When to Start Dog Training, featuring Brody

Meet Brody!

Look in the dictionary under the word "cute," and you should find Brody’s picture! Brody is a 9 week old Boston terrier pup who's too cute for words! His owners made the right move and called us immediatly after bringing him home.

Why is starting early so important? If you look through the eyes of a brand new puppy, who was just taken away from him home, him Mom and litter mates -- you'll see the world can be a scary place if you don't know what to expect. It is important to mention that the first few weeks of your puppy’s life will determine whether or not he grows up to become a well-adjusted adult. This is why at first puppy socialization is more important than teaching commands like Sit, Down and Stay.

For a new puppy, typical city life, a car driving down the street, the UPS driver or even your crazy Uncle Gordon -- might be scary! Like any puppy who just left his mom and litter mates, a young puppy may be wary or fearful of new people, places and things.

That is why we need to be proactive and make the world a less-scary place for our dogs, with lots of socialization. To socialize your dog play Treat For Confidence, a game where we identify things that upset your dog. The game is to act calm and use treats to help our dog cope with new "scary" experiences.

Soon, your dog will associate formally scary things with something good, like a tasty treat! It is so important to do this early on in your puppy's life. Remember: the socialization period typically ends at the 13 week! In other words, the ideal time to expose your dog to everything you want him to be comfortable with as an adult is between the 8th and 13th weeks.

Many people wait too long before getting their dog used to city life. Set your puppy up to succeed by getting him accustomed to all the noises, sights and sounds of the outside world before the socialization period ends. It's not too late! Dogs under 6 months are still ideal candidates for more socialization.

For more information on When to Train, Socialization, and Treat for Confidence, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Bringing Treats on Walks, featuring Chance

Meet Chance!

Chance is an alert 2 year old cattle dog mix who just loves his owners, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to take control during walks. Chance gets a lot of his exercise off-leash at a local park but tends to not pay attention and disappears when he gets the chance! We needed to teach him that it pays to stay close to his owners off-leash, that's why Chance’s owners must bring treats on walks.

Bringing a variety of different value treats on walks will teach Chance that it literally pays to listen! Practicing calling his name and surprising him with an extremely high value treat when he comes will teach him to be on high alert when someone calls his name.

There are a few tricks to remember. Most importantly, you have to actually remember to bring the treats with you! It's also great if you bring 2-3 different kinds of treats in your treat bag so you can reward better actions with higher value treats. This way you can keep it interesting and save the higher-value treats for rewarding really good behaviors.

Food is the dog equivalent of money to humans. Would you go to work if you were not going to get paid?! If you won the lottery and had a huge weekly paycheck would you even work at all? Teaching your dog that good things happen when he listens to you will help him understand that it pays to listen! 

For more information on Treats on Walks and Treat Bags, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

More On Early Intervention Training.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Early Intervention Training is intended to address your puppy’s age-specific development issues before working on any obedience training goals.  You have a limited window of opportunity to prep your pup for a lifetime of stable and healthy interactions with the world and its inhabitants. And don't forget the importance of socialization; Touch is an extension of that.

Instinctively, dogs don’t allow other animals to hold them against their will. However, your dog may need to be groomed, and all dogs need to visit the veterinarian. Being patient and still while a stranger pokes and prods him is not so easy for your dog. Use treats to gradually and gently teach your dog to be okay with mildly uncomfortable touch and make these experiences stress free for both you and your dog.

Teach your puppy to accept mild restraint and welcome any human touch by massaging and petting him daily.  Try to relax your hands and body, then take a deep breath to encourage your dog to chill. Use lots of treats to ensure this becomes a positive experience.

For small dogs, start by holding them your arms like an infant and periodically say “Relax” while you hold them. Play "Vet" with your dog by gently massaging your dog’s ears, head, temples, shoulders, chest, legs, paws, foot pads, toes, nails, tail, etc. If he struggles, say “Eh-eh!” and wait for him to calm down before continuing. Again, use LOTS of treats!
 

Once your dog is at ease with the first stage or if your dog is a bigger breed, gently place them on the floor, roll them over onto his side and massage in the same manner on the floor.  Make sure it's a good time to play this game with your pup.  A not so great time, for instance, is when he first wakes up and is full of energy!  

For more information on Early Intervention Training and Touch, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Why Should You Use an Exercise Pen?

A lot of the time, our clients already are using crates for housetraining their pups.  We also encourage people in the "Zen Dog Pack" to also put a exercise pen (or ex-pen) into play.

An ex-pen is a collapsible, portable pet enclosure made of wire, plastic or mesh panels that opens up into a rectangular, circular or oblong playpen for dogs.  It's a great tool to use for training, indoor containment — at home and while traveling — and makes housetraining easier.

Let's talk about using an ex-pen for housetraining first.  The portability of the ex-pen is something to really exploit here.  Let's say your puppy has fantastic bladder/bowel control in her crate; place her crate inside the ex-pen with the crate door open so she can move freely from her cozy crate to her ex-pen.  Now, under your watchful eye, you can teach her that her ex-pen is an extension of her crate and is another area to keep unsoiled.  Rather than leaving her crated for long periods of time, use the ex-pen to give your puppy more controlled, supervised freedom.

Ex-pens are also excellent for containment.  While you're teaching your puppy the rules of your home — don't gnaw on the coffee table, don't steal the dirty laundry, don't tug on the TV power cord — why not use an ex-pen to create a safe-puppy zone?  Instead of running from room to room after her, plop your pup into her ex-pen with some favorite toys, preferred chews and a comfy cushion.  

Stop bratty behaviors!  When your friends come over for a movie marathon, prevent your puppy from jumping up by teaching her to sit in her ex-pen before coming out to say hello.  If you're playing Tug-of-War in her ex-pen and she gets too amped up after a round or two, rather than getting frustrated, calmly leave your puppy alone in her ex-pen.  In both scenarios, she'll quickly learn what she needs to do in order to hang out with people.

Think about both your puppy's needs and your home layout before buying an ex-pen.  A lot of ex-pens can be reconfigured into large-scale room barriers, which are incredibly useful for open-plan homes.

For more information about Housetraining and Tools for Training, please visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Photo from Rover Pet.

What is Early-Intervention Training?

Early-intervention training addresses your puppy’s age-specific development issues before working on any obedience training goals.  Trainers use this to  determine whether or not your expectations of your puppy are realistic. We also want to prepare your dog for life with humans and to build their confidence, so they don't resort to more instinctual types of behaviors, such as biting or resource guarding.  

Remember, dogs do not operate with the same kind of "moral compass" that we humans use.  Dogs aren't able to manipulate or spite you... they simply do what works!! I know that many of us consider our dogs to be members of the family; it's important that we remember that our pets aren't people, and expecting them to behave as if they are is setting you and your pup up for disappointment or worse.  Behaviors like peeing on your new rug or nipping your hand as you hold food works for a puppy.  It's up to you to teach your dog that some of those behaviors just don't work for you.

The focus of training dogs 3-4 months old — and younger — should be socialization, not obedience. These are lessons that will stick with your dog for the rest of their life.  Teach your dog that even though the outside world can be loud and unpredictable, it’s a happy and fun place he shouldn’t fear.

This can be done by staying calm and using treats to help your puppy make positive associations with people of all sizes and ages, cars and bikes, other animals, and all things loud and noisy.  At this young age, puppies are very impressionable and easily accept new things, but this openness to new experiences doesn’t last forever! For socialization to be a success, it must occur before your puppy is six months old. The idea is to expose your puppy to new, nonthreatening, positive situations and people now, and to increase the likelihood that he will be a comfortable and confident adult!

Your top priority should be your puppy’s daily socialization. This process will take both time and effort, but is of critical importance — especially for puppies under 4 months!!! Take them with you to new places: friends’ homes, children’s school, the hardware store, the dry cleaners, the bank…  Expose them to a variety of people and environments as often as you can. Let your puppy meet men and women, the elderly and the young, children and babies, people in hats and men with beards. Don’t forget about cats, birds and other animals, or loud or strange noises like a door slamming or a bus rumbling by!  Take your dog to the vet, to your groomer or kennel. Once you get there, give him lots of treats for no reason other than getting him used to going to these places.

Helpful tips:

• Never force a situation to the point where your puppy becomes frightened.  If he appears unsure, reassure him calmly and matter-of-factly, and then go on.
• Always be sure your dog is safe and that he has a positive experience. Allow him to investigate and approach people, places and things at his own pace.
• A tasty treat can do wonders in changing a fearful situation or person into a great experience!
• Be proactive. Teach your dog to feel confident and safe with the noisy, busy, fast-paced world we live in!

When socializing your puppy with other dogs, use your discretion! Find out whether the dogs your puppy meets are fully vaccinated and properly socialized themselves. Make sure older dogs are friendly and accepting of your puppy’s uninhibited, frisky advances. An unexpected attack at a young age can cause future phobias.  If you’re unsure of a situation or another dog, it’s okay to pick up your dog and walk away.

Last but not least, try not to coddle your dog or pick him up all the time. Puppies are adorable and the most fun to snuggle with so this is understandable difficult but  whether you’re answering the doorbell, meeting other dogs, meeting new people… Whatever you’re doing, just let your dog experience the world on his own four feet!  

For more information on Early Intervention Training and Socialization, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Xena the Couch Surfing Standard Poodle.

Meet Xena!

Xena is one classy lady. She is intelligent and collected, but exuberant and friendly when warranted. All in all she is one rather well behaved poodle. We met with her owner for a general training session, rather than for something specific though, as with any dogs, Xena had her quirks... Turns out Ms. Xena is quite the couch hog! If her owners settled down for a nice evening, Xena would hop right up with them and take up exactly as much space as she wanted — which ended up leaving very little room for her owners. This is a behavior we see all the time, and told Xena’s owner that we had a simple, easy solution for it.  Xena's "mom" said:

“But I like it!”

This is also a behavior we see all the time. One of the most common questions we get from clients is “Should our dog be allowed on the furniture?” What is nice about this question is that there really isn’t a right or wrong answer! The better question would be: “Do you like to have your dog on the couch with you?” If you asked a group of dog trainers whether or not their dogs are allowed on the furniture a majority of them would likely answer “Yup!” (And not a small number would even admit to letting their dogs sleep on the bed!) Some people don’t want to have the dog on the couch, but other owners enjoy having the company — especially on a cold New England night.

We tell clients that it is perfectly acceptable to curl up on the couch with their dogs — but we have a set of rules we recommend. We don’t want your dog to jump up anytime they wish. Make it a privilege; your dog is only allowed on the couch when you give permission. This will not only prevent unwanted couch hogs, but also allow you to have company when you want to, and even use the sofa as a reward for good behavior! This is especially useful when playing Rewarding With Love.

By implementing a few simple rules you can reclaim your couch while keeping your furry heater by your side!

For more information on Rewarding with Love, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Bon Appétit, Let ME Eat!

This gorgeous gal is Layla, the friendliest yellow Lab you could ever meet.  Don't be suckered by her adorable-ness — this girl's a beggar... at the dinner table, that is.

Mealtimes can be challenging for dogs, especially those who've made a hobby of scooping up tidbits food they've found under the table.  Layla's "dad" just needed her to relax in her pen while he prepped and ate his dinner.

Our goal was to teach Layla that when her dad was eating, she not only had to behave, she had to entertain himself.  If your dog is a beggar, let him know that whining and pawing at you at the table isn’t the way to get attention!  Teach him that he's being rather rude. Show your dog that the only mealtime behavior you respect is politely waiting for you to finish eating.

With Layla, we first tried to outsmart her by using a tether.  A tether is an indoor leash that you clip to your dog’s collar with one end and attach the other to something solid and heavy that your dog can’t move, like your living room sofa.  At mealtimes, it’s best to tether your dog to something far from wherever you’re eating.  In other words, we weren't going to tether Layla to the coffee table when her owner's friends came over with a pizza to watch the game.

Another technique we discussed for Layla is using a crate to contain her or a baby gate to separate her from where her dad eats.  No matter what you works for you — crating, separating or tethering — give your dog something to do while you eat.  Bully sticks and other long-lasting chew toys are great things to give your dog.  Sweeten the deal by trying a few things out, identifying your dog’s favorite and using that exclusively at mealtimes.  This way, your dog will be excited when it’s time for you to eat!

Something else to consider is scheduling your dog’s mealtimes at the same time as yours.  If you do this, just remember 99% of dogs eat faster than most people do. Food acquisition devices (like the Busy Buddies made by Premier) are fantastic since your dog has to nose, paw and move these toys around in order for kibble and treats to fall out.  A huge extra bonus of using food acquisition devices is that playing with these toys is mentally stimulating to dogs — wouldn't it be incredible if your dog got tired just from eating dinner?

If your dog finds using a food acquisition device to be confusing, teach him how it works.  Get down on the floor together, bat the toy around and let your dog see (and lick up) all the delicious morsels that fly out of it.  He’ll get the hang of it, and soon you’ll have a dog who loves it when you eat!

For more information on dining around your dog, visit Zen Dog Training Online.