Capturing Dog Behavior

May 15, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Capturing a Dog Behavior: That’s It!

A teacher uses basic teaching fundamentals for humans, dogs, cats, fish and snails so let’s discuss capturing a behavior. This is a powerful way to teach your dog a new behavior.

What is Capturing?

Think about using a camera. When taking a picture, you’re capturing a moment in time. When capturing dog behavior, it’s the same process, except you’re using a clicker to capture a moment in time. And then giving your dog a treat so that moment in time continues.

Imagine you and I standing in a room. Then, after a few minutes of chatting, I move a chair in the middle of the room and you moved toward it to sit. As your behind touched the chair, I clicked and gave you $100. What did you just learn? Ha, that it pays to sit in that chair, right? This is capturing.

Capturing works best for naturally occurring behaviors.

When encouraging participation during a business meeting, reward questions with small bits of chocolate or mints. At first, participants will giggle, but after 10-20 minutes, you’ll have an actively engaging meeting. For introverts, I reward with two pieces of candy. These folks are tough to engage.

If you find need to slow down participation, withhold rewards a bit and reward every third question. Capture and reward know-it-all attendees every third time because constant rewards will ensure their hand is always raised. At first, they’ll become a little perplexed, but they will learn to control their behavior and hand. 🙂

How to Capture Dog Behavior

When using a clicker to mark behaviors you like and then giving your dog a treat, you’re saying, “That’s what I want so keep doing it.”

Capturing is very powerful so be careful of what you capture. 🙂 When dogs bark at us, we look at them–you just captured that behavior. Your dog jumps up on you so you push them down. You just captured that behavior. That’s why, as dog trainers, we ask you to choose good behaviors to replace naughty ones. If your dog jumps up, wait for all four feet to touch the ground and click/treat. When your dog barks, click and treat when she’s quiet.

Naturally occurring examples are:

Sitting.
Lying down.
Calming down.
Loose leash walking.
Stretching.
Barking.
Not barking.
Picking up a paw.
Looking at you.
Whining.
Licking.
Standing.
Yawning.
Keeping four feet on the floor (not jumping up).

Capture Often

If you attend my group classes, you’ll hear this phrase often. The more you capture good behavior, the faster your dog will keep offering it. Even if you must click and treat 10 times in a row when your dog stops pulling on the leash, you’ve taught your dog that keeping the leash loose pays!

Check out these videos to watch capturing in action.

VIDEO: How to Teach a Dog to Sit

VIDEO: Teaching Your Dog to “Touch”

You really can’t give too many treats. Just make sure your dog has earned them for good behavior. 🙂

READ MORE: Shaping Dog Behavior

How to Train a Puppy to Give Items Back

February 4, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Teach a Puppy to Give

Puppy Trade Game

Train a Puppy to Give Items Back — Teach your puppy to trade the sock for a yummy treat. willeecole/Deposit Photos

Puppies were not born with nor read, the pet owner’s guide to polite manners so it’s important to teach them the trade game. Would you give up the $100 bill you found at the park? Probably not. 🙂

Trade Game

When puppies or dogs find something, they intend to keep it. Guarding resources is a natural instinct. The more you have, the more likely you’ll survive. Plus, puppies and dogs will pick up items, such as socks, to instigate play like chase. Oh, it’s tempting to chase a puppy with your sock. We panic and think, “Oh my god, they will swallow it!” and we continue chasing. Not fun huh?!

Instead, teach your puppy or dog how to trade instead. And say goodbye to crazy chases around the dining room table. 🙂

RELATED: Resource Guarding

How to Teach Your Dog to Give Items Back

Whenever your puppy or dog picks up a sock, shoe or a child’s toy, instead of chasing him, try:

Stop moving. Your puppy will probably stop moving too. He’s not sure what’s going on.
Walk to the refrigerator and select a yummy treat. These treats must be yummy. They should behoove your puppy to trade the smelly sock for something better.
Approach your puppy. If she runs away, stand still.
Say “trade” and show her the yummy treat. She probably smells it already, but thinks the treat is for you and not her.
Remain still and wait for your puppy to drop the sock. If she continues running with the sock, your treat needs to be yummier. She’s saying, “Nah, I would rather keep my stinky sock instead.”
As she drops the sock, say yes and toss the yummy treat in the opposite direction of the sock.
When she runs for the treat, pick up the sock.

Now, you’re not rewarding your dog for stealing socks. You’re rewarding her for giving it up.

VIDEO: Teach Your Dog the Trade Game

Taking Items From a Puppy’s Mouth?

On rare occasions, such as a puppy snatching up a cooked chicken bone or medication, I would remove it from her mouth. Now, as I explain to my puppy people, don’t make this a habit. If you do, your puppy will learn to swallow an item quickly, usually as you approach. She knows you’re going to take it away!

You may also like: Free Games for Dogs

Surviving the First Night With Your Puppy

January 25, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Your Puppy’s First Night Home

First Night With Your Puppy — Ah, you can survive your puppy’s first night home!

Take a deep breath. I have super simple tips for you, which really work!

Many dog enthusiasts provide “hard and fast” rules, which create frustrated pet parents. Following too many rules, especially during your puppy’s first night home, is like filling a 5-lb sack with 10 lbs of sugar. It’s too much and it causes confusion for both puppies and pet parents.

Dive into these mistake-proof tips, which make the first night home with your puppy a seamless experience while still teaching good manners. I promise the dog training gods will not pull your toes during the night if you allow your puppy to sleep in your bed, especially during the first night. (Wink!)

Shake off all that stress. Your goal is to make your puppy’s first night at home happy!

Prepare Before Your Puppy Arrives

Take the extra time and prepare. This will make it much easier when bringing your new puppy home.

Set up a crate in your bedroom

Place the crate right next to your side of the bed. Instead of a shiny new bed, add old cozy towels and blankets in your puppy’s crate. Save the new bed for later like when your puppy is 6-months-old or so or you’ll be purchasing lots of new and shiny beds until the teething process halts. It’s probably a good time to review (and print if needed) potty training tips too.

RELATED: Crate Training

Invest in a sound machine

Or, better yet, download classical music. Music and sound will prevent your puppy from becoming frightened around strange sounds while soothing her to sleep. Plus, turning on music becomes a cue to sleep, which is a blessing.

Prepare for a few sleepless nights

Plan on it. You’ll probably get little sleep so pick up your puppy on a Friday so you have plenty of time to catch up on sleep during the weekend.

If your puppy whines during the night, bring her outside to potty. Bring her back inside and put her back in her crate with a food stuffed toy. This will give her something else to do instead of whine and she’ll likely drift off to sleep. I’m not too concerned about whining meaning going outside right now. This is a tough time for puppies and you so keep it simple. There’s plenty of potty training time to come!

Tired Puppies Sleep Woohoo!

Once your puppy is home, she’s probably pretty tired already. Just in case, spend 30 minutes playing with her, introducing her to new family members and showing the array of her new toys. Provide free access to water until an hour before bedtime. Plus, this is usually a good time to feed her too. Bring her potty immediately after eating and drinking and again before bedtime.

You can do this. Don’t stress. Have fun — you have a new puppy! There’s plenty of time for training. 🙂

READ ALSO: Complete New Puppy Checklist

Capturing Dog Behavior

Capturing a Dog Behavior: That’s It!

What is Capturing?

How to Capture Dog Behavior