General Tips For Training Commands
Sit Command
Kibble to the nose -Lots of times families will watch you teach the dog to sit and then when it is their turn they have the kibble way above the dogs nose causing the dog jump up. Make sure the kibble stays in the nose of the dog and that the family doesn’t go way over the dog with the kibble.
Pawing hands - When starting with dogs, especially dogs that know the “shake” command, dogs will try to paw you constantly. This is an annoying behavior and one that should be stopped. When the dog paws at you and tries to put his paw on your hands, pull your hand away, when the dogs paw goes down, go back to the nose of the dog with the kibble and continue.
Pulling Up & Pushing Down - If the dog dog knows sit and isn’t doing it while on-leash, then give the dog a firm sit command. Wait a second and if he doesn’t, pull the leash up and reach to his butt with your other hand. Pull the leash up and press his butt down to the ground. As the leash goes up, it’ll be easier to get his butt to the ground.
Down Command
How to start - When first trying to teach a dog down, we start with the kibble in the dogs nose and get the dog to sit. Then we draw a line straight down to the ground with the kibble. Ideally, here the dog would just follow you down to the ground and his butt and elbows would be on the floor. Lots of times though in the beginning the dog will not do this and their butts will come off the ground as you take the kibble to the floor. If this happens, put the kibble back in the dogs nose and make the dog sit again and then have the dog go down again. Persistence is key in this exercise.
Hard Floors -When first teaching dogs the “Down” command, dogs for whatever reason really don’t like laying down on hard floors. If the dog doesn’t like to lay on hard floors, it is best to practice the down command on a rug, dog bed, couch, mat, towel, etc.
Take the dog where it lays naturally -If you are having trouble getting the dog to lay down, take the dog somewhere that the dog will lay down and practice there, then go back to the area of difficulty. Example, if you are having trouble getting the dog to down on the carpet, but you know he plops when he gets in the bed, practice down in the bed, then go back to the carpet.
Under the arm/leg down - If a dog is having trouble downing, sit on the floor, put the kibble under your arm or leg and have the dog go under your leg to get the kibble. Once his elbows go all the way down, say the command and reward the dog with the treat. Do this over and over until the dog is doing it consistently and then try it with your arm or knee less bent, then do it with no knee down, etc. Click here for an example.
Bed/Place Command
When they don’t have a bed - Place can be anywhere. Every now and then a family will not have a bed/place (hereinafter referred to as “Bed”) in their home for the dog. When this is the case, we can use anything with a boundary. We can use the particular section of the couch, a door mat, a towel, a leash in a circle and put the dog inside of it, etc. We just need something the dog can be on or be in.
Corners and walls - Most dogs, especially fearful dogs, do not like to walk towards walls and corners. Lots of families have their dog beds near a wall or in a corner of the room. This creates a conflict for our dogs as they typically will not follow the kibble onto the dog bed. It is best to move the dog bed to the center of the room and have the dog try to get onto the dog bed there rather than near the wall or in the corner. Then as the dogs gets comfortable, start to slowly move the bed back to the wall.
Elevated Surfaces - Some dogs do not like to get onto elevated things. Lots of dogs initially don’t like to get onto place cots. A couple ways to get the dog on the cot is to put lots of crushed up treats on there to associate good things with it. If that doesn’t work, try putting a blanket or their actual dog bed on it. If none of those tricks work, try putting a leash on the dog and start by having the dog just run over the cot and not stay on the cot. Make it a big deal when the dog successfully gets over the dog bed. Do this a handful times, getting the dog to jump over the bed, then slow it down and get them to walk slower over the bed. Then use the leash to make them actually stay on the bed for a second or two. The whole time this is going on, you should be giving lots of praise and lots of pets to the dog. Then make the dog stay on the cot for a longer period of time.
Fly on the Wall - Some dogs do not like the idea of staying on cot or dog bed no matter how many treats you give them. In that case, try the “Fly on the wall” trick. This means, you’d have the dog on a prong collar (or regular collar) and leash. This exercise requires at least 2 people. One person would be handling the leash once the dog is on the Place. The other person would be the one giving the dog the commands. The person holding the leash is the “Fly on the Wall” which would only assist the person giving the commands by helping the dog understand they are supposed to stay on it. They would not talk or even look at the dog, only give appropriate corrections and the other person is giving the commands.
The Floor is Lava - This technique is for clients on the On-Leash Plus or Off-Leash program since they will need a remote collar. Any time that the dog gets off the of the place or bed, give them multiple low level taps to show the dog that the “floor is lava” any time they get off prematurely. If they get off, as you give them those quick taps, guide them back to the place to show them that the taps go away once they are back on it. When you release them, there will be no taps.
Stay
Stay & Physical Release - When first teaching the stay command and release word, pair the release word with a pet on the dog’s head.
Don’t Call The Dog Off Place (In The Beginning) - Avoid calling them from a distance because it will teach the dog to anticipate you releasing them and will result in the dog getting up early.
Ending the Behavior (Letting The Dog Get Up) - Don’t let the dog get up each time after feeding him. Lots of times young trainers will tell the dog to stay, give the dog a treat and then free the dog off bed. Too many times of letting the dog off the bed immediately after feeding him will teach the dog to get up right after getting praised or fed. In the dogs mind, the food or the praise is the elimination of the behavior. So don’t free the dog every time that you let him off the bed.
3 D’s - When you are training a dog to place and stay, there are 3 D’s you need to keep in mind that make the exercise go smoothly.
Duration. This is the time the dog stays on the bed. When starting stay, before adding any distance or distractions we need duration.
Distance. When we have some duration and the dog can stay for long periods of time, we need to add distance and start to move away from the dog.
Distractions. When we have duration and distance, we can add in distractions. By doing this, you teach the dog to stay no matter what is going on in the environment.
Only increase one D at a time. If you’re adding in distance, then lower the duration you’re going to make the dog stay. If you’re incorporating distractions in, make the dog stay less time and be closer to the dog.
Use Freedom To Reward Good Reps - If we go back to Op Con 1, we learned about reinforcers. A reinforcement is anything the dog likes and dogs LOVE freedom. So if you get a good rep in with the dog in training, reward the dog with freedom and by letting him get up and off the bed.
Posture - When you first teach stay and the client tries, lots of times they bend at the waist and back up from the dog staying bent over. Lots of times when we tell the dog to come to us, we bend down which can make the dog think that you are actually calling them to them. Make sure you and the client are standing up straight when teaching the dog to stay.
Compound Interest - Think about the dog learning to stay on the bed like you would compound interest. How it works: When you start an account with a bank to invest, you start with $100 and year over year that $100 grow. It is slow at first but as it gets bigger, the growth grows. It is the same thing with teaching a dog to stay on the bed. When you start, you can’t keep the dog on the bed long periods of time. But the more you train you can keep the dog there longer and longer. 1 minute turns to 2, 2 turns to 4, 4 turns to 6, 6 turns to 10, 10 to 15, 15 to 30, etc. It builds on itself and the more you practice the better you get.
Heel
Quick Pops - When you are heeling a dog, you want to avoid long and slow pulls up on the prong collar. You want to use quick pops on the leash to keep the dog in place and steer the dog through pops on the leash. When we say “pops”, think a flick of your wrist. Or checkout our training videos later in the cert and watch a practical example of what we mean.
Arms - Make sure that you have your arms down and relaxed when working with a dog on heel. Lots of times when working on heel, people keep constant tension on the dog. You’ll know this because their arm is cocked up and the leash is taught which puts constant pressure on the dog. This causes the dog to jump and bite on the leash in order to avoid the tension. We want our arms down, relaxed and next to us. If we have to correct the dog for pulling, we do quick pops (above) and we don’t pull the dog back.
Leave It on Walks - The more “leave it” is practiced outside on walks, the more it translates into other areas of the dogs life as well, such as the home, other places, etc. Persistence is the name of the game with the leave it command. When the dog is walking and sees something on the ground he would like to pick up, you can work on leave it before the dog actually gets the thing or AFTER the dog gets the thing off the ground. When the dog does pick the item up, give the dog correction and say, “Leave it”. Do this over and over until the dog drops the item. The goal is to pair the “Leave it” command with either not getting something he wants off the ground, or dropping it once he has it. Persistence is the name of the game regarding the leave it command.
Release Position - A great way to teach the dog the structure to heel is to also give them breaks using their release word/password. By letting them go from walking in heel and to walking in loose leash, they will clearly see the difference between the two positions. Heel is structured. Loose leash is more casual. Make sure that when transitioning from heel to leave it that you give the dog the release command or password. Just make sure you don’t give the dog the release command when the dog is pulling.
Heel Off-Leash - This can be easy to teach dogs if you go in with a game plan and follow simple steps. This is, of course, assuming the dog already knows heel using prong collar. Here are the steps to knock it out easily.
1. Start on prong and when the dog gets out of position give the dog the command, a tap on the RC and a tug the prong collar. For this first step, give the dog more leash than you normally would. The reason for this is that we want to allow the dog the chance to make a mistake so that we can use the tap of the remote collar to get the dog back in the the correct position. Do this a lot until the dog realizes that the tap means to get back into the heel position.
2. Loosely wrap the leash around the dogs neck or drop the leash entirely and let the dog drag the leash. When the dog gets out of position, use the remote collar for corrections to get the dog back into the correct position. Use leash to get the dog back into the correct position if the messes up badly and gets too far out of the bubble.
3. Go off-leash with the dog once dog is proficient with step 2.
Other Tips For Off-Leash Heel… Dogs respond well to audible cues from us (voice, claps, snaps, etc.) and one thing you can do to keep/get the dog back in position is pat on your leg. It’s an audible cue to the dog and it’s close to the area you want the dog in. So when the dog is drifting, pat your leg to audibly let the dog know where to be.
For Runners - We have lots of clients that are runners and want to run with their dog easily. The best way to do this is to get the leash and have the client wrap it around their waist. Turn the leash on the waist so that the dog only has enough leash on the one side to run.
For Clients With Bad Shoulders - If a client has a shoulder that is hurt and they can’t walk the dog well tying the leash around the waist is a great way to let them walk the dog with minimal risk to shoulder. The body is much stronger at the hips than at the shoulders so the likelihood of the dog pulling the person down is much lower as well. If the dog gets out of position, then you can reach down and give the dog a correction to the level that the shoulder will allow or with the “good arm” if the dog is on their favored side.
Come
Long Leash - When using the long leash, if you can keep the leash off the ground, the dog won’t get tangled nearly as much. If one leg is under the leash, that is fine and you can still do the rep. If 2 or more legs are tangled, you need to stop to correct this.
Moving Away To Get The Dog To Go Faster. When you’re working with a dog that is less than enthusiastic to come to you or getting distracted on the way to you, along with some of the other tips like changing inflection, try moving backing up as you’re calling the dog. Make sure to move quickly and make it fun! This can make the dog want to come to you since you’re moving away from her.
Sqautting Down/Bending at The Hips. Similar to the suggestion above, if the dog you are working with is not coming quickly or getting distracted along the way, try bending at the hips to be more inviting or squatting all the way down! This can incentivize the dog to want to move towards you quicker!
Password/Release Word
Clear Word - Make the password very clear and concise, something the dog can be very clear about when they hear it. Examples would be… “Okay” but really annunciate the “O”, FREE, BREAK, GO, etc.
Fun Passwords - Some clients don’t want to use a suggestion we give and want to make another password. This is fine and we can use whatever password they want to use!
Leave it
How To - Put treats, or items the dog commonly goes for, out on the floor in front of the dog. Let the dog approach/walk by the items/treats and when the dog approaches, start to say “Leave it”. When they inevitably go for the item on the floor, give them a correction. When they choose to NOT get the item because you said “leave it” before they got it, reward the dog.
Reward Check-In’s - If the dog is walking past the the items and you say “Leave it” and the dog does and then looks back at you, or comes to you, reward that behavior. We want to reward the dog not getting the item, of course, but we also want to reward the dog checking in with us!
Don’t Let The Dog Get The Item! - When you’re training this, it’s important to do you best to NOT let the dog get the thing we’re trying to teach them to leave alone. So make sure you have a good hold on the leash so that the dog doesn’t get the thing we’re using to teach him/her leave it!
Door Manners
Phases to Door Manners - There are levels to door manners and here are the various phases…
0) Establish a Clean Boundary - Before starting, identify a clear boundary where you want the dog to be and where you want the dog to wait. Will you have him wait behind a door mat? A line where the flooring changes from the entrance to the walk way? Is there no designated area and you need to make a line for the dog to stay behind? Before starting, you need to identify WHERE you want the dog to stay first and foremost. Then proceed with the next steps.
1) When You Start - Make sure you are between the dog and the door to start. Not always, but in the beginning, be between the dog and the door that way if the dog tries to go through the door, you can block them and then get them back into the correct position. Some other ways to add complexity into this… Keep the door open for longer times as the dog gets the hang of it and start backing out of the door as well as the dog grasps the concept.
2) Next To The Dog - After the dog has grasped the concept of staying with you in between him and the door, the next phase is to open the door with you not being a blockade between the dog and freedom! So have the dog sit and stay. Skip moving in front of the dog and reach out to the door and open it. Do this over and over until the dog gets the hang of it.
3) Drop The Leash & Quick Stay - Start walking up to your boundary line with the dog and drop the leash as you approach. Issues a quick “stay” command, or something of the like, and just open the door. If the dog doesn’t listen, you can use the leash to get the dog back in place. Here, we just want to teach the dog to stay at the line without going through a big routine when opening the door.
4) Off Leash - Once you have step three down pretty well, you should be able to do #3 without the leash. So do the same steps that are in #3 just without the leash.
Tricks to Teach Door Manners
Use blue painters tape since dogs can see that
Use a mat or rug to create a clear boundaries
Overall
Dogs Not Liking Your Treats. If you’re working with a dog that is a bit picky, try changing the snacks you’re using. Get some ham, American cheese, a hotdog, etc. out of the fridge and try using that to motivate the dog!
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