Denise Fenzi's Blog, page 15

Problem Solving: Straight positions at heel

One of the exercises in Level 2 of the on-line TEAM obedience program requires that the dog demonstrate position changes (sit, down and stand)  in correct heel position.  While most dog-handler teams eventually master the position themselves, many teams struggle to keep the dog’s rear end in position throughout the exercise – a required component.

This video demonstrates a simple solution.

First, combine your work on pivoting in heel position with your position change practice.  The pivoting movement causes the dog to anticipate, resulting in pulling in the rear during positions changes. Second, double check your reward placement.  Make sure to offer cookies on the outside of the dog’s head and close to your body rather than from the front or angled in towards your body.

Now combine those elements together: Position change, followed by a pivot, followed by correct reward placement.  Practiced in this manner, most dogs will quickly learn to keep their rear end tucked in.

As a bonus, this method can be used to straighten up a crooked sit at heel. To apply it within heeling try this:

Heel forward, pivot left ON A SPOT and halt ON THAT SAME SPOT.  Repeat several times in a row. It’s critically important that your left turn be a pivot rather than a rounded corner or this won’t work, because your dog must recognize the pivot in order to remember to pull in their rear end. If your dog does not know how to pivot ON A SPOT then this isn’t going to be a very effective technique. To test if your dog truly knows how to pivot (rather than walking a small circle), place a mark on the ground, for example a piece of tape, and make sure that your feet continue to cover that tape while you ask your dog to stay at your side during a pivot. If your dog cannot stay in position when you pivot, you’ll need to teach that first.

Indeed, teaching a correct pivot may be all you need to solve a whole host of problems, from bumping on left turns to rear end position to crabbing.

Give it a shot!

Check out my Advanced heeling and problem-solving self-study course if you’d like more ideas to refine your heeling.  Check the syllabus at that link to see what is covered.  If you’re not that advanced, precision heeling starts at the very beginning with pivots, discs and pocket hand, so pick that up if it would be more appropriate for your situation.

Is movement or stillness the solution?

I’m a huge fan of allowing a dog to take in an area before you begin to train. This is particularly true if your dog tends toward a more nervous temperament or if they are easily overwhelmed by the world.

So how, exactly, do you allow your dog to take in the training environment?

To start, figure out if your dog thrives on movement or stillness. Let me give you an example.

I had a dog in a workshop recently who was agitated by the other dogs, jumping up towards the handler, hitting the end of the leash, etc.  I encouraged the handler to start moving at a modest pace through the area, keeping the leash reasonably short and watching the dog’s behavior.

Within 30 seconds, it became obvious that movement was making the dog more agitated rather than calmer, so we changed direction and focused on mat work! The handler rhythmically fed her dog treats while he lay on a mat, and within a minute you could see him visibly relax. After a few more minutes he was done taking in the environment and was looking to the handler for something to do. Lack of movement calmed his agitated behavior.

In this case, sitting on a mat grounded this dog, which in turn allowed him to work with both enthusiasm and focus within a short period of time.

I had another dog at this seminar who had a very different reaction to waiting on a mat! Rather than relaxing, this dog started to target any movement in the area and became tense and hyper-focused on distractions in other areas of the building. The longer she stayed on the mat the worse her behavior became.

For this dog, the handler moved with her through the environment, encouraging sniffing and looking at objects nearby.  If she began to stare, the handler simply resumed walking and the dog would break from her focus.  In this dog’s case, the movement seemed to clear the adrenaline out of her body and high quality, focused work soon followed.

While both dogs started out with the same issue, one benefited from not moving to calm his head and the other benefited from movement. That’s fine; they’re different dogs. It makes no sense to apply a technique that is making your dog worse, so if you see that you’re going nowhere (or going in the wrong direction) then change what you’re doing!

The goal with acclimation is to get the dog come comfortable with the area immediately around them. I want the dog to sniff, visually explore objects within the near ground, and get used to the energy in the area. Generally I try movement first, but if movement causes the dog to spiral higher or to become agitated then that’s not the ticket for THAT dog.

Which works better for your dog, movement or stillness? You should be able to answer this question easily. If you figure that out now then you’ll be much quicker to apply the correct solution if the need should arise.

If you’d like to learn more about how acclimation and engagement turn into very focused work under novel situations, check out my Engagement class at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. At $65 the tuition for a bronze spot is extremely reasonable. Instruction started a couple of days ago, but you can catch up pretty easily. We have a very active group of golds for you to learn from in the classroom, and Teaching Assistants to guide the bronze and silver students in the discussion group on Facebook.

Habit by Enforcement or Management

In my last blog I talked about developing habits in your dog at a very early age so that eventually, specific bad behaviors don’t even occur to your dog. Let’s look at an example.

I spent the past week with a friend and her 10-month-old Spaniel at a mutual friend’s house. As the humans sat around the dinner table enjoying each other’s company the puppy would run and play with the other dogs and occasionally visit with us. 

On one occasion, he came for a visit and put his feet up on the edge of the table. That is not allowed. He can visit with his feet on the floor or he can play with the other dogs or he can rest somewhere or pretty much do as he wishes but…no feet on the table. His handler told him from her place at the table (uh uh! Get off!) and…he ignored it. Someone closer to the puppy pushed his feet off the edge and that was the end of it.

He was cued to remove his feet. He didn’t do so. His handler has an expectation that feet don’t go on tables. He ignored a verbal cue and another person at the table enforced it physically.

The next time he put his feet up on the edge of the table (he did try), he was instantly told to remove them and…he did! That was the last time the issue came up for the rest of the week. He remained free in the house, visiting and having a fantastic week – a win-win! With a few more repetitions in a variety of places, he will soon understand – he can do what he wants around the table – hang out with people, run with the other dogs, etc. but he cannot put his feet up. Soon it will not occur to him to try.

Here’s another example with the same puppy where his failure to respond to a verbal cue to “stop” had to be backed up with management so that he can develop a better habit in the future:

A few times a day we would take a walk with the puppy running loose with us. On the second day he discovered wild (non-poisonous) mushrooms. His interest in those mushrooms exceeded the value of his handler’s combined recall cue, cookies and verbal interrupter. He was leashed for the remainder of the walk.

On our next walk, he wore a mesh “head cover” to prevent the development of an undesirable habit and he was allowed freedom again. He will wear that head cover until he has developed a better habit of ignoring mushrooms.

In this case, managing the undesirable behavior is a good option since the combination of an alternative (recall) and a mild punisher (verbal “stop” cue) did not end the problem behavior. The puppy will learn to leave the mushrooms alone while he continues to get exercise, and the handler can enjoy her walk.

These are both perfectly reasonable approaches to stopping minor issues from developing into bad habits when the handler wants something to stop, such as feet on the table or eating questionable items on a walk, but when there is either no clear alternative to train or no particular interest in doing so at that time.

Educational note: I look forward to seeing some of you in my online Engagement class starting tomorrow!  If you’d like to enroll, check out the FDSA schedule for October!

The Power of Habit, Part 1

Each day I wake up, go into the kitchen to feed the dogs, head to my computer where I clear my email and do a few routine tasks, take a shower, etc. The first hour or two of my day I think very little because my behaviors are largely driven by habit.

Habits make life easy.  I can feed the dogs when I’m half asleep.  Indeed, an hour later I can look back and have no conscious memory of the event at all, yet the dogs are fed, the bowls are in the dishwasher and any supplies needed to make the dog’s meals are back where they belong.

Habits free up my mind for other things.  When I drive my son to school, taking the same route each day, I can concentrate on our conversation, or whatever random thoughts are in my head.

Habits give me comfort.   Each member of my family sits in the same chair at the dinner table every night. There’s no particular reason for this, and we could certainly change it around at each meal, but we don’t! We’re creatures of habit and routine.

Habits make life easy and unless I take some time to consider them, they are unlikely to change without significant effort.

Indeed, habits are so powerful that they tend to be maintained even when they are somewhat dysfunctional for the individual.  For example, if I changed my shower to the afternoon instead of the morning, I’d stay clean a whole lot longer, because the thing I do after my shower is take a walk. And while my choice of shower time is not logical, my habit creates an inertia in me that makes me unwilling to change.  I like my habits, even when they are not particularly rational.

Habits are a huge motivator because they make life easy, predictable and emotionally comfortable, even when they are not optimally functional for my current situation.

Our dogs appear to operate on habit as well.  It’s not hard for us to see habits form in our dogs. For example, in my house, big dogs are not allowed on the furniture. So when my dog enters the room where I am sitting? It doesn’t occur to them to get on the couch; they head directly to their dog bed.  They do not weigh out their options because habit directs their behavior. Day after day, week after week, year after year.  I find it extremely unlikely that they think about it at all beyond the first weeks in my home when I consciously directed them off the couch and onto their dog beds.  It’s part of their habit of living with me; it’s unconscious.  Indeed, I suspect that “sleep on the couch” isn’t even a possibility within their mental repertoire because it’s never happened.

My dogs are not allowed on my kitchen table. They are not allowed on my counters. They are not allowed on kitchen chairs.  It doesn’t matter if there is food up there or not, if I see a dog heading to the chair to get on the table, I’m going to stop that behavior. Instantly.  And soon that habit is formed as well, now a significant pathway in the brain, so that no matter what might be on the table or counter, it doesn’t occur to them to try and take it.

How does this relate to dogs and dog training?

When a new dog shows up in my home, I am going to choose the three or four habits that I want from my dogs.  The unconscious behavior patterns that are most important to me over the long run.  You may want to do the same.  Before you even bring your dog into your house, whether a puppy or an adult, decide which habits matter to you; which ones you want to form immediately and maintain for life, and then be 100% predictable about training and enforcing those habits.  Discuss it at length with your entire family!   Because if your dog has an occasional long snooze on your couch or manages to get on your countertop and eat a plate of food then that will haunt you for a very long time –  It will occur to them that they have a choice in the matter and it will keep alternative behaviors in the realm of conscious thought rather than moving them quickly to the realm of habits. The good kind; the kind we want to see!

If there is something you never want to see, then go to some trouble to never see it.  I never want to see my dogs comfortably settled on the couch or cruising around on my counters, so I go to some trouble never to allow it to happen. Instead, I consider what I DO want to see and I make it the easier path (to be discussed in a later blog).

My dogs don’t think about where they are going to sleep or who gets the food on the counters; no mental effort is required at all.  And if dogs are anything like humans then this predictability of life provides the dogs with comfort.  It’s easy. And that’s the end of it.

The goal is to form habits such that the alternative never crosses the dog’s mind; it is outside their mental repertoire. For example, if you allow your dog on your furniture sometimes, maybe for the first few weeks of life, and then you decide that for the rest of your dog’s life you don’t want them to do that, I can almost guarantee you it’s going to be a whole lot harder to change their behavior.  That’s why you need to decide before the puppy arrives – what’s important to you?  How will you teach it?  How will you respond if you discover that an error is taking place?

And…is everyone in your family on board?  If some of you are and others are not, it is absolutely possible that your dog will learn one set of rules for you and another set for others, but that effort – keeping the behavior within the realm of conscious decision making, is exactly what we want to avoid, and will block the formation of a solid and predictable unconscious habit that will likely last well into old age.  Pick a few things that really matter to you and then focus on developing the habits that you want to see.

 

 

A Correction: To make sorry or make right?

In general, the verb “correct”  means to make something right after an error is identified. Most of us perceive it as a learning opportunity but with some emotional baggage attached.   For example, if your teacher corrects you repeatedly in a short period of time then it will start to erode your self-confidence, no matter how nicely they do it.   As a result, most sophisticated instructors will revert to teaching if they notice the total number of corrections becoming out of proportion to the number of successful repetitions.

In the dog world, this word seems to have gone somewhat awry.  When we ask someone to “correct” their dog, what we usually mean is to make the dog sorry, not to make the dog right.  It is a function of punishment.  Corrections may be used to teach (learn to heel by being popped back every time you attempt to leave), or it may be used after the instructor believes the dog understands the exercise.   Regardless, the dog is sorry they made the error because the end result wasn’t too good for them.

“Correct your dog!”  is a phrase commonly heard in obedience classes and it would be fairly unusual for the instructor to mean put the dog back with a cookie, though that would indeed put the dog back into position as effectively as a collar pop.  The commonly understood meaning of “correct your dog!”  in an obedience class is to pop the collar or apply some other aversive that the dog is expected to use to make them more correct in the future. Whether or not that aversive has the desired effect on future behavior is another story altogether and depends on many factors, but suffice it to say that it often has a completely different effect than what the trainer intended or expected.

I’d love to see dog trainers take the word back to its original meaning.  When you correct your dog, focus on making your dog right! And if that correction doesn’t work to remind the dog of what you wanted (whether an aversive or a cookie) then you need to stop testing and go back to training – teach the dog what you want.

And if you find yourself correcting your dog repeatedly, whether with a collar pop or a cookie? That suggests a fundamental problem with the dog’s understanding of that behavior under the current circumstances. Go back to the teaching phase.  It’s no different than what you would want from your instructor if you were struggling to be correct on a behavior that you were attempting to master-  more energy spent on helping you be right and a lot less emphasis on testing your knowledge.

A little patience doesn’t hurt either. I find it takes years for handlers to master the skills required of excellent dog training and good instructors remain patient with the students through good spells and less good ones. Give your dog the same courtesy.

Consider your intent when you correct your dog. What I want is to improve future behavior. I can do that by applying corrections that make the dog right without making them sorry at all, and then I know to go back to training.

Positive reinforcement training is all about making the dog correct.  If you’re not sure if you want to proceed with a given approach to training, try to put yourself in your dog’s shoes for a moment. If you apply whatever it is that is in your head, what is the likely end result? A correct dog or sorry one?

Take it from there.

 

 

 

 

Structure your learner for success

Before you teach, you need to create a plan that will allow for a successful teaching situation. When your learner is engaged and happy and wants to be with you, training is easy. It only takes a few minutes to communicate new ideas effectively if the learner is engaged.

I do not train disengaged learners because it’s too difficult! When the learner is disengaged I spend my time and energy trying to refocus them and it’s frustrating for both of us. My energy goes too high and I get frantic, which doesn’t do either of us any good.  Instead, I follow this order:

Make friends.
Motivate!
Teach.

Now let’s apply it.

You go to your client’s house. They open the door angry and frazzled. Their dog is peeing all over the house and the neighbors hate them because the dog barks constantly when they are at work.  First, let’s make friends.

How does this learner need to be approached? How about with a little sympathy?! It must be terrible when the neighbors are angry with you over non-stop barking and you don’t know what to do. And the peeing all over the house? How miserable to come home to a house that smells bad with a dog who’s screaming bloody murder.

Now your learner realizes that you’re not judgemental. You have empathy and you’re not blaming them for what they don’t know. Now what?

Motivation! How do you do that?

Remind them how much they love their dog! He’s so friendly and happy and cute!  And it’s so sweet how he wants to sit on your lap.  Take a moment to remind them that they love their dog and that he is special so that they care. Because sometimes, especially with behavior issues, they won’t be loving their dog much at all.  Work to bring it back to the positive.  There IS a reason they want to solve these issues but they may have forgotten it so bring it back to front and center.

So now the person likes you – you’re friendly and sympathetic.  They remember why they love their dog and are willing to put out some effort to make things better.  Now what?

Teach them!

You are going to solve this problem together! You are going to lay out a plan to help this person get their dog housebroken and to stop the barking! Not only that, you are going to give them management tools to help them get through while they apply their training program…how awesome is that?! You’re going to break down the pieces into tiny manageable bits so that they will be successful with their dog, and if they struggle, you’re going to give them a contingency plan. Your learner now realizes that not only do you understand the problems, you’re going to make it possible to solve them!

So now you have a learner who likes you, likes their dog, and sees that you have a plan to solve problems…you’ve seen this before and you’re competent to help them.  They’re motivated to take on the challenge because you’ve reminded them that the end result will be worth it.

Now your training can take hold.

And for those of you who thought this was about training an animal?  It is – people are animals.  Training is training – apply your skills to humans in the same way you’ve learned to apply them to dogs.

 

 

Is Leadership taken or given?

Some super interesting questions emerged after I wrote my last blog on “What is Leadership.”

Let’s start with this one: Does the leader take control or does the follower give control?  I see this as a chicken or egg situation, so let’s take a look at it.

When a “being” is insecure or unsure, whether a child or a puppy or a dog,  they need direction – you need to take control whether they appear to want you to or not.   They need to be told what to do because given a choice, there’s a good chance they’ll make a bad decision,  and some bad decisions come with long-term ramifications. To head that off at the pass you take control.  In that situation, you are telling the other what to do. You are BEHAVING like a leader. But are you a leader?

There’s no way to know. You can behave like a leader, but whether or not you are a leader will be determined over time, because to be a leader, others have to choose to follow.

The point of behaving like a leader is to get to the point where your dog recognizes that you are a good decision-maker who keeps them safe.  From there they will begin to turn to you for assistance or direction when they need help.

But to be called a “leader”?  That is a status which is GIVEN by the follower.  It cannot be taken; it is earned.  Leadership status comes as a result of numerous experiences where the follower realizes that the leader knows what they’re doing. They make good choices and keep everyone safe!

Behaving like a leader is different. You start there so that others can see you know what you’re doing. A good portion of that is how you behave, as described in the last blog.

So to simplify things, think about it like this:

Behave like a leader.  Be predictable and effective. Make things better for the other.  And if you’re unsure?  Then fake it, just like you would with a child in an emergency.   Learn to make decisions and implement them with conviction. It’s okay if you make mistakes; strive to learn from them!

As your competence is recognized, others will begin to follow you  – gratefully.  That is the point at which you may well become a leader.

Of course, I’ve said nothing about the temperament or interests of the other, which is strongly related to what will actually happen in a real life situation. That’s a blog for another day.

Understanding Leadership

How does one define leadership?

I have tried, with limited success, to come up with a workable definition. It’s sort of like talking about love… What is love? How does one define it? What does it look like?

Tricky.

Here’s my best stab at defining leadership.  Leadership results when “one” consistently provides appropriate support and direction for “the other”.  If you do a good job of it, then when “the other” find themselves in an uncomfortable (and novel) situation, they will turn to you for a solution.

Sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes not! Because when the “one” is trying to develop “the other” as a strong and self-confident being, then offering choice is actually more important.  But sometimes offering choice isn’t a very good idea, because the wrong choice could lead to unfortunate emotional consequences. That’s why I say “appropriate” support…don’t offer more leadership than is required at a given time.

Now that I have philosophized for a while, let’s take a quiz:

You are in a building and there is an earthquake.  People are screaming and injured everywhere. You are trapped in the building with a small child who is in your care at that time. Neither of you are injured.  What does the adult do? What might leadership look like in this scenario?

Allow the child to walk up to injured people and observe blood and gore.
Start screaming “we’re all going to die!’
Stand still and do nothing, hoping the child will make a good choice not to look around or start screaming.
Take control of the situation and structure the child. Block their view. Speak calmly. “Sit in that chair.” etc.


You are with a reactive dog in public.  Your dog sees another dog coming close and prior experience suggests that this situation may well end badly.  What does a leader do? What might leadership look like in this scenario?  (Hint: What would you do with a child in the same situation?)

Allow the dog to bark and lunge at the end of the leash, working up into a froth, without reacting.
Start screaming “No no bad dog!”
Stand still and hope the dog will make a good choice (Hint: “Hope” is not a training technique)
Take control of the situation and structure the dog – remove the dog one way or the other; calm your voice, etc.

In the first scenario, I hope that everyone recognizes that the correct answer is to take control of the situation and structure the child.   We do not expect children to make good decisions when they are in over their head. We recognize that preventing the start of a panic is a good thing to do! And we don’t waste time about it either; we get involved instantly before things go badly.

Adults are natural leaders when children are involved so in an emergency/unknown situation, not only will the adult naturally take control, but the child will naturally look to the adult for direction. That’s because the child has learned, in their short lifetime, to look to adults when they need help. (One hopes but I digress….)

Leadership is taking control when control needs to be taken – when choice (if offered) is likely to go badly.   If you act as a leader, reliably and over time, “the other” will begin to look to you when unsure of how to solve a problem independently. That is a very good place to be.

That answer should help you solve the second problem.

Offer leadership when you recognize that there is only one choice that will support the long-term, emotional well being of the dog.  And when leadership is not required, allow your dog choice as much as possible.  If you do this consistently then your dog will look to you when they need help – and that’s a good place to be.

Brito Routine Training – verbal cue discrimination

Because people have specifically asked for unedited training sessions that include errors, here you go!

I am working on verbal cue discrimination with absolutely no physical prompts.   This is reasonably challenging but he enjoys it, and it’s a fun thing to work on in a small space or when you don’t have a lot of time.

And as an interesting side note, the heavy emphasis on verbal cues in a few sessions made it much easier to add a new verbal cue to a different thing we’ve been working on (Spin). That suggests that if you want to strengthen your dog’s verbal ability, you do not have to practice the specific cues that you want to strengthen – instead, work on the “listening” part.

 

 

 

 

Just on the Edge of Suck

Do you struggle to increase criteria in training? Stuck in a comfortable rut?

Julie Flanery has written a guest blog for us this week on exactly this topic; read on!

Just on the Edge of Suck 

by: Julie Flanery

I’m going to a new gym. It’s not like any gym I’ve been to before. It’s kind of like Pilates on steroids.  Lots of strength and flexibility training using the limits of your own body. There is no heavy lifting – unless you include the weight of your own body – and the flexibility exercises have you constantly pushing for “just another inch”.  The classes are small, not like the huge aerobics classes of the ‘90’s, and there is a sense of community and support.  I appreciate the cheerleading I get, being one of the oldest people in the class.

I was working an exercise with the instructor looking on, hanging from a high bar and lifting my legs into a 90-degree pike position – 10 reps. The first few weren’t bad, pretty good actually! I thought “I can do this!”. The next several I started to struggle and really had to push myself.  The last two my form was bad, it hurt, I blurted out “I can’t do this”, and yet I did.

After a short break and accolades from my instructor for pushing through it he said, “You want to be just on the edge of suck”, right before he asked me to do 5 more.

And you know what? They were better in form, and they felt just a little easier to do. 

In my mind, in real time I was thinking how does this apply to dog training? It must! Right?

Criteria shifts are one of the most difficult concepts for trainers to apply.  That piece of training where we need to push the limits to get to the next level, the next little bit of criteria that takes us closer to the end behavior, the final product.

Part of why increasing criteria can be so difficult is that we are heavily reinforced by our dog’s correctness, that celebration and sense of success we feel when our dog responds with confidence and predictability.  That reinforcement creates strength in our behavior to continue to ask for the same criteria…again, and again. And because our dog has no idea that what he’s doing is simply a means to an end, the continually reinforced criteria becomes stronger and stronger until it becomes very difficult to push through it, to improve the behavior, to get to the final product.

And this is where being “just on the edge of suck” comes into play.  Once I start to see confidence and predictability in a specific criterion, that tells me my dog understands that piece of the behavior.  If I stay there too long, both my dog and I will get stuck.  If I only did 5 reps of bringing my legs into a pike position, I would never get any stronger.  I needed to push myself just to the edge of suck before I could go to the next level.

One of my favorite analogies is Kathy Sdao equating criteria shifts to the groove in a record (yep, we are dating ourselves).  For those of you that remember LPs or vinyl records, if the needle gets stuck in a groove, it will play the same thing over and over – it “skips”.  And unless we put a little pressure on the needle, it’s unable to advance.  Unlike the success of our dogs, a skipping record becomes irritating and so we quickly apply that pressure to be able to listen to the rest of the song.  Not enough to scratch the record, just enough to slip into the next groove.

So whether you think of criteria shifts as just being on the edge of suck or fixing a skipping record, progress doesn’t happen without going outside of our comfort zone just a little, just enough to progress to the next set of successes that will take us closer to our goals.  And the celebrations will be that much sweeter.