July 2022 - 2 Minute Trainer

Take dog training games to the next level

Take your dog training games to the next level by combining tricks. What can Torque do next? — Torque “hides.”

After you’ve been playing training games with your dog for a while, you might have trouble coming up with new ideas. But you don’t always have to come up with something new. You can take your dog training games to the next level by putting them together.

Inspirational dog training

We’ve always loved dogs. But getting hooked on the training part came much later. Dogs are great, adorable, cuddly companions and friends. But the partnership truly blossoms through training. One of the very first, inspirational dog/people partnerships we saw was Carolyn Scott and her Golden Retriever Rookie:

That video is from 2006, competing in “Dog Freestyle,” or “Dog Dancing.” When you watch the video, you’ll see that nothing Rookie does is beyond your dog’s ability: spins, heeling, back up, around, etc. Fran is even working on the “Twine” behavior with Simon, where he “twines” between her legs as she walks.

Only limit is imagination (and thumbs)

If you search for “dog dancing” or “dog freestyle” you’ll see tons of videos from around the world. Routines that people have come up with are truly amazing. Some use props, others, like Scott & Rookie”s routine, don’t. The only limit is what dogs are actually capable of manipulating without having thumbs.

If you and your dog have mastered a couple of behaviors with 2-Minute Training games – how about putting them together? Then you’ll have a whole new trick and possibly the start of a dog dancing routine. Hope and Torque’s trick “Troll Under The Bridge” is actually three behaviors strung together: Come, Circle to Middle, and Back Up.

Could it be a component of a dog dancing routine? Absolutely!

Dog dancing, or freestyle, is the precursor to the Elite Performer, or top level of AKC’s Trick Dog program. And you can still earn any level of Trick Dog title virtually. It’s a great way to show off your dog’s skills.

Use music for inspiration

If you have a favorite song, why not try to choreograph something for you and your dog? A complete song would require an enormous amount of planning, endurance, and training. But a 15-second snippet is both doable and fun. You already know how much training gets done in just two minutes. 15 seconds would definitely let you string together at least three to five behaviors.

It’s another way to have fun with your dog. What’s better than dancing the night away?

Training multiple dogs at one time

If you have more than one dog, is training multiple dogs at one time possible? Or even desirable?

Yes and no

It depends on what you’re training, how experienced the dogs are, how well they know each other, and how good you are at multi-tasking, and how many people are involved in the training. In other words, maybe.

If you have one person for each dog – absolutely possible! We recently talked about having our dogs run (walk really fast) on the treadmill to get in some exercise when it’s too hot to go out. One of us is “walking” the dog right next to our little training area. The other is having fun with a different dog, playing training games.

At first, the “walking” dog was more interested in the training games. All of our dogs adore their 2-Minute sessions and thought they were missing out. They learned quickly that rewards come for road work, too. All are now fine with having “entertainment” while they get their miles in.

If you’re on your own, it gets a bit trickier.

To each, his own rewards

You can start by playing the same game with both dogs. Simple things like side-by-side sits, downs, spins, or even “Touch!” holding out a different hand to each dog. The key is to make sure each dog knows he’s not forgotten, and gets a “turn.” Dogs are generally great at being fair – as long as they get some time, attention, and treats!

All four of our dogs "Line up!" after coming in the house to get out of the crowded entryway. — “Line up!”

One of the group games we play is “line up!” We have all the dogs sit in a line and stay. Rewards are given to each in turn. The game originally came from trying to move all the dogs out of a narrow entry. Because dogs always stand in the most crowded doorway. That’s where the action is – that’s where they want to be.

Instead of saying “Move!” or trying to step around them and kill ourselves, we developed the “Line Up!” game. As they come in the house, we say “Line Up!” and they run over to sit on the kitchen mat. We say each dog’s name as we reward them, so they know whose turn it is. If somebody moves out of line, or tries to grab somebody else’s treat, the game stops. When everybody remembers his manners, the game resumes.

We’re not entirely sure that “social pressure” works on dogs. We do know that when the game stops abruptly, the “good” dogs give the “naughty” one a dirty look.

Next step

The next step is to call one dog out of line. This lets the dogs know that they have to pay attention. You can either ask them to play a little game, or release them from “Line Up!” Call each dog for a game and/or release. And you’ve trained multiple dogs at once!

It’s also fun to try little behaviors in pairs. Both Obedience and Rally have “Pairs” competition. It’s a just-for-fun, or “non-regular” class of competition. And it always draws competitors, and audience, because it’s such a joy to watch.

Just hanging out in the yard, we’ll ask a couple of dogs for a simultaneous “Spin!” or “Front!” just because. They love doing it, and we love seeing them so happy and accomplished. These are the tiny little games you play just to have fun with your dog wherever you are, anytime you like. We also sometimes do a group recall for fun – when the dogs are wandering at the other side of the yard, call everybody and see who gets to us first. (“Get your dog to come dashing to you” has some great tips for the recall, or “Come!”)

Scaling up

A friend of ours who’s also addicted to playing training games posts trick training videos on social media. She’ll often have another dog hanging out on a cot in the background. It’s another level of training, and it didn’t happen all at once.

Our friend frequently rewards the dog hanging out on the cot. It allows both dogs to adjust to the idea that they don’t have to be the center of attention all the time. That you do remember them. And that they’ll be rewarded for remembering the game they’re playing.

Just hanging out on the cot is an active game. Most people who have trouble with their dogs’ “Stay!” tend to think that their dog isn’t “working” when they’re staying. They are. And for active dogs, it can be the hardest game of all.

Choose one or more

It’s up to you whether you choose to train more than one dog at a time. It’s certainly easier with just one. But two (or more) can multiply the fun!

Dealing with distractions in dog training

There are always going to be real-world distractions in dog training. It’s how you cope with them that matters.

You never know when “SQUIRREL!” will cross your path. But you can prepare your dog to deal with distractions.

Fran and Simon, her 3-year-old Boston Terrier, competed in his second agility trial recently. It was a familiar environment – the same place they have weekly classes. The obstacles and jumps were ones he knows. And yet – he was completely distracted. Why? There were people in the ring with him!

In agility, volunteers are dispersed around the field to pick up dropped bars, reset jump heights, etc. to keep agility trials moving efficiently. But Simon had never seen people sitting on chairs in the ring before. So he felt compelled to go and say “Hi!” to all of them.

Distraction dog training

Dogs, like Simon, are going to notice things. That’s their nature. You can’t stop your dog from seeing and hearing the world around them. What you can do is show them how to stay focused despite distractions.

Fran and Simon are training for distractions. — Simon’s paying attention to Fran instead of the distractions around.

How is Simon going to learn to pay attention to Fran (and what he’s supposed to be doing) instead of visiting? This week in class, she’s going to ask her classmates to pretend to be those trial volunteers. And she’s going to be more fun than people sitting quietly in chairs. When Simon goes to say “Hi!,” those classmates are going to sit still and look anywhere but at Simon. Fran’s going to run away from Simon (triggering his chase instinct and his inherent curiosity), calling him. And when he comes dashing after her, she’s going to reward him mightily. And then they’ll continue running their agility practice.

The real-world application is the same.

How to train for distractions

The key is right there. Be more interesting than the distraction. Our students are often hesitant about being noisy, or playing with toys, or over-rewarding their dogs in class. People are taught to not be “disruptive” or make a fuss in public.

Get over it. Your dog isn’t going to pay attention if you’re boring. And, realistically, no one’s paying attention to you, anyway. They’re watching your dog. What they see in your dog is up to you. They can admire the cute, well-trained dog with you. Or they can “tsk” and shake their heads over the poorly-behaving hooligan.

Time & patience

It’s really difficult for people to embrace the idea of rewarding your dog every single time he looks at you. It’s hard to watch your dog’s face and look where you’re going. That’s why you practice in familiar surroundings and straight lines, so you don’t trip and hurt yourself. But that focus on you – rewarding your dog EVERY SINGLE TIME they look at you, is the foundation for all good training. Focus is key. (Check out the Looky Loo game for more distraction work.)

It doesn’t mean your dog stares adoringly into your eyes all the time, for every step. It means that they check in with you on a regular basis. Because they know it will be rewarded. What gets rewarded, gets repeated.

Calling it something

When you’re building the “check in” habit, you can call it “watch,” “here,” “check,” or whatever works for you. But it shouldn’t just be the dog’s name. Dogs hear their names constantly, with little or no information attached to it. So, more often than not, they ignore it. We have one student who says her dog’s name all the time, despite us hounding her not to. And when he hears it, he tends to look away, rather than at her. Because she’s reluctant to reward. When he does look at her, he gets an occasional “good boy!” even with us yelling “Reward that!” “Cookie him!”

Building the “check in” behavior pays dividends in the real world. If you’re out walking and see “SQUIRREL!” use your check-in and have rewards ready. The better the reward, the more likely your dog will find you more interesting than the distraction. In your dog’s opinion, you should be more interesting than anything else in the world. It’s not hard to do – they already adore you!

Eyes on the Prize

Setting priorities in dog training

When your dog does something unexpected in a training session, how do you react? Do you remember your priorities in dog training? Or do you allow your focus to wander?

Torque gave Hope a lesson in keeping priorities straight. In the middle of their 2-Minute Trainer video of the week, he decided to take off with the training game’s object, carry it off to a corner, and shred it to bits.

So she screamed “NO!” at him, wrestled it out of his mouth, smacked him with it, and crated him immediately.

Of course not. You can see in the video that she takes a pause to figure out what Torque’s up to. Removes the toy, and attempts to regain his attention and focus. It’s semi-successful, but calls for a change in the plan.

There are two paths forward:

Change directions and teach Torque to use pool noodle pieces, not eat them.
Use something else for the “Push!” game and get on with life.

Decide what’s important

Is it worth it for Torque to learn not to eat pool noodles? When we think about how often he’ll encounter them, not really. If we used them for anything but dog training games, it might be important. But we have no pool, and he’s never going anywhere without us. The chances of him encountering and destroying other people’s pool noodles in the wild is minimal. So we’re going to make a different choice for his training games.

That’s how you keep your eyes on the prize. Torque showed us the object we were using for the game isn’t a viable option. So we’ll use something else. That’s keeping your dog training priorities in order. We talked about training certain behaviors regardless of the public’s perception of any breed’s intelligence some time ago.

Be ready to shift gears

“Shifting gears” used to be something every driver had to know how to do. Nowadays, most people probably don’t even know the origin of the phrase. But it’s still a good one. Drivers of manual transmission cars had to pay attention to multiple inputs (speed, traffic, signals, etc.) and be ready to literally shift gears to adjust. Constantly.

Dog training requires that you’re paying attention to what your dog is telling you and be ready to shift gears and adjust. Torque’s theft of the pool noodle was him saying “I don’t know what you want, so I’m leaving.” His repetition of that means “Shredding this thingie is highly rewarding to me, so I’m going to keep doing it.”

Given a choice, dogs will always opt for the most rewarding action. At that moment, shredding the noodle was more rewarding than playing with Hope. Gears have to shift. The game has to get more fun, and the object less so.

Always communicating

Your dog is always providing feedback on your training. If you pay attention to what their behavior and body language tells you, your partnership will thrive.

And be ready to shift on the fly (back to car references!). If, instead of a pool noodle, Torque had suddenly decided that books are wonderful to destroy, we would have to address that. If it matters to you, you can make it matter to your dog. You set your own priorities in dog training.

Bribing dogs to behave

Are we bribing our dogs or rewarding them? — Do we bribe our dogs or pay them for a job well done?

Is reward-based dog training the same as bribery? Are we bribing dogs to behave? Is there something wrong with constantly rewarding dogs?

Let’s break it down into terms even our most resistant students understand instantly. You have a job. You love all aspects of your job – the work you do, the place you do it, the people you work with. It’s an ideal situation and you couldn’t be happier.

Would you still do it if you didn’t get paid?

Your dog’s job is to be a great companion, a member of the family who conforms to the rules of the household. When your dog does a good job – shouldn’t they get paid, too?

Because we say so!

At a certain toddler age, every child goes through a “Why?” stage – questioning everything. It’s a normal part of development, but that doesn’t mean it’s not sometimes frustrating. At some point, everyone has lost patience and said “Because I say so!”

At this point the child understands only that you’re angry with them. They don’t understand the source of the anger, or what happened to change the mood. Neither does your dog.

Even adult dogs are persistent toddlers. The smartest dogs in the world will never go to college, never support themselves, never become responsible taxpayers. We choose to be their guardians throughout their lives.

Asking your dog to consistently do what you want, without any hope of reward, is unrealistic. “Because I say so” only works some of the time. “Because you love me” only works some of the time. Without some kind of reward, your dog has no reason to do as you ask. Is it bribing your dog to behave? Maybe. Do we care?

Rewards come in different forms

It doesn’t mean you have to be a constant “Pez dispenser” as one of our students phrased it. It does mean that your dog’s good behavior should be acknowledged – with words, play, pets, scratches, treats, or anything your dog loves. Our article “Lots of ways to reward your dog” discusses this in more depth.

Give your dog a reason to choose wisely. The more you reward your dog for making good choices, the better they’ll become at choosing. What gets rewarded gets repeated.

So is it bribery? Some may see it that way. The promise of a reward is motivating for both people and dogs. So – pay your dog.

Luring vs. rewarding

Actually, luring, which is not the best dog training, is more akin to bribery. We like to think of positive reinforcement training, reward-based training, as the best bargain you can make with your dog. They get what they want when we get what we want. Sounds like a good deal for everyone.

If you consider it bribing dogs, we’re okay with that. It gets results, that that’s what matters.