Making the command sit a Pavlovian response

While I do not use much food when I train a dog, I do use food to condition a response to the word “sit”.  I do this for a specific reason, to be able to disrupt a dog’s prey drive when all other commands fail.

A dog quickly learns that if I have a piece of food in my hand, the dog will not get the treat until he or she sits calmly facing me. 

In order to look up, a dog has to sit down.  So if I show the dog a treat and then lift my closed hand, the dog will sit down to see the hand holding the food.  I am very careful not to say “sit” as I raise my hand.  If I say “sit” as I raise my hand, the food becomes a bribe.  You sit down and I will give you food. 

But when the dog sits I give it the food as I say “good sit.”  What I am doing is programing a Pavlovian response to the word.  The dog associates the word sit with the pleasure of the food.  He also associates the act of sitting with pleasure.

After a couple or repetitions, the dog will sit when I raise a closed hand over his head.  Now I do not always have a treat in my hand, and the dog has a good enough nose to know whether or not I have food.  But hope springs eternal in a dog.  The dog sits for me since he knows the only way to find out for sure if I have food, is to sit still.

In my group classes, called Neighborhood Pack, I can stop almost any behavior just by walking over to the dog and holding my hand over his head with the fingers close.  The dog stops the unacceptable behavior to find out if I have food to offer.

This then becomes useful when my clients are out with their dogs.  The word sit can often change behavior, especially behavior in prey drive, when all other commands fail.

A dog may go into prey drive when it either feels threatened or sees prey.  Prey drive is a part of the fight or flight response.  When you dog goes after a rabbit, a deer, or another dog, it is in prey drive.  And prey drive actually causes bio chemical and physiological changes.  The dog’s eyesight, sense of smell and even hearing narrow on just the object of the prey drive. 

When all else fails we give the command “sit” and the Pavlovian response to that word is often enough to get the dog out of prey drive and back under control.

You can practice and reinforce this command every day.  When you feed the dog, raise its dish.  When it sits tell him “good sit” and then put the dish down.

Sorry I've been gone so long

Back in 2006 I opened Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes when I retired from the Sheriff's Office.  This was never supposed to be a full time job, just something for an old cop to do.  The goal was about a thirty hour week and enough income to pay the bills.

And that is what it was until 2012.  Suddenly I was working six or seven days a week anywhere from 40 to 70 hours. 

As a result this blog fell by the wayside.  It wasn't that I didn't have something to say, it was finding time to say it.

I've grown as a trainer and as a result at any given time I have about 60 to 80 dogs that I am working with.  Neighborhood pack has grown from one session a week to four.  Some days I get here at 9 and don't get home until 8 or 9 at night.

But this has become a very rewarding way to spend my retirement.  I get to watch so many dogs change and so many owners improve their skills.

I'll try to be better about posting things that may help you. 

And now I have to go work with a dog

Doug

Dog Training - In praise of praise

    I have a huge advantage over most dog trainers.  I don’t train in order to make a living, or even as a supplemental income source.  I have a nice police pension and no longer have to work for a living.  But I am a type A personality and the idea of becoming a couch potato after retiring had no appeal. I train dogs to have something to do

    This allows me to stand back from the industry and make my decisions without being influenced by the need to make money.  As long as I pay the overhead, finances are not my motivation.

    When I met Pat Muller, the inventor of Manners in Minutes training, it was an “aha” moment.  I realized that she had come up with a training system that made sense to both the dog and the dog owner.   And since it made sense to both of them, it was the fastest way to train a dog.

    The dog training profession is almost entirely made up of two schools.  The first school is the all positive reinforcement methodology; the second is a dominance/alpha school.

    Positive reinforcement is by far the largest school.  The vast majority of trainers are in this school.  The idea is simple.  Reward positive behavior and through repetition the dog will perform reliably.

    I find some major flaws in this technique.   Too many trainers use food as the reward.  Food reward has some major drawbacks.  Some dogs are not food oriented.  But more often, as I have written before, the trainer fails to get the owner to see the difference between motivation and bribery.  Many times I see dogs that have turned the tables of the owner.  The will only perform for food.  Or they will deliberately misbehave so that the owner gives them food to change their behavior.  Far too often someone ends up with a fat dog that only behaves when food is immediately available. 

   And while some of them claim to be all positive, frustration can lead to harsh corrections. 

   And there is a lot of smugness and self righteousness by many of these type trainers.   They have a built in excuse for their training failing you.  It is your fault, you aren’t kind enough.

    I think, in theory, the dominance/alpha school is closer to the right track.  But in practice, most of them get it wrong. 

     It seems far too many of them are just plain bullies.  They end up punishing the dog to the point that the dog obeys out of fear.  And fear is not the relationship you should have with a dog.  They misinterpret the alpha/pack concept to cover their own shortcomings.

   Because of these people, dominance training has become a dirty word within the dog training industry, especially with the all positive people.

   There is a third school.  I call it the balance school.  It isn’t all positive reinforcement, but instead of punishment it uses gentle correction techniques.   But what sets it apart is the use of praise.

    Unfortunately there are not a lot of balance trainers. You really have to work to find one.  And a lot of people who claim to be balance trainers aren’t.

    I tell my clients even if they mess up on everything else, if they get the praise right, the will get the dog right.  It will just take longer.

    There are some simple rules for the effective use of praise.

1.        Try not to gush.  Gushing is using the same phrase multiple times for one performance.  So when a dog sits when told to sit, tell them “good sit” one time.    Dogs often mistake gushing as barking and one of the reasons dogs bark is to invite play.  Gushing can sabotage training.

2.       When the dog obeys a command, make sure you praise it immediately.  Since one decision gets only one reward (good sit) praise the dog as it obeys, not after the fact.  “Good sit” should be said as the dog is in the act of sitting, not when the dog has been sitting for a while.

3.       Praise everything the dog does even if you did not give it a command.  If you walk by and the dog stands up, tell it “good stand.”  If it does not get up tell it “good down.”  Praise makes the dog believe you are in charge.

4.       If you make a correction, praise the dog when it obeys.  Corrections without praise are revenge; it is the praise and not the correction that makes it training.

5.       Praise the action.  “Good dog” means you like the dog. “Good sit” means you are reinforcing the command.

     The effective use of praise can often overcome other poor training techniques and incompetent trainers.

Doug

Training dogs by e mail

When I opened Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes in 2006 and started training dogs professionally, I thought I had everything figured out about what I would be doing.  Now 6 1/2 years later I find myself doing a lot of things I never thought of originally.

Neighborhood Pack started out as just a way to give my clients some extra time to work with me on their dogs.  Today it is a major part of my training.

I had never even thought about training a deaf dog.  But each year I train a couple of deaf dogs.  I also didn’t realize that this blog and a Facebook page would be in the mix.

But the biggest surprise is that I find myself training a couple of dogs each year by e mail. 

It started out, like so many things, simply enough.  A Lakeland breeder I know asked me to contact the owner of one of her dogs.  The owner was having a couple of problems that just needed some knowhow to get through.  The word got out and pretty soon I was getting regular requests from that breeder or others to help one of their dogs out in pet owners homes.

Then I was contacted by a Lakeland owner for some help.  The problem was easily cleared up.  But the dog owner was so impressed that she asked if I could help her train the dog in the entire Manners in Minutes system.

What resulted was a series of e mails.  I would explain how to train a command.  She would start working the dog in the command and as questions came up she would e mail and I would answer.

Wisely I kept all the e mails.  Last fall when I found myself going to Williamsburg VA for seminars those e mails became the basis of my new workbook.

And now when I train a dog by e mail, I have a workbook to guide the owner to the dog they want.

The one downside, I only get to see pictures of the dog.

 

Doug

 

MiM Seminar in VA is happening.

  I am pleased to let you know that the Manners in Minutes seminars in Virginia will be September 29th and September 30th.  The seminars will be at Hollybriar Farm in Lanexa Virginia, near Willamsburg.  Our host will be Pat Rock who breeds Lakeland Terriers and American Staffordshire Terriers.

    Saturday the 29th I will be training a rescue dog, with serious issues, in the Manners in Minutes system.  This will allow you to see how this awesome method works.  I will take the dog through all the basic commands.  The six hour seminar includes lunch and plenty of time to answer your questions.

    You will also get a copy of my workbook, which will allow you to use the demonstrated methods to train your dog in Manners in Minutes.

    Sunday will be a six hour workshop where I will be working with a number of dogs and going over:

         Imprinting puppies to prepare them for their new homes.
         Dealing with Fear Aggression
         Dealing with shyness and skittish behavior
         Bolting
         Seperation Anxiety
         Manners in Minutes in Conformation and other events.

   This session also includes lunch and plenty of time to answer questions.

   For more information contact
Pat Rock
804 843 2787 or
757 871 0292

   Or you can get a copy of the flier by e mailing me a ppmim@qwestoffice.net

Hope to see you there.

Doug

 

Willaimsburg VA MIM seminar

For the last couple of years our friend, Pat Rock of Hollybriar Kennels in Lanexa Va has wanted me to come out and do a dog training seminar on the Manners in Minutes system.  This year we are going to be able to do it.

     I will be at Hollybriar (near Williamsburg VA) on September 29^th and September 30^th 2012.  Both mornings I will be training a new dog in the Manners in Minutes system to show people how easy and quickly it works.  The afternoon seminar on the 29^th will be on how to use Manners in Minutes to work with aggressive and submissive dogs.  The afternoon seminar on the 30^th will be raising puppies in Manners in Minutes and how to prepare show dogs for the ring using the system.

    As I have written in this blog before, at this time there are only two training centers using this system, Pat Muller’s Quansa Kennels in South Beloit, IL and here at Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes in Colorado Springs.  Since so many people find this blog looking for Manners in Minutes training, this will give some of you a chance to find out about this system if you can’t come to Illinois or Colorado.

   Pat Muller does have both a book and a DVD on how to train in this method.  So you can train without working with either of us.  But sometimes it helps to not only see it in person, but to be able to ask questions.  This will be that opportunity. 

   If you have stumbled onto this blog looking for help, and you live near Williamsburg, then this may be what you need. 

    In addition to a supply of the q-bone and q-calmer training devices I will have a brand new workbook that will explain in great detail how to train your dog yourself if you are able to attend this seminar.

   As soon as a few more details are worked out I will post here, and on the Pikes Peak Manners In Minutes Facebook page, how to sign up for this class.

   I hope you can come.  And since Pat is a Lakeland breeder you will get to see the breed I so often write about.

Doug

A dog nose how to go on a walk

     A while back I did a home visit with a client.  I do not do a lot of those since most problems can be diagnosed and dealt with in either my private lessons or in our neighborhood pack group sessions.  But this dog was bought from a puppy broker/trainer who seems to deliberately make his puppies and students dog aggressive.  That is because he is also a trainer who specializes in dog aggression.  And your dog always needs lots of extra lessons.

     Since the behavior wasn’t improving as quickly as I wanted I decided to see the dog on his turf.

     The walk was a success and I spotted what was delaying improvement, but I also saw something I realized a lot of people do.  They don’t let the dog get as much out of a walk as they do.

     A lot of us take our dogs for a brisk walk.  We are getting exercise as well as exercising the dog.  So we tend to keep the dog on a short leash next to us.   We will however, stop and chat with a neighbor or maybe pause to look at something interesting.   We even stop to smell the roses.

     Yet we don’t let our dog do the same.

     A dog gathers a lot of information through its sense of smell.  They in many ways use their nose to gather information the way we use our eyes.  So for a dog a walk is much more about what you can smell than what you can see.

     As we walked the dog I had the owners give him six foot of lead rather than one pull him in next to them.  And he was able to keep up.  He would bound ahead, almost to the end of the line, to check out an interesting smell.  He would finish his information gathering, and then bound ahead to the next great smell. 

     He never tugged ahead, nor forced them to slow down when they went past him to the end of the line.  Manners in Minutes training teaches your dog never to have a tight line. 

     As the walk progressed he got to be a dog doing dog things.  And as a result he was much more relaxed.  And since he was relaxed and having a good time, he did not spend the whole walk worrying about other dogs.  He even went up to a fence where there are other dogs.  With a short line, this sends him into a barking frenzy.  But with a relaxed line he said hello and kept going.

      So the next time you go for a brisk walk with your dog, give him or her a little line.  Let them get as much out of the walk as you do.  Your dog nose what to do.

Doug