Episode #47 A Training Challenge

speaker 0:   0:00
This is the Puppy Training Podcast Episode #47: A Training Challenge. This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the puppy training podcast, and I'm your host, Amy Jensen.  

speaker 0:   0:25
Hey, everyone, how are you doing? I hope you're having a good week. I know things look a little differently. I can't believe what a difference a week makes. Something can spark up as quickly as it has, and our lives are a little bit disrupted, that's new for us. It's been a learning experience here in our home, for our kids and for us and it's been interesting, but good. For many of us are regular routines have changed and we're adjusting to new things; our dogs are as well. For them, it's mostly positive, though. They often react to changes in schedules and routines, so if you do notice different dog behavior with your animals this week, that's pretty normal when things changed significantly. For the most part, I would guess that it's positive just because more of us are home versus being away at work. For those with children in the home who attend schools, this is what it would look like at the start of summer vacation normally when the routines get flip-flopped a little bit and more kids are home or running through the house or different things like that. The energy levels are different, the dogs feel it. Be aware of that and take note. If your dog exhibits some new behaviors these coming weeks, just be patient with them as they transition to the changes around us as well. Also on that note, make sure that with our children home that there is structure, that there's supervision. It's really important to supervise our puppies and our children, making sure that there's always an adult there to help and then structure that interaction as much as possible. Our online puppy school can help you with daily lesson plans, games, activities, so if you haven't already, check it out at BaxterandBella.com.  

speaker 0:   1:57
In thinking about this week's podcast, I decided to mix it up a bit and throw out a few training challenges for us to accomplish because more of us are home in the coming weeks, and this is a perfect time to fine-tune some of those training behaviors and things that we've been working on or wanting to work on with our dogs. Here are a few basic training challenges that we encounter. I tried to pick ones that we encounter on a daily basis, things that would be helpful in your daily routine or things that would make your day go more smoothly. So I've created seven challenges for you. I would love to see videos of things that you and your puppy accomplished with these, even the novice successes, as that is where we all begin. So let's support each other as we work on common tasks and feel free to share your videos to our Facebook page at the Online Puppy School, we'd love to see the progress that you and your puppy are making.  

speaker 0:   2:45
All right, here we go. There are seven tasks. Feel free to create your own as well. While we may be limited in social interactions right now and places that we can visit with our dogs, there's plenty to fine-tune within the walls of our own homes. Here are some ideas. Challenge number one is to have your puppy wait while you place the food bowl on the floor and they don't move to eat it until released. How long can they wait? Novice would be your puppy would wait for 1 to 5 seconds before needing to be released to eat their food. Advanced beginner 6 to 20 seconds. Then you release them. Intermediate: 60 seconds. The skillful level would be the puppy can wait multiple minutes and an expert level would be 'I'm not moving until released'. See what you can achieve with your puppy. This is found in our lesson 1.9 in our program 'Wait'. We talk about doorways and wait, but with the wait, we talk about putting the food bowl down on our puppy waits to be released before they move toward their food bowl. I teach my puppies to sit first, and then I'm gonna lower the food bowl. If they move toward it, I pick it up really quickly and say no, and then I set it back down again. That very first time you do that, it's literally 1/2 a second wait and you're like, 'Okay', you release your puppy to come to eat, but we build that up, and that's where this challenge comes in is that I want to see which level you can get your puppy to be at over the coming weeks. Are they a novice? Can you move from a novice up to an advanced beginner and intermediate, where their puppy will wait 60 seconds before going to the food bowl as you release them, and then on up to that expert level where your puppy would wait hours until you say release? Obviously, with a brand new eight-week-old puppy, I would expect you to be in the novice to advanced beginner stages. For those of you who have older dogs, maybe those adolescents, this is a great skill to review and see how long you can get him to wait. Do different things, adding those four Ds of distance, duration, distraction, and difficulty. Move around while their food bowls in front of them, toss toys around while the food bowls in front of them, really make it challenging for them.  

speaker 0:   4:39
The second challenge is a positive game in our program only if you're nice. But basically what this looks like is you're going to hold kibble in your hand, and your puppy is probably going to mouth and paw and try to get the food out of your hand, especially if you do this before their breakfast in the morning or before their dinner in the evening. I want you to hold on to that food until your puppy leaves your hand alone. The second that they're nice the second that they decide, 'Okay, I'm gonna back off', I want you to mark yes, and then give them a piece of food from your hand. You're gonna play this again and again. There are some different levels that I want you to try to introduce and see how far along you can progress with your puppy. The first level, novice, would be you hold the food in a closed hand and you repeat that game probably 10 to 20 times until your puppy really understands the concept that I only get food from that hand if I back off, that I'm not pawing or licking or touching the hand in any way than food is produced. The advanced beginner stage would be, I want you to hold that food in an open hand. Instead of a closed hand, I want you to now open up your fingers so your puppy can see the food's sitting in your hand or they learn that if I back away, that's when I get food. Let's say that you open up your palm for the first time your puppy approaches the palm I would just close it quickly and say 'nope' and then try again and then see how long you can hold that hand open with your puppy, waiting patiently for you to feed them a reward. The intermediate level would be placing that food on the floor. Be ready with your hand to cover it as needed. We don't want them to get any stolen items from that pile. You want them to earn that, so when the food is on the floor, if they back away from it and they wait patiently for you to give it to them, then you can give them a piece of food. That would be that middle level, intermediate, taken to a whole new level because it's not necessarily in your hand anymore, it's on the floor and we want them to wait to be given that food. Now the skillful level would be bouncing that food around, make it a little more tempting. Things that move are very enticing to a dog. If you haven't noticed that already, especially these puppies. They see our arms moving and our ankles moving and they want to latch on and bite them. Hopefully, we are working through those phases in your houses. If you need help with that, let us know. But balancing that food around makes it more exciting and more tempting and we want our puppies to really exhibit that self-control and that patience impulse control of seeing that food move around and they're still gonna wait until you say 'OK' or, give them a piece of food. Now the expert level would be used in something that's higher value food. Maybe we're talking steak, chicken from last night's dinner cut up into small pieces. We're using something besides just kibble. We've now up the level of motivation for our puppies to want to get that food and we want with that higher motivation, we want them to still be able to exhibit self-control and impulse control. There you go. It's a positive game in our program. For those of you are members, you can go there to check out the rules or to watch a video of me playing it with some puppies, or you could just listen to this again and get those instructions. But basically you're starting with that food in your hand. It's gonna be a closed fist, and you're going to see if you can progress through those different levels of the game.  

speaker 0:   7:46
Challenge number three is to get your puppy to stay in a 'sit-stay' while you put the leash on and again when you take the leash off. To accomplish this challenge, you're going to first need a sit skill. Your puppy is going to have to know how to sit on cue, and then they're also going to have to know how to stay. To teach a 'sit-stay', essentially, in a nutshell, I like my puppies to sit first and then I stand right next to them and I don't move, and it's a pause. Essentially I'm getting my puppy to sit and then pause, and at first, it's 1 to 2 seconds of a pause, and then I move away from them, saying 'Okay' or 'release' whatever word you want to use to show them that now they can move. Again, I'll put my puppy in a sit, I pay for the position, meaning my puppy's in a sit, I'm going to give them a reward for doing that behavior that I asked them to do, I'm going to stand right next to them and get that pause where they're still in a sit, count to maybe one or two in my head, move away, back away from them and say 'OK', so that they then know they could move because they're following me to get that food reward. That's how we start a stay. I want you to build that up to at least 20 seconds before you move away from your puppy, but that will help instill that stay in them, and then you can practice using that skill to put the leash on or to take the leash off. Isn't that a nice picture in your brain? A puppy's not jumping all over you or turning in circles as you try to find where their clip is on their collar. They're just in a nice 'sit-stay'. You attach the leash than when you're ready to take the leash off, you put them in a 'sit-stay' again. You take the leash off. It's nice. It's calm. It's controlled, so there's challenge number three for you. Can your puppy remain in a 'sit-stay' while you take the leash off and will you put the leash on?

speaker 0:   9:34
Challenge number four: attention walking. Walking can be practiced in your home. In fact, I recommend that all new puppies start this skill in the house simply because the distractions are lower. As soon as we go outside, there are leaves blowing, birds chirping, squirrels possibly running around so starting attention walking is great inside your home. Then, when you're ready, take it outside but start in your own yard. Practice this in your front yard, your backyard, in your driveway, up and down your sidewalks, and we're gonna get really skillful at just the simple behavior in an environment that your puppy's comfortable with before we take it out where they are possibly more distracted. The different levels that I want to challenge you with this week on attention walking would be first, the novice level. Your puppy watches you for 1 to 4 steps. Can you get your puppy to look at you while you walk 1 to 4 steps forward, marking for each step of attention? The advanced beginner level, so the next level up, would be your puppy watches you consistently for 5 to 9 steps. Now, things that will help with this would be zigzagging, changing direction, really keeping it exciting for your puppy and in the beginning, paying them for every time they look at you, keeping them looking at you, really, by paying every few steps. The intermediate level takes it to the next step, where we want her puppy to be able to go 10 to 20 steps with us as they're paying attention. Most puppies that I train, I can get them to look at me for a good 20 steps before they look away and take a break. So there's a challenge for you. Can you find something that's high enough motivation to reward your puppy with that, he will pay attention to you for a least 20 steps? So 10 to 20 steps again would be that intermediate level that you've achieved. A skillful level would be your puppy walks by your side, not ahead of you, for over 20 steps. So 20 plus steps and they're checking in with you every few steps. Now you've increased the distance, we're going more than 20 steps, but your puppies still checking in with you and remaining by your side, every few steps he's looking your way. I would reward every time they check in with me and practice stopping as well every so often. The expert level is going to be your puppy does the skillful level, which would be 20 plus steps. I also want you to add in right turns, left turns, and when you stop, your puppy sits. That would be an expert level of puppy attention walking. Again, your puppy's gonna walk by your side for 20 plus steps, however many you can get. There's another challenge for you you could add to this one would be how many steps can you successfully walk with a nice loose leash with your puppy? But throw in some right turns, throw in some left turns and then practice stopping. And every time I stop, I help my puppy into a sit. It becomes pretty automatic very quickly. They just know that when I stopped, they sit, a food reward comes. I like to train that into them.  

speaker 0:   12:22
All right, challenge number five. I want you to create your own shaping activity. What can you get your puppy to do with just the shaping tools in training? What is shaping? Shaping means, I'm picking a behavior that I want my dog to do. Essentially, this is the hot and cold game that we play sometimes as humans. Maybe the activity is I want my puppy to paw a balloon. So I blow up a balloon, I put it in the middle of the room, my goal is that my puppy is going to go over and touch it with their paw. To shape this, I'm gonna break this behavior down into little tiny steps, and I'm going to reward my puppy for each little step that he takes towards the end-all goal of pawing the balloon. For example, let's say I set this balloon down and my puppy looks at it. That's really step one, my puppy needs to pay attention to the balloon in order to paw it, so I'm going to mark and reward that behavior. He looks at the balloon, 'yes', here's a treat. He looks at the balloon again, 'yes, here's a treat'. Pretty soon, after about 5 to 10 reps of that, my puppy's gonna figure out that if I look at this balloon, food comes. You'll know when your puppy gets that step because he consistently will do it and then look at you and then he'll do it and then look at you. That means he's got that step, so I'd move on to the next step. Now, instead of rewarding him when he looks at the balloon, I'm gonna wait to reward him until maybe he moves over toward the balloon. Maybe he's walking toward it, or maybe he's touching it with his nose. Every puppy will go through this at their own pace at their own speed, but you want to break that down into small steps and reward each step along the way and keep progressing it until they get to the end-all goal. Reward that walking to the balloon, then I would wait and reward until he touches it with his nose, possibly. Then I would wait and reward when my puppy touches it with his paw. When he finally does that action, if that's the final action that I'm wanting and he paws the balloon, that's a jackpot reward. 'Yes, yeah, you figured it out here's five treats'. With this one, be creative. What can you get your puppy to do? Maybe things like, get your puppy to sit in a box. Maybe your puppy could go through a tunnel. But be creative. Share your ideas. Let us know what you're going to do for challenge number five: the shaping activity.  

speaker 0:   14:32
Moving on, challenge number six is a 'down-stay' while you open the door and invite a guest in. How many of us would love our puppies to do this? You have some extra time on your hands, hopefully in the coming weeks to practice this. I know we're not going to be inviting guests into our homes, most of us, if we are practicing social separation for the time being, but you can use family members. Practice with the children going outside, ringing the doorbell, you go outside and ring the doorbell. We can practice knocking on walls or ringing doorbells, or I have a doorbell app on my phone, so I'll play random doorbell sounds, and then when the doorbell goes off, I practice getting my dogs into their spots. You can either put them in a down on a dog bed, you can put them in a down in any room you choose whenever this happens, but I like to pick one spot or one location that consistently my dog will go into the down stay so they know. The more consistent we are, and the more routine like it is for them, the easier it is for them to pick up on what it is we're wanting them to do. Again, a 'down-stay' while you are able to open the door and invite a person into your home, and this could just be a family member. But you'll find these in lessons 2.3 and 2.4 in our program if you need help with that, but the novice level would be you is the handler stands right next to your puppy and feeds food rewards for them staying in that down position while the doors opened and the person comes in. That might even be a little bit above the novice level. Having that person come in, you might only get to the point where you can actually touch the doorknob or open the door, but then shut it right away, so you might need to tweak that a little bit. But a novice level, I would say, would be the handler is standing right next to the puppy and feeding food rewards to keep them into that nice 'down-stay'. The advanced beginner stage, so that next level would be you as the handler stands right next to your puppy and occasionally drops rewards. So instead of feed, feed, feed, feed, maybe it's your dropping a treat every five seconds or so. The intermediate level would be your standing five feet or more away from your puppy, but you're tossing them food rewards while the remaining a 'down-stay'. While you're doing these 'down-stays', remember, we're practicing, hopefully, the door opening, a person is walking in, and the door shutting. But these are the different levels that I would have you go through to help your puppy be successful in these instances. The skillful level would be you as the handler answers the door while your puppy is somewhere else in a 'down-stay'. They might be now more than five feet away from you, from that door, you can still toss food rewards, but the change here, from the intermediate to the skillful level, would be that someone's not helping you answer the door, you are now the one that's answering the door while your puppy remains in that 'down-stay'. Finally, the expert level would be that you answer the door and your puppy is getting rewarded after he's released. No longer are we tossing these intermittent food rewards at him, but we're answering the door, we're inviting the guest in, we're shutting the door and then, on our terms, were releasing her puppy, where he then gets a nice reward for that good 'down-stay'.  All right, challenge number six: a 'down-stay' while you open the door and invite someone in.

speaker 0:   17:32
Number seven: puppy goes to their bed on cue. I use 'go-to-bed' a lot. I use it during mealtime, I use it for challenge number six when someone comes to my door, but let's practice getting them to go to their beds or go to their spots on cue. This is lesson 2.11 if you're a member of my program, you can read more about it there and see videos of me working with puppies, but the novice level would be luring your puppy onto the bed. So maybe if a brand new a week old puppy and you just are starting this behavior, you can use food to lure them onto the bed, and I like to lure them into a nice down position so that they're relaxed and calm and then I release them by moving away from the bad saying 'Okay' or 'release' whatever cue you use. The advanced beginner stage would be your luring your puppy onto the bed, you're gonna wait at least 10 seconds and then release them off of the bed, keeping them there using your body to block, having a little leash attached to them is helpful so that they can't just start off or run away, but we're trying to help them remain there patiently for 10 seconds and then we're going to release them. At the intermediate level, I want you to cue your puppy to go to the bed with no food in your hand. We've gotten rid of the food lure now. You can point to the bed, you can still use your finger to help them get there, I just don't want food in your hand. I want it behind your back in a pouch somewhere out of sight. And then, hopefully, your puppy can't stay there at this point for 20 seconds before releasing them off the bed. I would say a skillful level for this behavior would be you cue the puppy to go to bed from 1 to 3 feet away, so you're not necessarily standing right next to the bed at this point, and they could stay there for possibly 30 to 60 seconds before being released. An expert level would be cueing your puppy to go to bed from six-plus feet away and then releasing them after two-plus minutes. Notice the six-plus feet, I left some leeway there for you to extend that as far as you can. That might be a great challenge for some of you who have worked on this behavior before. How far away can you be and send your puppy to their bed? Maybe you could be in the next room. That would be awesome. And then, how long can your puppy wait on their bed? At least two-plus minutes for these puppies that are coming up through the program. Some of you with older dogs, though, that could change into minutes and possibly even hours. That challenge can grow and adapt to whatever level you and your puppy are on.  

speaker 0:   19:46
All right, you guys, that's it. Those are seven challenges. I would love to see your progress, I'd love to see videos. Shoot me questions if you have them, I'll attach the links to the lessons if you're interested in the show so that you can go back and click on those lessons if you need help with more details of how to get your puppies to do these awesome things and then think of how nice your life will be, as your ability to go through daily life and have these simple skills that your puppy can do to be calmer and well behaved in your homes. All right, stay safe, everyone. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you participating in this podcast and sharing it with others who may have puppies who need help. Happy training, and I'll talk to you next week. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site, BaxterandBella.com to contact me.