Chloe's summer training schedule - input wanted

[Ritz459]

This summer I am really going to be cracking down on Chloe's training. I put up with alot of her behaviors and just label them as "Chloe", but no more. I've also been lax with her in the past over minor issues by labeling them as "puppy behavior", but she is now old enough, IMO, to start acting like an adult dog. I want a well behaved, well socialized dog and by golly I'm going to get it.

So I was making a list this afternoon about all of the things I'm going to work with her on (its a lot ). I'd like some advice on what I should work on first and how I should go about doing it. I'm going to get over my hesitancy and start working with her using a clicker, so it will be a whole new experience for both her and I.

Here are the things I'm going to work with her on. I'll probably think of more, but these are going to be my main focus this summer. I'll put a * by the ones I have questions on, but if you'd like to comment on anything else feel free.

*Attention training
push button down on command
Sit/stay for 1 min 30secs (these times are just to give me a ballpark range)
Down/stay for 3 min 30secs
Heel on leash – normal speed
Heel on leash – slow speed
Heel on leash – fast speed
Stand for exam
Reliable come
"Drop it" on command - work on resource guarding problem
Bite inhibition during tug games
Sitting for petting – no jumping on ANYONE
Electric fence trained
*Able to have hair brushed
*Able to have teeth brushed
*More socialization
- On leash reactivity
- fearfulness of new objects
- anxiety in new places
- anxiety around strange looking people

Obedience commands:
I've trained both Blackie and Rose basic obedience commands without any problem. However, they are both willing to listen and learn (although Rose much less so). Chloe is very smart, but keeping her interested in training has proved to be a problem for me. That is why I think clicker training will work so well with her - she is smart enough to like the challenge and it will keep her engaged a bit more.
I normally use the lure and reward meathod when teaching commands. If I start using a clicker, how should I teach them diferently? Also, any tips or good book reccomendations for clicker training would be greatly welcomed.
And, sadly to say, I have never once taught a dog attention training. I tried with Blackie and Rose, but failed miserabley. They both keep their eye on me during training, but not the rivited stare that you see in the obedience ring. Having Chloe focus on me will help greatly with her socialization, but I don't know how to teach her.

Grooming and teeth brushing:
I've been neglecting to get Chloe used to having her coat brushed and as a result I am finding it difficult to brush her coat. (Imagine that.) What I've currently been doing is giving her treats with one hand while I brush her coat with the other. I was planning on fazing out the treats gradually while increasing the firmness of my brush strokes, but I didn't know if there was a better way to do it.
I'm also going to start brushing Chloe's teeth. what is the best way to get her used to that? She does like the toothpaste, so that is a plus. LOL

Socialization:
Living out in the country, Chloe hasn't gotten the socailization she's needed. She was born out in a barn, never left the farm for the first 9 weeks of her life, and then came out to live with us. Just us taking a walk probably has her see maybe a car, lots of barking dogs, and maybe a joggor. Lots of cows, trees, birds, rabbits, and bugs, however.
I totally botched her puppy hood and really only took her out into town for two months when she was in the Petsmart puppy kindergarten class. After that it was just little stuff here and there. Needless to say, she does do well in at Petsmart. Not scared of carts or anything.
As a result of my idiocy, I have a dog that spooks at the most random objects (trashbags, motorcycles, large cars, firehydrants, etc) and gets anxious in new settings. (What did I think was going to happen? )
The thing that tapped me on my shoulder and yelled in my ear was when I took her to school to pick up my younger sister from soccor practice and Chloe growled at a woman who was wearing a large black coat. The woman stopped, Chloe backed away, and then after cautiously taking a couple of steps forward realized that the woman was indeed a person and not a demon from hell, got all excited and just wanted loving.
Chloe has a very strong flight instinct and her first choice when meeting something she is scared of is to back away, not charge and attack. She is also very curious and after backing away will normally slowly circle forward to investigate.
I think she'll stop becoming anxious in new settings if she is just exposed to them more frequently (every couple of days instead of every couple of weeks) and if she associates good things with them (like people! lol). And even though she is fearful of new objects, again, I think she has a friendly enough disposition that after lots of happy exposure she'll be fine.

What I need is a socialization plan. I can't be burning precious gas every day to take her into town with me, but maybe two or three times a week wouldn't be bad. Any ideas?

And, just to be fair to Chloe, here are some things I'm going to work on this summer:

Learn more about canine body language to help read Chloe better
Use less leash corrections as a whole
Learn how to use a clicker (!)
Become more patient
Become more positive
Work on my variation of rewards and become more like a slot machine

[Rivsky]

Sounds like a great plan Ritz!

Originally Posted by Ritz459

Obedience commands:
I normally use the lure and reward meathod when teaching commands. If I start using a clicker, how should I teach them diferently?:

You don't need to do anything differently adding a clicker into the lure and reward method. You can lure the behaviour you want using food then click the response you want (eg butt on the floor if you were luring a sit). All the click does is mark the behaviour you are rewarding them for.

Originally Posted by Ritz459

And, sadly to say, I have never once taught a dog attention training. I tried with Blackie and Rose, but failed miserabley. They both keep their eye on me during training, but not the rivited stare that you see in the obedience ring.

I've recently amped up my training with River on this one so can let you know what seems to be working for us.

I've always had one obedience collar and lead for him but now I've taken the extra step of actually swapping between that collar and a different one for when I want his absolute undivided attention and when he is free to sniff around etc. So when we get to training and he's sniffing around to toilet etc he goes on one collar and lead and then when we're ready to work I put his other one on him. It is a pain in the butt sometimes but the attention I'm now getting from him is so much better and we've only been doing it for the last 3 weeks.

To start with you just ask them to watch with them sitting next to you (a great test is to hold a treat in your hand with your arm out and ask for eye contact on you and not the hand with the treat in it). Slowly build duration that you ask for this before clicking and rewarding.

Apart from that I don't ever remember specifically teaching River to watch during heelwork - I think it's something he just started doing while waiting for me to reward him and just made a point of only ever rewarding any heelwork when he had his focus solely on me.

Originally Posted by Ritz459

Grooming and teeth brushing:
I've been neglecting to get Chloe used to having her coat brushed and as a result I am finding it difficult to brush her coat. (Imagine that.) What I've currently been doing is giving her treats with one hand while I brush her coat with the other. I was planning on fazing out the treats gradually while increasing the firmness of my brush strokes, but I didn't know if there was a better way to do it.

That's pretty much the way I did it. Though I did start reducing the amount of rewards but increasing their size - so instead of rewarding for every brush stroke I would brush one side of him and then give him a bigger reward. Now he knows if he behaves himself he'll get something once I've finished brushing all of him.

Originally Posted by Ritz459

Socialization:
As a result of my idiocy, I have a dog that spooks at the most random objects (trashbags, motorcycles, large cars, firehydrants, etc) and gets anxious in new settings. (What did I think was going to happen? )
What I need is a socialization plan. I can't be burning precious gas every day to take her into town with me, but maybe two or three times a week wouldn't be bad. Any ideas?

If you could get hold of a copy of Control Unleashed I think this might help you with her reactivity in these situations, it's got some great exercises in it.

[dogs4life]

Are you interested in shaping at all? I've seen Hank improve tons by coupling shaping and desensitizing to gain attention with distractions. He also responds better in a "closed economy", must work for all calories, no meals.


Edit to Add -

Forgot to add, I second Rivsky's "Control Unleashed" recommendation, also there's "Feisty Fido" and a new one which is getting great reviews, "When Pigs Fly!: Training Success with Impossible Dogs".

[GSD]

you've got quite the list there, the good news is you can work on lots of those things at the same time.

Clicker training ( i use voice instead) is great. My older dog was switched over to that. Once they are conditioned to the "mark" you can teach about anything easily.

attention training with a clicker is sweet. when they make eye contact you "click" and reward. at first you don't have to say anything, sometimes you have to make a little noise just to get them to glance up, but after a few sucesses, they're constantly looking to you to get that 'click". then you just lengthen the distance of time and always vary it.. 1 second, 3 seconds 7 seconds, 2 seconds, 8 seconds, 1 second. You get the idea.

once they get that concept down, it will happen easier for the sit, down stays. you still go about it in the same way, changing the duration. You can do this all during play as well with a ball etc. I do all the time. It can help with brushing too.

The food way is good, that's what I do for clipping nails, but for brushing, i wear them out with play/training. then take a small break and brush. usually they're too tired to squirm much (when younger). Then when i'm done we play more. quick brushes at first, so standing still for brushing results in more play. But my dogs are very very play driven so wearing them out physically does not diminish the "greatness" of the reward in playing. Some dogs this might not work so well for, so you can wear them out and then break and a little treat, whatever works for your dog.

healing... I find that teaching "heel" as a position and not a motion exercise like a lot of people do makes the fast and slow easier. They learn that if you speed up, they have to stay in position to get rewarded, and if you slow down, they must maintain position. Teaching it as a position with the clicker is easy. first things first, condition that clicker so the click means something.

as you get further, and the sit becomes more reliable under distractions, sitting for pets and not jumping is easier. Remember though sometimes jumping is fun, make them sit and then let them jump on you for pets, they still don't have to on other people.

a good lesson that i learned from Koehler, i know, just the mere mention of his name will bring down the wrath of god from a lot of people, most of whom never took the time to actually read or hear what the man had to say, but this exercise is really good. I've seen dogs that didn't want to go near a human be doing good loose leash heeling in 5 minutes and happy around the person handling them.

pick three points that make a triangle in a big field, get a long 15' line and attach to the dog. start walking towards one point, nothing makes you deviate, unless the dog takes off in a certain direction, you go in the opposite quickly. (you have hold of the very end of the leash, nothing else, ever in this exercise). yes the dog will hit the end of the line, and may get tangled and may be unsure of what to do next, and they see you going away, they high tail it up to you.

when they get there, you stop calmly and when they look at you, you look back and smile. No treats were mentioned from Koehler, If i'm remembering correctly, but I see no reason why at that point of eye contact you couldn't click and treat there and stop for about 20 seconds, then go towards your point again. I am not kidding when I say i have seen dogs go from being afraid of their handler (for temperment reasons, not abuse reasons) to happy loose leash walking in 5 minutes.

With this exercise you've taught a lot of things. good things happen by you, bad things can happen if they aren't paying attention. They learn to pay attention to your movements even out of the corner of their eyes. They learn loose leash walking, they learn eye contact, they learn when the leash gets tight, unpleasant things can happen, but they aren't associated with you, in fact its the opposite, they equate you as being the good stuff. Its not an exercise that needs to be performed often with such a long leash, but can be done whenever with a short one once the dog is paying attention to you.

for socialization, just go where new things are, little bits at first, a park with not many people, see birds, fire hydrants, garbage cans, go up on picinic tables, bathrooms water fountains, then work up to places like a home depot store our walmart parking lot. Socialization just means getting your dog out and showing them the world. Sometimes food helps overcome fears or toys, get the book Rivsky suggested.

a body language book i got from the library was by Brenda Aloff, can't remember the name off hand though. Tons of pictures and illustrations, good for some background. But when it comes down to it, it takes time and practice to be able to read your dog. The more you play and train, the better you will become. Good luck

[dogs4life]

I had another idea...

For grooming time - can you make that a special Kong time or a special long lasting tempting treat. Maybe hold it in between your knees or someone else can hold it for you so she doesn't steal it and run off. That way she only gets the Kong stuffed with yummy bits while you're brushing or grooming her. Another option is to smear peanut butter very thin onto a surface and let her lick it off while you brush her, you can always take breaks and re-apply if she's speedy licker. The licking surface can be something simple like a large baking sheet.

For Hank, we tag team grooming sessions since he was traumatized and still has issues with nail trimming. One person treats while the other is grooming, works like a charm.

[Ritz459]

Thanks for the input.

I've been reccomended that Control Unleashed book by another person, so I think I am going to pick it up as soon as I can.

I already do voice "clicker" training to some extent, but I think that using a clicker with a unique noise will help reinforce her a bit better.

I took Chloe on a walk yesterday on her retractable leash and I threw in some commands every now and then just to see what she'd do. Her sit was wonderful, her leave it was good, we didn't try down, she'd be walking at the end of the leash (16') and I'd call her name and tell her to "C'mere" (while I turned, bent over, and made excited noises) and she'd come barreling towards me. That was nice, espeically when cars were going to go by I'd just call her and she'd come running. (Now if only she'd do that OFF leash. lol) She also offers eye contact while in a heel position quite frequently. If she's walking by my side she'll glance up at me every so often and look at my face. I made sure I praised her every time she did.

I also found a brush that she finally likes (a bristle brush). I brushed her just for a couple of seconds this morning before I walked out the door and I found that she doesn't really mind being brushed, but she does NOT like her back legs being brushed. And seeing as how her back legs are where I need to brush the most, because she has such poofy, tangly, long hair there, we're going to need to work on that. Chloe is a play machine and it is easier to handle her when she is tired (which is....never, unless it is past her bedtime), but I think for her growly snappy response from when I moved to her hind legs I'll need the food lures. But play sessions are a definite reward for a job well done, that is for sure.

I am interested in shaping when it comes to more "lax" ideas, like socializing. That is one of the reasons I want to start her off with clicker trianing. While she spooks easily, she is also very curious and will normally go and investigate and object that scared her previously. I want to be able to mark any hint of brave behavior from her when we walk by a scary trashbag.

you've got quite the list there, the good news is you can work on lots of those things at the same time.

Tell me about it, but I think most of them will be able to be joined together, like you said. I'm really not concerned about the obedeince command portion of it, but having her know them would make my life a lot easier. I know that after I did basic obedience in 4H with Blackie and Rose they were both easier to live with.

If we will be fostering a dog this fall, I really do want to step up Chloe's training as I want her under control and without most of her hangups when we get the dog, especially when I'll need to work with the dog we'll be fostering with her own hangups.