Use these as a topic to talk about during FB live posts
If your dog is LACKING in EFFORT, take some time and check
the way you spend time with your dog.
Are you adding to behavioral or training problems?
• Do you let your dog bolt out of doors?
• Pull on the leash?
• Your dog fails to respond quickly to first commands?
• Leave you to go say hi, or sniff without permission?
• Steal food from your tables or counter tops?
How is the rapport between you and your dog?
• Does your dog LOVE to play with you?
• Does your dog accept all types of reward or play?
• Is your dog always ready to train and show?
Does your dog give you 100% effort when training?
• When your dog is incorrect, does he continue to give effort?
• When doing a skill does your dog pay 100% attention to you and stay engaged?
Will your dog engage with you regardless of the distractions?
• Will your dog play or engage with you at shows?
• New locations?
• While other dogs are playing, training, etc.?
Now is the time to analyze if you have any areas that can use improvement.
• Stop and think, then write a list of any problem behaviors.
• Post your list on the Facebook group along with ideas and ways to improve issues.
How much to train …..
How Much Should You Train?
Whether you have a young puppy or an older dog, it’s important to come up with a training plan that you can stick to. Occasionally training your pooch whenever you remember isn’t going to hurt anything BUT in order for your dog to succeed, training should be done regularly.
This leads to a bigger question. How often should you be training your dog? Some trainers say multiple times a day while others swear by two or three sessions a week. How do you know which is best?
Starting to Train
When getting a puppy or dog, he needs to learn how to “learn”. That is, his brain needs to adapt to training and learning. Learning is not something that a dog will take to automatically. As you build on foundations and FUN, your dog will enjoy learning.
Dogs are not born with focus and attention. Some are born geniuses while others take time to mature. Regardless of the dog you have, it’s up to you to build the DESIRE for training.
How do you do this? Start with short yet frequent training sessions. One (1) to Five (5) minutes is a great goal. What you teach isn’t as important as how you teach and interact with your dog. Teach your dog to LOVE focusing on you through games of tug, etc. Get him into the HABIT of enjoying how to learn.
Daily or Weekly Training
Once your dog has gotten into the HABIT and has DESIRE in training, how often should you work with your dog?
There are a bunch of opinions out there on this subject. Honestly, I have always felt that doing shorter training sessions once a day is great. HAHA. I have been known to sneak in a second short training session (1-5 minutes) if we are working through a problem.
Many times, the length of a session will depend on the dog I am training. Younger dogs usually do not have the brain stamina for long sessions, while an older dog that has tons of desire to work might not need a longer session.
Occasionally, the time I have is what I train. That is, I have 3 dogs all at different levels of training and a general plan for each. If I train each dog for 5 minutes, that is 15 minutes give or take. BUT having said this I rarely train any dog for more than 10-15 minutes in a session.
Can you train too much?
YES, I feel too much training is detrimental to a dog’s ability to learn and often leads to what many call burn-out. This is when a dog starts slowing down, seems uninterested, or just isn’t as “sparkly” as before when training or showing.
As mentioned, when first starting to train a dog, keep sessions short and sweet. Build the DESIRE and FUN in learning before adding more sessions or additional time to training. Keep in mind the dog you have to train. Ideally, always end each session before your dog starts to lose interest, rather than after.
Giving Your Dog Breaks
Learning is mentally demanding for a dog. I am a firm believer in “brain breaks”. This can be a break and play in a training session, or even 1-2 days off. These breaks prevent my dog from feeling stressed out and will take training pressure off my dog. Take the “off” time to go for a walk or run or a hike. Spend time relaxing and having fun with your dog.
Training 24/7
While structured training sessions are important, don’t miss out on all the everyday training opportunities. Take advantage of training around mealtimes, going on a walk, leaving out of doors, etc. Add in commands or skills your dog isn’t expecting. Keep your dog guessing and listening to what you say. This way, you’re using spare moments in your day to get in extra training.
Final Thoughts
While a training routine can be extremely helpful, don’t forget that your dog will learn at his own pace. It’s important to keep this in mind while you’re working with your dog and planning his training. Make training notes of what works and what doesn’t work in your training. Pre-plan brain breaks and time off so you can both relax and have fun. Take advantage of everyday life moments to get in a extra training here and there. Think more about building DESIRE and FUN into training. Just enjoy the training journey with your dog.
[Do you want to be successful when showing?
ESTABLISH GOALS!
Goal setting is a powerful method for achievement,
as it provides a way to view objectives and changes.
One of the first items on your agenda will be to set goals for you and your dog. The old adage, “there are only so many hours in a day” holds true when you are making short and long term goals.
You will have to decide exactly how much time and effort you are willing to devote to training. The results of your efforts and time spent will be reflected in your dog’s ability to learn and execute skills consistently.
Goal setting is a powerful method for achievement, as it provides a way to view objectives and changes. Setting goals focuses attention on the important aspects of the mission. The key to setting effective goals, is to create objective goals that can be measured and help give you direction.
Consider these statistics about goals & accountability from the “American Society of Training and Development”. The probability of achieving a goal is….
10% when you hear an idea
40% when you decide you will do it
50% when you plan how you will do it
65% when you commit to someone else you will do it
95% when you have an accountability appointment with the person you’ve committed to
The following will help you set YOUR goals:
Ask yourself what you want to work toward and achieve. Goals need to be in your control, challenging yet realistic and positive. Positive goals direct what to do rather than what not to do!
Effective goals are very specific. The clearer the objective, the easier a goal is to imagine and obtain.
Use short-term goals to help reach long-term goals. Short-term goals can provide more motivation since they are more readily achievable and make great stepping stones.
Effective goals are limited in number and importance to you. Setting a limited number of goals requires that you decide what is the most useful for your continued development. Establishing a few, carefully selected goals, also allows you to keep accurate records without becoming overwhelmed.
Set specific Time Lines. Target dates have a tendency to remove lighthearted ideas and clarify what goals are realistic and which are not.
Create action steps. These steps are going to help you achieve your goal, and will define the actions you need to take to reach your goals. The number of action steps depends on the goals you set.
Write down visual cues or your goals, and post them in places where you will see them throughout the day. Place a sticky note on the fridge, or your bathroom mirror, or an index card in your training bag, or in your car. Visual cues will increase the likelihood you will achieve your goal.
Track your progress. Use a notebook to write down and review your progress. Video your training sessions so you can go back and SEE improvements! This will help you stay motivated and repeatedly remind you of where you were and how far you have come.
When carefully thought out and written, goals give direction and tell us what we need to do in order to accomplish our dreams. Establishing goals also helps obtain information and ways for how to achieve the goals.
Now is the time to – list your goals for Engagement/Focus
When making your GOALS:
• Set goals that motivate you. Your goals need to mean something to you.
• Put Goals in Writing. Just make sure you write them down!
• While you set your goals keep in mind that they can be adjusted as needed.
• Make an action plan. A plan can help you focus on the steps it’ll take to reach your goal.
• Stick to it!
Marker word/phrase
becomes significant to your dog when you pair it with something
that your dog enjoys such as food or play.
Use of Reward Markers
I teach my dogs a “REWARD MARK” so that they know they are doing something correctly. A “REWARD MARK” is a verbal word/phrase to “mark” or “capture” a desired behavior. Words such as “good”, “super”, “yes,” etc. work well. Make sure that your “REWARD MARK” word or phrase is not something that you use often in normal conversation.
Initially, the “Reward Mark” is a meaningless word or phrase. However, that word/phrase becomes significant to your dog when you pair it with something that your dog enjoys such as food or play.
A “REWARD MARK” serves two purposes.
First, when your dog hears it, your dog knows that he has made a correct choice and that a reward is forthcoming.
Second, a well-timed “REWARD MARK” enhances your training, gives valuable information, and they tell your dog exactly when he is correct and offers the behavior you are requesting.
Reward Markers, both positive and negative, do not mean the dog is bad. Instead, positive means you are adding something, and negative means you are taking/withholding something. When training, I use a number of markers and cues to give my dog information. These cues communicate when I am pleased with my dog’s effort.
POSITIVE MARKERS: These are verbal cues that I use to express my pleasure, and to reconnect and engage with my dog when we train or show. I spend a lot of time building a history of reinforcement on these words. After all, that is what will make those words rewarding when used in the show ring!
Words with special meaning. These are words and actions I can use later when showing.
• I use words such as “yes”, “boom”, or “awesome” to mark good attempts and efforts from my dog.
• When teaching, I pair these words with loads of treats or a great game of tug.
• While training, I use these words to reward my dog’s efforts. Also, I continue to randomly pair these words with loads of treats or tug.
• In the ring, I use these words to reward and mark effort or correctness. Hahaha. Solo, my golden retriever, was so conditioned with these words, he would often drool when we were in the ring and I used a positive marker. Now that is a conditioned response!
• Take your time and BUILD the VALUE to your words.
Applause can be rewarding! Yes, this is a great one.
• Pair rewards your dog loves with applause. YES, clapping your hands.
• Easy, my border collie, LOVED applause. Hahaha. He often puffed up and became even more animated as people clapped for dogs in other rings.
• Super fun to watch. :>)
Smiling at your dog. A smile can go a long way, as long as you really mean it! A fake smile is lying to your dog and he will pick up on it quickly.
• When you smile, feel the love and warmth you have for your dog.
• Start to teach this with verbal comments that will bring a smile to your face. “You’re AWESOME.” “What a great boy you are.”
• Pair the smile, verbal comments with a reward your dog loves.
• Later, when using it in the ring, think in your mind “geez, you are wonderful” or “wow, what an awesome dog you are.” Don’t say it just think it. I have used this in the ring when my dog would do something WONDERFUL and you could see my dog puff up with pride.
When using a positive marker, I use one or a combination to reward my dogs. Laughter is often added to. Whatever you use, make it FUN and add loads of energy in the rewarding. Take your time and work on these MARKERS in every training session. The more fun your dog is having, the more excited he will be when the word or action is used! Practice makes perfect!
Video Notes: Sly and I are first in this video. As you can see, Sly LOVES the markers that I use. He loves applause and smiles too. Sly is used to words, applause, and smiles, as I use them all the time during training and showing.
Riker is next in the video. He likes to bark, especially when he gets excited. I want to be able to use all my markers when showing, so he is learning that being “quiet” is a rule when I use markers. A simple “quite” or “shhhhh” command is used and the marker stops. When he is quiet, the marker training begins again.
Karrde is last in this video. He is still learning about positive markers, but you can see, he already loves the use of reward markers.
Video Notes: What fun! This video Sly, Riker, Karrde, and I show various ways I use verbal and physical markers in training that I can later use while in the ring.
Sly and I started out the video training markers that we can use when showing. We work on the “continue on a command” concept. I.e. when I give a heel command, Sly is not given another command. Rather, he is expected to move when I move. While heeling, Sly forges a bit. My response is a freeze of motion, a verbal marker, and a leash pop. During our session, I expect 100% focus when in or out of the ring set up. He loves the extra training challenges and receives loads of rewards for all his effort.
Riker is next in the video, and like Sly, Riker is new to a continuation of a command. Shame on me! When heeling, and he doesn’t move, I pull on the leash, and laugh at him. Gradually, he catches on and begins moving with me without an extra “heel” command. I use verbal praise to let him know when he is correct. At marker 5.04, Riker hit the gate with his butt. I laughed and acted like it was a great thing to do.
Next, outside for some contact training. Karrde is first on the video. He is still learning to do the bottom behavior of the dog walk, a drop with his body on the plank. When he does a good job, he is rewarded with either treats or a ball. After two bad attempts, I “fire” him and send him back to his box. This is where he waits and “watches” others train. Next, Riker gets to train while teasing his younger brother. After, Karrde gets another opportunity to be correct. This training session taught Karrde a consequence for failure to perform. In addition, this is a marker that I will be able to use later when showing. Lastly, in the video is Sly. He wanted to play. :>)
When your dog is in an “active” state, he is FOCUSED,
ALERT and READY to train.
Topic – Active State of mind
When your dog is in an “active” state, he is FOCUSED, alert and ready to train.
The Active State dog: A training state
A dog in an active state is alert to changes in his handler and ready to go at a seconds notice. This sort of state can be recognized by an intense stare, tense body posture, and erect ears, and often presents himself as confident and intense.
The best part of a dog that is in an “active” state is he will respond quickly to commands and will mentally be with you at all times.
Active State of mind.
How do you test an “active state”?
While training, I always want my dog to remain in an “active state” and will teach and often “test” my dog to make sure he remains in that state.
How? I will do something my dog doesn’t expect.
Example: while my dog is on a sit, I will give him a command he isn’t expecting, such as a down command.
OR
If my dog is heeling, and I feel he is going inactive, that is, he is just going through the motions, I will do something he is not expecting, such as reversing my motion without any extra commands.
Keeping your dog in an “active state” will increase his focus, enhance your training and keep working with your dog FUN!