “official” fireworks shows have been cancelled, there has been an astonishing racket of illegal fireworks going off, at all hours, all days. If your dog is sensitive to fireworks, I don’t need to tell you that – your life has been miserable.

Some of us are lucky – our dogs hear the explosions, but aren’t bothered and don’t even pay much attention.

Others have dogs that notice, are bothered, but can be distracted. These dogs can be trained to focus on other “stuff” – something like a “snuffle mat” will keep them occupied. Playing the television at volume, in a room with no windows, will help as well.

And then there are the dogs who panic. No cranked-up volume, no distraction, no training will help.

Pair of tragedies

We heard two particularly sad stories in the last week. A friend of ours witnessed a woman walking down her street, sobbing, carrying her dead dog in her arms as she, screaming, begged people to stop the fireworks. Her dog was so panicked it had a heart attack and died.

A friend of ours, who is a dog trainer, also has a dog that panics. Her dog didn’t die, but instead suffered a stroke from the panic. We’re hoping Nova recovers. When we heard from her last, her girl was back home and wobbling around, so it’s possible.

What you can do

We wish that silent fireworks and light shows could be mandated and become the norm. Technology makes impressive displays possible without gunpowder. But we all know that’s not going to happen.

If you have a dog panicked by fireworks, thunderstorms, or some other cause, it’s not a training puzzle. Panic isn’t rational. People are able to rationalize and use coping mechanisms to deal with the things that terrify them.

But you can’t appeal to a dog’s logic. They’re terrified and there’s no way to explain to them that their fears are irrational.

Instead, you can have an action plan to help your dog as much as possible. Our friend hadn’t had Nova long enough to know how she would react.

Be prepared

Enlist your veterinarian’s help. There is a range of pharmaceutical and nutriceutical products available, from essential oils, to supplements, to CBD, to tranquilizers, to sedation.

Not every product works for every dog, and dosage and frequency for effectiveness can vary. You need to know what works for your dog before the next panic-causing event happens.

There are also calming wraps and mats that may help. One friend uses noise-cancelling headphones for her dog. That IS something you can train, if you start well ahead of the time when it will be needed.

You can also try getting your dog more accustomed to the noise by using a fireworks recording as background noise. Start at very low volume and gradually increase the level as your dog becomes comfortable.

Watch your dog

Surprise Training Session Fail

Torque’s brain fell out this morning.

It was an absolute classic example of something we’ve talked about before, “offering behaviors.”

When you have a dog who’s learned how to learn, who’s been rewarded for trying, when his brain falls out he tries different behaviors to make the confusion go away.

Surprise Training Session Fail - Torque tries the rings

The objective of today’s game was to put the rings on the post. We replaced the rings that come with the child’s toy with dive rings because our dogs were having trouble with the size of the original rings. The hole was a pretty precise fit, which our dogs found too difficult and caused frustration. We got the bigger, thinner rings to make it easier.

From the first time we took the rings out, Torque rocked it. He got all six rings on the post in record time. Today’s game was just the third time he’d played with the larger rings. First time, he got all six rings on in record time. So Hope thought she’d ask him to do it again for video.

Not a single ring. Moments later, and he couldn’t figure out what to do. You can see the frustration as he grabs a ring and lies down. And knocks over the post. When he does get one ringer, he doesn’t seem to recognize what he’s done, even tossing the rings around.

When you see your dog having a meltdown – stop. This was a surprising one because, as we said, he’d just done it perfectly less than five minutes previously. For whatever reason, he was done. Hope took a minute to recognize it, but there was no punishment, no correction, no negative consequences for Torque. We just put that toy away and moved on to other things.

Our dogs can’t tell us what’s going on, we can only read their behavior and adjust our plans accordingly. Torque and Hope did some simple heeling exercises to end today’s session so that he could regain his composure and get treats for something good.

We’ve talked about how dogs can shut down when they’re worried about getting things wrong. Torque isn’t usually a shut-down kind of dog, but something put him off the game today. We can certainly speculate about what that was, but we’ll never really know.

What we will do, next time we play our doggy version of “quoits” with Torque is go back as many steps as needed. Reward for picking up the ring, reward for carrying the ring, reward for bringing it close to the post, reward for getting it on the post.

Or we could find that next time Torque is, once again, a rock star and knows exactly what to do and does it in record time. He’s a dog.