Teach Your Dog to Enjoy Body Handling

March 2, 2016 by Fanna Easter

Body Handling Tips

How to Teach a Dog Body Handling — damedeeso/iStock

Body handling is easily one of the most important behaviors to teach your puppy or adult dog. Dogs are not programmed to understand that humans looking into their ears, mouth and body is normal. Human handling frightens most dogs. Just like children, dogs need to be taught that body handling is rewarding.

Body Handling Goals

When touching or restraining your dog, you’re using the least amount of pressure possible. Basically, you’re not holding your dog’s head still. Rather, your dog is choosing to hold her head still while your hand rests on it. From another perspective, think about retraining zoo animals. There’s no way a human can restrain an elephant, but teaching an elephant to allow restraint is much easier than forcing him.

How to Teach Your Dog to Like Body Handling

You’ll need lots of super yummy treats, so don’t skimp here. Remember, dog training treats are your dog’s paycheck. You’ll also need some type of reward marker, so use a clicker or mark the behavior by saying “yes.”

Point and Click

In the beginning, click or say “yes,” as you’re reaching for your dog and then reward. Usually, when someone reaches toward his dog, this is a trigger that causes most dogs to shrink backwards away from pet owners. Start by pointing at your dog and, if she remains still, click and treat. Now, progress moving your pointed hand in small increments until you’re able to touch her side with your index finger. Once you’re able to touch her, click or say “yes” the moment your finger touches her. Then, draw your hand back and give her a treat.

Goal: Your dog remains still while you reach toward and touch her.

Touch Longer

Once your dog is comfortable with you reaching for her, meaning she will remain still and even walk toward you, it’s time to touch her longer. In the beginning, you quickly touched her and then immediately removed your hand away. Now, you’ll reach out and touch her, but hold the “touch” for a second. After five or six repetitions, end the practice session.

Goal: Reach out and touch your dog for 1-2 seconds.

Hand Touch

Now, you’ll reach out and touch your dog with your hand. As you place your open-palmed hand on your dog’s side, click or say “yes,” remove your hand, and give her a treat. After a few repetitions, end the practice session.

Goal: Reach out and touch your dog with your flat hand.

Restrain and Reward

Retraining means holding your hand against your dog, which prevents her from moving sideways. For some reason, we force our dogs to accept restraint, especially at the vet’s office or during nail trims. Trust me, it’s easier to teach a dog to enjoy restraint as a rewarding experience than force your dog to comply with it.

When teaching body restraint, move slowly and apply the least amount of pressure possible. Never force the issue. Soon, and with lots of practice, you can teach your dog to say “ah,” easily hold your dog’s leg for blood withdrawals, stand still while the vet examines her and so forth.

WATCH: Teach Your Dog to Enjoy Body Handling

It’s much easier to teach your dog to enjoy body handling than force her to comply–much easier.

How to Train Your Dog to Back Up

November 27, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Training Your Dog to Back Up

Teach Your Dog to Back Up — marinv/Deposit Photos

Training your dog to back up is not only useful in practical situations, but it can also be added to the list of tricks your dog can do. When I first taught my dogs this behavior, I used it for dog training purposes, such as boundary training, space crowding and safety situations. However, I quickly found out that people thought it was pretty neat, so now I add it to my routine of tricks!

Get Your Dog’s Attention

When teaching a new dog behavior, it’s always a good idea to begin in a low distraction area with a high value reward, as this will help keep your dog focused on the task at hand. Let’s say you’re in your living room: engage your dog by calling his name. Have your food reward in your hand, get your dog’s attention and reward.

Reward for Each Step Backwards

Now that your dog is interested, take another treat and hold it a little above your dog’s nose. Begin walking toward your dog. Once your dog takes one step backwards, give your marker word “good” followed by a treat. After your dog quickly learns taking one step backwards earns him the reward, start requiring two to three steps backwards before rewarding him again. Continue to add more steps until your dog is taking two steps backwards with each paw.

Add the Cue

You don’t want to use food every time you need your dog to back up, so let’s add a cue (word) to the behavior. The cue can be something as simple as “back up,” or you can become creative with it and use “reverse.” Whatever verbal cue you choose, be sure you stay consistent with your choice to prevent confusing your dog.

Once your dog is following your lure backwards 90 percent of the time, begin adding your cue while you’re luring him into the behavior. After you’ve practiced this about 20 times, begin asking for the behavior by cue without using a lure.

Fade the Reward

I like to have my hands smelling like the treat and using a hand signal–I call it an air cookie. This is kind of like you’re using a lure without a lure. Once your dog completes the behavior, give your conditioned reinforcer “good” and follow it with a high value treat. When your dog can back up on cue, you want to begin fading the food treat by only rewarding perfect performances with food and rewarding other performances with physical praise.

Generalizing the Behavior

We know your dog can back up in your living room, but this doesn’t mean he can perform the behavior as easily in a more distracted area. When you move to another area of your house, ask your dog to back up at an easier level. You can train your dog to back up using the food lure and hand cue to jog your dog’s memory of the behavior you’re asking for. Once the light bulb turns on, begin using this cue in your everyday life and when you want to impress your dog-loving friends!

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Teach Your Dog to Wear a Sweater

November 11, 2015 by Fanna Easter

How to Train Your Dog to Wear a Sweater

You’ve scoured the Internet looking for the perfect sweater for your dog and it finally arrives. Now is the real test. How does it look and will your dog wear it? After stuffing your dog into his new sweater, he refuses to walk forward. Yup, this happens a lot.

Most dogs will either stand still, pancake to the ground, or, worse, run and hide. Some dogs will growl while you’re trying to stuff them in the sweater. They’re not happy. Understand wearing clothes is totally new to your dog. If you ran around naked most of your life and then someone stuffed you into a tight turtleneck sweater, you would cringe and stiffen up too. Thankfully, we can teach dogs wearing sweaters is a good thing!

Fit is everything when it comes to dog sweaters. You can’t expect a dog to enjoy wearing a sweater if it impacts his movement.

Dog Sweater Means Treats

Take your time introducing the sweater to your dog, especially if you plan to purchase an extensive wardrobe for your pooch! Teaching your dog to enjoy putting on and wearing a sweater (or clothes) ensure proud prancing while wearing fabulous garments.

Putting It On

Before training your dog to wear a sweater, you’ll need several super yummy treats and your dog’s new sweater. Better yet, practice with an older sweater or a child’s shirt. This prevents stretching and stains.

Head First

Bunch up the fabric, so only the neck portion is visible. Hold the neck hole in front of your dog’s face and hold a treat on the opposite side. Basically, your dog will follow the treat through the neck hole. Once the sweater is around your dog’s neck, give him the treat. Now, stop there and take the sweater off your dog. Practice teaching your dog to push his head through the neck hole and reward every time.

Now the Body

After a couple of sessions, lure your dog’s head through the neck hole. Give your dog a treat as you pull the sweater over one leg at a time. Sometimes, it’s easier having a person hold a spoonful of peanut butter in front of your dog, so he can lick away while you’re maneuvering the sweater in place.

If your dog backs away when putting on the sweater, allow him to collect himself for a few minutes and decide if he’ll engage again. If he’s confused, go back to luring his head through the sweater neck hole and move slowly.

Wearing It Proudly

Once the sweater is on, have a party! Good things happen when wearing a sweater, so clap, speak in happy high-pitched tones and, of course, reward with lots of super yummy treats. Then, take the sweater off and end the party. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to put the sweater back on, right?

If your dog refuses to walk forward, sprinkle a few treats about a foot in front of your dog like a trail. This will surely get him moving. Keep sprinkling treats until he’s walked a few feet. Don’t forget to have a party while he’s wearing it. Once the sweater is off, the party stops. Keep practicing, and soon your dog will run toward his new sweater, happily stick his neck through the hole and walk around proudly!

If you take your time, your dog will love his sweater! Have a sweater party!

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Dog Trainer Confession: Puppy Playtime is Not For All Puppies

October 27, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Puppy Playtime Isn’t as Great as You Think It Is

Trust me, I’m quite aware I’m treading on the newest trend in the pet industry and totally understand many dog training experts feel puppies must be exposed to “safe” playtime during their younger months. I also understand the concept of puppy play and its positive outcomes, but it doesn’t always work out well. While it sounds lovely in theory, puppy playtime is not all sunshine and roses from a dog trainer’s perspective.

The Magical Unicorn of Proper Play Sessions

Most puppy playtime sessions happen before, during or after puppy manners class. There are some locations that offer additional puppy play sessions separate from class time, which focuses on socializing puppies for 30 minutes to an hour.

In concept, puppies play with other puppies their same age or younger than four months old under supervision. Some puppy play sessions are separated by size, and others are further divided by play style. Before engaging in puppy playtime, puppies are temperament tested to ensure they play well with others. Sounds perfect, right? This is not reality.

Safety is Impossible to Achieve Without Hurt Feelings

In a class of 8-10 puppies, there will be one or two that don’t play well with other puppies. These puppies just don’t want to be bothered with all the commotion or are simply terrified. Yes, in a perfect world, puppies should learn how to nicely disengage from playtime, but some puppies are relentless.

Personally, I don’t allow a puppy to be bullied by other dogs. It’s not fair and will teach terrible behaviors in the long run. Explaining to dog owners their puppy is no longer allowed to play with puppies is gut-wrenching. Of course, we do what’s best for the puppy at the time, but understand that dog owners have a hard time digesting this message. We would be a fool to chastise a dog owner, especially one who’s trying to do the right thing.

Somehow, society has told dog owners that if your puppy doesn’t want to play with other puppies, then something is wrong. This is not true. Forcing puppies to play together because someone says it’s good for them doesn’t make sense. Dogs and puppies are individuals, and each puppy should have his own training plan according to his personality. Assuming all puppies will get along is like assuming all humans will get along in a crowded freeway. That’s just not going to happen. Just because someone says it, it doesn’t mean we must follow it. I refuse to simply “just drink the Kool-Aid.”

Now, I’m not saying puppy playtime is evil and will hurt puppies, and it should be bashed so the feelings of pet owners aren’t hurt. I live in the real world, and as much as I hope for perfect puppy play, I don’t really see it often. I believe puppies should be able to choose to play. It should never be forced.

Research and question everything. Do what’s right for your puppy or dog, trust your gut feeling, and when in doubt stop the behavior.

Playtime Won’t Cure Aggression or Fear

Nope, it won’t. Every once in awhile, an experienced dog trainer may pair a frightened puppy with a super sweet, gentle puppy. If done correctly, the scared puppy will learn the ropes slowly with the gentle puppy encouraging him along the way. Now, this is not common. In the real world, puppies are expected to get along. If they don’t, dog owners are somehow convinced their puppy needs to find the right puppy to “teach their puppy a lesson,” which never ends well. Continuing to place a fearful puppy in a play session will only terrify him further just like allowing a rude puppy to continue bullying other puppies or terrorize fearful puppies will only teach him to become dog aggressive.

Searching for that one puppy that will “teach your puppy a lesson” is like playing Russian roulette. Most scared or pushy puppies learn aggression works, and it works quickly.

If Your Puppy Doesn’t Play, It’s Okay!

Sometimes, I wish for the old days of when puppies attended puppy class on leash and learned polite behaviors instead of playing. Back in the day, puppies learned their humans bring wonderful things, polite manners and ways to easily ignore distractions around them. Puppies learned to walk nicely on leash and ignore bouncing puppies next to them in exchange for food rewards.

I do feel the pendulum has swung too far. We now live in a society of dogs obsessed with greeting everyone. They’ll pull toward, stare, whine, lunge or drag their pet owners toward dogs, children and people. Being on the other side is scary; even I’m not comfortable watching a dog yank his pet owners toward me.

Remember, socializing puppies doesn’t mean they must play with other puppies. If your dog isn’t comfortable, listen to him.

Want to Hear a Dog Trainer’s True Confession?

We don’t allow our puppies to play during playtime. Instead, we teach puppies to focus on us when hearing their name. We teach them to sit still during greetings, come when called and, of course, enjoy free time during manners class where we play with them and not other puppies. We certainly don’t bring our dogs to dog parks, but that’s another rant. 🙂

Be your puppy’s voice. If he’s not enjoying playtime, pick him up and end the session. You owe no one an explanation; it’s your puppy.

How to Deal With Fear Aggression in Dogs

October 15, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Dealing With Dog Fear Aggression

Fear Aggression in Dogs — wujekspeed/Deposit Photos

Is your dog showing signs of fear and aggressive behavior at the same time? This behavior can be categorized as fear aggression. Fear is not uncommon in dogs and most aggressive behaviors derive from it. This behavior could be caused by a multitude of things, such as genetics, possible mistreatment or lack of socialization during the impressionable stages of the dog’s life (fear imprint period). Sometimes you may be dealing with a combination of these things, depending on the dog and situation.

What Causes Your Dog’s Fear?

First, you want to identify the source of your dog’s fear whether it’s strangers, other dogs or specific objects. Once you can identify the cause of your dog’s fear, you can work on the behavioral threshold (the distance where the dog is not reacting). This will help your dog learn to overcome and deal with the cause of his fear.

As someone who has owned a dog that suffers from fear aggression, I recommend working with a professional dog trainer who is experienced with this type of behavior. Dealing with fear aggression can be complex and a little overwhelming for a dog owner to deal with, so coupling up with a dog trainer will help your dog tremendously.

What You Can Expect and When

You’ll see your dog’s fear aggressive behavior become more intense around six months of age or at the beginning of the dog’s adolescence. The sooner you begin modifying this behavior, the better. As stated above, you might see your dog show signs of fear toward strangers, other animals and even inanimate objects.

Flight or Fight Response

Some dogs will show the flight response (running away) to the things they’re fearful of. This is generally categorized as being fearful. On the other hand, you might have a dog that shows the fight response (trying to move toward the object), which is considered fear aggression. The dog that shows the fight response is trying to scare the thing she is fearful of away.

Your Dog’s Body Posture

A dog suffering from fear aggression may bark, growl, show teeth, lunge and hug the ground within seconds, or have his hackles raised from the tail all the way to the shoulder blades trying to appear bigger than he is. His body posture may make him come off as indecisive. One minute he’s lunging and growling and the next he’s cowering and running behind you.

RELATED: Dog Aggression

How to Train a Dog With Fear Aggression

First and foremost I want to state that using any correction on a fearful dog can be detrimental to dog training. This will only cause a bigger negative association to what the dog is fearful to. The dog is scared. You can’t tell him to stop being scared. Building a positive association and teaching redirection with the use of positive reinforcement techniques will be ideal in a situation like this.

Select a High Value Reward

Begin by finding the highest value reward for your dog, such as steak, chicken or liver. A head collar is also a great tool to use in this training program, as it gives you much more control. Our goal is to have the dog become aware of the triggers and not react to them.

Treat Your Dog Around Triggers

As soon as your dog sees the trigger, feed your dog a treat one after another. Do not give the dog a chance to redirect onto the stimulus. While the dog is focusing on you and the reward, start moving the dog away from the stimulus where you know he won’t act aggressively. You will begin doing this for several weeks in small increments.

Move Closer

Once your dog is successful at seven feet from the stimulus, begin moving closer. For the next couple of weeks, work with your dog at a distance of five feet. As your dog’s confidence builds, then work with him at a closer distance.

Involve Strangers

When your dog is comfortable around strangers, start using them in your dog training. A great way to begin is to have strangers toss high value food rewards near your dog, as they walk by. Do not have strangers approach quickly or look at your dog–have them just toss a treat and move on.

If your dog doesn’t react to this, then you know you’re making great progress and can move forward. If your dog does show reaction to the stranger, take a couple of steps back and continue to build her behavioral threshold without additional stimulation from strangers.

Take It Slow

Remember to take these exercises very slowly. By going at a slower pace, you’ll be much more successful. It’s normal to want to push a little more when you see progress, but I wouldn’t recommend doing this, as you can overwhelm the dog and jeopardize your training.

I know this can be a frustrating situation, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. My Boxer Chanel began showing signs of fear aggression at five to six months old, which escalated quickly. She is now seven years old and lives with cats, a three-year-old child and another Boxer. There was a lot of training and emotions involved over the years, but I wouldn’t change it. She is my success story!

Sources:
www.iaabc.org
www.apdt.com
www.aspca.org

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