Fun things you can teach your pet

When you are looking to interact with your pet in other ways, you can teach them fun tricks or games as well. Pets learn faster if they are having fun and it keeps them from getting bored wth the same old obedience routines. Often, if you identify what your pet already has an aptitude for, you can develop on that. Does your pet use his/her eyes or his/her nose more? And when I say PET I mean that cats can often learn to do many of these things too, it just usually takes more time and practice to convince a cat that this really IS fun! Below are some ideas to get you started:


Names of family members/pets: "Where's ________? Go find ________!"

Find it - teach a "sit" and "wait" while you go hide the item, then come back and release with, "OK! Go Find _____!" Start with the item close - even in the same room, and help her.

Find a person - teach a "sit" and "wait" while someone hides, and release with, "OK! Go find ______!" Or, if the person you want your dog to find is YOU, then, after you have hidden, call your dog! (your dog may need help in "waiting", at first, with another person holding her.

Hide & Seek

Catch - start with popcorn first, because it is light

Frisbee - start with dog close, first

Pick up your toys (and put them away!)

Walk between legs while you are walking (weaving in and out) - just one of the many Freestyle moves you can teach your dog!

Jump through a hula-hoop

Tricks: Give me 5
            roll over
            sit up
           play dead ("bang!")
           treat on nose
           speak
           high 5
"Touch" - teach touch with his nose. "Touch" the palm of my hand, "touch" the tip of a stick - this is the start of "target training".

You can make obstacles and create an "agility" course with things found around most homes: broomstick on the rungs of 2 chairs to create a jump, weave in and out of dowels stuck in the ground (about 18" apart) or ski poles, pause "box" with an old rug, jump through an old tire (the original agility tire jump!), kids' play tunnels can be found at toy stores...

Unroll a small rug. Roll it up and put a soft treat in the last couple of *rolls*. as your pet gets better at unrolling the blanket or rug to find the treat. Bury it deeper into the rolls until your pet can completely unroll the blanket or rug. They *find* their own reward by unrolling it!

Wave *bye bye*. Once you have taught your pet to "shake hands", you can utilize that for teaching them this trick. Hold a treat where they can see it and move your OTHER hand in a waving motion in front of their body. They will see this as *shake* and give you their foot. Keep waving your hand up and down until their foot follows your hand, then tell them GOOD BOY (or girl) and give them the treat. After practicing this several times they shyoudl start to *wave* their foot for you when given the command WAVE BYE BYE.

Tips to Increase Confidence

One thing I see (or hear of) a lot of in our training classes are owners over emphasising "It's OK' to their pet when they are afraid of something. All you do with that is tell them that, in fact, it is NOT ok and it makes them even more afraid. Our pets look to us for safety and comfort when they meet something that they are fearful of. Telling them it's Ok when it isn't, is a good way to teach your pet not to trust your judgement. Here are some simple *rules* in helping your pet to become more confident. 

NEVER tell dog it is OK when it is not


Emphasis on appropriate praise for appropriate behavior

PATIENCE, CONSISTENCY

Remove emotion, especially disappointment or anger!

Favorite treat and/or toy reserved for stressful times ONLY

"Strangers" should have special treats (they are "treat dispensers")

Obedience commands work to get dog thinking rather than reacting

Normal, matter of fact tones of voice conveys confidence

Teach a "watch me" command – watching you will keep your dog safe

Exposures to new things should be carefully planned, timed & supervised

ON LEASH when challenging situations happen

Backsliding is expected and prepared for

Teach thinking games at home: names of family, toys, places, objects...

Prevent hiding & cowering away from fearful things

Use a word or phrase in place of "It's OK" ("Oh, you're being SILLY!"). Use your matter of fact tone of voice to cue the dog to something OTHER than the fearful object or situation ("sit", "watch me", etc)

"Let's say hi" is a good phrase to cue your dog to interacting with strangers, and have plenty of tasty treats & jolly praise handy!

"Look" is good for introductions to potentially fearful objects, along with a jolly, confident attitude

Nipping in puppies

One of the biggest tools puppies have to learn with is their mouth - not only for vocalization, but to touch and feel and explore…and test their limits. Think about a litter of puppies playing. They are rough and tumble - they bite, nibble, and bark. If one puppy bites another too hard, the bitten puppy lets out a screech which usually is successful in getting the hard nipper to temper his bites. This is how puppies learn. A big part of learning isdong it wrong (so they can lern to do it right).


Puppies will test their limits with you, too. Nipping and mouthing is a big part of that testing. They mouth and grab hands, pant legs, skirts, etc. Part of how you teach a puppy to temper their biting lies back with how his litter mates taught him - a shrill shriek OUCH! to let him know he’s gone too far - even if it didn’t hurt that much. One thing that you are responsible for training this puppy - that should start early- is that under no circumstances should that puppy’s teeth ever come down on your skin hard enogh to leave a mark. They CAN learn to be gentle.

Ways to teach your puppy or dog to *be nice*:

I like the word "nice" or "easy" when I teach a dog to respect my skin. If my puppy gets wild and nippy, I will take his collar, after I let out a big "Ow!!", and give it a little tug and offer my hand back to the puppy and tell him, in a firm voice, "BE NICE!" If the puppy nips again, I repeat the command and tug a little firmer, "I said "BE NICE!" If the puppy licks your hand, sniffs it, or turns his head away, I tell him "GOOD NICE!!" and make sure my voice sounds pleased.

You can also "set up" teaching "NICE" to your dog. I get a bunch of small, soft treats and hold one in the fingers of one hand. In the other hand - I have the puppy’s collar, and he is sitting close to me. I offer the treat to the puppy and remind him that we are being "NICE". If he lunges for the treat, I give him a tug on his collar and remind him, "NO, NICE!" The same goes if he grabs the treat and any part of my hand or fingers. Remember NOT to move the hand that holds the treat. If you move the hand holding the treat you actually encourage your puppy to chase the treat. With this exercise, your puppy will eventually learn to take the treat without even touching your skin with his teeth.

Don't *teach* biting to your puppy
Never play hand games that will excite your puppy and encourage him to lunge for your hand. Chase games, especially for herding dogs will also encourage them to nip and bite at legs and heels. Not good! The best games to play are games involving fetch and toys. Any time you play with your puppy, make sure that you have a toy between you and the puppy. Never play tug of war with your puppy - that will only make your puppy think of himself as your equal.

Service Dog graduation!

Congratulations to the graduates of our first Service Dog Level 1 class!

December 4th found our Service Dog Class working at the Fashion Mall on Keystone to do their Public Testing. We worked in and out of various stores, finding different floor surfaces to work and test on. One of our dogs, Sophie, found that she liked the hardwood floors to lay down on because of the cooler surfaces, but prefered the carpeting to walk or sit on.

We also needed to show that our dogs could *shop* in tight places without knocking things over.  Believe me getting a young Goldendoodle to be able to do this takes a LOT of work. Kudos to Sophies owners Anita and J.D. Dudley for working so hard with Sophie over the past year to bring her successfully to this point.

The dogs also need to be able to sit and wait quietly, without sniffing the merchandise or becoming overly distracted, while the handler/owner is doing their shopping. Lugnut shows how well he can do this for his owner Jeff while testing at Bed Bath and Beyond.

When training and testing with the Service Dogs they need to become familiar with shopping carts. They have to learn to walk with the owner/handler, turn with them with the cart and even back up without becoming confused, upset or out of control. Here you can see just how well Shawn with her dog Sophie; and Jeff with his dog Lugnut have trained and learned how to handle shopping with carts.

We tested on the elavators (Kudos to Jeff and Lugnut as Lugnut was also able to touch the elevator button to call open it!) which all three passed without issue. While walking through out the mall we called upon a couple of other shoppers to help us test them with other issues. They needed to stay laid down with a stranger stepping over them and not move, they also needed to stay sitting while a stranger petted them. Of course that was the best part for the dogs! Who doesn't like to be petted! We had plenty of opportunity for them to remain in control and focused even with children approaching them as there were kids galore in the mall shopping with their families. I am happy to report all three dogs passed these tests with flying colors!

Once we completed the mall tests, we moved on to phase two of the night's testing. Dinner out! I wanted to choose a place that had action, without being TOO disturbing for us or the dogs, yet plenty of opportunity for the dogs to be put to a real test. As you can see with the following two pictures both Sophies tested excellant (so did Lugnut, in fact he slept through the entire meal!) at dinner. They needed to be able to remain out of the way, not bother anyone while they were eating and not focus on or disturb the other patrons. Not only during the meal, but while we walked in and out of the restaurant. For this test I chose Claddagh's Irish Pub (thank you Claddaghs for welcoming us!).

The dogs all three were put to a true test, not only by the smell of our dinners, but with other people coming and going, or our servicing staff taking excellant care of our needs, but there was also a young girl who (once completing her own meal) took to bouncing back and forth across the floor from our area back to her families table. Not once did our dogs break their positions from under or close to their tables!

CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATING SERVICE DOGS

LEVEL 1

Sophie Dudley, Lugnut Day and Sophie Roberson

At what age should training start?

Formal obedience training - puppy training in a class situation - can begin at 8 weeks of age. At Best Friends our *rules* are as soon as they have had their first two puppy shots and a bordatella they are ready to rock!


TRAINING of your puppy - the stuff you teach them at home - should start the day you bring your puppy home. Training at this stage should be done in many little lessons, in short spans of time (5-10 minutes per session). Puppies always learn better if you keep training light and fun so watch the tone of your voice as well.

Puppies and dogs learn from the instant they are born. At first their world is small and their learning comes from their mother, other littermates. By the time they are weaned and sent on their way to new homes, they have learned many things. Hopefully, they have had a good foundation set for future learning.

Learning is built on many factors:

Socialization - positive exposure to many different people, animals, environments, surfaces, situations, sounds, etc, and teaching the pup how to best react to new things

Innate personality - the set type of personality that all animals and people are born with.

In-home work with potty training, crate training, leash & collar training, teaching appropriate stuff to chew on, your household routine, words, basic home manners.

Training classes (Best Friends has an on going rotating schedule of classes!) - where you teach your puppy the essentials of obedience commands, manners, and ability to do everything with the distraction of other people and dogs.

Potty training basics in any age

It is an undeniable fact that our pets have to go potty. Puppies especially come to us with a basic thought, *If I have to, then I have to.* This pertains to eating, sleeping (ever see a pup fall over asleep in mid-play?), play AND going potty! Puppies do not understand anything more than that. It's up to us to develop that level of understanding to make life with a puppy fun not troublesome. Humans are the ones with all the rules, not them. Puppies are simply happy to take care of their needs the way they already know.
The most successful potty training methods consist of four steps:
1. Confinement
2. Training
3. Timing
4. Praise

Confinement
Puppies (or dogs who have never been housebroken) need to be confined in order to facilitate the easiest potty training. The most effective place to confine is in a crate or cage. In the beginning, don't leave anything on the bottom of the crate (blanket, newspaper, etc.). Your pet make make a project out of destroying it. Most dogs do NOT want to eliminate where they live, therefore the crate needs to be just large enough for your pet to turn around, stand up comfortably, or lay down. Anything larger will encourage your pet to potty at one end and sleep in the other. For large pets or puppies who will growto big big, use a crate that is sized for a larger pet and partition it to a smaller size using a homemade insert or a crate insert made by the crate company to fit your crate.

Training and Praise
When I teach a new dog (or puppy) where to potty, I use a leash. Leashes keep your dog close to you, where you can supervise and control everything that happens. Puppies, especially, are easily distracted. A blowing leaf, new flower, stick, another animal - all can take a puppy's mind off the matter at hand. If you are near the puppy (or dog) with the leash in hand, a gentle tug will redirect away from the curiosity. Leashes are also good to help teach an area to potty (behind the garage, etc.). With a leash, you just take your pet to the exact same area every time. Our pets are creatures of habit. they will learn to use the same spot if so directed in training.

I also teach words for elimination. This way, when the puppy understands what the words mean, he will understand WHAT I want as well as WHEN I want it to happen. My words are "go potty" for urination and "go poopie" for defecation. Your choice can be ANY word or phrase you want to use consistently (such as, hurry hurry, do your business, get busy, etc.). Remember when you choose your word or phrase that you will be repeating it over and over. Don't keep changing your words or you will just confue them so pick a phrase or a word that you are comfortable using.

As I take my dog outside on a leash, I start to teach him the word outside. "Let's go OUTSIDE!". "Do you have to go "OUTSIDE"? In time, the dog will learn that the word OUTSIDE is associated with going potty. Eventually you will be able to ask the dog "do you have to go OUTSIDE?" and get a response like barking, running to the door or tail wagging.

TIMING
The command or phrase should never be said in a firm or angry way and not in a soft or pleading way either - it is usually said in an encouraging tone. When elimination occurs, use a happy tone and repeat "GOOD Go Potty! Yay! Go Potty!". I choose to use words only to reinforce elimination, because petting or treats can interrupt the act. Verbal praise needs to happen DURING the act, not after! Usually dogs will urinate first, then defecate. You need to become familiar with your dog's habits so you can wait for defecation and use a command for it.