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Just for the fun of it – Train Your Dog!

There seems to be a mindset that dog training is something you “have” to do. The truth is, most dogs are only “trained” to function within the family. It’s almost like people see it as a chore, rather than a chance to play with their dogs. We wish they could see the fun the rest of us have when we play training games with our dogs.

That’s all it really is. Dogs love to learn, love having a job, and love spending time with you. Most dogs today aren’t really “working” dogs. Their primary job is to be great companions, and they’re great at it.

Ask for more

That’s fine. If you’re a couch potato and want your dog to lounge next to you and stare at screens all day, go for it.

But if you want more, it’s at your fingertips. If you’re just a little bit intrigued by the possibilities of what you and your dog can do together, start with one little training game. Play “Touch!” for two minutes.

If you do, you’ll be amazed by how quickly your dog catches on. And how happy your dog is to play with you. When was the last time you saw that open-mouth, silly grin on your dog’s face?

Not just us – dogs love to play training games

Last week one of our students told us something that makes us glad. She said that by late afternoon, if she hasn’t played training games with her dog, he comes to find her and won’t stop bothering her until they have a training session. If you’ve found a good training class, your dog should practically drag you into the room. Dogs should love to play training games.

We wish there was another word than “training” for what we do with our dog. It has so many dull, painful, boring connotations. Until we think of one, or make one up, it will have to do.

Give it a new definition

One thing we can do now is urge you to just try. Give it a week. One or two training games a day – less than 10 minutes. If it doesn’t work, if you don’t have fun, if your dog doesn’t learn stuff, let us know.

We know you’re tired at the end of the day. So get up five minutes earlier and play training games with your dog’s breakfast. Use one commercial break from whatever screen you’re watching to play with your dog.

Here’s the warning label: Playing training games with your dog is addictive. If you don’t love your dog and don’t want to have a singular bond with them, do not play.

Don’t say we never warned you.

Teaching “Fetch!”

You might think there are two kinds of dogs in the world. Those who love to play “Fetch!” and those who just don’t get it. In fact, the two kinds of dogs are: 1) those who love to play “Fetch!” and 2) those who don’t love it yet. Teaching fetch the 2-Minute Trainer way will make up for that!

It may take a little time, patience, and slobber to get there, but you can if that’s your goal. Like all of our dog training games, you break it down into small steps and teach one at a time.

The game of “Fetch!” is really not as simple as it looks. There are a lot of small steps that all add up to a complete game.

The first step is for your dog to love playing with a toy with you. The “with you” is the important part. If you’re not part of the play from the outset, you never will be. It doesn’t matter what toy you start with, as long as it has someplace for both of you to hold on. Balls don’t. Balls on ropes do. Bones don’t. Plush toys do.

Getting the grab

If there’s a toy your dog already loves that fits the bill, you’re ahead of the game. If you have a dog that doesn’t much care about toys, you may have to work a bit to get there. To get your dog to play with a toy with you, start by being annoying. Swish the toy back and forth on the floor in front of your dog, being sure to contact their front paws as you go. Keep it a slow, back and forth motion. With some excited dialog: “You gonna get it?” “What’s that?” “Get it!”

When your dog does grab the toy – and it may take some time to get the grab – play tug! (A word of caution about tug. Be sure to tug back and forth. Up and down motion could injure your dog’s neck or spine.) If your dog drops the toy, you drop it, too. Encourage your dog to “Get it!” If they do pick it up, start playing tug again. If they don’t, go back to your swishing. To graduate to the “Fetch” part, the toy has to be valuable to the dog, they have to want to get it without you holding it.

Make tug the best game ever

Once your dog loves playing tug, the next part is easier. In the middle of a game of tug, drop the toy and run away from your dog. At first, just go a step or two. When you turn around to look at your dog, they should be right behind you. Grab your end of the toy and play tug! The tugging game will be your dog’s reward when they “Fetch!”

The fastest way to get a dog to come to you is to run away from them. It also works with human toddlers. It takes guts to run away from your dog when they’re on the loose and headed for traffic, but it does work. Chasing after a dog is every dog’s signal to play “You Can’t Catch Me!,”, which is never what you really want to play.

If your dog has dropped the toy, or isn’t following you, run back to the toy and excitedly say something like “You forgot something!” “Where’s your toy?” “Get it!” When the dog picks it up again, say “Good Get it!” and run a couple of steps away.

Be patient. If your dog has never played “Fetch!” or is inconsistent in either carrying or bringing the toy, keep trying. It may take a few 2-Minute sessions for them to get the idea. Hope’s French Bulldogs have never been natural retrievers, or toy fanatics. But each and every one learned to love the retrieve, which is Obedience parlance for “Fetch!”

And you’re teaching “Fetch!”

Once your dog loves playing tug with you, and loves chasing you to play tug, you can progress to “Fetch!” Show your dog the favorite tug toy and then toss it away. As soon as you throw, turn around and start to run away. Again, if your dog drops the toy, or doesn’t get it to chase you instead, run to the toy and encourage your dog to pick it up. When they do, run a few steps, turn around and play “Tug!” See that: you’re teaching “Fetch!”

Be patient. If your dog isn’t a natural retriever, they have to learn all the parts of the game and come to love each and every part. When it all falls into place, you’ll always have it. “Fetch!” will be a part of your repertoire forever.

The Dog’s Shell Game

Both you and your dog always win when you play the Dog’s Shell Game. It looks like the con-artist’s street corner version, but it doesn’t cost a thing.

This isn’t a training game per se. It’s just a fun game to play with your dog that lets them use their natural ability to sniff. It’s a game that lets your dog just be a dog, and you go along for the ride.

How to play

All you need is some rather smelly treats and three cups or little bowls. We’d recommend using ones that aren’t breakable. And are washable. Because dog spit.

You can play anywhere you have enough space to sit on the floor with your dog.

Start by letting your dog sniff the treat. Then line up your cups or bowls and hide the treat under one of them. It’s perfectly okay for your dog to see what you’re doing.

Leaving the bowls flat on the floor, shift them around a few times in random order. The beauty part of this game is you don’t have to remember where the treat is. It’s up to your dog to find it.

Find it!

Then just let your dog go find the treat. They should use their noses to locate it. If they knock over the cup, that’s fine. Some dogs don’t make a beeline to the treat because they may not understand it’s a sniffing game.

When they indicate which bowl, pick it up and let them get the treat if they were right. If they chose poorly, just say something like “That’s not it! Keep trying!” It’s up to you whether you set that bowl aside or reintroduce it into the game.

Do it again!

After they find the treat the first time, they’ll know better what the game is about. It’s fun when they catch on and sit watching you move the cups around. See if your dog watches the target bowl or the whole set up. If they watch a single bowl, they’ll probably go right to that one when you release them.

Once your dog knows how to play the game, you can replace the treat with anything that has a scent. If you’re into Nose Work, you’re familiar with having dogs sniff out the essential oil scents used in the sport. You can use a cotton pad with just a few drops of scent. Just be ready with a treat to reward your dog so they’re not tempted to eat the cotton pad.

No fooling

Unlike the con artist, you’re not trying to fool your dog. You want them to succeed by using their natural scenting ability, like the “Find It!” dog training game. On a sniffari walk, your dog meanders from place to place, checking out the surrounding odors. The Shell Game has the added benefit of making you a vital part. Whenever possible, you want to be included in your dog’s fun.

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.

Being nice isn’t dog training

What do you do when society’s dictates conflict with your goals? If you’re out trying to train your dog and somebody wants to “say Hello!” to your dog? You want to be nice. But being nice isn’t dog training.

A longtime friend who’s also a very experienced dog trainer is a student in our Puppy Obedience class this session. While it’s always great to see friends, most people would wonder why she’s there. After all, she’s been training dogs for many years. And even though she does have a new puppy, she pretty much knows all the ins and outs of household obedience training.

She’s there for the same reasons we take our own dogs to someone else’s puppy classes. One is because we want our puppies to go to new places, experience new things, and learn how to act in public. That’s the socialization part.

The other part is that most people, from family and friends to complete strangers, won’t pay attention when you ask them to help further your training.They won’t follow your instructions on how you want puppy interactions to go. And a good proportion of those people will undermine what you’re doing. If not deliberately, then accidentally.

Hop on Pop

The easiest example most people can identify with is when your puppy (or dog) jumps on people to say hello. Almost every single person will give the puppy the attention he’s asking for. Which is rewarding the dog for misbehaving, guaranteeing that it will happen again. And again.

It’s hard to find people who will stand like statues and stare at the ceiling while an adorable little puppy is jumping on them, pawing them, nudging them, and begging for their attention. It’s almost as hard for the owner of the puppy to let it happen. Your first instinct is to make it stop, even if you have to grab the puppy by the collar and haul it away. Again, that gives the puppy exactly what it’s looking for – attention.

Good or bad doesn’t matter

Dogs want attention. They make absolutely no distinction between positive and negative attention. If you’re focusing on them, they don’t care whether you’re yelling or praising. Dogs seem to be hard-wired to accept all attention from humans as rewarding. And dogs always do the thing that’s most rewarding to them.

The result is that our job as a puppy instructor rarely allows us to interact with the puppies. That’s painful because we love playing with puppies. We love it even more when they’re not our puppies to clean up after and we get to send them home with someone else.

But we don’t get to do that. We get to stand there with our arms folded, staring at the ceiling, until the instant the puppy has “four on the floor.” At first, that “Good Off!” moment only lasts an instant, and then we’re staring at the ceiling again. By the third week of class, most puppies are sitting politely when we come to say “Hello!” And the bargain is sealed. The dog gets what it wants (attention) when we get what we want (polite greetings).

Be rude if you must

So what can you do when people don’t cooperate? Advocate for yourself and for your dog. If you’re walking your puppy (or dog) and a stranger asks if they can say “Hello!” or pet your dog, you set the rules. Most people will get it if you say “Only if he sits by you.” They probably won’t notice or pay attention when the puppy pops out of position with the first touch. Then you have to step in and ask them to stop until the dog behaves again.

The frustration comes when the person doesn’t comply. “Oh, he’s fine, let me say hello.” And you’re considered a meanie if you don’t allow it. Much as you want to be kind to strangers, your dog is more important than that person’s urge to pet the puppy. Your dog, your rules. Just say “I’m sorry, but we have to go.” And do it. Then come to our classes. We’ll ignore the heck out of your puppy.

Make a game of stuff the dog hates

Everybody has stuff they have to do and don’t like. The same holds true for most dogs. Some dogs love to ride in the car. Others are fearful. Dogs don’t necessarily love getting brushed. Some do, but others just put up with it. If you make a game of stuff the dog hates, you’ll both be happier.

As adults, we all do things we find unpleasant because we either should, or must. Whether the reason is for your own well-being (like going to the doctor), or your life’s obligations (like working), you do it. You may not be overjoyed about it, but you do it.

There are also things our dogs don’t like doing. It could be tooth-brushing, getting in the car, or putting on a harness or collar. Our dogs don’t understand that all of these things are for their own good. They don’t understand long-term consequences. Dogs exist in the now. And if they don’t want to, they’ll do everything they can to get out of doing it.

Give this dog a choice

This weekend we met a dog who gets a bit mouthy and aggressive if he isn’t given a choice. He objects to being pressured into action. The most notable reaction was when he refused to get into his owner’s car after our session. He wouldn’t be coaxed or lured and got mouthy when a hand went to his collar. If Hope hadn’t heeded his warning lip-curl, she would have been bitten.

Imagine our surprise when, with both back doors open and the dog’s leash tossed to the opposite side, he hopped into the car when no one was next to him. It was his choice, so he did it.

Some people would call it stubborn. It’s not. For reasons known only to the dog, he fears being forced into action. We’ll never know why. We can only assess what’s going on and counter-condition it. If this dog reacts badly where he has no options, it’s our job to make sure his options are all good ones.

Make it a game

We faced a similar situation (without the bite threat) with our own dogs. There was a next-door neighbor dog that would bark and fence-fight with our dogs. The neighbor was uncooperative, so there was no way for us to train our dogs not to react when they were off-leash. Our solution was to leash our dogs and “walk” them – even in our own back yard. On the rare occasion the neighbor dog wasn’t outside, we removed the leashes.

Our dogs didn’t much like it. They were accustomed to roaming the yard, sniffing and checking stuff out. When they saw us reach for their collars, they would back away trying to avoid getting hooked up. While we had no choice about leashing them, we also didn’t want them to hate it.

So we made a game of it. Randomly, throughout the day, we would grab a collar and say “Collar!” At first, the dogs were reluctant, but they did it. We put on the collar, rewarded the dog multiple times, repeating the word “Collar!” and “Good Collar!” Then we took the collar off, repeating “Collar!” and the dog was free to go.

It didn’t take long for our dogs to understand that standing still to get their collars earned them rewards. Now when we say “Collar!” they even stretch their necks out to have it on. Just by making a reward-based game out of it, we turned the situation around. Do they love the restriction? No, but the rewards are sufficiently valuable to make it worth their while. We make everything a dog training game!

Allows vs. Loves

There’s a difference between the things your dog will let you do, and loves for you to do. Some dogs love getting brushed. Others tolerate it. Still others resist and make it miserable for everyone. If your dog falls into the last category, think about the steps you can take to turn it around. If your dog is generously rewarded every time they see the comb or brush, they’ll like seeing it. The next step might be touching the grooming tool to a non-sensitive area. And generously rewarding. Then a small, gentle swipe with the brush, gradually building up your dog’s tolerance for the activity.

We’re not saying your dog will ever love getting brushed. But tolerating it with ease is sufficient. There are things that we have to do to keep our dogs healthy and well-groomed. Like us, they don’t have to love all of it. But they shouldn’t be miserable and neither should you. And that’s why we make a game of stuff the dogs hate.

Dog training requires your presence

If you’re not there, you can’t train your dog. Dog training requires your presence, both physically and mentally. You can’t do it remotely, phone it in, or hire someone else to do it.

This week one of the places where we hold classes had an open house. It was a terrific event and let us talk to all kinds of people about their dogs. It’s nice to be in a place where everyone instantly has something in common. As resident dog trainers, we were able to talk about how much fun it is to play training games with your dog, how gratifying it is to see the dogs’ joy, and answer lots of dog issue questions.

The most surprising thing to us was how many people don’t understand their presence is required on a one-to-one basis with each dog. That’s a monumental difference between people and dogs. Children can learn as a group in full classrooms. Dogs need to be tutored individually. Once all your dogs know how to do something, they can practice together. Until then, it’s just not possible.

You’re the tutor

One person asked us how she can get her two dogs to stop barking when they’re in the yard. When asked, she admitted that the dogs were out by themselves, for some extended periods of time. There’s no way to train a dog to do something if you’re not there. If the dogs are on their own, they do what they want. And if there’s more than one, they’ll probably follow the worst-behaved dog’s lead. Because that’s the dog having the most fun.

Another person asked about their dog being a terrible “host” when people come over. Their dog is dictating their social life. He was rueful about the fact that his dog has been through two board-and-train sessions and still is reactive when company comes. Then he admitted he and his partner haven’t followed through with any advice the board-and-train place gave them.

Somebody else asked about stopping their dog from eating nasty stuff in the yard – both her own and others’. And again, the dog was mostly alone in the yard. When she did have company, she wasn’t on leash and the person had no supplies to reward for good behavior.

Don’t complain – train!

If you don’t do the work, you’re not allowed to complain. When you’re down there in the trenches trying to take care of business, then you’re allowed to complain all you want. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain about the politicians. You have to participate to solve the problem, any problem.

If you want your dog to stop eating poop in the yard, you have three options. One is to pick it up immediately when it’s produced. That works for dogs’ stuff, but not rabbits’. You can take your dog out on leash, and train them to ignore it. Another option, if being there isn’t possible, is to train your dog to wear a muzzle.

Start small

We honestly can’t understand why so many people want to hand the training reins over to strangers, or not do it at all. Playing training games with our dogs is one of the highlights of our days. We can see how much joy the dogs and people have in our classes when the team starts to mesh. Having a dog means getting to spend time and energy with someone who loves you unconditionally. And is fun. Also never talks back, rolls their eyes, or ignores you.

Yes, dog training requires your presence. But just a few minutes a day playing training games can make your life calmer, more controlled, and certainly more joyful. Dogs aren’t hobbies that you take out and play with when it’s convenient. They’re always there, hovering at the edges of your life, anticipating the times they get to be the center of your attention. If you can’t give them a few minutes, why do you have a dog?

Boxey revisited: let the dog do the work

For whatever reason, Hope wasn’t feeling very inspired with training games this week. Her French Bulldog Torque is always an eager participant, but Hope just wasn’t feeling any creative spark. What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Go back to the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start. And let your dog do the work for you.

Hope dug out a big old cardboard box, sat on the floor with a bowl of treats and told Torque to go for it. He’s been playing “Boxey!” since forever, but it’s been a while since Hope hauled it out.

The dog did not disappoint! He came up with two new games in just five minutes!

Let the dog do the work

Whoa! How did that happen?

If you need a Boxey refresher, it’s one of the first games we use to teach dogs how to learn and create. You just get a box, large enough and shallow enough for your dog to get into, and wait. You sit there on the floor near the box and let your dog figure stuff out. Whatever your dog does gets rewarded. (Except for trying to eat the box.) Every time they do something different, you throw a treat in the box.

That’s it. Simple enough. And yet there are still people who try to “help” their dogs. Yes, you may talk to your dog, encourage your dog, even pet your dog. You’re not allowed to tell them what to do. Let the dog do the work. Whatever they do is perfectly fine. Just be sure the box you use was headed for the recycle bin anyway.

Why so strict about not instructing your dog? Because the point of this game is to have your dog be creative. Whatever they come up with will give you some insight into what they understand, which games they like the most, how creative they can be, and how much they enjoy learning.

All that from a box

Dogs who aren’t trained with games and positive reinforcement from puppyhood may take a while to engage with the box. All their lives they’ve been strictly monitored and told what to do, when to do it, and how to act. They’ve never had to make a choice, so they don’t know how to choose. Some sit for the entire session, staring at the box. Their dogs are afraid to make a “wrong” choice, so they do nothing.

If that describes your dog, dig deep and call on all your patience. You can certainly talk to your dog. Be upbeat and keep up the chatter. Just don’t give them commands, orders, or instructions. If you’ve got nothing else to say, sing a song, share a poem, recite the Gettysburg address. It doesn’t matter, as long as you let your dog know you’re not upset or angry with them. The tone should be encouraging and happy.

It doesn’t matter

Whatever your dog does with the box is fine. It gets rewarded. Once they catch on to the game, they’ll love it. They get to play with their people and have fun. Because there’s no goal to the game, it takes the pressure off everyone.

You’re probably wondering what new games Torque made up with his latest Boxey session. The first was an extension of something we’ve done out of the box. He jumped into the box and went into his “Stomp!” behavior. It was adorable and we wish we had video.

“In and Out”

The second was brand new. When he’d been rewarded for “Stomp in the Box!” a few times, Hope said “We’ve seen that. What else?” He tried a few familiar behaviors (sit in the box, bow in the box), but Hope asked for something else. He moved his two back feet out of the box and then in again. Torque’s new game is “In and Out!” Like all new games, it needs some more practice before it’s polished. And Hope knows she truly has a partner. When she couldn’t come up with something new, he did. That’s the beauty of playing training games with your dog. Sometimes you let the dog do the work. And the partnership is always amazing.

Double down on dog training distractions

Does your dog lose focus easily? Does any sound or movement get them off their game? If that describes your dog, it’s time to double down on dog training distractions.

One of the nosiest dogs on the planet lives right here with us. Simon has to know what everybody’s doing at all times. And if it’s something he’s interested in, his brain melts out of his ears and his focus is gone. How does Fran get it back? She has the yummiest treats, the best toy, the most enthusiastic attitude. The objective is to let Simon know that what he’s supposed to be doing is more fun and more interesting than anything else happening.

Calm isn’t the answer

Like parents of newborn babies, the natural instinct is to hush everything when you’re trying to get baby to sleep or dog to focus. But that’s not real life. Babies have to learn to sleep through normal household sounds. And dogs have to learn to pay attention through everyday distractions.

You may want to limit distractions when teaching your dog a new game or behavior. When dogs don’t know what to do, many will sidetrack or disengage rather than be “wrong.” Others will start showing off all the tricks and behaviors they know, trying to figure out what you want. The initial phase of any new training game is when you want to control the environment and keep dog training distractions to a minimum.

Increase dog training distractions during familiar games

But once your dog is familiar with a new game, it’s time to let chaos reign. Today Simon’s focus and concentration was severely challenged. Fran was planning to practice the Directed Retrieve with him. In non-obedience terms, that’s where you put three gloves out, spaced pretty evenly apart, and tell the dog which one to get. They’re supposed to bring it back to you, sit in front of you, drop the glove on command, and go back to heel position when directed. It’s a complex behavior with lots of parts to train.

Take it to extremes

Simon was doing okay with it until the other dogs started squeaking their toys in their crates. Everybody gets their turn, both playing training games with their person, and waiting in their crates. Today Torque and Booker got new toys, the squeakers were still intact. That won’t be true for long, but it was today. (Simon got a new squeaky toy, too.)

As soon as the squeaking started, Simon’s head swiveled to see where it was coming from. Another squeak and he dashed over to see what the other dogs had that he didn’t. Fran ditched her plan for the session and went into “dealing with distractions” mode. We’ve talked about this before, with the “Look- Loo” game, but this is taking the game up a notch, with the squeaking.

That’s not chasing him, yelling at him, or scolding him. It’s changing what you’re doing so you’re more interesting than the distraction. As soon as Simon glanced in her direction, Fran praised him and started running away. The fastest way to get a dog to come to you is to run away from them. When he followed, she gave him multiple high-value treats, praised him, and started a very-familiar routine. In Simon’s case, he loves heeling practice, so that’s what she did. She kept her eyes glued on his face. Every time he made eye contact, she praised and rewarded.

Watch where they’re looking

Dogs are pretty easy to read. If they’re not looking at you, chances are they’re not paying attention to you. If you tell them to do something at that point, it’s probably not going to happen. We’ve seen it lots of times, especially in an exercise like the “Recall,” or “Come!” If you’re across the room and your dog is looking right at you, you can say “Come!” and they probably will. If they’re watching something else, that’s where they’ll go when you call.

That’s when you use your dog’s name before the command. If your dog doesn’t look at you, don’t continue. Go back to your dog and start over. The last thing you want to do is set your dog up for failure. You do want to work through the distraction.

With the squeaky toys, we couldn’t predict when the other dogs would make noise. To target working on Simon’s focus with a squeaker distraction, Hope picked up a toy and made noise at regular intervals. Fran was able to focus on getting eye contact with Simon and continue her 2-Minute session.

Was Simon perfect after a couple minutes? No, of course not. But he made some progress and happily played with Fran. Tomorrow’s another day to try again.

Help! We broke our dogs!

We broke our dogs! Hope’s Torque is broken. So is Fran’s Booker.

Not physically. But some training games have apparently been erased from memory. Absolute rock-solid training games have been corrupted or are missing entirely.

Not to worry – when you train step-by-step, you can always recover what was lost. You just go back to the beginning, step-by-step, and see where the behavior falls apart. And take it from there.

Similar and different

It’s just coincidental that both of our dogs are broken at the same time. We play training games with the dogs individually, so there isn’t any cross-contamination. And the circumstances are different, too.

In the case of Fran’s Booker, it’s his Ring-Stacking game that’s gone with the wind. He’s always been a special dog. If he were human, he’d be tested for where he falls on the spectrum. Being an 11-year-old dog, we pretty much stand back, assess what he’s up to, shrug and say “Bless his heart.”

Booker discovered that stealing the rings, sticking his cute little butt in the air and chewing on them was more fun than carrying them to the post and stacking them. He’s okay for the first one, but then it’s like his brain glitches.

Fran’s taken it back to the start. Heavily rewarding him for picking up the ring, carrying the ring, taking it over to the post, and putting it on. Each step is deliberate. And she’s no longer tossing a dozen rings out for the game. One at a time. Heavily rewarding for each step of success.

We don’t know if Booker will ever play a full Ring Stacking game again. It doesn’t really matter. He has fun. Every dog in your life teaches you something. Booker has been expanding Fran’s capacity for patience for years.

Hope busted Torque herself

Hope’s always pushing the limits of what she asks Torque to do. One of her recent ideas backfired – big time.

At the end of Torque’s Bowling Game, Hope decided that he could help “clean up” the bowling pins. She asked him to “get it,” a behavior he already knows. He did, and even brought it over to the basket where the little plastic bowling pins are stored.

What she didn’t figure on was how much Torque would enjoy fetching and squishing the bowling pins.

When Hope says his “Go Strike!” command, he runs to the pins, knocks over a couple, then starts grabbing them and squishing them. Oopsy.

Fortunately, he drops them when told. He even puts them in the basket. But for the moment, his “Go Strike!” is striking out. So sad that we broke our dogs.

The action plan is to go back to the beginning and use incredibly high-value treats to reward Torque for just knocking the pins down. We’ll start one at a time, and discontinue the clean-up part for now. He just needs to remember what this game is about. So even though we broke our dogs, we’ll get them back.

Does it matter?

Yes and no. No, we really don’t care if our dogs are whizzes at Ring Stacking or Bowling. What does matter is that we all agree on the rules of the games we play.

Dog training is a constant give-and-take bargaining with your dog. They get what they want (your attention, treats, praise) when you get what you want (good choices).

You get to define the rules for every single game you play with your dogs. Your dog, your game, your rules. The secret to success is keeping those rules crystal clear for your dog.