May 2024 - 2 Minute Trainer

Dog Training Game – Automatic Sit

The “Automatic Sit!” is one of those games where you have to work a bit to make it fun. Remembering that your dog feeds off your energy – if you think it’s boring, it is. If you think it’s another fun game you can play together, it will be.

What is an “Automatic Sit”? When you’re walking with your dog, every time you stop your dog sits. It’s simple. It’s easy. And it’s a habit that most people don’t bother to develop for their dogs. But it’s an important one, especially for city dwellers. If your dog sits every time you reach a curb, or a driveway, you know you have time to check traffic before moving on. Just that simple. And possibly life-saving.

First things first

Does your dog know the word “Sit!”? Most people will swear they do. But most people are wrong. Keeping in mind that dogs learn things in context, do a little test of your dog’s understanding.

Your dog probably knows “Sit!” when you’re face-to-face. And you have a treat in your hand. You probably lift the treat up as you say “Sit!” Or you may simultaneously bring the treat up while you push on your dog’s butt. If any of that is familiar, you need to take the test.

With your dog at your side, your hands empty of treats, and hanging straight, say “Sit!” to your dog. If they do it, that’s great! Your dog really knows the word. If they don’t, you’re allowed to look at your dog’s butt, but not repeat “Sit!” If they still don’t do it, you need to expand your dog’s understanding of “Sit!”

Easy peasy

Getting your dog to understand “Sit!” is simple. But you have to actually do it. Dogs learn by the timing and placement of rewards. If you enter a room and your dog is sitting, say “Good Sit!” Give them a treat. That’s it. If you say “Sit!” and your dog instantly does it, reward! Keep repeating the word “Sit!” when your dog’s doing it.

Dogs are capable of understanding hundreds of words. The catch is you have to teach them. Unlike toddlers and children, dogs can’t pick up vocabulary by overhearing conversations or understanding context. Expanding your dog’s vocabulary requires your conscious decision to teach them. They’ll pick it up quickly, given the opportunity.

Once your dog’s “Sit!” is rock-solid, it’s time to take it a step further with the Automatic Sit!

Step at a time

This part’s easy, too. For one of your 2-Minute Training sessions, with your dog at your side, take a single step. Tell your dog “Sit!” when you stop. Take another single step. Say “Sit!” when you stop. Rinse and repeat. Single steps for just a minute or two.

If your dog doesn’t do it immediately, or seems confused, just wait. Give them a chance to think. If the halt-step wedding-march is confusing for your dog, there are a couple things you can do to clear it up. Always start moving with the foot closest to the dog. This is an Obedience hack. If you move the foot closest to the dog first, they know they’re supposed to move with you. If you move the opposite foot first, they know to stay. Dogs are smart.

You can also cue them when you start moving and when you stop. “Let’s Go!” even for the single step. And “Halt! Sit!” when you stop.

Always useful

That’s really all there is to teaching your dog the “Automatic Sit!” When your dog is doing great in your 2-Minute session, take the behavior with you on your next walk. At first, remind your dog to “Sit!” when you stop. And “Let’s Go!” when you start moving. Sitting at stops will become your dog’s good habit quickly.

Training your hyper dog

If you’ve been told your dog is too hyper for training, you’ve been sold a bill of goods and should demand your money back immediately. No dog benefits more. The whole point of training is to have your dog know how to act, in public or private, regardless of how revved up they are.

Nothing about dog training should be boring, calm, tedious, or rigid. It should be fun and fast, noisy and full of laughter. Your dog should know it’s okay, even good, to get excited. Dogs are all about fun. Training games are just another way to play with them. It has the side benefit of turning them into great companions who know their boundaries and listen to their people. Even when their excitement level is through the roof.

Rev ‘em up

If you’ve ever attended or watched an agility competition, you’ve seen handlers playing tug with their dogs as they wait to go in the ring. The objective is to get their dogs excited to run. The most successful dogs are not only excited and fast, but also paying attention to their people. Dogs are capable of listening, even in a high energy state.

Some of the training games (Touch, Throw Your Dog Away) are designed to get your dog excited. When you want your dog’s most intense focus on you – play a fast, fun training game. As long as you’re part of the equation, excitement is exactly what you want.

Don’t calm down

Stop telling your dog to calm down. It doesn’t work and it isn’t going to happen. Replace that mentality with one that works. Teach your dog to channel that excitement into something that makes you both happy. While not every hyper dog is destined to be an agility, obedience, or dog sport competitor, they can all learn to channel their energy so they don’t make you crazy.

We know what we’re talking about. We have Boston Terriers. And while not every Boston is hyper, we’ve been lucky enough to have a couple (okay, all) who are. Booker, at 11 years old, is now retired. He also has multiple Obedience, Rally, and Agility titles. That didn’t happen because we trained him to be calm. He’s not capable of being calm. It happened because he learned how to channel his energy productively.

Listen through the buzz

How do you get your hyper dog to play training games? All dogs, even hyper ones, always do what’s most rewarding to them. It’s up to you to be the most interesting thing around. Up your energy level. Talk in an excited voice. Move suddenly. Run away. Engage your dog. Have incredibly high-value treats.

Getting your hyper dog to pay attention for a 2-Minute Training Game isn’t hard. Two minutes. That’s all. And concentrating hard for those two minutes will probably tire out your hyper dog for quite a while. Thinking can be exhausting. Especially when it’s a new challenge you’re asking your dog to meet.

Set limits

Just as you want your hyper dog to get excited to play with you, they need to understand there are limits. That’s where setting the timer for your 2-Minute Training games comes in. The dog will learn that the game is over when the timer goes off. Dogs like routine. They love knowing what to expect. It won’t take long for them to know that the timer’s ring means the game’s over.

Show your dog what the timer’s ring means. Say something like “That’s all!” when it goes off. And stop playing immediately. Put away the treats and the clicker. Turn off the timer and leave the training space. Even if you’re playing in the kitchen, leaving the area will reinforce the idea that game time is over.

More benefits

Enforcing a limit will also teach your dog to switch gears and reset their emotional state. Since we tend to train each of our dogs individually, in turn, the dogs who are not playing are in their crates. This helps them differentiate between playtime and relaxing time. If you can make the break between “work” time and “relax” time a physical difference, it helps the dog. Move into another room. Take a walk. Make a clear differentiation between the two modes.

Your hyper dog can’t help being that way. Exuberant, energetic dogs can be challenging. They’re also fun, affectionate, and eager to play with you. Take advantage of the traits you love. Teach them control to take care of the others.

2 Keys to good dog training

The two qualities needed for successful dog training are patience and consistency. Good dog training isn’t fun to watch. That’s why lots of the dog trainers with huge numbers of views on social media are really awful trainers. Awful meaning violent, punishment-based, and full of noise and motion.

When one of our videos gets some traction on social media, one of the comments that pops up over and over is “can you do a video showing how to teach this?”

We could. But no one wants to watch somebody standing around looking at their dog. That’s what most of positive reinforcement training is. We’re teaching our dogs to think and make good decisions. We don’t tell them what to do, we present opportunities for them to try things and figure stuff out.

Patience and consistency

Say you want to teach your dog to pick up an object – anything from the required-in-obedience dumbbell to a can of beer. Training starts with you putting the object in front of your dog and standing there staring at it. You wait for any interaction with the object (look, sniff, poke, move, lick) and when it happens, mark it (either with a click or a “Yes!”) and reward close to the object.

A couple of interactions with the object could be all you get the first time you show it to your dog. It takes time for your dog to realize the object has value. So that video is you standing there looking at your dog maybe looking at a thing. Not great video, but a good first step.

Short attention span

In this age of instant everything, advocating slow and steady is, at best, an outlier. That’s why your training sessions should be short. Hence, 2-Minute-Trainer. Staring at an object for two minutes while your dog thinks is okay. Longer than that? Deadly dull. And unproductive.

Even active behaviors, like loose-leash walking, start with “nothing to see here.” First you teach your dog the basics of the game. Lots of treats for not much motion. Thinking is active, difficult, and intense. But not exciting to watch.

That’s why we write detailed descriptions of our dog training games. It only takes a second to read “Choose a three-word phrase. Say the third word five times, giving your dog a treat as you say the word.” Doing it, and having your dog love hearing the word, takes a bit of time. Doing it with your dog is fun. Watching someone else do it isn’t.

Patience pays

You and your dog can do any of the behaviors and tricks we show in our videos. Some tricks only take moments for dogs to learn, especially if it’s based on something they already know. Some of the tricks take weeks, or even months. The total time working on it may be less than half an hour, but that’s two minutes at a time, maybe once a week.

If a dog trainer promises fast results, it’s almost guaranteed to be punishment-based training. Yes, it’s faster. Yes, it works, sort of. Punishment-based training doesn’t change the dog’s behavior, it suppresses it. The classic example is the housebreaking scenario where the dog is punished for pooping when you find the poop. So they hide where they do it. They didn’t learn what you meant to teach. They learned to avoid punishment.

Great results

Patience and consistency will get you and your dog wherever you want to go. Sometimes the goal changes based on what you learn about your dog with your training games. You’ll probably lean into the things your dog really enjoys and learns quickly. The stuff neither of you truly cares about will be shuffled off to the side.

You’ll know your dog better and you’ll have a bigger, happier life together when you play training games. And we hope you’ll send us the links to your end-product videos. Those are lots of fun to watch.

Play “Throw Your Dog Away!”

We get puzzled looks when we ask people how they play with their dogs. Or if they play “Throw Your Dog Away.”

It’s odd how many people don’t really know how to play with their dogs. We’re not talking about “Fetch!” games. For the most part, you being there isn’t even necessary. The person part of “Fetch!” could be easily replaced by an automatic ball launcher. It’s not you the dog is engaging with. It’s the ball. Or whatever toy they’re fetching.

There’s no doubt the dog is having fun. The person’s “fun” is more about finding joy in seeing your dog getting some exercise, having a good time, and probably even smiling at you. There’s also the dealing with the slimy toy part. And the clean-up that follows, especially on rainy days.

Strive for engagement

The good part about playing “Fetch!” with your dog is that you’re there. When we ask students if they play with their dogs, one of the answers we always hear is “My dog has a ton of toys. But he/she doesn’t play with them.” That’s because, past puppy stage, dog toys that just lie around aren’t very interesting.

When dog puzzle toys started appearing, they were marketed as “interactive” toys. We’re still trying to figure that out. Once you fill the compartments with treats, your part is over. The dog interacts with the toy, not with you. And that relationship ends as soon as the treats are uncovered and consumed.

Bond by playing together

If the whole substance of your time spent together is you either telling your dog what to do, or watching while they do stuff, it’s a pale reflection of what your bond could be. Some of the most satisfying moments with your dog are when you’re so in sync that it’s like you read each other’s thoughts. Whether that’s heading to the kitchen at the same time to get a drink, moving as a unit around a Rally Obedience Course, or even just yawning together and heading for bed, it’s a pretty great feeling.

So what game can you play, just the two of you, to build that relationship? There are lots of little “kitchen games” that help. Touch, Watch, Puppy Push Ups all work. All of those are great for attention and focus. But what if you just want to have some fun with your dog? No pressure to achieve anything. Just playing around? It’s time for “Throw Your Dog Away!”

How to play

First off, know that this is a vigorous game and can get quite loud. Also painful. One of our puppy class people loved the game – until those sharp puppy teeth put a gouge in his arm. Puppy teeth are razor sharp. Exercise a bit of caution if your puppy doesn’t have excellent bite inhibition.

All you need for this game is you and your dog. That’s it. Not even any rewards. Your dog should love playing this game all by itself. And it’s easy. You’re probably already doing parts of it.

Get down to your dog’s level, whether that’s sitting on the floor, bending over, or kneeling. Start ruffling up their fur and talking excitedly. You want to build up your dog’s excitement to play with you.

Then, when your dog’s engaged with you, put a hand on their chest and push them away – “throw” your dog away. At first your dog may be a little confused, but they’ll come around quickly and rebound right back for more.

Silly dialogue

When we play this game with our dogs we keep up a constant dialogue. As the dog’s coming back for more, we say ridiculous things like “What are you coming back for? Do you think I want you? I’m going to throw you away again!”

Most dogs, once they figure out you’re playing, do an adorable little lift onto their haunches and bounce back at you. Dogs love the direct engagement and contact.
That’s all there is to the game. Your dog bounces at you and you bounce them right back. As mentioned, this game can be very stimulating, especially for puppies. Keep an eye on your dog and if the arousal level is too high, it’s time to lower the temperature. A quick game of “Watch!” or “Touch!” should do the trick.

Pay your dog

“Pay your dog!” is a phrase we use in every single class we teach. It seems that most people are worried their dogs will gain weight if they’re trained with treats.

We hear it all the time. “That’s a lot of treats!” “When can I stop rewarding with food?” The constant objection is that dogs will get fat with reward-based training. A more thoughtful use of food would benefit the dogs. Rather than worry about the dogs gaining weight, see the advantage of using the dog’s most valuable currency to teach them.

Dogs will, absolutely reliably, do whatever’s most rewarding for them. Why not have a meeting of the minds and make what you want the most rewarding thing? Why would you refuse to use the tool that works best?

For instance

This week one of our training game videos went a little viral. It’s Torque’s trick “Troll Under The Bridge.” Lots of people commented, more than we’ve ever seen. People seemed impressed, but “But will he do it without food?” was a pretty common question. Our reply is “Probably. But why should he?”

Let’s try a little perspective on the issue. Would you want to work without pay? Even if you love your job, your office, your colleagues. Would you still do the job for nothing? Most people will give a hard “No!” So why does anyone expect their dog to do their job without payment?

For your love

The answer we hear a lot is “But I pet him and tell him he’s a good dog! Isn’t that reward enough?” Again, put yourself in that position. A hearty pat on the back and “Good job!” is nice to get from your boss. But a bonus is better, more memorable, and means more to most of us.

If you’re worried about your dog gaining weight, remember it’s you who controls your dog’s calorie intake. There’s absolutely no reason you can’t make your dog’s regular food part of the “trail mix” of treats for training. When you measure out your dog’s food for the day, just put a scoop of it in a separate bowl. Mix in some higher-value, shelf-stable treats, and you have your training treats for the day.

Not a lifetime commitment

When your dog is learning something new, is having trouble with something, or is particularly distracted, it’s a good idea to reward often and for smaller steps in training. The rate of reinforcement should be higher for new or more difficult games.

Once a word is cemented in your dog’s vocabulary, you probably don’t have to reward them every time they do it. When dogs are learning our warm-up Puppy Pushups game, they get rewarded for every change of position. Once they’ve been playing a while and enjoy the game, the treats may come after several position changes. Randomizing rewards even becomes part of the interaction. Dogs trained with positive reinforcement will try all kinds of different things to get you to cough up the goodies.

Establish a pattern

One of our students has a large, young dog in a house full of young children. To keep everyone safer, they decided early on that “Down!” was a very valuable behavior for their dog. If she was lying down, they didn’t have to worry about her jumping on the children or their friends. Every time the dog obeyed “Down!” she was rewarded.

Fast forward several months and “Down!” is the dog’s default behavior. It’s so firmly established in her mind that she’s “good” when she’s “Down!” that when she’s confused, or unsure what she’s supposed to do, she lies down. She’ll do it even when she doesn’t get a reward. Because she knows it’s a good thing to do and she values being good.

Dogs just want to be good

Given a choice, dogs want to do the right thing. They may not always know what that is. It’s our responsibility to teach them. Since dogs learn best through the timing and placement of rewards, it’s a no-brainer to use rewards to teach.

If you’ve been stingy with the treats, think about why that’s so. Concern about weight is valid, but just one of the factors to consider. Find low calorie treats your dog likes (Popcorn? Carrots? Celery? Green Beans?). Use higher-calorie options sparingly, and use a portion of your dog’s regular food for training.

There are certainly other rewards dogs find worthwhile, including toys and praise. But if your dog’s number one motivation is food, use it to accomplish your training goals. Pay your dog for work well done.