Smart Dog

What Makes Dog Training, Horse Training and Dolphin Training The Same?

I just returned from Nashville, TN, where I attended ClickerExpo. A lot of people think of ClickerExpo as a dog training conference. It's a whole lot more than dog training. It's all about behavior. Not just dog behavior. Some of the speakers are dog trainers, yes, but there are also horse trainers, marine mammal trainers, even teachers of humans! So how can it be that all those different species can be taught in exactly the same way? Well, for a couple reasons. 

First, all those species are smart enough to know that if something works, it's a pretty good idea to keep doing it. If something doesn't pay off, we quit doing it. Next, even though each species communicates differently -- and live in different environments -- they are curious, social animals interested in learning and exploring. 

The common thread running through all those species and how they learn is the clicker. The clicker is a language that every member of the different species can understand. It's the common language between all those living things! As people, we're used to English being the official language. But it isn't really. No matter where you come from or what's your native tongue, if a clicker is involved in the learning process, we can all speak different languages and still be able to teach each other new skills and behaviors. Fascinating, isn't it? It's one of the many things I love about clicker training and about ClickerExpo. 

I used this Expo experience to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. I'm interested in dogs. I understand dogs. I know a lot about the behavior of dogs, the body language and body signaling of dogs. But I don't know very much about horses, despite my deep love (since I could walk) of them. I attended two lectures given by Alexandra Kurland, a popular horse trainer and found that the one thing I do know is how to get behavior, how to modify behavior. Regardless of the type of animal you're working with, the clicker works the same: it marks the good behavior and tells the animal he's earned a goodie for doing that behavior. 

Ken Ramirez, the executive vice-president of animal care and animal training at The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, works with many other species besides dogs. He works mainly with marine mammals. I had the good fortune of spending a week at Shedd with Ken, learning from his week-long animal trainer program. It was an experience I'll not soon forget. Ken's masterful training works on the beluga whales, the snails, and the other 32,600 animals from the world's fresh and salt waters.

Wow! If Ken can use the same training on that number of animals -- some of which live in the water, some out, and some can live in either place -- that's pretty powerful training! 

Clicker training is becoming common place in zoos, aquariums, shelters, and in horse barns all across the world. If it works on porpoises, horses, and snails, it can work for you and your dog, too! Catch the wave, sign up for a clicker class near you!

 

New Video Series: Need Dogs!

Do you live in or near Frederick, MD? Does your dog have a challenge that you just can't seem to get a handle on?

Maybe your dog jumps on guests? Steals socks? Chases the kitty? Pulls on the leash? 

Or maybe you've just gotten a puppy and you need crate training help? House training tips? Is the puppy nipping driving you nuts?

Smart Dog U is starting to pull together volunteers for a video project. Interested? Keep reading...

Volunteers should be willing to:

• appear on camera with their dog
• open their home to me with the aforementioned camera!
• be on Smart Dog U's YouTube channel, as well as Facebook, and Twitter (and here, on the blog, of course!)
• be available during daytime hours (Monday - Friday)
• film a "before," "during," and "after" segment
• use only dog-friendly training (no choke, prong, or shock collars [aka: e-collars]) for the duration of the project

Dogs should be:

• people-friendly
• any age
• willing to eat treats
• sign a release and waive royalties

We'll accept emails through the end of April. We'll start filming in May. Still interested? Drop us an email with the following information: 

• Your name
• Address
• Phone number(s)
• Dog's name, age, breed (or mix)
• Specific problem(s) you're having
• Desired outcome -- what do you want the dog to be doing when we shoot the "after" video?

 

Three Ideas for Getting Your Dog into Therapy Work

Tango loves Mondays. Monday means Tango gets to visit two local elementary schools and be smothered with attention.

Tango's a therapy dog and his job right now is to listen to kids read. Kids who might not read as well as their classmates, they might have a little bit of a speech problem, or maybe they can't tell the difference between a period and a comma. 

Reading in front of classmates who may snicker, giggle, or poke fun at them actually inhibits their reading skills. That's where dogs enter the picture!

Dogs don't care if the kids skip a word, if they can't quite get the punctuation correct, or if they stutter a bit. Dogs just really like it when a child sits on the floor with them, softly rubbing the dog's fur as they struggle with each word on the page. Dogs don't judge. Dogs don't snicker. Dogs just eat up all the attention and will even offer an encouraging lick to the struggling reader.

Interested in getting your dog into therapy work? You're not limited to elementary schools and kids. Your dog could visit nursing homes, help relieve stress on a local college campus during stressful final exams, or visit wounded soldiers in the hospital.

Here are some ideas on how to get your dog ready for therapy work.
Good Manners Are A Must: Therapy dogs don't bark. They don't jump. And they aren't rough with their mouth. Get your dog into a local positive reinforcement (clicker training) class that specifically teaches good manners behaviors. [Good manners are Smart Dog U's specialty! We offer Canine Building Blocks to help teach your dog good manners!] You might need to go through your training class more than once to really solidify those good manners. Good therapy dogs are on their best behavior no matter how much the kids giggle and squirm, how roughly their handled by well-intentioned seniors, or how distracting the buzzes and beeps are on the hospital equipment. It takes time and practice, for sure.

Canine Good Citizen (CGC)  Test: The bare minimum requirements are the CGC credentials. The CGC is a 10-item test and it covers behaviors like walking on a loose leash, coming when called, reaction to distractions, and sitting politely for greetings. Take a look at the full list of CGC test items. A more advanced test may be required if you and your dog wish to visit schools, detention centers, psychiatric facilities, and hospitals. The more advanced tests can be administed by The Delta Society and require that both you and your dog are tested to ensure you make a good team. 

Join A Local Therapy Dog Group: Most communities have local therapy dog organizations that serve as an umbrella for coordinating all the visits and testing of therapy dogs. For help in finding your local organization, try searching for your town name and "therapy dog."

Not every dog would enjoy being a therapy dog -- two of my dogs at home wouldn't enjoy work as therapy dogs. Nemo is a bit wary of strangers in unfamiliar circumstances and Lily is not good if other dogs are present (your dog must be good with other dogs -- and by good I mean neutral [not good as in "Let's PLAY!"]). Even Tango has his limits: one of our visits is with a class of 8 special education students who can be noisy, (unintentionally) rough, and unpredictable. One hour is Tango's maximum in that environment -- I make sure that we're there less than an hour to ensure that Tango's never pressed to his limit. So be sure to take your dog's personality and preferences into consideration when you're deciding whether to give therapy work a shot. Honor your dog. 

Get Organized!

Want to be an effective teacher to your dog? Here's a little bit of advice that will get you closer to your goal: get organized. 

I just spent an hour with an organizer -- and will spend another 2 hours on Wednesday -- getting myself and my office organized and streamlined. I had a hard time giving up an hour of my day today even though I know it's worth it. I keep thinking: I could have answered email, I could have written a blog post, I could have blah, blah, blah. Here's the real truth: I probably would have been on Twitter and Facebook if I weren't with the organizer. 

So: I now have the beginnings of a plan to get organized. Yes, it will take some time out of my schedule to implement the organizational plan, but in the end, I will actually gain hours -- and lose stress! I think the same can be said for people who are trying to teach their dog new things.

Here's my thumbnail sketch for you if you're so overwhelmed that you can't even get started with your dog (like me with my office!). 

1. What's the one thing that bugs you the most about your dog's behavior? Just one. (Write it down.)
2. What new behavior would fix that? For instance, if the one thing that bugs you the most is that your dog jumps on guests, what do you want the dog to do instead of  jumping? (Here's a hint: sit is a great replacement behavior, because if your dog is sitting he can't also be jumping.)
3. Manage your dog until you teach him the new behavior so he can't get into trouble. This means: when guests come, either leash your dog (and keep him on a short leash so he can't get close enough to jump) or put up a gate so your dog can't have access to the front door and the guest when they walk in. 
4. Teach the new behavior ("sit" in this example). Make it easy for your dog -- teach the dog when he's already had his exercise for the day, when there aren't any distractions, and use really delicious treats to show him just how great it is to sit. 
5. Systematically work in the "real life" elements like distractions and duration. (For "real life," your distractions will be the door bell ringing, your movement toward the door, the actual movement of the door opening, and the appearance of the guest. The duration will be how long the dog needs to remain sitting.)

That's it! Honestly, it really is that easy. I know, it doesn't feel that easy sitting on your side of the fence. I'm sure the organizer that left here today thought "this isn't rocket science lady, just have a place for everything and then put it there!" And really, I already knew that. I just needed someone to break it down into manageable pieces for me. 

Teaching your dog good manners is just a matter of getting organized . What seems like an insurmountable problem is really just a matter of teaching your dog a few new habits, rather than spending all your time trying to get him to stop the old habits. 

Epiphanies

I'm at ClickerExpo in Portland, OR. Since Thursday night, I've been in constant "learning mode," keeping my mind (and notebook) open to the talented trainers and speakers. Aside from the temporary stress I'll face Sunday morning when I'm giving my talk, ClickerExpo has provided me with many a-ha moments (as it always does). I don't know why I'm surprised at the a-ha moments -- I haven't been to a ClickerExpo that hasn't had a-ha's for me. 

Today, Ken Ramirez talked about adduction in animal training. From the ClickerExpo.com website: 

The main focus of this Session is to show attendees how to teach an animal the actual concept of adduction – meaning that once the concept is learned the animal could be given any two or more cues and combine them even if the trainer had never presented that particular combination of cues to the animal previously.

So for instance, let's say your dog already knows how to hold a paw up, and your dog also knows how to come when called. By using adduction, you could teach your dog to hold his paw up and come to you at the same time. It would look a lot like a hurt dog limping his way to you. This is an advanced concept and one that not many pet owners need to use. But for us dog trainers -- oh, we're in heaven with these concepts! It's fodder for many late night brainstorming sessions, and for new training projects that we'll undertake with our own dogs just to learn (and teach our dogs) something new. 

Ken's talk reminded me that very often I underestimate my dogs. And my own training skills. I get stuck in a rut of "everyday behaviors" and I forget to stretch both myself and my dog's learning skills. So, yep, I'm going to add some adduction sessions to my training when I get back from ClickerExpo. 

Karen Pryor spoke today on creativity, as it pertains both to animals and to people. I felt like she had somehow gotten into my mind when she listed the "excuses" people use to explain their ownlack of creativity. From the ClickerExpo website:

Creativity, the capacity for having new ideas and creating novel behavior, has always been treated as a natural gift—either you have it or you don’t. It was always assumed that animals don’t have the creative spark at all. Now, thanks to our modern training technology, we not only know that animals can innovate, we know how to train them to do so.

From Karen's talk, my mind was opened to ways I could find the tiniest bit of creativity that I have (we all  have creativity), and nurture it, grow it. Or, spoken like a trainer: I could set myself up to be creative, capture those bits of creativity, and reinforce that creativty. I could shape my creativity, just as I shape behavior in my dogs! A-HA! 

My project list is ten miles long. I've been making excuses for not starting to work on that list until now. After hearing Karen's talk, I'm going to set myself up for success, capture even the smallest approximations toward my goal, reinforce those tiny steps and before I know it, I'll be on my way to accomplishments!

ClickerExpo is a phenomenal experience for anyone with an interest in training. Whether your a raw beginner or you've been training for years, there are epiphanies to be had! ClickerExpo Nashville has a few spots left. Tempted to see what it's all about? Check out the program! And if you decide to go, look me up, I'd be thrilled to meet you and hear about your epiphanies!

 

Who's Afraid of the Clicker?

I spent part of last week in sunny Orlando, Florida, at the 2012 North American Veterinary Conference (NAVC). The NAVC Conference set a new attendance record for its 2012 conference. More than 6,000 veterinarians and more than 1,400 veterinarian technicians attended the conference in Orlando, Florida. Nearly 900 students from veterinary schools across the world were also in attendance.

I was there to talk with the veterinarians, technicians, and students about force-free training. I met hundreds of people and, with the exception of one, they were all enthusiastic about either learning more about clicker training or in implementing it in their practice. 

A retired veterinarian, who looked to be in his early 80's, stopped to chat. He looked at our material and with a sly smile said "I've found that a rolled up newspaper works really well." I laughed and answered "Yes, sometimes we do recommend that the owner use the newspaper to whack himself smartly on his head!" He laughed and leaned in to tell us a story about his son's dog. 

His son's dog peed everytime the son came into the house. The son would yell and holler, chase the dog around, then put him outside when he finally caught the dog. Upon hearing about the trouble from his son, this veterinarian's solution was textbook perfect, delighting me. (The solution: carry food [delicious food] and ignore the dog upon entering. After a few minutes, toss a piece of food to the dog, still ignoring. The dog quickly changed course and quit peeing when he saw the man.)

Clearly, this man knew intuitively how to work with animals. He hadn't learned it in school (in many veterinary schools, behavior is still an elective!), he simply learned by experience. 

Contrast this veterinarian with another who stopped by the booth. "You can't tell me that you train dogs without any punishment," he began. I smiled, hoping he was a kidder like the previous gentleman, and said "Yessir, that's exactly what we do!" Things turned south there, and it was clear that he came here for an argument. I love to teach people about positive reinforcement, but unfortunately, this man didn't really want to learn, he only wanted to argue. He told me tales about how he taught his son's dog to "respect him," and laughed at how the son "babied" the dog by using food in training. Here's the irony: if that veterinarian had attended any of the sessions at that conference on behavior ( there were many), he would have learned very quickly that his outlook was outdated and not recommended by veterinary behaviorists. 

Neither veterinarian had any experience with clicker training. But the second one clearly had a bias against the clicker -- against positive reinforcement training in general. Perhaps because he didn't want to learn. Perhaps because he was afraid of what he'd learn by using it. I'm not sure of the reason, but I'm glad he was the lone exception.

Don't Have Food to Reward Your Dog? No Worries!

 Have you ever wanted to reward your dog for a job well done, but  didn't have food treats with you? Consider playing with your dog to  reinforce good behavior! Not everyone wants to spend life storing  food in pockets. (Have you ever found a pocket full of food after it  has gone through the laundry? It’s not pretty, I can tell you that!)

 Instead of being a slave to food treats in my pocket, I introduce my  dogs to “real-life rewards.” Occasionally, play takes the place of food  as payment for a job well done. My dogs find the opportunity to chase  a ball, to chase me, or to have me chase them even more fun—and  unexpected—than food.

  Dogs, like humans, play long after they have “grown up.” I think     that’s one of the many reasons we get along so well with our canine  friends. Play is just as much fun for us as it is for our dogs. Just the  one-on-one attention your dog gets from you during a play session  can be as reinforcing as the play itself—and can contribute to a strong  relationship between you and your dog.

Read the entire article on Karen Pryor's Clickertraining.com.

 

Teaching Caysun "Mat" and "Kennel" (Video)

I've been videotaping a lot of Caysun's training, but haven't put very much of it up. Alas, travel and business make it hard to get something edited and posted...But I've finally gotten some video of some early training.

You'll see Caysun learning to listen to what I'm saying (to my cues). Teaching a dog to listen to what you need them to do (1) saves you some time, (2) saves the dog from guessing, and (3) makes it really easy for the dog to figure out how exactly to earn the reinforcement. In plain language: it makes it easier on your dog to figure out what you want him to do!

Apologies for the sound quality; it's hard to train, click, treat, AND video at the same time. Ah, the life of an entrepreneur! 

 

The Training Begins: Caysun

She's been here long enough to settle in and get to know her new housemates. While her training started the instant I met her, we're ready to begin formal training today. 

What's the difference between day-to-day training and formal training? Not much, really, when you get right down to it.

Day-to-day training happens everytime Caysun and I are together. It happens when she's playing, when she's going to the bathroom, when she's wandering about the room. I call this kind of training "the rules of the road," because it's the way I teach the pup my expectations about how dogs behave.

It's as simple as moving my legs when she puts her paws on me. In just two days, Caysun's figured out that sitting elicits so much more attention than putting her paws on me. She's learning that leaning her front paws on the cabinets when I'm fixing her dinner isn't nearly as good as sitting. She's learning that there's a very specific path (and door) that leads to the outdoors where she goes to the bathroom. 

Formal training will begin today. Formal training usually happens in a training session. I separate her from the other dogs, I have a specific goal and behavior in mind, and we work toward that goal, and mark our progress. Eye contact, for instance, is one of the behaviors I'll work on with her today. I will set out with the specific goal of clicking her each time her eyes meet mine.  

Both types of training are equally important. You can't just do one of them and expect a well-behaved dog. Eventually, we'll work the formally trained behaviors into the day-to-day training, as Caysun becomes more fluent with the behaviors and is capable of doing the behaviors in an everyday environment (with the other dogs around, in the face of larger distractions, etc.). 

There's A New Kid in Town

Her name is Caysun. She's 9 weeks old. And she's a feisty little black Labrador.

She's the newest service pup in training and is our 11th (12th? Who's counting?) puppy in training. I picked her up last Friday and she spent the weekend getting settled in. 

Training has already begun. She's learning to love her crate, go to the bathroom outside and on cue ("hurry up"), bite inhibition (those puppy teeth hurt!), and oh-so-many other things. 

Not to worry, I'll be documenting all the lessons and learnings right here. 

So far, she's fitting in well with our dogs. The oldest, Lily and Tango, just want to be left alone. If she doesn't cross them, they don't cross her. Nemo's interested, but reserved. Ike is loving the new addition! He's a terrific welcome wagon for the new girl. 

I've got lots of puppy video I'll be uploading too, if you need a dose of cute!