Hello Paw-lite Manners 201 Pet Degree Class!

Here is your continued practice Homework for Week 4 of Paw-lite Manners 201.

  • Sit or Down Maintain/Stay with Distractions (please see video and NOTE below)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to Sit/Down Maintain while distracted by his or her favorite toy.
    Advanced Goal: Your dog will be able to Sit or Down and Stay while a familiar person approaches and stands three feet away. Exchange hellos with the person and after five seconds, the person will walk away without touching your dog.
    Video: Teaching Your Dog to Stay (by Chirag Patel)
    NOTE: The video starts from step one and shows many different ways to build up distance, duration and distractions. It also has good examples of lowering criteria when you're increasing other criteria. Try to be as creative as possible so that your dog learns how to maintain the behavior in unpredictable environments.
  • Sit/Down/Stand (please see video and NOTE below)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to do any combination of Pushups with Sit, Down, and Stand without a food lure.
    NOTE: Make sure your dog can clearly follow your cues when performing these skills. Work up to rewarding after a set of three behaviors or more.
    Here is a video that shows you how to get started with luring.
    Video: Position Changes Sit Down Stand with Back Feet Static (by Kikopup)
    Use the two hand method when you begin luring your dog from one position to another. This will help your dog remain straight during this exercise. This can also help your dog become unstuck if they have had such a strong reinforcement history for Downs that they are struggling to maintain Sits or Stands. Keep luring until your dog is no longer getting stuck in one position.
    When you begin to fade the lure, you may start by keeping the treats in your hand, but marking and rewarding every two skills or three skills. It’s important to vary this over time so that you are not always making it more difficult for your dog. For example, try this reinforcement scale.
    Sit>Down>Treat>Stand>Down>Sit>Treat>Stand>Treat>Sit>Stand>Treat>Down>Sit>Stand>Treat
    During your second session, you may try adding 4 skills in there, ranging your rewards every 2 to 4 skills.
    During your second session, you may try adding 5 skills in there, ranging your rewards every 3 to 5 skills.
    If your dog looks like he or she is getting frustrated or is having a hard time Staying in one position, you can always go back to rewarding more often for a few steps so that he or she isn’t feeling the difficulty is becoming too hard. You can also go back to working on your Duration for the positions your dog is struggling most with.

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  • Let’s Go/LLW– Distractions (see NOTE below)
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to ignore a Distraction on the ground (i.e., kibble in a bowl or their favorite toy) and continue Loose Leash Walking up to it and then around it.
    Advanced Goal: Your dog will be able to ignore a food Distraction on the ground without a plate or bowl and continue Loose Leash Walking up to it and then around it.
    Video: Loose Leash Walking for Powerful Sniffers! (Episode 2) (Training Positive)
    Teaching your dog to Check In with you on walks can be taught in two ways. 1.) You can wait for your dog to stop sniffing or investigating and Mark and Reward the moment he or she moves away from the distraction. Over time, your dog will learn that the more he or she stops sniffing and checks in with you, the more the rewards will happen. 2.) You can also use Name Recognition to interrupt your dog while sniffing or investigating something on leash. The more you work on calling your dog out of distractions, the more your dog will start to check in with you on his or her own.
    If you would like to take it one step further, you can put sniffing on cue, as demonstrated in the video above.
    Video: Loose Leash Walking With Distractions! (Episode 3) (Training Positive)
    NOTE: On walks, your dogs will be faced with many challenges, specifically moving animals or sidewalk critters. You can start by throwing a toy across the room and then practice Loose Leash Walking up to it and then around it, rewarding your dog for approaching it without pulling.
    It’s best not to try this with food on the floor until your dog is ready. When working with food or higher value rewards, you may use the Leave It cue if you need to. Remember, that we will never be giving them permission to get anything we have asked them to leave. If your dog is doing well without Leave It, then you can practice these LLW exercises with a default Leave It in the form of It’s Yer Choice. With It’s Yer Choice, it is okay to give your dog access to things you want them to have, such as a toy.
    Remember to give your dog permission to “Get It” when he or she has earned the toy or food reward! We do not recommend letting your dog eat things from the floor without consent. When not using the “Get It” cue, it is best to pick it up and deliver it straight to your dog’s mouth. Start this exercise from far enough away from the plate or bowl so your dog is able to be successful. By this point, you should have practiced enough It’s Yer Choice with your dog that he or she is ready to LLW with distractions like food and toys.

    • If you have been practicing with a bowl up to this point, and your dog has been successful, you may now try putting something of higher value in the bowl and walking up to it or around it. Do not exceed 5 feet until your dog is no longer lunging or pulling toward the bowl.
    • When your dog is successful with higher value reinforcement, you may now try a piece of kibble or several pieces of kibble on a paper plate, but we recommend having a helper there to ensure your dog remains successful. You can fade out the helper when you feel comfortable. However, it may be best to create a little more distance before getting close to the food on the paper plate. We want to be absolutely sure that your dog is ready before proceeding to walking over and around it at closer distances.
    • If your dog is successful with the paper plate, then you may try putting kibble on the floor. Again, we highly recommend having somewhere there to manage the kibble until you can fully trust your dog. You may practice these exercises with higher value rewards over time.

  • Drop It/Get It (please see videos from Week 3 homework )
    Goal for this week: Your dog will be able to drop a KONG or edible chew stick. You may use a food lure.
    Recap of Drop It/Get It Video: Teach your dog to Drop (by Kikopup)
    Here are some examples of impulse control games you can play with Drop It/Get It or other skills you have taught your dog: The Power of Tug for Dog Training | Heel, Impulse Control, Drop, Take It (by Greatest K9)
    IMPORTANT NOTE: If, at any point, your dog growls, becomes stiff, or looks uncomfortable, do not continue the exercise. These steps should not be practiced with dogs who are showing any signs of resource guarding and are unwilling to give up valuable objects at home. Please speak to your Instructor immediately and discontinue all Drop It/Get It exercises at this time.
    This week, practice Drop Its and Get Its with something of higher value, such as a KONG or an edible chew. Before starting with a stuffed KONG, make sure your dog can drop every toy in your house. Start with an empty KONG when you first begin this process.

    • When your dog is comfortable dropping an empty KONG, you may then smudge the tiniest bit of peanut butter inside the KONG before moving on. In your Paw-lite Manners 101 Pet Degree class, we talked about holding onto one side of the edible chew/KONG and working on Drop Its while you still have the KONG in your possession. When you first smudge peanut butter or a soft treat inside, start by holding the KONG out to your dog to lick. Work on Drop It and Get It while the KONG is still in your grasp.
    • When asking your dog to drop something of high value such as a KONG, make sure you are willing to trade a reward of equal value. We are not going to ask your dog to drop a yummy filled KONG for a piece of kibble. Use something that rivals the KONG or chew you are working with. Do several sessions with you holding onto the KONG or edible chew and working on Drop Its/Get It before trying to move onto giving your dog the item (in the next step). You can play around with adding more goodies inside the KONG or smear something yummy on the edible chew. If your dog is hesitating at all, increase the value of the reward you are offering or go back a step and make the KONG or edible chew less valuable. It is best to practice this step until your dog is comfortable dropping the KONG or edible chew you are holding onto.
    • When giving your dog the KONG or edible chew for the first time, make sure the chew is of the lowest value OR there is only the tiniest hint of something good in the KONG. As you did in the previous steps, you may gradually make the KONG or edible chew more valuable. If your dog is finding this step challenging at all, then you should not continue these exercises. Please go back to Step 2 and/or inform your Instructor.

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!

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