The Power of Positive Dog Training Notes

Principles

All living things repeat behaviors that are rewarding and avoid behaviors that are not

You don’t need to punish dog to make behavior not rewarding

Instead, figure out how to make the right behavior rewarding enough

Reward behaviors you want

Ignore or prevent behaviors that you don’t want

Your dog already knows everything you are going to teach him

Teach him the english words for those behaviors and make them very rewarding and fun

Dogs can only learn one behavior for any particular cue

Agree on which cues will be used for which behaviors

be consistent

Think in terms of what you want your dog to do, not what you want him not to do

Prevent your dog from being rewarded for behaviors that you don’t want

reward consistenly and generously for behaviors that you do want

Training Cues

Oops

The behavior you are doing will not earn you a reward, no reward marker, use sparingly

Relax

Lie flat on your side

Sit

from whatever position you are in

Stand

Stand still on all four legs. Stay: Don’t move from the position I left you in until I release you.

Stay

Don’t move from the position I left you until I release you

Take it

Take food or object into your mouth (beginning of teaching dog to retrieve)

Touch

Touch your nose to designated target

Wait

Pause, stop moving until I leave or release you

Negative reinforcement (bad)

Dog’s behavior makes a bad thing go away

Operant conditioning

Subject can manipulate it’s environment by his behavior

Choosing behaviors that are either rewarded or punished

Positive punishment

The dog’s behavior makes something undesirable happen, and a behavior decreases as a result

Positive reinforcement

Dog’s behavior makes something desirable happen. As a result, behavior is likely to increase.

Negative punishment

The dog’s behavior makes something desirable go away and the behavior is likely to decrease as a result.

• Turn and walk away

Negative reinforcement

The dog’s behavior makes something undesirable go away. The behavior is likely to increase.

Pitfalls of positive punishment

Can cause aggression and fear

Does not provide dog enough information to act

Benefits of positive reinforcement

Get dogs to voluntarily offer behaviors we want without force.

Can phase out use of food as reward when behavior is solid enough

A dog is NEVER 100% reliable

Negative attention is still attention

Instead of physically punishing, ignore dog by not making eye contact, not speaking to him, and turning your back on him untill he does something good like sits, then reward with treats and attention

You have to intervene when behavior is dangerous until they are better trained

If they find something more rewarding then they will not answer you

Reward with petting, praise, playing with a toy, making eye contact, opening the door, or throwing the ball.

Write down vocab list and post on the fridge for everyone to use.

They don’t know between right and wrong

Dogs are masters at reading body language

When your dog makes a mistake, instead of saying “No, bad dog!” Say “oops” then show her the right way to do it.

Body Language

Be consistent with your body movements

Dogs can learn to tolerate or love threatening behavior

Teach kids not to hug dogs they do not know and not to stare in their eyes

Teach your dog to love having his collar grabbed

Teach your dog to love eye contact

Move away rather than towards your dog if you want them to come

Dogs see as a threat:

Eye contact

Loud, firm, angry vocalizations

Reaching over head

Primate hovering

Safe

Grab collar under the chin

Body Blocking

Taking up space to prevent your dog from doing so

Once you get good at it you can simply lean forward with your intent to occupy the space

Not good for dogs the resource guard

Calming SIgnals

Defrence behaviors help keep the peace in a pack (canines are better described as defrence heiarchys rather than dominance hierarchys)

Moderate behaviors in each of these categories are safer than extreme versions of these behaviors on either side.

Appeasement (active submission)

Increased activity and diminished pisture

Wants attention

• Nuzzling (use negative punishment to stop)
• Licking (negative punishment or install incompatible behavior approach with toy)
• Jumping up (negative punishment or install incompatible behavior sit or down)
• Pawing motions (put on cue or replace with incompatible behavior four on floor)
• Smiling
• Teeth clacking (ignore or put on cue)
• Crouching (ignore or reinforce dog approaching taller)
• Pretzeling (put on cue)
• Play-bows (put on cue)
• Excitement urination
• Ears pulled back
• Tail wagging

Deference (passive submission)

Decreased activity and lowered body posture

Wants attention to go away

• Ears pressed flat against head
• Tail tucked
• Freezing
• Avoiding eye contact
• Urination
• Lowered body posture or belly up

Displacement

Behaviors performed in an effort to resolve an internal stress conflict

• Blinking
• Chattering teeth
• Nose licking
• Scratching
• Shaking off when not wet
• Yawning
• Drooling/ foaming
• Excessive grooming
• Hyperactivity
• Immune system disorders
• Lack of focus
• Leaning/clinging
• Lips pulled back
• Lowered body posture
• Mouthiing
• Obsessive compulsive disorders
• Panting
• Hair raised on back of neck
• Stiff movement
• Stretching
• Sweaty paws
• Trembling
• Whining

Stress signs

• Anorexia
• Appeeasement/ deference signals
• Avoidance
• Brow ridges
• Digestive disturbances

Threat (dominance) displays

Children do not recognize threat signals

• Barking
• Freezing
• Growling
• Hard stare
• Lips pulled forward
• Nose bumping
• Snapping
• snarling

Training Equipment

Motivators, reward markers, collars, and leashes

Motivators (rewards)

Food

Lower value treats at home

• Dinner kibble

Train before meal

Higher value reward in more distracting environment

• Hot dog
• Frozen liver

Life Rewards

Use when dog has learned a trick well

• Toys
• Play
• Petting
• Praise
• Chase ball
• Walk
• Car ride
• Play with dog pals

Reward Markers

Everytime you click or say yes the dog should get a treat

Click is always food treat

Verbal can be treat or life reward

Behaviors are marked the instant they happen (at least within one second)

Clicker

Used to immediately signal to the dog he has done something good

Train new behaviors with an actual clicker

Can use a badge reel to keep it on you

Verbal marker

One syllable word such as “Yes!”

Uttered once per reward

Collars

If dog slips collar:

Limited-slip collar (martingale or greyhound collar)

Harness

Can encourage dog to pull

Can be used to put pulling on cue

Easy walking Harness

• Easy-walk
• Sense-ation
• Sense-ible
• K9 freedom harness

No:

• Choke chains
• Prong collars

Leashes

• 6 foot leash
• No roll up leashes

Management tools

Used for preventing unwanted behaviors before they happen.

Crates

• Never a place for punishment
• Give lots of treats in crate
• Put on cue
• Toss treats in crate when you aren’t training
• Feed meals in crate with the door open
• Reward for being quiet in crate after fushing

Tethers

• 3-6 ft plastic coated cable
• Used to keep dog in a spot when teaching manners
• Should be set up with a soft bed and chew toys
• Should be pleasant

Baby Gates

Exercise Pen

•  When they have to be left alone all day
• Train them to love the pen before you leave

Head Halter

• Negative reinforcement
• Can supress behavior making training challenging

Behaviors

Offered Behaviors

Capturing

When a dog offers the complete, perfected behavior that you are trying to train all on their own, the behavior is captured.

Shaping

Break down trick into small steps

Click and reward at each step

Elicited Behaviors

Imitation

Dogs are more likely to imitate other dogs than humans. Click and treat desired behaviors

Luring

Using treat or target object to show them how to do the behaviors

Good to use in combo with shaping

Should be faded away soon as possible, replace the lure with body language

Modeling

Physically assisting the dog into position

Least desirable and effective method

Should be gentle and faded away quickly

Management

Use a tether or crate to keep them away until you can train them otherwise

Positive Punishment

Use positive punishment sparingly (dogs behavior makes bad things happen)

Should work within one or two applications

No Physical harm such as:

• Shock collars
• Hanging
• Helicoptering
• Hitting

Use NO! for life threatening situations only

Better to use negative punishment (dogs behavior makes good thing go away) to change an unwelcome behavior

Basic Training

Truly reliable recall (90% or better) in the face of serious distraction can take years to master.

Have fun, don’t be too serious

Indoors is better than outdoors

Practice in different environments after they know the behavior

May need to back up a few steps in a new environment

Group training classes can give them a good distracting environment to train

Find dozens of opportunities to let them know the trick happens everywhere

Will be able to learn new behaviors in distracting environments eventually

Six Steps for teaching a new behavior

1. Get the behavior

By capturing, shaping, or luring

1. Mark the behavior

click or verbal)

1. Reward the behavior

Treat or life reward

1. Repeat the behavior until it happens easily at least 80% of the time.

2. Add a verbal cue just before the dog does the behavior

3. Use verbal cue to elicit behavior

After you say the word before the trick half a dozen to 2 dozen times

How often to train

Several 5-15 minute sessions each day (30-45 minutes per day)

Training session

Pick one or two tricks to focus on

Start with something they are good at to get them tuned into you

If either one or both of you start getting frustrated it’s time for a break

End session on a positive note by having them do a trick they love

Jackpot!

For extrordinary efforts

Click and say in an excited tone “Jackpot!” And give extra rewards

The Clicker

Click must happen the instant the dog is does or is doing the behavior you want to reinforce. Offering the treat is a separate step

Click and pause – then offer the treat (a second or two)

Eventually the time between click and treat can be lengthened

No Reward Marker

Tells dog they have not earned a reward for their behavior

Oops!

Use sparingly, if at all

Keep it positive

Leash

Not a handle or a steering wheel

Restricts access to environmental rewards

Can stand on it or tie it to your belt

Must be losoe (6 inch valley) unless restricting access to environmental reward

Week 1

Core Exercises

Charging the Clicker

Muffles sound at first

Click and treat several times

Unmuffle

Click and treat several times

Couple dozen reps

Don’t click if they are doing a naughty behavior

Can use tape to muffle if needed then gradually peel back layers of tape over time

The name game

Say your dogs name, if he looks at you “click” and reward

Don’t say name more than once if he doesn’t look at you

Make a kissy noise and click and reward if they look at you

You can say name and click and treat even if they are already looking at you

Family play version

Get everyone with clickers in a circle and take turns saying his name and clicking and treating

Attention without name version

Put leash on in low distraction environment

Any time he looks at you click and reward

Gradually increase the length of time between clicks

You can add a “watch me” cue when he keeps his attention focused for several seconds

After he keeps attention for ten seconds or more, add distractions increasing in distractivness

Goal is to get them to offer attention during training sessions

Sit

Down

Don’t give treat while sitting, lure or shape

Say good boy when he sits

Puppy Push Ups

Teach sit from down position

Click for each up and down

Eventually can wait a few ups and downs between clicks

Vary the amount so they never know how much they have to do

Stand By Me

Get them to stand near you

Let them nibble at treat to get them to stand longer

Use body movement to get the behavior

Spin and Twirl

Spin is one way twirl is the other

Use shaping and lures

Week 2

Come (recall)

Never punish dog for coming to you

Always positive, do not use intimidation, punishment or anger

Say in happy upbeat tone

Make sure good things always happen when the dog arrives

If you leave the dog park when she comes you are punishing her

Bounce a ball or squeek a toy

Run away and get her to chase you

Or gently grab her collar

Try come with all families round robin style

Gradually add distractions indoors – cat crossing the room, bouncing a ball, kock on the door, etc.

Come and sit is better than come and jump up.

If they do not come outdoor attack a 30 foot Nylon cord to make them easier to retrieve. Grab cord and use come then reward. Don’t drag.

Touch

Touch or target – teaching dog to touch a target with nose on cue

Can use if they don’t respond to come

Useful to teaching dog to ring bell, close doors, go bowling, play soccer, turn on the tv, agility obstacles, etc.

Target can replace food as a lure

Start using hand as target cause dog likes to sniff hands

Move hand around after they get it at nose level

Then you can teach it to a different target object

Can use as a tool for cueing behaviors that you can’t reach with your hand

Hold treat and clicker behind back if it is distracting

Can drop treats on the ground or keep treats in a bowl on a nearby shelf

No Jumping Zone

Who family has to agree not to reward her for jumping up

Teach them to sit for attention

Wait for your dog to sit without being asked.

On-leash jump with strangers

Have stranger approach with treat at chest hight, click when dog sits and treat

If dog jumps up for treat have the stranger pull treat away and cheerfully say “oops!”

Repeat with many people

The On-Leash Jump with You

Attach tether to stable object

Approach dog from ten feet away

Only approach while dog is sitting, stop when dog jumps up

You aren’t asking for them to sit, you want them to offer sit on their own

Can click when you reach dog and they are still sitting

Try backing up a step when they get up

Off-Leash Jump

As you walk in the front door, turn away and step away if dog jumps.

Once they sit, click treat and pet

If they start to jump up again, turn and step away

Behavior Chain – a series of behaviors that get chained together because dog thinks reward is dependent on all of the behaviors not just the last one

They might learn chain behavior of jump up, sit, reward

Cure: look for times they sit without jumping up.

Don’t ignore your dog when they are doing good

Asking for an incompatible Behavior

Say sit or down before they have a chance to jump up and click reward

This only works if they immediately respond to the replacement command

If you have to repeat the cue several times with Rambo jumping up on you then you are rewarding them with attention for jumping and teaching them to ignore your commands

Let’s Walk

When you tolerate pulling, your dog learns that pulling gets them where they want to go

If you want to get fancy, you can teach your dog different cues for walking in different positions

For now, think of walks as training games rather than to get to a destination or exercise.

Keep sessions short at first

Drive them to off leash play areas or other destinations until they get good at walking

Practice after they have burned off some excess energy

Hang out and walk around for a bit, everytime your dog is walking near you, click and treat

Use verbal “let’s walk” cue once they get the hang of it.

Gradually increase distractions

Turn back on them if they get crazy

Can use oops cue

Pick back up if they calm sit

Take thrill out of they leash by picking it up randomly throughout the day.

For outside bring megasupply of treats and clicker

Stand and wait if they hit the end of their leash

Click anytime the leash is loose

Change directions for more loose leash opportunities

Do not jerk the leash

Do not let them get environmental rewards for pulling

Let them earn environmental rewards with Cue “go sniff!”

Can use touch command to show them what to do

Use front-clip no-pull harness for dog that drags

If they pull back on treat shape them forward with clicks

Don’t let them get rewarded for stopping

Use high value treat for outdoors save that treat for only outdoors

Remember to back up a few steps if you get derailed

Sit on a bench for an hour with treats to desensitize them to being outdoors

Shake

Try shaping, luring, or molding.

Lefty/Righty

Add left and right verbal cue for each paw

High Five

CLick any touch of their paw to your palm and shape more vigorous responses

Wave

Hand signal – palm up and wiggle your fingers

Get them frustrated with no click until they jerk their hand higher, click and reward

Tether Time out

Use tether if dog is out of control

Only use leash as tether if dog won’t chew on it.

Watch them while tethered so they don’t learn chew on tether

Put comfortable rug or bed and chew toys at teher spots

When they get out of control say “too bad Luke, time out” and a few minutes on tether

Can pre-tether if you know they are going to flip out in a certain situation to prevent it from happening

Ignore barking or whining

Only release when calm and quiet so they don’t learn that fussing gets them released.

Must release them when they settle so they know that being calm earns freedom

You can do another timeout right after if they rev up again

Cheerful interlude not a forceful punishment

Week 3

Wait

“Pause for a moment or two- don’t follow me”

Reminder for your dog to defer to you

Teach manners by letting you go through doors first.

Can use to pause them from chasing your cat

Can use to keep them from going to far ahead on off leash walks

Let him offer a sit at the door then say “wait”

Can use palm facing him wait signal

Gradually open the door and clicking and treating each increment

If he gets up say “oops!” And have him sit again

Letting them out the door or playing in the yard can be a life reward for this.

Try this on front door, car, outside, etc.

Move back steps in the process if you lose progress

Take It!

Almost as easy as charging the clicker

Say take it with a treat in your hand, click when the they take the treat

Repeat several times

Hold treat different places (between your legs, get creative

Try with a toy, get him excited about it and say cue when you know he is going to take it

It’s okay if they drop it after you give them treat. Hold is a later trick

When he is easily taking the toy from your hand try throwing it on the floor when you say take it, click and treat when he picks it up

Gradually increase distance that you toss the toy (racing across the yard to take a toy)

Keep take sessions short. Stop before they get tired or bored

Vary the item you ask them to take

Start delaying the click for holds

Practice when they are full of energy and want to play if they will only take treats

Try high value toys (that have treats in or on them)

Leave it!

“Whatever you are looking at, I want you to leave it alone”

Hide high value treat under your foot or hand, click when they leave it alone

Increase the time they have to be turned away and the click

Click and treat several times for staying away from the forbidden object

Hide the object if they go for it again

When you move far from treat be prepared to dive an body block

Ring Bell

You can use touch to roll a ball, close a door, turn on a tv, ring bell to let you know he has to go out

Attach a bell to a string

Hold bell in hand and ask dog to touch

After a few reps add verbal cue to ring it

Hold bell so they will touch it even if they are aiming for your hand.

Move hand further and further up the string and away from the bell

Start moving the bell around to have him ring in different locations

Can shape them to touch bell harder by only clicking harder and harder touches

Condition to ring bell to go outside

Can treat for potty if you only want him to use bell for potty

Sit pretty

Often called sit up or beg

Start with dog sitting and facing you

Hold treat over nose so they have to stretch their head up to sniff it

Click and reward as paws come up high and higher

Add verbal cue after the full sit up

Add cue then lure the sit up and fade away the lure

Can put this on a raise the index finger cue

Jumping

Use “hugs” or similar cue

Only gets reward if he is invited to jump up so he doesn’t get rewards for jumping uninvited

Week 4

Go to Your Spot

Place to send them to take a break from their undying devotion

Place they go at dinner time

Can bring to have them settle at a public place

Can use doorbell as cue to go lay down in spot

“go to spot and lie down”

Use shaping and click when they move toward spot

Shaping will help her learn how to learn herself

Can help by looking at the spot they will look where you look

Hide clicker and treats

Can also lure by saying “place” and learning them to their spot

After they get it start asking for a down at the spot in place of sit

Ask them to wait so they don’t jump up as soon as they get there

Reward occasionally for just lying on the spot

Gradually move farther and farther from place

Can bait the rug by putting treats on it

Relax

Relax position for several seconds or more

Can use tummy rub or massage as life reward

Lure or shape

Stay

“Stay in the position I left you until I tell you to get up”

Three Elements to stay:

Duration – How long dog stays

Distraction - Realiability

Distance – Distance you can move away from dog

Work on duration and distraction first

Do not ask for too much too soon

Ask them to sit for one second, click and treat and be calm so they don’t jump up

Use release word to encourage dog to get up

Don’t click the release cause you are training the stay behavior

Starts adding several seconds then the “stay” cue

Slowy increase seconds in stay

Click and reward during the stay several times

Keep reminding them with more “stay” cues

Release before dog decides to move on their own

Wisk treat behind back if dog gets up (negative punishment)

Process for “down” stay is the same.

Gradually fade the treat away from in front of them

After they stay for 10-20 seconds add distractions

Step to side click release, jump on one foot click release!

Taking it gradually is the key here.

Then add distance

Teach them that stay is never over until you return to them

At higher levels you can call from stay 1 out of 10 times

After distance is mastered start combining the 3 elements

Always return before they leave stay position

Return to easier version if they start making mistakes

Give

Great for getting stuuf out of puppy mouths

Start with toy in puppies mouth

Say give and hold out treat in hand, when she drops toy to ground click but hold treat until you pick up toy. Let her nibble on treat while you do this. Toss the toy again for life reward as well

Practice this with forbidden objects (accidently drop on near her so you don’t encourage playing with it)

Try not to grab objects from the dog, instead play the give game

Do not do this for resource guarders

Weave

Try touching the weave between the legs in a staggered stance

Can also lure

Score!

Target a large ball by asking her to touch

Ball needs to be too large to fit in their mouth

Bring ball lowere and lower to ground and switch cue to score

Shape harder and harder touches on ball so that the ball starts moving

Set up goal after they are pushing the ball a good distance

Shape the score by only clicking when the ball goes through the goal

Can use toddlers legs spread as a v as a goal and they can pass back and forth

Can set up plastic bowling pins and use the same technique

Pray

Ask them to sit up (sitting pretty) and encourage them to rest their feet on a chair

Shape this if they aren’t getting it

Lure their nose down between their legs and click and treat

Add cue

Fade gestures away

Week 5

Swing

Moves dog to your side facing the same direction as you

Gets your dog out of your way and into an approximate heel position, allowing you to walk forward together

Can put each side on a different cue

Move your dog to your left side

Start with dog sitting in front of you facing you close enough so you can pat them on the head

Clicker in your left and and treats in your right

Take a long step straight back with your left foot

Lure dog to your left and back with a treat

Turn dog toward you with the lure and bring them up along your left side.

Then lift treat over their head to gett them to sit

Can use verbal sit cue if needed

Add verbal cue after they are doing it easily

Put the treat where you want his nose to be.

Can shape increasingly better sits

Leave It – Temptation Alley

Learn how to leave it when you go on walks

Set up mildly interesting treats outside ten feet apart in an area where you can see them

Walk dog 5-10 minutes before you start to settle them a little

Approach the first pile. The instant the set their eyes on it say “leave it!” In a happy voice and stop moving

Do not jerk them back but do restrain so they can’t eat the goodies (prevention is key)

Then wait, do not repeat the leave it cue and don’t pull him back. When they look away from the pile click and give a high value treat.

Then go to the next pile and repeat

Do this until they can look awy from each pile with the verbal cue without a leash

Change this up by putting piles in different places, different location, with better treats and toys etc.

Try off leash when they are responding 80% of the time.

Take a step back if they oopsie and eat the pile.

Up and Over

Jump on and over objects

Lay broomstick on the ground and have them walk over it

Say “over!” On an excited voice as they walk over it. Click an treat

Repeat several times until they have no hesitation

Lift the stick up a few inches with a couple of books and repeat

Stand on one side of the stick, tell them to wait and say “Over!”

Slowly increase height

Fade the lure

Up

Exercise stepper is a good tool

Place hand over platform and use touch to get them to touch your hand above it

Practice on different surfaces

Shape it if they do not do it all at once

Playing Possum

Teach before roll over or it may be hard to get them to stop from rolling all the way over

Never try to force a dog onto their back

Can use to search for fleas ticks lumps and bumps

Can lure this

Fade the lure

Roll Over

Try multiple rolls in a row

Tug

Dog should know “give” before attempting tug

You will always win the tug game

Dogs seem to like the ones with three or four rope branches to choose from

Rules:

Tug toy is only for playing tug put it away when the game is over

You decide when it is time to play tug, don’t get it out when they ask for it, wait until they move on to something else.

You win 9 times out of 10

Work on give more if they don’t let it go

Game is over if their teeth touch graze your skin, wait a few minutes before you play again

Dog only gets to grab the toy when you use the tug command. Say oops and hide it behind your back if they try to grab it

Play growling is okay

Serious growls, snapping, or refusing to release toy ends the game. Put the toy away for at least 10 minutes

Can use “Yes!” Instead of clicker because your hands may be full

Trade for a treat if they don’t give up the rope

Can use the game itself as a reward

Week 6

Excuse me

Hold treat toward nose and let them nibble at it

Move the treat toward their chest and take a step toward her

Click after they take just one step back

Shape as they do more and more steps back

Do this slowly

Should be doing 4-6 steps back before you add the cue

Shape for straighter and straighter steps

If they just sit then move the treat lower between their legs and click they instant they move their foot back

Long Distance Down

Get your dog to drop on a dime at a distance

Asking them to do less to get them to stop chasing or doing something.

Tether dog or have a friend hold their leash

Stand in front of dog facing them (they should be at the end of their leash facing toward you)

Take a step back and give them a happy down cue

When dog lies down, click and step forward and treat

Repeat several times

Vary the command when you step back so they don’t think that stepping back means down

Gradually add more steps until they respond to cue across the room

Start adding distractions (reduce distance when you do this)

Increase distance with distractions

Try without a tether with reduced distance and distraction

Start asking for down when dog is in motion then in motion with distractions

Dropped Leave It

You drop and item and have them leave it

Reward them for leaving it

Reward when they look away from dropped item

Start dropping in less protected places than right next to you

Then say leave after the treat hits the floor

Be prepared to body block

Have someone drop something while you are walking with dog towards them

Cross Paws

Have dog lay down and tell them good boy

Lure by moving treat left to right and shape the paw moving over

Add verbal cue

Sneak (Crawl on your belly like a reptile)

Fade  lure after they are crawling longer distances.

Bravo (bow)

Start by luring them down and clicking for bent elbows bent then raise the treat back up before dog goes all the way down.

Can try slipping hand or box under them so they do not go all the way down.

“Bow” sounds too much like “down”

Click and Jackpot!

1. Visualize the behavior you want your dog to do. Have a clear picture in your mind of the behavior you’re trying to achieve with your dog.

2. Figure out how to prevent your dog from being rewarded for the behavior you don’t want.

3. Reward him consistently and generously for the behavior you do want.

The poisoned Cue

Habituation occurs when your dog learns to ignore an environmental stimulus—a sound,

Sometimes sensitization occurs instead. Rather than habituating to a sound such as the doorbell, a dog may become more and more reactive each time the stimulus occurs. Thunder sensitivity is a perfect example of this.

Learned irrelevance is similar to habituation. It applies to a dog who has learned to ignore a specific cue, rather than become accustomed to a startling stimulus. This is not deliberate willfulness on the dog’s part, but rather her lack of response to a cue that has failed to have consistent and sufficiently strong significance attached to it. The cue becomes meaningless if it doesn’t have a consequence.

“poisoned cue.” A cue becomes poisoned when it sometimes has a negative consequence instead of a positive one.

it will be easier for you to train her to come with a new cue than to try to make the association consistently positive.

I have heard owners and trainers use words such as close, let’s go, and here in place of a poisoned Come.

Once you’ve trained a new Come cue, you have to remember not to poison that one too. If you have to do something to your dog that she’s not fond of, do something wonderful when she gets to you, and a few minutes later end the fun and do the not-so-nice thing.

Or go get her instead of calling her to you. Meanwhile, make it a point to change her association with the things she doesn’t like. Teach her that a hand moving toward her collar makes yummy treats happen.

Teach her that a hand moving toward her paw makes yummy treats happen. Then touching her paw. Then holding her paw. Then touching her paw with nail clippers. This process of counterconditioning and desensitization—changing the association with a stimulus—can be applied in countless training and behavior modification situations.

It works best when done gradually with numerous repetitions at each step, and not moving on until the dog is obviously happy about the process at each step.

The fewer things a dog must do in her world (or have done to her) that she doesn’t like, the less likely you are to poison her Come cue!

SALIENCE

When we say something is salient to a dog, we mean it has noticeable significance to her. Your dog learns to sit even in the face of distractions because the hotdog you are holding in front of her face is very salient.

significant. The salient stimuli in the environment—you, your hotdogs, and the Sit cue—are more significant than the distractions. They overshadow the dog barking across the street, the skateboarder whizzing by on the road, the slamming of a car door down the block. If your dog is too distracted to respond to the Sit cue, then the distractions are more salient than you and your hotdogs.

You either need to move your training to a less distracting environment, or find a way to make you, your treats, and your cues more significant to your dog.

BLOCKING

when the use of a known cue overrides the dog’s ability to learn a new cue for the same behavior. Keep in mind that while dogs can only learn one response to a particular cue (sit must always mean “sit,” it can’t sometimes mean lie down), they can learn several cues that all mean the same behavior.

(treat), I introduce the verbal cue and explain that any new cue being taught must always precede the known cue.

I use a demo dog to show them that the dog doesn’t initially understand or respond to the word down until we associate it with the luring motion that means “down” to the dog.

The motion is salient to the dog—the word is not. I explain to my students that in order for the dog to hear the word and learn that it also has significance, they must say the word first, then lure the dog down.

If they give the verbal cue at the same time or after they lure, the lure blocks the dog’s ability to learn the new cue. With enough repetitions of the sequence—verbal cue, followed by lure (and click! and treat when the dog performs the behavior)—the dog will learn that the verbal cue also has salience, and you will no longer need to lure her down—she will lie down when you give her the verbal cue.

FADING THE LURE

One of the biggest complaints you’ll hear about positive training is that you always have to have food in your hand to get your dog to do what you ask. This is true only if you don’t make the effort to fade your lures—that is, to get your dog to respond to your cues when there’s no treat in sight. If you don’t fade lures fairly early in your training program, you and your dog can both become dependent on the presence of food to get behaviors to happen. The good news is it’s easy to fade lures; you just have to remember to follow the steps to do it. Let’s take Down as our example:

1. Lure the behavior: Move your treat toward the floor, clicking your dog for following, giving a nibble of treat with each click!

2. Add the cue: When she lures down easily every time, say the Down cue each time just before you lure her down. Repeat a half-dozen times. Remember to click! and treat each time.

3. Pause before luring: Now say “Down!” and pause. Wait for several seconds, then lure her down. Click! Treat. By following the word with the lure, you are translating, telling her that the word down means exactly the same thing as moving the treat toward the floor. Repeat several times.

4. Add a little body language: As you say “Down!” or immediately thereafter, bend forward just a tiny bit from the waist. Since you probably bend forward when you lure, this little body language hint might jump-start your dog’s brain into moving down. If not, wait a few seconds and then lure.

5. Watch for clues: Sometimes your dog will make small movements that tell you she’s starting to make the connection between the cue and the behavior. When you give the Down cue, she may look at the floor or lower her shoulders a little bit and then look at you as if to say, “Is this right? Is this what you mean?” If you catch these clues with a click! and quickly lure her the rest of the way, you’ve answered her question and she’ll probably understand and respond to the cue more quickly.

EXTINCTION

 Extinction means taking a behavior that has been reinforced and making it go away by removing all reinforcement.

You can deliberately extinguish an unwelcome behavior by taking away any reinforcement your dog might be getting for it. We extinguish the behavior of jumping up by making sure no one pets, talks to, or looks at the dog when she jumps, and by stepping away so she doesn’t even have the pleasure of making contact with her paws.

You can also accidentally extinguish a desired behavior by forgetting to reinforce it or by not reinforcing it enough. Reinforcement isn’t always treats—it’s anything your dog likes: toys, play, eye contact, praise, pets, runs . . .

When you use extinction to make a behavior go away, be aware that there is often an extinction burst—the behavior gets worse before it gets better because the dog is trying really hard to get reinforcement for a behavior that paid off in the past.

You want to be sure not to reinforce the dog during an extinction burst, or you’ve just taught her that trying harder gets reinforced. Don’t give in (unless the dog is in danger of injuring herself); comfort yourself with the knowledge that the extinction burst usually means you’re close to success.

spontaneous recovery. Days, weeks, or even months after you extinguished a behavior, it suddenly rears its ugly head again,

of circumstances occurred to refire the same old neuron pathway. The good news is, assuming you make sure the behavior isn’t reinforced, it should go away again quickly, and much more easily than the first time.

Premack

you can use a more rewarding behavior as the reinforcer for a less rewarding behavior, thereby improving the performance of the lesser behavior.

For example, if your dog would rather chase a bunny than come when you call her, you can use the Premack principle to teach her that she will get to chase a bunny—sometimes—if she comes to you first.

You start by using Premack indoors in a controlled environment to teach her how it works, and when she’s doing well there, move her outside. Leave your dog on a sit/stay and walk across the room. Your helper, with a plate of tasty treats, stands halfway between you and your dog, slightly off to one side. Your helper should also have a bowl to cover the treats when your dog tries to eat them. Now call your dog. If she stops to investigate the plate of treats, the helper covers the plate and doesn’t let her have a taste.

 You keep calling your dog cheerfully and enthusiastically. When she finally comes to you, gently grasp her collar, say “Good girl!” then release her collar and say “Go get it!” Race with your dog back to the treats, now uncovered, and let her have a couple of bites.

Then cover the plate and try it again. Eventually—sometimes surprisingly quickly—she will realize that she gets the treats sooner if she comes to you first and she will fly past the uncovered plate as fast as she can. This principle is also sometimes called Grandma’s Law, expressed as “You have to eat your vegetables before you can eat your dessert.”

There are a couple of drawbacks to using Premack in real life: (1) If the vegetables are too unpalatable, dessert may also lose its appeal; and (2) you can’t control the bunnies.

Generalization

how do you help your dog learn to generalize operant behaviors? By doing exactly what your trainer probably told you to do—practice with her in as many different places as possible.

CHAINING AND BACKCHAINING

The behaviors are linked together so that each behavior is the signal for the next behavior in the chain, and the opportunity to perform the next behavior becomes the reinforcer for the previous one.

Backchaining begins with the last behavior in the chain. Each step is added in reverse order, until the dog is performing the complete behavior. The theory is that when you teach the last thing first, your dog is always moving toward what she knows best, so she gains confidence as she learns the new links in the chain. The theory works.

THE PRINCIPLE OF PARSIMONY

unless there is evidence to the contrary, you must account for a phenomenon with the simplest explanation available.

House Training

think in terms of what you want him to do.

housetraining, an ounce of prevention is worth many pounds of cure.

will start using the phrase Do It when he starts to eliminate. This will teach him to go to the bathroom on cue

Social Misfits

As they get older (8 to 16 weeks), they are given careful exposure to other stimuli—visits to the vet hospital and groomer; walks in town; rides on elevators and escalators; sounds of cars, motorcycles, and skateboards; people of different ages, sexes, and ethnic backgrounds; people who dress, talk, and move in strange ways; and people with umbrellas, crutches, wheelchairs, and facial hair. The more positive exposures a dog has to a wide variety of experiences during this period, the more confident and well adjusted she will be throughout her life, and the more easily she will accept new experiences, even without prior exposure.

the steps to take to foster courage in an unsocialized canine:

1. Teach your dog a reward marker.

2. Reward-mark his entire meal. If the dog is extremely unsocialized—fearful even of you—let this be the only way she gets to eat: by being in your company and, eventually when she’s brave enough, by eating out of your hand. She needs to learn that you are the source of all good things. Reward-marking won’t work well for a free-roaming feral dog—she will have access to other food sources and won’t have to tolerate your presence to find food.

3. Reward-mark her for calm behavior around others.

4. Make a list of her fear triggers.

5. Use counterconditioning and desensitization. Desensitization is the process of gradually acclimating the dog to the things she is afraid of. Counterconditioning means replacing her involuntary undesirable reaction—fear—with a more desirable one that is incompatible with fear, such as the eager anticipation of a tasty treat.

6. Reward-mark while others feed treats.

7. Teach her to target.

Caution: Avoid Coddling!

Be Happy

Healthy dogs chew. They also bark, dig, and run around. These behaviors are natural and necessary for them.

teach him to go to the bathroom at appropriate appropriate times, in appropriate places. You will be far more successful in dealing with the challenges of chewing, digging, and barking if you address these natural behaviors the same way.

CHOOSE YOUR CHEWS

Stuffed Kong toys, marrow bones, and other indestructible but inviting chew objects are better choices than items that resemble our valued human possessions. Discarded socks and old tennis shoes teach a pup to head for the closet floor and the laundry basket when the chewing urge is strong.

Carrots, apples, and other hard raw fruits and vegetables are also ideal puppy chews—

Goodie Ship stuffed with liver treats.

Chewing is also a good stress reliever, which is why dogs who are anxious about being left alone at home often become destructive.

puppies should gradually be conditioned to being left alone so they can overcome their very strong and natural instinct to always be in the company of their pack. Providing your dog with a desirable and appropriate chew object prior to your calm departure can often help prevent separation anxiety from becoming a problem.

Safety First

Dogs have been known to choke on rawhide, which can get soft and slimy when chewed,

Rope toys can shred, and if swallowed, the pieces of string can become entangled in a dog’s intestines—a life-threatening situation. Plastic eyes, noses, and squeakers from plush toys also pose a hazard to your dog’s well-being.

the black rubber Kong toys are among the toughest

Oldies but Goodies

you can regularly give your dog chicken and turkey wings and necks. Note: These are fed raw, not cooked, as part of a complete diet plan.

The Whole Dog Journal is a good resource for information on feeding a natural, healthy diet, as are books by Dr. Ian Billinghurst.

Punishing Jaws after you take a forbidden object away from him does no good—he is likely to think that the last thing he did (giving up the object) is what he’s being punished for. Jaws can learn very quickly that chewing on an item of high value to humans is a good thing to do because it will initiate a rousing game of chase the puppy. If you punish him after you catch him, you won’t teach him not to play the game; you’ll just teach him to run faster next time! Don’t let him suck you into his game—use management and supervision to interrupt and redirect him before he is doing doughnuts around the dining room table with your $150 running shoe in his mouth.

Digging

Dogs who are most likely to engage in inappropriate digging are those who are left to their own devices in the backyard for long periods.

my philosophy of dog-human relationships, they belong anyway. Dogs are companion animals, and they serve that function best when they share our homes (dens) with us. Dogs who are exiled to a pen or to the backyard are often excruciatingly bored and/or lonely, which gives rise to a long list of behavior problems, including barking, digging, escaping, hyperactivity, poor socialization, and aggression.

If you want, you can even encourage your dog to dig—in the right place. Just as you teach your dog when and where it’s okay to go to the bathroom, you can teach Dozer when and where it’s okay for him to dig. You can build a wooden digging box frame—spacious enough to accommodate Dozer’s size with room to spare—and set it where you want him to dig. Dig up the dirt within the framed area so it is soft and inviting. If your dirt is hard clay, add sand and potting soil to break up the soil and keep it soft. Now invite Dozer to dig in his box by burying a toy or bone just beneath the surface of the soil. Get excited and tell Dozer to go dig. Then help him dig up the toy. Repeat this game often, until he will run to his box and start digging from anywhere in the yard when you tell him to go dig. You can bury toys and bones in the box when he’s not looking so that he never knows what he’ll find in there. If you do see him starting to dig where he shouldn’t, say “Oops! Go dig!” to interrupt and invite him back to the box. If he doesn’t have lots of unsupervised time to reward himself for digging in the wrong places, he will eventually confine his digging to his box. An additional benefit to teaching him the Go Dig cue is that you can use it anytime you are in a place where digging is allowed—like the beach, where digging in the sand is great fun for dogs and humans alike. You can also make use of his talents when you need a hole dug—to plant a tree, put in fence posts, or perhaps bury a treasure.

Barking

Simply slapping a no-bark electric shock collar (shudder) around the backyard dog’s neck may stop the barking, but it does nothing to help the dog become less bored, lonely, or frustrated. My answer to the dog owner who asks how to get a dog to stop barking in the backyard day and night is simply to bring him indoors. This relieves his loneliness because: • He is now more a part of the family • It does away with boredom because there are more interesting things going on inside the house

• It shuts out the stimuli that frustrate him—like squirrels in the trees and cats on the fence • It lifts the burden from his shoulders of feeling like he’s the only member of the pack who is guarding the den

we just want to be able to turn the barking off when we want. You can do this with a positive interrupt, or you can get more inventive and teach Woofie to bark on cue in order to teach him to stop barking on cue.

To use the positive interrupt, begin by teaching Woofie that over here means “Turn toward me for a click! and a treat.” Practice this on-leash with a small distraction, like sniffing a bush, until Woofie looks to you eagerly when he hears the Over Here cue.

“Over Here!” As soon as he stops barking and turns toward you for his treat, click! and tell him “Quiet. Good boy!” then click! again for the quiet and give him another treat. (I actually have my clients say “Thank you!” to their dogs when we do this, to remind them that we really do appreciate having our dogs alert us to unusual visitors and events.)

whatever it is that gets Woofie to bark—walking up the sidewalk, knocking on the door, opening the door, or whatever. The more you repeat it, the less excited

Woofie will be about the knock on the door and the quicker he will be to turn toward you on the Over Here cue. Of course, the next time someone comes to the door, Woofie will be excited all over again—it takes time and numerous repetitions of this exercise to get Woofie to give up his deeply ingrained, out-of-control barking behavior. Remember that you are not using the Quiet cue to make your dog stop barking—you are waiting until he stops barking and then telling him that the behavior of not barking is called quiet. In time, when Woofie has learned to associate the word with the behavior of being quiet, you will be able to get him to stop barking with the Quiet cue, but if you use it in the beginning while he’s barking, you will be teaching him that quiet actually means “bark.” In fact, I honestly believe that a lot of dogs think their owners are barking with them when they are actually yelling at them to shut up! I avoid teaching dogs to bark on cue if they don’t already bark a lot, but for those who are problem barkers, it can be a superb solution to the barking behavior challenge. Getting the bark on cue is the easy part—barky dogs are usually more than willing to offer the behavior. You probably already know what stimulates Woofie to bark. If it’s a knock on the door, then knock on the door, click! when he barks, and feed him a treat. If this works, do it again, but say “Speak!” or “Who’s there?” just before you knock. When he barks, click! and treat. Because he likes to bark anyway, in very short order he will probably bark for you on just the verbal cue, without the knock. Aside from using this exercise to teach Woofie to be quiet on cue, it can also be useful for self-protection. I had one client who taught her dog that What Do You Want? was the cue to start barking. She could then use it if she felt threatened by an approaching stranger, and her very friendly dog would bark nonstop and quite convincingly keep the potential bad guy at a distance. Now that you have the bark on cue, you can teach Quiet or Enough by clicking and rewarding a pause in the barking. Again, remember that in the beginning you won’t be asking Woofie to stop barking with the verbal cue; you’ll just be associating the quiet word with the cessation of barking. Eventually, when you know he has made the connection between the word and the behavior, you will be able to use the cue to ask him to stop barking. Remember first to thank him for alerting you to something going on in the world. You never know when he might be trying to tell you that there’s a burglar outside, that Timmy has fallen into the well, or that your horses are running down your driveway.

Separation Anxiety

Separation anxiety (SA), the canine equivalent of a panic disorder,

A less intense stress response in dogs over being left alone is called isolation distress (ID).

Spend fifteen to twenty minutes in a hard play session every morning to take the edge off Shep’s energy level before you leave the house.

• Provide as much exercise as possible at other times of the day as well. A dog who has a reservoir of pent-up energy is more stressed than one who is tired. A tired dog is usually a happier and better-behaved dog.

• Be calm when you leave and return. Dramatic good-byes and hellos raise Shep’s anxiety level.

• Give Shep a Kong toy or marrow bone filled with peanut butter or cheese just before you leave.

• Do not crate Shep unless you know she stays calm in the crate while you are gone.

Biting

all dogs can bite. And under the right set of circumstances, the gentlest, most loving dog can be induced to bite.

high. Aggression is caused by stress. Each thing (stimulus) that causes a dog stress is a small building block (stressor) toward that dog’s bite threshold.

a dozen or more commonly recognized classifications of aggression, including status-related aggression, fear-related aggression, maternal aggression (a mom protecting her puppies), play aggression (when a dog’s level of arousal escalates during play and turns into aggression), displaced aggression, pain aggression, territorial aggression, possession aggression, protection aggression, barrier aggression, and redirected aggression.

Resource Guarding

You can build on this foundation by working with Gimme at her mealtimes in a four-week resource-guarding program. Begin by setting her dish on the counter and putting her kibble in it. During week one, feed her the entire meal by hand, one kibble at a time. Have other family members take turns feeding her, and even allow an occasional visitor to do it so that she really gets the concept that humans deliver resources. Be sure to include children in the mix—you want her to realize that having small humans around her food bowl is a good thing. In week two, set Gimme’s empty food bowl on the floor and put her meal in a second dish on the counter. Now drop a few kibbles into her dish, and while she is eating those, drop a few more. You want her to realize that when a human hand approaches her bowl it is not coming to take her food away; instead, more food is coming. Again, have all the family participate, and include an occasional friend in the mealtime ritual. During week three, put her bowl on the floor with about ¼ of her meal already in it. As she eats, continue to add more kibble, and occasionally add something really wonderful, like a slice of hot dog, chicken, or roast beef. Now you are teaching her that not only does the approaching hand bring more food, it actually brings better food. By now she should be pretty well convinced that having humans around her food bowl is a wonderful idea. In the final week of your food bowl training, continue to drop kibble into her bowl as she eats. Now, assuming that she is showing absolutely no signs of food guarding when you reach toward her bowl, pick the bowl up while at the same time you drop pieces of her really wonderful treat on the floor. The message you’re giving to Gimme is that food bowl going away = really wonderful food on the ground. While you have the food bowl in your hand, put a few more pieces of the really wonderful treat in it and set it back down on the ground after she has finished the treats you dropped. You are simply reinforcing the concept that having humans mess with her food bowl is good—it returns to her with even better stuff in it. If you, and others, for the rest of Gimme’s life, continue to occasionally drop great stuff in her bowl while she is eating, she will always recognize humans near her bowl as a good thing and should never develop a food-guarding problem.

Dogs do what feels good, or, as behaviorists say, behavior is reward driven. If your dog is doing something that you want to change, at some level it is rewarding to her. Find out what the reward is and you are well on your way to changing the behavior.

Your attention is a huge reinforcer. Even negative attention (like yelling) is reinforcing—in your dog’s mind, something is better than nothing.

Babies and Kids

make good things happen whenever babies were around.

Don’t be stingy here—leave Lady’s dinner kibble at home. Instead, get out the hot dogs, cheese, steak, chicken—whatever Lady likes best—and keep feeding her one tiny piece at a time. You don’t even need to click! her for this; you’re not trying to change or teach a behavior; you’re trying to influence the way that her brain responds to the presence of children. (This is called classical conditioning, like Pavlov’s salivating dogs.) We just want Lady to realize that the presence of babies and small children is a reliable predictor of wonderful treats.

You can also have the babies’ parents or babysitters and some well-behaved small children feed treats to Lady and pet her gently so that she realizes that not only do good things happen when kids are around, some of the good things actually come from the children.

• Never leave dogs, babies, and/or small children (under age 10—or older if the dog is large and active) together unsupervised. No matter how trustworthy the dog, a responsible adult must always be actively observing the interaction between dog and baby human(s).

• Give the dog an escape route. When Junior starts moving, he can be pretty determined and irritating.

toddler fingers in her eyes, ears, and mouth. Teach Lady how to jump over a low barrier to reach safety if she has had enough baby for the moment. Dogs who can’t escape their tiny tormentors are more likely to bite in self-defense. • Teach your dog bite inhibition so that if she does feel compelled to bite in self-defense, she will give an inhibited warning bite rather than a serious bite. (See chapter 22, “A Biting Commentary.”) • Teach your children to respect the dog. Children should handle dogs gently and kindly. As soon as Junior is old enough to understand, he needs to learn that it is not okay to hit, poke, kick, or pull Lady’s ears or tail. He should also be taught that Lady’s crate is her sanctuary—she is never to be disturbed there. Until he is old enough to understand, it is the responsibility of the supervising adult to prevent Junior from tormenting Lady. • Teach your children basic dog safety tips: • Never approach an unfamiliar dog. • Never run away from a dog. • Never scream near a dog. • Stand still when an unfamiliar dog approaches. • Do not hug a dog unless an adult has told you that you can hug him.

• Do not stare into a dog’s eyes. • Do not disturb a dog who is sleeping, eating, resting in his crate, or with or near her puppies. • Do not play with a dog unless supervised by an adult.

Choosing your animal care

Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), a nonprofit organization that promotes the use of positive training methods and provides educational opportunities for all trainers to learn more about the modern science of dog behavior and training. You can access the list of APDT member/trainers at the APDT Web site, www.apdt.com, to find an APDT trainer in your geographical area.

1. Training your dog should be fun! A competent instructor will allow and encourage you to observe a class prior to making the decision to enroll. In a well-run class, dogs and people will be enjoying themselves and having a successful learning experience. Look for an instructor who is approachable and who encourages participants to have a good time. If space permits, an instructor should welcome and encourage all family members and others who interact with the dog to attend class.

2. A skilled class instructor will Provide a clear explanation of each lesson. Demonstrate the behavior(s) that students will be teaching to their dogs. Provide clear instructions and written handouts on how to teach the behavior(s). Give students ample time in class to begin practicing the day’s lesson. Assist students individually with proper implementation of techniques. 3. A skilled and professional trainer will encourage dialogue and be courteous to both canine and human clients alike. 4. You want to be comfortable with the training tools and methods used by the instructor. A skilled and professional dog trainer employs humane training methods that are not harmful to the dog and/or handler and avoids the practices of hanging, beating, kicking, shocking, and all similar procedures or training devices that could cause the dog great pain or distress, or that have imminent potential for physical harm. You have the absolute right to stop any trainer or other animal-care professional who, in your opinion, is causing your dog undue harm or distress. 5. A conscientious trainer will stay informed about innovations in dog training and behavior tools and techniques. Check to see if the instructor is a member of any

educational organizations such as the APDT, and whether s/he pursues ongoing educational opportunities. 6. A good instructor will take care to protect your dog’s health in a group setting. Ask if dogs and puppies are required to be vaccinated prior to class and, if so, which vaccines are required. Make sure you and your veterinarian are comfortable with the vaccination requirements. 7. Current clients are a valuable source of information for you. Attending a group class gives you the opportunity to ask clients how they feel about their experience—if they are enjoying the class and feel that their training needs and goals are being met. 8. Because of variables in dog breeding and temperament and owner commitment and experience, a trainer cannot and should not guarantee the results of his/her training. However, an instructor can and should be willing to ensure client satisfaction with his/her professional services.

Treats and Rewards

hot dogs or Vienna sausage (you can microwave them to make them less slimy); various kitty treats; trail mix; frozen Italian meatballs; chopped bologna; peanut butter; cream cheese; small cubes of cheddar cheese; chicken—boiled or, even better, fried; liver—freeze-dried or fried; minced steak or roast beef; and the several brands of meat rolls produced for dogs. Squeeze cheese is a favorite of mine for exceptionally fussy dogs, and baby food in a jar

a spoon or my finger, right out of the jar, or from a squeeze tube

of French toast, Cheerios, croutons soaked in salad dressing, and cheese-filled tortellini.

small chunks of apple and carrot.

chocolate and onions can kill a dog if consumed in even moderate quantities. Grapes and raisins have also been implicated in numerous dog deaths.

LIFE REWARDS

things other than food that your dog loves.

the more reliably your dog has learned a behavior, the more you can use life rewards in place of treat rewards.

• Chasing a ball or a Frisbee • Chasing squirrels or birds (in a safe environment) • Going outside or coming inside • Digging a hole • Chewing a chew toy • Playing tug of war or chase • Taking a walk or going for a car ride • Swimming • Playing with other dogs • Anything else your dog loves to do

Training Cues

All Done : You are released from whatever I was asking you to do.

Watch Me: Look at me.

Click (or a mouth click, finger snap, the words “Yes,” “Click,” or “Tick”): What you were doing at the exact moment you heard the click is earning you a food reward.

Come: Run quickly to me. (You might also want it to mean “and sit right in front of me.”)

Dog’s Name: Look at me and wait for further instructions.

Down: Lie down on the ground (not get off something or someone).

Excuse Me: Walk backward.

Good Boy: General praise—not a reward marker!

Heel: Walk by my left side with your shoulder even with my knee.

Jackpot: Exceptionally good effort—you are earning extra rewards!

Leave It: Whatever you are touching or paying attention to, leave it alone; get off someone or something; don’t touch.

Let’s Walk: Walk with me without pulling on the leash, or walk closely with me with no leash, but not necessarily in the heel position.

No: What you are doing is very bad or dangerous—stop immediately! (Use very sparingly, just for life-threatening situations, and when you do use it, say it like you mean it!)

Oops (or Wrong, Mistake, Sorry): The behavior you are doing will not earn you a reward. (This is referred to as a no-reward marker and is also used sparingly.)

Relax: Lie flat on your side.

Sit (not Sit Down): Put yourself in the sitting position from whatever position you are in now.

Stand: Stand still on all four legs. Stay: Don’t move from the position I left you in until I release you.

Take It: Take food or an object into your mouth (the beginning of teaching a dog to retrieve).

Touch: Touch your nose to a designated target. Wait: Pause. Stop moving, either until I leave or until I release you. (This is less formal than stay.)