How to Keep Puppy Out of the Dishwasher - Training an Alternate Behavior

I can't tell you how many times my Picture Perfect Pets dog training students have asked me how to keep the dog out of the dishwasher while they are loading or unloading it, how to keep the dog out of the fridge while they are trying to get things from it themselves, how to keep dogs from jumping on them while they make dinner...and so on.

My answer, as ever, is use management when you don't have time to train your dog and use dog training to teach your dog an incompatible behavior over time--some busy work for your dog to do while you get real work done. If you repeat the same pattern every time your dog is in a certain situation, the pattern will just develop into a habit. All we have to do is prevent opportunities for your dog to learn the habit of climbing into the dishwasher and build the habit of lying down patiently nearby.

In this video clip, you'll see part of Tatsuya's dog training for our "Dishwasher Down." I have to admit that my title for this activity was inspired by Jen Shryock (creator of the Dogs & Storks program). She was the first person I had heard use the phrase, "Diaper Down," for keeping dogs on hold while human baby's diaper is being changed to prevent, well--to prevent he obvious! By the way, Dogs & Storks™ is the first national program that prepares families with dogs for life with baby!

Back to Dishwasher Down...What dog training work came before this video? Lots of practice with the basic down cue the way we teach the steps in our Level 1 dog training courses (Puppy Perfect and Doggy DoRight) at Picture Perfect Pets. We practice often in various locations and situations, including in the kitchen during a variety of daily activities. Multi-tasking is an invaluable skill when training a new dog!

Then, we began to practice down/wait (or other on-hold cues) with the distraction of the dishwasher being opened and shut, and dishes being added or removed. We gradually built up to longer sessions from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Tatsu's only lived here for 2 weeks, and is now 14 weeks old, so we haven't had a great deal of time to practice, and already, we've seen good progress. Oh, and might I mention that borzois are notoriously difficult to train?!) From Wikipedia: "The Borzoi ranks 75th out of 78 in Stanley Coren's The Intelligence of Dogs, being of the lowest breeds in degree of working/obedience intelligence. It took Borzois at least 80-100 repetitions to understand a new command and obeyed the first command less than 25% of the time." I would argue that the borzoi's training challenge isn't lack of intelligence, but lack of motivation. Convincing a borzoi that what you want happens to be what they want as well is the big challenge.

In the video clip above, I'm practicing Dishwasher Down during Tatsu's breakfast to accomplish several goals at once:

Tatsu is learning to eat more slowly--if given his whole meal at once, he swallows it down so quickly he makes himself sick. That's a bad, bad habit for dogs prone to bloat and gastric torsion!

Tatsu is learning to like it when I take his food dish away during his meals. This should help prevent him from developing a food-dish-guarding habit that some dogs are likely to develop without preventative training.

Tatsu is learning to stay in one place, out from under my clumsy feet, while I do dishes. This also prevents him from chasing the dishes and trying to help me clean up by licking the dishes.

Soon, we'll build up to fewer rewards during a session--eventually just one reward at the end (remember that rewards need not always be food), and then random rewards for Dishwasher Downs.

We can even make this long, potentially boring time easier for our dogs by also providing them fantastic chew toys during longer sessions. Click here to read my puzzle toys article for more ideas.

Here are some other situational practice suggestions for stay put and out of my way (a good "down" goes a long way--practice during role plays before trying to actually use the cue when you really need to get something done). Practice whilst:

• getting things our of the refridgerator


• cooking dinner


• feeding the baby


• changing the baby


• baby is swinging, using walker or playing with toys


• reading the newspaper


• working on the computer


• talking on the phone


• entertaining visitors around the coffee table


• talking to a friend you've met on a walk
  

Happy training!

Pet Harmony - Introducing Puppy to Resident Dog & Cat

Virtually everyone who congratulates me on the homecoming of young Tatsuya then asks, "How's Toffee taking it?"

Toffee is my 8-year-old borzoi and has been the love-of-my life since she was the size of our cat. Heeky Peeky is the orange cat Toffee found in a park as a puppy. Heeky was a tiny, frail, abanodoned kitten, and we took her home to make her last hours on earth comfortable--but she decided to stick around, and came home with us from Japan.

So, just a couple weeks ago, Tatsuya came into a home with an older dog and cat used to having the place to themselves. In the spirit of being proactive rather than waiting for problems to begin, I made sure to keep Tatsuya on leash around Toffee & Heeky, to prevent him from being able to continue pushing their buttons if they wanted to get away. I made sure to give them all the things they love (favorite treats, ear rubs and bum scritches) every time Tatsu was near. And I made sure to give them both individual attention without the baby around as well.

Toffee made the "I'm going to throw up," face for a few days. There were lots of heavy dog sighs as if to say, "Did you keep the receipt? Can you take it back?" Although she made her disapproval clear, she politely tolerated Tatsu's presence except when he tried to climb on the sofa with her. In a very appropriate display of older-dog-in-the-house status, she barked at Tatsu without touching him--a short and sharp message. Tatsu understood immediately and politely backed off. I love seeing natural canine social skills at work!

In less than a week, Toffee had decided Tatsu might be ok. She started trying to initiate play with him--but being 97 pounds to his 25 pounds, she ended up frightening him! Luckily, Tatsu is growing like a weed, and last night, Toffee and Tatsu both ran around in our yard and played with the Wheaten Terrier, Bally, from upstairs. Now, Toffee also allows Tatsu on her sofa as long as he obeys her limits.

Heeky (the cat), surprisingly, fell in love with Tatsu in no time. Within a couple days, they had learned to lie on the carpet head to head and taunt one another playfully. It helps that Tatsu is a real natural at adapting his play style to his playmate. I'm sure all the turkey Heeky got when Tatsu came near helped a great deal, too. I almost wonder if she visualizes a plump Thanksgiving turkey when she looks at Tatsu. :) His snout is a bit beak-like.

Remembering back to Toffee's puppy-hood around cats--that took quite a bit more work! She was cat crazy! Borzoi are sighthounds, after all, and naturally prone to wanting to give chase to other creatures. We used careful management to keep Toffee away from the cats when we weren't prepared to train, and we practiced "sit," "down," "stay," "watch me," "leave it," and "get your toy" a great deal when around kitties. If Toffee elected not to follow instructions around kitties, she got time out. The cats, of course, got to dine on their favorite goodies while Toffee worked. The result of all our efforts, you'll witness in the video clip above.

With the right dog training work as well as supervision and management, even dogs with an inclination to be frantic around felines can learn to co-exist in Pet Harmony.

Tatsu Learns "Come When Called" - Pup, Pup, Pup Method

Students of Picture Perfect Pets have sometimes told me the story of how they met one another out at a park one day while doing their homework for teaching their dogs "Come When Called" the Bette Yip way.

"We heard this other person saying 'pup, pup, pup, pup, pup' and asked if they attended dog training classes at Picture Perfect Pets."

In the clip below, Tatsu performs step three of what we've come to call the "Pup, Pup, Pup/Happy Sounds" method for teaching recalls (as opposed to the "DoggyTouch" method, for those of who've been in classes over the past year. We now teach both methods in our group dog training courses.)

As for young Tatsu's progress: with very basic distractions around, I'd give him an A- for this morning's work. Around the chaos of all dogs off leash at once during playtime, he gets a C+. That's not bad for a 14-week-old borzoi who's been home for about 2.5 weeks. There's much work to be done, but we're on our way!

Tatsu's Shoe Chew Experiment

Chewing shoes--that's a favorite experiment for virtually every puppy I've known. The trick is being so vigilant with supervision and management that you can be there to catch the first puppy-shoe-chew attempts to give well-timed feedback, and to notice the good dog every time a puppy is near a shoe-chew temptation, but resists and makes a better choice.

In this video clip, you'll see that I chose to allow Tatsu to play with his toy near the shoe pile so that I might have an opportunity to reinforce this lesson for him. This wasn't his first shoe-chew attempt, but he really hasn't tried again since I shot this video a few days ago. Still--I know the behavior of chewing only one's chew toys and nothing else will undergo much, much more testing before Tatsuya is behaviorally mature (that was at nearly three years old in Toffee's case!)

Note how I used "happy chatter" as a "keep going" signal and how my "AhAh" sound is short and sharp by contrast. In this clip, you will not hear an actual "click" which is our formal reward marker. "Good boy" is not a reward marker for us, but rather a part of our "happy chatter" routine. Tatsuya has learned the meaning of his no reward marker, "AhAh," in various other contexts prior to the moment captured here, and has been "clicked and rewarded" many times prior to this for simply chewing on his own toys.

To learn more of the "How To" of dog training, contact Bette Yip to learn about the various group and private dog training services available from Picture Perfect Pets in the Boston area.

Happy training!

Why practice every day?

Today I was so happy to see that yesterday's training with Tatsuya on loose leash walking and heel really stuck today (granted, he still gets distracted easily--but he is puppy AND borzoi, so he's doing very well overall with his dog training, considering!)

However, the "Down" I had been so proud of just a couple of days ago was a bit of a lackluster performance in our dog training class tonight. "Why," I wondered. Is it that a puppy brain can only handle so much new information at once? Then I thought back to the previous day's practice. We focused so much on dog training for "Let's Go," "Heel" and "sit at a distance" that we neglected any practice with our down cue--and tonight, it really showed!

Tomorrow's goal: to spend a little time on integrating practice with all known dog training cues into our daily routine, and to work hard at our attention cue which we have shamefully not practiced at all! That is the first cue I teach my dog training students, and I still haven't done sufficient work with Tatsuya after having him home for over a week! Tomorrow, we'll catch up.

Teething Troubles

Poor Tatsuya! Tonight I wondered why he was being much mouthier than usual, and trying to chew on the oddest of things including the wires of his crate, and part of my car! My first inclination was to wonder if my seemingly perfect puppy was starting to settle in a little too much--maybe he wasn't going to be so easy after all.

Then it dawned on me--Little One is teething! He seems to be looking for cold, hard items to chew on for relief. So, for a bit, he gets gum massages, frozen toys and stepped-up supervision and management to get us through this round of teething.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

May your day be filled with fun, laughter and lots of love!

And today, it's okay to hoard the chocolate, so long as it stays out of reach from our canine & feline friends. I can't imagine life without chocolate! Good thing I'm not a dog!

"Go Potty" Cue; Musings on Generalization

First, my apologies for what may seem like an odd choice for first test of video to blog upload--but it was a short clip that didn't require much editing, and as I find my way around my video equipment and editing software for the first time in nearly three years, this seemed like a task of the right magnitude. Be kind--my videography skills are way out of practice! And being trainer as well as videographer at once is going to take some getting the hang of!

Teaching Puppy to Eliminate on Cue - "Go Potty"

Since Tatsuya's very first potty break in my presence, I've been attaching the verbal cue, "Go Potty," to the behavior. Some dog trainers argue that each type of elimination should have its own cue since they are technically different behaviors. When Toffee was a puppy, her elimination cues were "Better Go Now" and "Zoom." (I'll let you guess which was which.) Over time, all eliminations became "Better Go Now." It just didn't seem to make enough of a difference to be worth the effort.

Back to "Go Potty": After just over a week together, Tatsuya seemed to be starting to get the cue. We were moving from the pre-step of attaching the word to the behavior to actually being able to use the word to prompt the behavior (keep in mind that it can take up to sixty repetions of signal-behavior-consequence in a typical dog's training program to get a behavior on cue.)
However, today we went on a fieldtrip to PetEdge in Woburn (check out their clearance room!) and to my dismay, our bathroom cue failed miserably. It was then that I realized we just hadn't yet repeated this particular dog training process very many times or places outside of our own yard. Sure enough, upon returning to familiar territory, "Go Potty" was back in order. So, note to self: don't babble at the puppy! When in a new situation, go back to attaching the verbal cue:

In this video clip, you'll see one repetition of this dog training process:
1. Just as puppy is about to begin elimination, say your cue clearly, just once.
2. As puppy wraps up the elimination, give a reward marker, and follow up with your reward (Tatsuya's reward was off camera...I had to stop shooting to dig out his goodie!)
Click here for more dog training tips by Bette Yip of Picture Perfect Pets in Arlington, MA.

Happy training!

A tired dog is a good dog!

What a (not-so-good) difference it made to skip school last night! On previous nights, Tatsuya accompanied me to classes and worked his little heart out until he just crashed--and then he slept peacefully through the night.

Last night, my cold finally knocked me off my feet, and since it was Shannon's night to teach, we all stayed home instead of going to puppy class--and I paid the price. Tatsuya was a little naughty during his evening "puppy crazy" time (9:00 pm) and tested limits more than usual (thankfully, his "naughty" is nothing compared to Toffee's at this age!). At 2:00 am, he woke me up for the first mid-night potty break in days.

My lesson learned? YES! As Brian Kilcommons says, a tired dog is a good dog! I'll be more careful with timing and duration of Tatsuya's activity level in future, regardless of my own energy level!

Good Owners, Great Dogs by Brian Kilcommons was one of my first dog training reads while I was in Japan with Toffee the Terror as a puppy. (People who see the sweet, mellow girl that Toffee is now can hardly believe the stories of her youth.) I learned a lot from that book, although it recommended more aversive dog training techniques than I'd employ today. Perhaps there's a revised edition that's more up to date with modern positive reinforcement based training techniques? He was still recommending use of the "Woodhouse" collar (a type of correction collar--a choke chain with large links) when Toffee was a pup. Such methods simply weren't a good match for Toffee! With Toffee, it was trial by fire--and without her, I'd have had no reason to become the dog trainer that I am.

These days, it's Patricia McConnell I turn to for dog training inspiration. Check out her book, The Other End of the Leash, to see why she's who I'd like to be when I grow up. :)

For more suggestions, visit my reading list in the resources section at http://en.betteyip.com/cgi-bin/c/recommendedreading.pl .

Puppy Proofing! Exhausting!

Tatsuya came home on very short notice. Last Monday, I got the message that there was a puppy for me after all, and on Wednesday, I was on the road to New Jersey to pick him up at Phaedra Borzoi (thank you Carol & Kevin!)

In between, I raced around puppy proofing our home. Here's a list of some of the toxic/dangerous things around a typical home that are dangerous for dogs. Household management for such items is an immediate must! Dog training as a supplement to teach puppy to keep out of places such items might be found is an additional long-term goal.

Here's a list of some of the most important items on the puppy proofing hit-list:

• chocolate
• grapes/raisins
• macadamia nuts
• nicotine
• xylitol (artificial sweetener, found in many sugar-free gums)
• medications, including pain relievers for humans such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen
• caffeine
• electrical cords
• household cleaners
• insecticides/pest control products
• any small or sharp objects puppy might swallow
• certain plants including my favorite lilies and daffodils, although inside my home, there are no plants--pets fare much better in my care! (see a list of plants that are dangerous to dogs at: http://www.purina.com/dogs/Safety/PoisonousPlants.aspx )

Our Newest Picture Perfect Pet

We have a new baby--baby borzoi, that is! Meet Tatsuya, meaning "become dragon and accomplish its wisdom and longevity." Ok, I know, that's a big name for a little guy, but I have every confidence that he'll grow into it. Tatsuya is a twelve week old borzoi puppy, and has already begun his intensive training for his work as my dog training assistance and demo dog for Picture Perfect Pets, allowing Toffee to retire to the life of luxury she has always deserved, or at least, to retire to a reduced, more leisurely schedule as she takes it easier on her aching knees and hips.

There's nothing like raising a puppy to refresh one's dog training skills. Yes, those 3 am and 6 am potty breaks for puppies really are on the agenda! (Though thankfully and amazingly, Tatsu slept through the whole night last night!) And yes, "out of sight is in trouble." But it gets easier each time you raise a new puppy, and Toffee's puppy-hood makes Tatsu's seem like a walk in the park--at least, thus far.
I can't wait for you all to meet our new addition!

Happy training!

Bette
Picture Perfect Pets
Dog Training & Pet Photography