SIX LESSON SUPPORTIVE MATERIALS
Dog Language and Calming Signals
It’s time to continue your journey in understanding dog calming signals. For this week’s homework, please read pages 17 – 26 in “On Talking Terms with Dogs” by Turid Rugaas. In this section, you’ll learn six more calming signals commonly used by dogs to communicate with us or with other dogs.
- Freezing
- Walking Slowly Using Slow Movements
- Play Bow
- Sitting
- Lying Down
- Yawning
Duration of Sit/Lie Down (Building a “Stay” Behavior)
It’s not important which behavior you choose for building a stay behavior — although most dogs desire to lie down for the stay. Sometimes, as the stay behavior grows in length, a dog will go from a sit to a lie down. This is their choice and is fine with us. We just want them to be comfortable enough to stay for a good length of time!
You’ll be shaping this behavior. In other words, you’ll start at a level at which your dog can succeed, and take small steps to increase the stay behavior. Here are the steps:
- Ask for a lie down.
- Wait and see if your dog can stay still for a second.
- If so, click (mark the second of staying) and toss a treat so your dog has to get up.
- If not, do not click/reward but instead, cue a lie down again. Then, click after a 1/2 second and toss the treat as a reward. In this case, your dog has a 1/2 second lie down.
- For both cases, repeat the level they’re at at least 3 times. So, repeat steps 1,2, and 3 for the 1 second lie down for 3x. Repeat steps 1.2. and 4 for the 1/2 second lie down at least 3x.
- If they’re ready for more, increase the duration by 1 second. So, cue a lie down and wait 2 seconds (or 1.5 seconds) before clicking and tossing a treat. Repeat this step 3x.
- Now, take a break and play with your dog!
- **Continue, but only increase the duration by 1 second for each step until you reach 5 seconds. The best trainers use the smallest steps – this will lead to decreased frustration and increased confidence with your dog (and a better bond!).**
Recommendation: For this week, see if you can reach a 10 second stay (no cue yet, just shape it with your marker signal and rewards). Next week, we’ll start to add distance and distractions to the behavior!
For some good videos on this topic, scroll to the end of this article by Helix Fairweather – an amazing trainer out of Washington state.
https://www.clickertraining.com/node/3842
You can also read about why she switched to this way of teaching a stay – and more advanced work to increase the “drive” of the dog when performing a stay.
Mine / Take It
Up until now, we’ve been careful to start with no food in our hand and then only reach for the food after the dog hears the click/marker signal.
This behavior is the only one where we’re breaking this rule. We’re using food in the hand as a distraction so we can start to develop impulse control.
Steps:
- Reach for a treat while your dog is watching you. Keep your hand closed around the treat (in a fist position) and hold the treat even with your eyes above your shoulder. In other words, your fist with the treat should be to the right or left of your ears (depending upon which hand you used).
- If your dog tries to get the treat away from you, give a head turn in order to ask him/her to calm down and wait for your dog to try something else. If your dog looks towards you or even backs away, click and deliver treat.
- Start clicking / marking for eye contact (or attention towards your face as direct eye contact is difficult for some dogs) only once your dog is understand the concept of leaving the treat alone.
- You can gradually move your fist further away from your ears. This will make it more difficult for your dog – as she has to look further from the treat to get you to click/treat her. So, take it slowly!
- Repeat up to 5 times then take a break by doing an end of session activity (play with toys, a treat search….) or go on to a new behavior.
Tips:
- To help dogs who are quite excited about the treat in your fist, do not give this treat as a reward. Instead, after you click, reach for another treat from your treat pouch as the reward. You can eventually give the treat in your fist as the reward, but only when your dog understands the game.
- Deliver all treats under your dog’s nose after you click/mark. This will help your dog realize the treats will come to him – so he doesn’t need to stretch forward to get them.
Body Handling
This exercise teaches dogs to stay still and accept someone reaching towards them. The person could just want to pet the dog, or they might want to groom, harness, leash, provide medical care, etc. It’s so important to make sure your dog enjoys these tactile interactions with you!
We recommend first preparing with the Mine/Take It Exercise.
Steps:
- With your dog in a relaxed position (sit or lie down), start to reach towards your dog.
- Click to mark your dog staying still. If your dog reaches towards your hand, licks his lips, or give you a head turn (calming signal), you’ve reached to far or too fast. Slow down to see how far you can reach while your dog is still relaxed and click/mark that moment.
- As soon as you click/mark, withdraw your hand and deliver a treat to your dog.
- Repeat this exercise up to 5 times. End with a fun game of tug, fetch, or even treat searches!
Tips:
- Move very slowly at first, until the dog understands their job is to stay still and do nothing while you move.
- If the dog moves towards your hand, licks her lips, or turns her head away, immediately withdraw your hand and reset (no click or treat) – making a mental note to move slower and not advance as far the next time you try.
- Of course, if there is any chance your dog has reacted negatively to this in the past, it’s best to practice with Mountain Hooves & Paws trainers first and even possibly train for wearing a muzzle.
Speaking of muzzles, here is a video of a dog being trained to accept a muzzle approaching him. He’s already at the point where he accepts the muzzle and is even starting to put his nose in it! Gene is helping him now accept being touched with two hand in the area where the strap will be attached.