 To help Rufus learn to relax we taught him to go to his crate on cue. The first step was to simply get him to walk into his crate, which we did by luring. After a few minutes we were able to raise our criteria so he would only be rewarded for going in and sitting. Finally, we raised our criteria again and only rewarded him for lying down in his crate. By the end of the session he was doing that pretty easily. Now we'll work on cueing from a distance.
 When your dog is doing something you don't like, teach it do do something else. Sits, down, stays, and the other skills we teach our dogs are all what we call "incompatible behaviors". In other words, a dog can jump if she is sitting. A dog can't race around the house if she in a down/stay. When visiting another's house Jude gets very excited whenever people get up and move around. Today we practiced those incompatible behaviors and she did wonderfully!
 Speedy, a 1-year old Labrador Retriever mix who was recently adopted, is extremely fearful of strangers. When I arrived she would charge me, growl and bark, then run away. I threw her bits of turkey as I made my way to a chair. As we talked I continued to drop treats on the floor until she eventually approached me to take them from my hand. By the end of our session she climbed on my lap to be petted, then posed for her photo. Pain free, force free, and fear free at work.
 As is the case with many young dogs, Arya lacks impulse control, especially when it comes to chasing the cat. Today's session was focused on Wait and Stay and as you can see, with the help of the cat (and Goose the dog), Arya did extremely well.  Anyone with a Dachshund, or any short dog, will tell you how challenging it is to teach it to lie down. They are, after all, already close to the ground so it makes luring difficult. But Daisy defied the odds and learned how to both Sit and Down in less than 30 minutes. It was quite the accomplishment, especially since Daisy is just 15 weeks old.
 Jazz did wonderfully with her Loose Leash Walking training. We reinforced her for staying
near us or looking at us, and taught her that pulling doesn't get her to move forward. During our walk she met a new friend named Gracie, and Jazz didn't pull to meet her!  Esme has been taught Down, but only if you have a treat in your hand and touch the floor. So today we taught her to do it while we stood straight up, which she ended up doing very
well. My back thanks her! |
AuthorJeff Dentler, CPDT-KA, FFCP, CTDI Archives
December 2018
Categories |
RSS Feed
