October 2023 - 2 Minute Trainer

Your Dog Decides The Reward Value

You choose just about everything in your dog’s life. The entire schedule is yours. So is everything your dog has, is allowed, and does. There is one thing you can’t decide for your dog. Your dog decides the reward value. You can’t make your dog love cheese.

All dog owners know that dogs definitely have preferences: which toy is best, what food is tastiest, which bed is most comfortable. And they absolutely have a treat pyramid, from the golden, most cherished choice on top, to their everyday food at the bottom.

For some dogs, the kibble at the bottom is still worth jumping through fire. Others can easily walk away. The first type of dog is easier to train – you know they’ll be motivated by any tidbit. The second kind of dog, the one who doesn’t care, is more difficult.

It may not be food

You don’t get to pick the reward that’s most valuable to your dog. Sometimes it takes trial and error to figure out what’s at the pinnacle. It may not be food. Or a toy. It could be something odd, like one of our dogs who adored celery.

In the case of one dog, it’s being entirely avoided.

This week in our Rally class there was a dog who suddenly became afraid of the world. According to her owner, who’s a friend and Obedience mentor, it happened about a year ago. There wasn’t any incident, nothing bad happened to this dog. She just shut down.

Slowly, the dog is starting to open back up. But she was clearly nervous and anxious in class, although she did do the exercises with her owner. She gave any other person a very wide berth. Strangers trigger her fear.

Try something out of the box

Working with her owner, we came up with the idea of rewarding this dog by backing off. In competition Rally or Obedience, there is a judge in the ring with the team. Some judges follow the handler and dog closely, others allow more distance. There isn’t any rule about it, it’s just the judge’s preference. So a dog destined to compete in performance sports should be comfortable with another person in the ring, however close or far.

We decided to work on the “Front!” exercise with Hope acting as the “judge” in the vicinity. In this chunk of training, you’re heeling with your dog, then stop and call the dog to “Front!” The dog’s supposed to come around to face you and sit squarely in front of you.

When they began the exercise, Hope was about six or seven feet away. Close, but not hovering. When the dog performed the exercise, even shying away from the “judge,” Hope backed off. This dog’s reward was the scary person going away.

Try a few times, then stop

We repeated the sequence about three or four times, then quit. Even though the dog was doing better with each repetition, you don’t want to flood the dog with too much too soon. We don’t believe you have to stop on an “up” note. You stop before your dog signals stress, frustration, or anxiety. Give your dog time to process the session.

Your dog probably wouldn’t consider being ignored a reward. This dog does. In time, dogs transfer the value of the reward to the behavior that triggered the pay-off. This dog will associate “Front!” with good things happening.

That’s how most, if not all, dog behavior works. Dogs always do what’s most rewarding to them. It’s not always easy to figure out exactly what that is. Through trial and error, creative thinking, and observation, you’ll hit on the right stuff for your dog.

Teach your dog care behavior

It’s good sense and good dog guardianship to teach your dog care behavior procedures, like eye drops, ear cleaning, tooth brushing, even nail trimming.

If your dog is resistant to their face, ears, eyes, or mouth being handled, go slow. Since you’re preparing for the future, you don’t need to push your dog past his/her comfort level.

Prepare for some day

There will probably come a day when you have to give your dog eye drops. Especially if you have active dogs, dogs with short snouts, or who sniff, or who play/wrestle with other dogs. It’s almost inevitable, so it’s a good idea to train it before you need it.

Routine dog care chores will also be easier if your dog understands what’s going to happen. And knows what’s expected of them.

Since you and your dog already know how to play training games, breaking down dog care behaviors should be relatively easy.

Ready for eye drops

If you are the only person caring for your dog, you know it can be challenging to give any kind of medicine or drops. Getting your dog to cooperate can be difficult, as well as frustrating.

Most important: Never lie to your dog. If you try to disguise, or fake what you’re doing, you break your dog’s trust. Their part is cooperating. Yours is doing what you’ve said you would. Stick to it.

Don’t try to hide the medicine, toothbrush, cotton swab, gauze, whatever. If your dog wants to sniff the stuff, let them. Keep a firm grip so they can’t steal and eat anything, but show them it’s all benign stuff.

Simon is our wariest and most curious dog. Nothing happens to him unless he checks it out first. You’d think, after five years, that he knows what’s happening when we load a brush with toothpaste and turn to him. He still has to sniff and okay it. Every single time.

That’s okay. By asking him to help in his own care, he gets to choose. Every single time.

Teach the chin rest

The first thing to teach your dog is a chin rest. If your dog already knows “Gimme Your Face,” you’re most of the way there. For eye drops, you’re probably going to need two hands, so your dog should know a chin rest on a towel, mat, or even a small pillow.

Have a bunch of treats in a bowl nearby. If you have a small dog, sit on the floor. Put the towel across your lap and hold a treat in one hand on the towel. When your dog comes over to take the treat, keep feeding as long as their head is over the towel. If they back off, stop feeding. When they come back, keep feeding. Establish the pattern so they’re always rewarded when their head is over the towel.

Moving on

When your dog starts understanding this step, after a couple of treats use your dog’s release word and toss a treat to the side. If they come right back after getting the treat, you know it’s time to move on.

The next step is to wait for your dog to rest his/her chin on the towel. Hold the treat as far down as possible, and as close to you as possible. Feed as long as your dog’s chin is on the towel. As soon as their head comes up at all, stop. When the chin contacts the towel, feed. When it comes off, stop.

Since you will need some duration for care procedures, be sure to practice varying lengths of time that your dog stays with their chin on the towel. And be sure to release him/her before they’re tempted to do it themselves.

Next step

When your dog is staying with chin on towel for a good while, at least five seconds, add touching your dog to the game. At first, just touch them lightly, around the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Again, build up the amount of time, and use your dog’s release word.

The next step is to actually mimic the action of putting drops in your dog’s eyes. Holding the upper eyelid briefly, then letting it go. Both eyes.

If you have an eye dropper, introduce it to your dog and let him/her sniff it. Hold it in one hand while touching the eye lid with the other.

If your dog is comfortable this far, you can go ahead and fill the dropper with sterile saline solution and put a drop in each eye.

Go slow

If your dog is resistant at any step, just go back one or two and build back up. If there’s no urgent need, take the time your dog needs to be comfortable.

It’s probably going to take a lot of treats. Remember you can always use your dog’s food for part of the “trail mix” of treats you use in training.

This kind of dog training is called “cooperative care.” It’s certainly easiest, once learned, to have your dog help take care of themselves.

Teaching your dog to fish

“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” We’ve all heard the saying, although no one seems to know its origins. The point is valid, though. What you’re doing with 2-Minute Training is teaching your dog to fish.

Giving a man a single fish is certainly fast and effective. It solves the immediate problem. Teaching someone to fish takes a lot longer and requires more effort by both parties. But it’s a forever solution to the problem. When it comes to dog training, you have the additional barrier of communication. You can tell a person how to do something. If they have questions, they’ll ask. It’s less clear with dogs.

Making your choice

A specific example most dog owners can relate to: when somebody enters your home, the dog jumps on them to say “Hello.”

Single fish answer: Every time someone comes over, you grab your dog’s collar and prevent the jumping. Or tell your dog “Off!” every time they jump.

Fishing answer: Teaching your dog a greeting behavior that’s triggered by a knock or the sound of the doorbell.

It takes longer and requires more effort to teach the “fishing” answer. It always will. But once learned, it’s there forever and you won’t have to dread the chaos when the doorbell rings.

Pick your battles

Every dog owner has his/her own rules of the house for the dog. Some people don’t want their dogs on furniture. Others don’t want their dogs sleeping on their beds. We know people who don’t want their dogs to precede them through doorways. Everyone chooses what’s most important to them.

Whatever rules you choose as absolutes for your dog, it’s worth taking the time to transform into a training game. Spend a few minutes to break down the behavior. What are the smallest nuggets you can teach your dog?

For instance

If it’s staying off the couch, think about what happens when your dog jumps up on it now. Does it always happen when you’re already sitting there? Does your dog rock back before jumping up? How can you interrupt the action and turn it into something else?

If you’d like your dog to settle in their own bed instead of up on the couch, make sure that bed is in the dog’s path to the couch. When you see your dog getting ready to jump up, they must step on the dog bed first. Use your “place” game and toss a treat into the dog’s bed.

Your dog, your rules

Focus on teaching your dog rules that matter every day. There are some dogs who resist putting on a collar or harness. That’s something that comes into play all the time. It’s worth breaking that down into small pieces:

look at the collar (click & treat)
sniff the collar while you’re holding it (c&t)
touch the collar (c&t)
allow the collar to touch their neck (c&t)
put the collar on (c&t)

Our lives got easier when we taught each of our dogs this simple behavior. They used to get excited and run around like hooligans when we reached for collar and leash. Now they all get excited, run over to us and stay still while we clasp their collars. It’s a small thing but useful many times a day. It was worth it to teach our dogs to fish.

Dogs need your feedback

Do you talk to your dog? If not, why not? Dogs need your feedback especially when you’re playing training games, but other times, too.

Consider this dialog:
Trainer: What day is today?
Student: Tuesday?
Trainer: What day is today?
Student: The seventh?
Trainer: What day is today?
Student:…..

Even if all of the student’s answers are right, by persisting with the same question without feedback, the trainer is causing doubt and frustration. If your dog is struggling to understand what you want, it’s not the dog’s fault. Your role is to encourage your dog to keep trying, offering feedback to keep them in the game. And find a way to clear up any confusion. We’ve encouraged you to talk to your dogs for years, and still our classes can be much too quiet.

Dogs want to play with you

It’s perfectly understandable that you don’t want to look foolish in public. But consider: do you look sillier with high-energy dog training with a responsive, engaged dog? Or with a low-key public session where your dog ignores you?

One of the phrases our students hear most often and are probably sick of is “Be more fun! Be more interesting!” In all honesty, your dog shouldn’t find anything or anybody more interesting than you. You should be your dog’s focal point, because they have more fun with you than anything else on the planet.

When you’re more animated, more enthused, and more focused for those 2-Minute sessions, your dog will be, too. If your dog doesn’t understand what you want, increase your feedback, don’t eliminate it! Give your dog encouragement: “You can do it, I know you can!” “Try something else, buddy. That wasn’t it, but I know you can get there!”

If your dog doesn’t hear good, positive feedback from you – what motivation do they have to keep trying?

Stay engaged

If you’re not feeling it on a particular day, don’t train. It’s really that easy. The session wouldn’t be productive anyway, so just don’t bother. You don’t want to get aggravated, you don’t want to frustrate your dog. So give it a bye. If your mood changes later that day, that’s when you give your dog a couple of minutes. And if it doesn’t, that’s okay, too.

One of the complaints we hear about people’s dogs is that the dogs are more interested in “stuff” in their environment than in their people. It’s not the dog’s job to find you interesting. It’s your job to be interesting to your dog. That doesn’t mean putting on a show. It means paying attention to your dog, not your phone, when you’re out for a walk. And when your dog spots something interesting, engage with them! If it’s something you’d rather they not focus on, redirect their attention with a game or a toy or conversation. If it’s something worth checking out – go do that and be part of the exploration.

That’s the key. Be a part of everything your dog does. Interact, talk to them. Let them know they’re not just a “thing” you take out and play with when it’s convenient. Dogs need your feedback. The more you let your dog know they matter to you, the more you’ll matter to your dog.