Some of you may have noticed that I missed posting a blog last week, I had my hands full with 2 extra boys for a week (my 3 y.o. and 6 y.o. nephews) and 4 dogs boarding while their owners were in Hawaii (LUCKY!). I am still winding down from that and already have more company in so unfortunately this week's blog entry is going to be short and sweet. I have several classes getting ready to begin in the next few weeks so I wanted to get the word out there for some of you who might be interested in them. If you would like to sign up for one of the classes below contact me quickly as some of them only have a couple slots left already! All classes are held at Westport Animal Clinic at 28th and Wanamaker in Topeka unless otherwise specified.

June 5th-Rookie Class held every Tuesday night from 6:30-7:30 for 7 weeks. This class is designed for dogs with no previous training, will be limited to 5 dogs and cost is $99.

June 13th- Intermediate Class held every Wednesday night from 6:00-7:00 for 6 weeks. This class is designed for dogs who have completed my Rookie class or another beginner class elsewhere (If they have completed a beginner class elsewhere, we will schedule an assessment to determine your dogs level). It will be limited to 5 dogs and the cost is $99.

June 18th- Rookie Class held every Monday night from 6:30-7:30 at the HOYT COMMUNITY PARK for 7 weeks. This class is designed for dogs with no previous training, will be limited to 5 dogs and cost is $99.

June 20th- Scent Work Class held every Wednesday night from 7:00-8:00 for 6 weeks. This class is designed to start you and your dog in the fun sport of scent work. We will introduce them to the idea of using their nose to search for treats, a certain scent, or an object. We will also introduce them to scent discrimination and tracking. The class will be limited to 4 dogs and the cost is $115

June 23rd- Agility Pilot Class held every Saturday morning. This will be our first agility class and is already filled with pilot students but check back in the future for mroe agility classes to come this summer!

  PHASE 2
I'm sure glad you love doing this because...its NOT optional…

In this stage, it is our job to show the dogs that their commands are still FUN and REWARDING, however, they aren't quite as easy as before. We begin a process of "proofing" our dogs, or intentionally setting up scenarios where we think they might goof, in order to make our dogs more reliable in any given situation. During this proofing, we still remind them how fun and rewarding the commands are, but it becomes evident that even if it isn't on top of THEIR To-Do List, the do not get to do what THEY want until they do what WE want.

This is the stage most owners want to jump right into at the very beginning of training. We just want our dog to behave and stop embarrassing us as quickly as possible! So our tendency to dislike spending an entire phase on showing the dog how much fun being trained is and skip right to the "do it because you have to" phase is not surprising.

Unfortunately, not only does this hinder your dog's progress, it actually makes your work more difficult in the second phase of training, the Inevitability stage. The exercise I most often use to begin this second phase is called Recall with Distractions. In this exercise, we place a toy in between you and your dog and you must call your dog past that toy, using your leave it command if necessary.  If they do not leave the toy, you must go to them, get them to leave it and continue with the exercise. What I have found is that I can immediately tell during this exercise who has done their Phase 1 homework. 

Owners who did a great job of showing the dog how fun, easy and rewarding the command was had to do very little inevitability (going to the dog and getting them to leave it), some dogs were SO overjoyed to go to their owner they didn't even NOTICE the item! While other owners who skipped my phase 1 homework because they were waiting for the phase that would "really" help them had to prove the inevitability  MANY more times, which resulted in frustration and physical exhaustion from the owners. So the owners who put in more time to show the dog how great the command was actually had less work in the long run in getting their dog to perform the command reliably than owners who skipped right to this second phase.

PHASE 3
Why is it important to YOUR dog?

The final phase is for dogs who need just a little bit more meaning in order to do what you have asked them to do. I used to call this the aversive stage but that word has become synonymous with choke chains, prong collars, and shock collars.
 
In reality, "aversive" simply mean introducing something the dog dislikes. In other words, we will teach our dogs that there are consequences for not doing what is asked of them. Most of the time, simply  revoking freedom is a very successful consequence for behavior. One more Come When Called example, this one is of my own dog, "Tru". "Tru" is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi who is famous for having her own ideas about how things should go down. She was one of THE most difficult puppies I have ever had to teach a Come When Called. Phase 1 worked for awhile then her willingness to please faded.  Phase 2 provided me with another temporary boost but faded just as quickly as  a falling star. Finally, I decided I had to answer an important question "Why is it important to "Tru"? So I began a trial and error learning process with her. The more reliable she was on her Come When Called, the more freedom she got (more off-leash time). The flip side was that if she failed to come when I called her, the less freedom she was given (more on-leash time). Now, does she dislike her leash? Not necessarily but if I gave her the option between the two I know she would pick off-leash every time. So why is it important to her? Well, she would prefer being off-leash, and the only way to achieve this by responding reliably to my commands.

 Not every dog needs all 3 phases in order to be reliable at a command, this is determined by their personality. There are some dogs who can be taught that a certain behavior is fun and rewarding and they will perform that behavior easily until the day they die (these dogs are rare, but do exist!). There is another group of dogs that, as long as you teach them that it is fun and rewarding, oh AND inevitable, that is enough for them to willingly comply. Finally, there is another group of dogs that must be taken one step further, make it important to them. Incidentally, almost every dog I have ever owned falls into this third category (do I like a challenge? Why, yes I do!).  While some dogs may only need 1 or 2 of these 3 phases, the phases should ALWAYS be done in this order. You shouldn't ever use just one of these phases unless it is Phase 1. If you believe your dog ONLY needs Phase 2 or 3, you have either already done Phase 1 or you need to go back and do it even if you don’t think you need it.  No matter which category your dog fits in, it's training will need to be refreshed every so often to keep your commands solid. For instance, a dog who only needs phase 1 will still benefit from going back to LOTS of verbal praise and treats every once in awhile to keep the command fun and rewarding. Phase 2 dogs will need to be reminded every once in awhile of the same thing AND that their commands are still inevitable. Phase 3 dogs will need to be reminded every once in awhile that their commands are still fun and rewarding, inevitable, and important to them. However, if you keep up with the maintenance on your dog's training, these "reminder periods" will become fewer and farther between.

Which phases do you need to do with YOUR dog?

Usually when I sit down to write my blog, I try to bring to mind topics that I end up discussing with a lot of my clients because I want these entries to speak to as large an audience as possible. One aspect of my training program that I discuss quite often is the different phases of training. I have separated my training techniques into 3 phases:
1. Fun, Easy, Rewarding
2. Inevitable
 3. Why is it important to YOUR dog?

These phases are different than the levels of training classes I provide (such as rookie, intermediate, advanced). There are different commands learned in each level of classes, i.e. Rookie=Sit, Intermediate= Park it, etc. All 3 phases can be applied to just one command (i.e. sit), in order to make the command solid in varying situations. So what are these phases and what do they entail?  I am glad you asked!...

PHASE ONE
Look how fun, easy, and rewarding this training thing is!!!!

Most of my puppy or rookie curriculum focuses on this phase. Just as the name suggests, we want them to realize how fun and rewarding responding to our commands can be. Ever heard the famous motivational speaker line: "Help enough other people get what they want and you will end up getting what you want"? That's exactly what we want to teach our puppies! If they do what we ask, they will probably get something they want, whether that is a treat, a pat on the head, belly rub, game of fetch, or simply a "good dog!". The two most important factors in this phase is setting up your dog to be successful in the commands you are asking him to do and rewards, rewards, rewards!

In my group classes, on the week we start working on the Come When Called, I tell them their homework is that for the next week they have a 100% success rate in getting their dog to come to them. I almost always get several funny looks from my owners. This isn't surprising since many of my clients are in class BECAUSE their dog won't Come When Called. The question that follows is always this: HOW ON EARTH DO WE DO THAT?!
 
It's simple really, for the next week; do not call your dog when you know he isn't going to come. How many of have gone out into your yard, called your dog knowing they won't come, and then end up having to go catch them anyways? Did calling their name help? No, it just gave them a head start! Not only that, but every time we say a command and they do not perform the behavior they are learning that non-compliance is an option. So the first phase is all about setting up your environment so that you are successful in getting what you want from your dog. Not only so you are productive, but also so that your dog enjoys training! (No one likes doing something they aren't good at).
 
I have many owners who are reluctant to work on the Come When Called inside the house, they say, "but my dog comes to me in the house, he doesn't come when we are outside!". First of all, your goal isn't to get your dog to come to you, your job is to see how EXCITED you can get your dog to come to you. The more overjoyed they are to come to you inside the house, the more of that will spill over into the outside world. If you start with just enough excitement inside then you don’t have nearly enough "want to" outside.

Secondly, many owners overlook the importance of rewards in getting a behavior to be reliable. They feel that the treats should only be used until the dog knows the command. In reality, treats should be used until the behavior is a habit (BIG DIFFERENCE!). I may KNOW I should drink more water every day, but actually developing the HABIT of drinking more water every day will take some time.
 
Also, I encourage owners to use their dog's primary reinforcing reward (almost always food) until the behavior is as strong as we want it to be. You see, the treat is NOT just their reward but actually a reinforcer for the behavior. Imagine you are setting concrete and you are placing rebar (steel rods) into the concrete to make it stronger. Your dog's behaviors are the concrete and the reward is the rebar. While you are putting in the concrete, the more rebar you include, the stronger the concrete will be, even after it is set up and you are no longer adding rebar! In other words, science has proven that if you use a primary reinforcer (like food) to teach something, even after you change to a secondary reinforcer (like verbal praise) the dog will still feel the same way about the behavior as they did when getting the primary reinforcer! But only if you used the primary reinforcer long enough for them to build an association between the two.
 What are you waiting for?  Go get started showing your dog how fun training is!
Check out next week's blog entry to hear about Phases 2 & 3!