Hello Paw-lite Manners 101 Pet Degree Class!

Here is your continued practice Homework for Week 5 of Paw-lite Manners 101.

  • Drop It/Get It (please see the instructions and video below)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to drop a toy in his or her mouth without a treat in your hand.
    Graduates of Puppy Pet Degree: Your dog will be able to drop a high value chew from his or her mouth without a treat in your hand.
    Don’t forget that we are teaching TWO cues. Your dog should not be lunging or jumping up to take the toy until you give the “Get It” cue.
    Video:Teach your dog to Drop (by Kikopup)
    Dogs don’t have hands, so they use their mouths to grab, explore, play, and interact with the environment. We find it’s important that when you’re teaching Drop It that you also have a cue to signify that the dog is allowed to pick up the toy again. For this reason, we teach “Drop It” and “Get It” in tandem. This means that your dog should not be lunging or jumping up to take the toy until you give the “Get It” cue.

    • When your dog has a toy in his or her mouth, pinch a treat between your thumb and pointer finger. Say the words “Drop It” and then put the treat right up to your dog’s nose where it can easily be smelled. Once your dog spits the toy out, follow up immediately with your “Yes” Marker and then you can give the treat.
    • As you are providing the treat, try to pick up the toy simultaneously. We do this to prevent the dog from taking the treat from you and then attempting to pick up the toy without consent. If your dog is having trouble letting you take the toy away, try tossing the treat a few feet away instead of delivering it to the mouth. Once you have the toy in your grasp and your dog is waiting patiently for you to offer it again, you can then say the “Get It” cue and allow him or her to grab it again. As soon as your dog grabs it, follow up immediately with your “Yes” Marker. This time, the reward for getting it is the opportunity to play with the toy (and not giving a treat).
    • Repeat steps 1-2 above. After a few repetitions, see if your dog can Drop It without a treat in your hand (you can just pretend to have a treat initially or make a fist to begin fading the treat out). Over time, we will not be rewarding with treats all the time. The “Get It” and consent to play with the toy again will be the reinforcement. However, this step may take some time to achieve.
    • You can now begin to add in a hand signal for the Drop It cue. You only want to start doing this once you’ve been able to get them to drop it and they are comfortable with you grabbing the toy from them. This will work more with dogs who are comfortable with you grabbing the toy straight from their mouth. This may work well for dogs who get extremely excitable and have a hard time with dropping when they are over stimulated or excited. We usually hold up a closed fist with our fingers faced towards the dog and give them the “Drop it” cue. Once they have dropped the toy, we mark that with a “Yes” and trade the toy with them for a treat. IF your dog is showing signs of guarding from you or is attempting to bite you, stop the exercises immediately and contact a trainer.

TIPS: Remember, it’s okay to put the treat at your dog’s nose the first couple of times. However, once he or she is doing it reliably, make a fist and pretend you have the treat there so that your dog doesn’t become dependent on the treat being in front of his or her face. Reinforcement should not always be treats. You should also reinforce with the toy being dropped if your dog likes to play with toys and finds them rewarding.

Once your dog knows how to play the game, 90% of the time you should be practicing with toys so that you are working on your dog’s impulse control. 10% of the time should be reserved for asking your dog to drop something he or she shouldn’t have. Anything more than 10% and you might not be working with your dog enough. We want to make sure the Drop It is reliable and grounded in solid muscle memory.

  • Maintain/Stay (please see the instructions and video below)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will maintain a Sit and a Down with a distance of 6 feet. Return to your dog to Release him or her.
    Graduates of Puppy Pet Degree: Your dog will maintain a Sit and a Down with a distance of 6 feet outside off leash. Return to your dog to Release him or her.
    Video: The easiest, most reliable Sit Stay at 3:30 (by Kikopup)
    This week we will add the “Stay” cue to Sits and Downs and hand signal. When your dog has learned the basics, you can ask your dog to Stay while in positions such as a Sit, Down, Stand, etc. A solid Stay or Maintain requires a systematic approach to adding the Three Ds. The Three Ds are Distance, Duration, and Distractions. Each of these should be worked on one at a time, adjusting the difficulty level slowly and once your dog is repeatedly successful. When adding more than one of the Three Ds at a time (e.g., moving 10 feet away for distance AND bouncing a ball at the same time for distractions), you should first do so by cutting the criteria(s) in half. Your dog may be able to do a 10-foot Stay. Your dog may also be able to Stay while you bounce a ball in front of him. However, when you go to add both of these together, it may be too much to ask initially. You may have to only move a few feet away while bouncing the ball and slowly build more distance with the distraction over time.
    Our hand signal for Stay is a flat hand facing the dog with fingertips toward the ceiling. After asking your dog to Sit, Down, or Stand, you can then ask him or her to Stay. As usual, we recommend starting with the hand signal and then teaching the verbal signal after your dog understands the hand cue.

NOTE: The video is fairly long because it teaches a complete Sit Stay. Please feel free to watch it all the way through, but the proofing part comes in at around 3:30, so you can skip to that if you want.

  • Loose Leash Walking (please see the instructions and video below)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to walk nicely with a few turns and a loose leash for at least 10 steps.
    Graduates of Puppy Pet Degree: Your dog will be able to walk nicely with a few turns and a loose leash for at least 25 steps.
    Video: How to train your PUPPY to walk on a loose leash! (Training Positive)
    Teaching your pup to give into leash pressure instead of pulling against it is another helpful way to teach your dog not to pull on leash. You can combine this with the Stand on Leash game when taking your dog to new places. You should not be putting enough tension on the leash that you are strangling your dog. The pressure should be gentle and used to encourage your dog to move in the direction you want him or her to go. If your dog is struggling with this, you may combine your Hand Target when you put that slight tension on the leash to communicate that you want your dog to move in the same direction as the tension.
    NOTE: Distractions you can try are someone tossing and catching a ball a few feet away or someone squeaking a toy from across the room. Be creative. What is your dog most distracted by? How can you start incorporating that into your training at a level he or she is still successful?

  • Emergency Recalls (please see the video and instructions below)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to respond to his or her emergency recall word (e.g., Hurry, Hustle, Come, Speed, etc.) with two people calling the dog back and forth across the room.
    Graduates of Puppy Pet Degree: Your dog will be able to respond to his or her emergency recall word (e.g., Hurry, Hustle, Come, Speed, etc.) at random times when your dog is not paying attention to you in the house.
    Video: Emergency Recall (by Urban Dawgs)
    Remember, your emergency recall should be rewarded 99% of the time and you should be practicing it only when you are willing to pay your dog for his hard work. The goal here is to change his/her perception about coming to you. Most dogs have poor recalls because Pet Guardians only call them when the fun is about to end (e.g., leashing them up to go home, taking them inside, clipping their toenails, putting them in the crate, etc.). You will never use this word for those things because they are unpleasant. Instead, you will call him/her inside when you’re going to reward with his/her favorite treat and then send your dog back out to play with “Go Play.” You should call your dog to you 10 times a day in the house, give him his/her favorite treat, and then send your dog back to having fun with “Go Play.”
    Essentially, every time you use this word, it will be for training and because you are going to send him/her back to what he/she was doing. It should never be used for punishment. We do this 99% of the time because if an emergency situation happens, your dog has that much reinforcement history built into the skill and will be able to immediately come to you. I say 99% because if your dog is ever in danger, that is the 1% time that you will not let him/her go back to what he/she was doing. You can teach a generic Come or use another word that means the same thing, but your emergency recall cue should always be rewarded and the rules should consistently be followed.
    Four Rules for Emergency Recall

    • Always use high value treats that your dog only gets when you use that word (to build a conditioned emotional response)
    • Always send your dog back to what he or she was doing unless it is an actual emergency; this means 99% of the time you’re sending them back
    • Always reward for “Name of Cue;” ONLY cue it when you are prepared to follow through with a high value reward
    • Give your dog several tiny treats when he or she comes to you and throw a verbal praise party. Make it a big deal!

Try to set aside 15 minutes a day (or 3 five minute sessions a day) to set your dog up for success and meet your homework goals for this week.

Please let us know if you have any questions or if there is anything you need more clarification on.

See you in class next week!

Happy Training!