by Grayson Schaffer | on March 15th, 2010 | in Features, The Wildrose Way, Training
by Grayson Schaffer | on February 18th, 2010 | in Features, The Wildrose Way, Training
Here, I’ll use Cooper to demonstrate the stepping stones to a remote sit. Stopping a dog on the whistle is as important for skiing as it is for retrieving. Stopping your dog is the first step toward handling him—sending him left, right, and back like a football receiver.
by Grayson Schaffer | on November 30th, 2009 | in Features, Training, Video Clips
What’s not to love about Ski Santa Fe? The same slopes we were hunting September we’re skiing in November. Cooper was too young to hunt this year, but he’s just the right age to get started on snow. We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about how to ski with your dog this winter. Everyone loves to do it, but few people do it safely. Of the Outside dogs that accompany us on morning hike-up laps, none have escaped a laceration either from a ski edge or a snowmobile. The reason it happens is simple: The owner has no control over the dog when new and exciting distractions are introduced. A few people have told me that I’m no fun for making my dogs heel. But that’s not quite right. The point is: Make sure your dog can heel and will come when called (even when skiers or snowmobiles are zipping by). Then when you release your dog to run and play, you can do so with the confidence that he’s not a danger to himself.
- Cooper gets his intro to snow
by Mike Stewart | on June 9th, 2009 | in Features, The Wildrose Way
Cooper ties out quietly while camping
Time for our young Cooper to learn the fundamentals of steadiness and stillness, patience and quietness. “Place” is a concept we teach early at Wildrose. This is where we teach a dog to tie out* quietly and stay calmly in a specific spot. These skills are the foundation for a dog that’s civil at home, on the trail, or in the field. Pups as young as three months can grasp the concept of place.
Place teaches dogs to remain still in a particular defined location—a dog box, a roll-up mat, or a platform. Grayson never fully understood this with Danger. He wanted to know when there was a time for the dog to be aimlessly roaming the house. Short answer: never. Place training is how we get the dog to want to stop roaming. Once the place habit is entrenched, pups will enjoy the comfort and security of a place just for them, the same way they fondly regard their crate. When the pup is in place, they may move about freely, sitting, lying about in any position as long as he doesn’t leave that mat.
Other reasons we take place training so seriously:
- It reduces potential territorial dominance problems
- It makes travel convenient
- Our dogs remain relaxed and quiet at fireside on the mat in camp
- In a kayak, canoe, or raft, the dog must remain calm for his safety and yours
- When hunting, our dogs must remain still and quiet, either in a blind or on a dog stand
How We Teach Place
- Get a mat—a dog bed, a dog mat, a piece of carpet, or a crate pad, something comfortable. We’ve been using these rolling mats from Mud River, lately.
- Introduce the mat. Have the puppy walk over the mat or bed. When your pup is on his mat, give the sit command and then a release command like “out” or “off.” Repeat this until he’s readily going onto the mat and sitting calmly and then releasing on cue. Now add the command, “load” or “place” for the linked behavior of going onto the mat and sitting. Encourage the pup to hop onto the “place” with a treat.
- Place the pup on the mat beside your chair. Now sit down by the student, lead in hand. Without a word, ignore the pup and begin to watch tv or read. If the pup is quiet a calm “good dog” is in order. Just don’t overexcite the pup and lose the tempo and control of the moment.
- If your pup decides to exit the mat, redirect the youngster back to the mat with the lead and your “place” command. As the pup begins to stay longer without fussing, reward him with a little treat. Treat him for breaking his own personal best record, but don’t get in the habit of paying him to stay. Some dogs will continue to work for the treat. Others will get frustrated or think the drill has ended. The idea here is to build a habit that’s independent of reward. The dog stays because it’s all he knows how to do. Soon, our student will relax, lie down and go to sleep. The process of place training has begun.
- As we progress, we teach our youngster to stay on the mat as we move away. In time, it will become easy to move completely out of sight without attention barking. Deke, the Ducks Unlimited mascot, was totally place trained at home by the time he was six months old. I can get up and move about the house, but he’s going to stay put unless I ask him to move.
Raising a puppy isn’t easy. A young dog will want to play and run and nip. Keeping yourself from giving into those behaviors isn’t easy. Everybody loves to play with a cute puppy. But if you can keep your dog calm and build focus early on, that temperment will last a lifetime.
*A word on tying out your dog: Tying out your dog can be very dangerous, so exercise the utmost caution when you do it. Don’t tie out your dog on a deck, where he can fall off and hang himself. Never tie out a young pup when other dogs are loose nearby unless you want your pup to become a canine tetherball. Never go beyond earshot when your dog is tied. Tying out quietly is an important skill for dogs, whether you’re leaving them outside a coffee shop, tying them away from the food in camp, or travelling cross-country with an eight-dog trailer the way we do. Tying is not a subsititute for a secure kennel or fenced yard. Tying your dog out as a regular means of confinement is inhumane. More on that, here: www.unchainyourdog.org
by Grayson Schaffer | on June 1st, 2009 | in Features, Training
What bike?
During the first weeks and months of a dog’s life, it’s critical to introduce him to as many potentially scary or overwhelming experiences as possible: boats, bikes, men, women, people in uniform, the vet. . . anything and everything. The rules are simple. Make the introductions gradual, and make them fun. With Danger, I plopped him down beside my bike at three-months, clipped in, and took off. Then I wondered why he wouldn’t heel nicely beside me. With Cooper, I’m taking the long view.
- Just walk him up to a bike that’s leaned up against a tree. No freak-out? Move to step 2.
- Put him on a chair by the bike and spin the wheels until he loses interest in them
- Walk with him on one side of me while pushing the bike on the other
- Walk with the bike between me and him
- Finally, get on and pedal slowly. Don’t go to this step until you have a reliable heel both on and off leash.
- Your dog should keep pace with you rather than the reverse. If you find yourself speeding up to get your dog to heel–i.e. racing away from him–you need to go back.
by Mike Stewart | on May 11th, 2009 | in The Wildrose Way
Cooper checks in. His eyes haven't fully developed, yet, but the intention is there
No matter what discipline—hunting, service, adventure—you’re training your dog for, he’ll require one very important behavior for success: focus.
Focus is a byproduct of patience, concentration, and biddability (the dog’s willingness to please). If a young dog lacks appropriate focus, he’s neither going to learn nor retain what you teach him. Eye contact is the benchmark of focus. I like to see the dog stare straight into my eyes for a few seconds, awaiting instruction. (This means you can’t train with sunglasses, handlers!)
If you hold the dog’s gaze, you’re a leader and your instructions will likely get the attention they require. Learning will take place. Own the eyes and you own the dog. No eye contact, on the other hand, is indicative of an independent nature, lack of concentration, or avoidance. Before you can go on to any other training, build focus.
I look for three levels of focus in training, each occurring at different stages. Here’s stage I. We’ll get to stages II and III in future posts:
With the young pup—three to five months old—I expect brief but direct eye contact. At this age, I’ll use a primary motivator like a treat, food at feeding time, or the youngster’s favorite bumper. (One of the reasons I withhold chew toys is because they lessen the value of the object as a reward if the pup can have access to them any old time. This way, we reinforce that all good things—bumpers included—come through me.) When your youngster offers eye contact, immediately reward the behavior with a verbal, “good,” and a quick treat. Once the pup understands how to sit patiently, set the pup off the ground on a bench. Hold the treat out to the side at arm’s length. Remain perfectly still and quiet. This must be a voluntary action on the part of the pup. When the pup glances at your eyes, reward him/her with a verbal, “good,” and the treat. The pup quickly learns the association: eye contact = verbal marker = reward. Gradually extend the duration of the eye contact required to earn the reward.
I’m very cautious about the use—or, rather the overuse—of treats for training retrievers. Treats often promote mouthing problems and later delivery difficulties. Remember Wildrose Law #4: Do not condition in a problem that must be trained out later. Limit the use of treats by moving to the bumpers, praise, and pets as rewards as soon as the dog is willing to offer behaviors for those other motivators.
Next month, I’ll share with you Focus Stages II and III. Focus is a must for handling retrievers, adventure dogs, and alert dogs. These dogs are biddable team players requiring an interdependent relationship with their pack leader. Eye contact is the first step.
by Grayson Schaffer | on April 28th, 2009 | in Features, Training
Cooper carrying his steady tab. Good dog!
Photographers already know this one. If you want to take a picture of wildlife doing something interesting, you’re going to have to wait around and snap the shutter at just the right moment. Capturing your pup’s behavior works the same way: Be ready when your pup does something good, mark the behavior with your bridge, and reward generously. Then wait to see if your pup offers the behavior again and re-reward. Mike uses this one to teach young pups to go to the bathroom on command, but it can be used for any behavior. Best of all, this exercise gives the pup a mind to offer different behaviors to see what brings a reward. A pup that offers behaviors is much easier to train than one that needs to be lured or forced.
Here’s how I started Cooper on sit
- I know that if I stand over his puppy pen long enough, he’ll stop standing on his hind legs howling and eventually drop his butt to the ground–maybe for just a second to lick himself before starting to howl again.
- At that instant of butt-hit-the-ground, I mark the behavior, praise him, give him a tiny nibble of liver, then offer a couple of pets.
- To mark behaviors at this early aquisition stage, I like the clicker because, unlike my voice, it’s sharp, quick, and never changes tone. Once the behavior is learned, I immediately switch to a verbal bridge “good,” which I can project into the field.
- The second time I stood over Cooper’s pen and waited, the sit came a little sooner and with a bit more deliberation. I repeat the mark/praise/treat/pet/routine. So there are actually three things going on here:
- I’m marking the behavior and teaching him that when his butt hits the ground, he’ll get a reward. For a smart dog, that realization that butt-hit-ground is like a treat lever is mana from heaven.
- I’m conditioning the bridge–first the clicker*–then the my voice as a significant sound that means, The reward is coming. Eventually that sound alone will become a reward.
- Cooper is learning through association that verbal praise accompanies good things like petting and liver snacks. If we’re going to end up with a dog that works, runs, and plays with us off lead and without an e-collar, this is where it all begins.
- You’re teaching him that crying and yelping doesn’t buy him anything, but that sitting calmly does.
- Once he’s consistently sitting when you stand over him, you can add the sit cue. Since you already know he’s going to sit.
- Now, when we add the slip lede at eight weeks or so, we’ve already got a dog that knows what he’s supposed to do. And if he ignores you, you’re adding pressure from the lede becomes a reminder. You may discover you don’t even need to add pressure.
Using Capturing to Teach Your Pup to Pee on Command
- This one is breathtakingly easy. Everytime you take your pup out of his crate after a nap and bring him outside, you know he’s going to pee almost immediately. So just add your cue, Git’er done, as soon as you put him down.
- Use this on walks and especially when you’re traveling. Out of the crate at a rest stop, Git’er Done, on your way.
*Mike and his Wildrose trainers don’t use clickers, but go straight to the verbal bridge. They’re also full-time pros with great timing and consistency. Whether you use a clicker on the way to a verbal bridge or just start with your voice isn’t as important as your being consistent and building the bridge as a long-term habit.
by Grayson Schaffer | on April 21st, 2009 | in Features
Cooper at six weeks. He's winking.
Here’s Cooper at six weeks to the day. I flew out to Mississippi to pick him up from Mike at Wildrose. He comes from Hamish and Carol. We’ll be following Cooper’s progress from potty training to his first ski, river, and hunting trips. Already, we’re working on the basics of pretraining: Housebreaking, recall, and capturing and rewarding desirable behaviors he exibits. When is it time to start training? You’re training your pup every time you interact with him, whether you mean to or not. Follow along and we’ll do our best not to lead you astray.
