Denise Fenzi's Blog, page 4

Socialization in the world of COVID

With many of us staying home these days, many people have considered getting a puppy. Of course, the very first question that comes to mind is, “How will I socialize them?  Will they become shy or aggressive if they are unable to directly interact with strangers?”

I recently acquired a puppy and I have found some huge advantages to raising a puppy under quarantine! Not only do I have a new little buddy to keep me busy at home, but I have also discovered that I don’t have to worry about shielding him from overly enthusiastic people who are bound and determined to pet my puppy, regardless of his opinion (or mine!) on the matter.

Let’s start by re-defining socialization as exposure rather than interaction. People often think of socialization as being interactions with new dogs and people. Unfortunately, plenty of dogs end up so well socialized that they make a nuisance of themselves. They’re hyper greeters who cannot function if they are not allowed to interact with every dog and person they see. No greeting? They scream, whine, and pull frantically on their leashes towards the object of their desire – and show lots of frustration at being held back. And if you think about it, we taught them to do it by encouraging interactions with every dog and person they encountered!

However, they don’t typically do this with horses, cars, or loud noises, mostly because we don’t socialize our puppies to these things the way we do with people and dogs. Specifically, there is no expectation of interaction with the other. Instead, we use patience, and allow the dog’s natural curiosity and ability to gather information from a distance to allow them to habituate and feel safe at their own pace.

This is exactly how socialization should happen with everything – people and dogs included. Using this approach, think about exposing your young dog or puppy to a variety of confidence-building situations that will serve them well for life, but without a need for direct interaction. 

As a guide to this plan, think about your dog’s senses: what does your dog see, hear, feel, smell, and taste?

What does your dog see? Take them places you need to go and sit in the car with your dog to watch the world go by! Watch the people entering the grocery store, the dogs walking around the block, the trees and birds and animals – whatever you know that your dog might encounter as an adult is fair game. Sitting in your car with your dog can be a fantastic way to experience the visual world.

What does your dog hear? The vacuum! The leaf blowers! The fan in the window! Be sure the sound is far enough away that the dog makes a positive association; we don’t want to scare them.  It’s always okay to comfort your dog or move further away if they appear worried or distressed – same as you would with a toddler who was nervous of a sight or sound.  

What does your dog feel? Consider surfaces that your dog might be exposed to. Put down towels, tarps, and empty boxes to let your dog explore! Hide treats in, on, and around those surfaces to add to the fun  When you leave your house for exercise, make a point of walking over asphalt, cement, grass, and dirt. In all cases, you’ll want to make the experience fun and playful for your dog, so be generous with your personal play and praise as you navigate new surfaces.

What does your dog taste? Try out a variety of treats and foods for your dog! Give them interactive toys filled with their own food – not only does it keep them busy while you do other things, but it also exposes their mouth to both different textures of toys as well as the food itself.

As far as people and dogs, well, this is a great time to allow your dog to observe without interacting so they can gain confidence in the presence of other people and dogs without feeling the need to be petted by every random stranger. You may also find it quite helpful to cheerfully call out friendly greetings to people who pass you on the street. That allows your dog a chance to observe your comfort with the stranger and begin to use you as a source of information; if mom says it’s okay, then it must be okay!

Remember, exposure with a positive outcome is what matters, and that positive outcome can come from you. Simultaneously, you can set up simple puzzles and activities at home or in your garden to allow your dog to use all of their senses to get to know the world.

Your ultimate goal with socialization should be a dog who shows confidence in a variety of situations, and acceptance of the presence of random people without necessarily needing to visit. This approach to socialization emphasizes exposure over interaction, and may well work better for you now than at any other time! Your softer or more fragile dog will not be assaulted by overly enthusiastic friends and neighbors who often frighten much more than socialize, and your overly enthusiastic puppy won’t have that behavior reinforced by every random person encountered on the street. 

On balance, this is a good time for many people to consider adding to their canine family, but a few adaptations are necessary with our current restrictions. Focus on exposing all of your dog’s senses to new possibilities to allow that growing brain as many positive experiences as possible.  

When you have the occasional opportunity to allow your dog to interact with new people, go ahead and take it, but that does not need to be the focus of your socialization efforts. As long as your dog is able to observe the world, including the people within it, you’re likely to end up with a stable and well-adjusted adult who is comfortable in the world, but who has a strong preference for you as the primary playmate.

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Progress via complexity

I often talk about adding “complexity” to training.  When I say complexity, I mean adding something, anything, that is a little bit different or new than what you did the last time you worked with your dog.

In heeling that could be going a few steps further, placing a toy on the ground, working in a new space, adding a change of pace for the first time, changing your energy, etc.  And that complexity could (should?) be tiny!  Almost unnoticeable to your dog or anyone observing.

When I train, I add complexity to almost every session but not to every exercise or behavior that we practice.   My general rule of thumb is to add complexity to two or three behaviors and the rest is fun, easy, and light training – doing what we already know, relaxing, and having a good time together.

Yesterday, I added complexity by incorporating a recall between two targets (standing close to make success more likely), started a stand stay focused on a target (instead of a sit-stay), and worked on standing between my legs without grabbing the toy in my hand (by adding speed to the picture).

In addition, we messed around with a whole lot of stuff – playing with toys, position changes and rehearsing super easy behaviors so that we could have a ton of success and build our confidence as a team.

If you train this way, and if you know the behaviors that you will need for your dog sport, then you will make it there, assuming your dog has the temperament for whatever sport you are targeting. Really, you can’t go wrong!  Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, adding a tiny bit of complexity to each lesson, and after a month or so, it will be obvious when you look back that you’re closer to your goals.  Hopefully, that will give you the needed motivation to proceed in the same way for the next month.

There’s no need to focus on one behavior until it’s complete.  I almost never do that because it’s boring for me and I think it can put too much emphasis (read: Pressure) on that one thing.  I find it’s better to use as much variety as possible and over time, circle around so that you cover all of the needed bits. Just a little complexity over here and a little over there….until we have the picture I want.

if you train with tiny bits of complexity, then one day you will have reached your needed set of goal behaviors.  You can’t miss.

But what if you don’t have any goals in training?  What if you just like to train your dog and mess around?  That’s fine too!  You can add complexity if it takes you closer to your “happiness”  or “skill” goals but if not, then it doesn’t matter. There is no greater good in dog training if everyone is content.

But if you want to progress towards a specific thing, then this is an easy way to do it if you don’t want to create charts and structure to keep you on track.

It’s all about finding what works for you.

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Personal Play with a mouthy dog

Dogs that love to work and to play tug (bite!) can be a challenge in the world of personal play.  The might enjoy the contact but they find the delay between the start of training and an opportunity to win a favored toy to be frustrating.

This is no problem.  I still play with the dog but I give them a toy to hold. Then I play mostly with the dog and pull on the toy only enough to prevent frustration and to ensure that everyone is actually having a good time.  In this way we can slowly move to play without a toy.  There’s no timeline on this; if it takes a year that’s fine with me.  During that year I’m learning all about my dog – how he likes to play.  When. Where. For how long, etc.  It’s a good learning experience for everyone!

I also blend in a bit of work here.

This video is a good example of both Stage 3 and Stage 4 engagement. I start my training with basic engagement work; I want to know that my dog has, indeed, bought into the game and wants to do this “thing” with me.

If you’d like to learn more about engagement and how I’ve tweaked it to make it better, please join me for my webinar, Acclimation and Engagement 2.0: From Training to Competition Thursday at 3pm PT.  We’ll talk about acclimation, engagement, and the process of moving from engagement in training to competition readiness – when you have no more toys or food to reinforce behavior.

 

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Mental Frameworks for training

When you’re working with a dog, you can start your approach with different mental frameworks, and any of them is likely to get you where you want to go.

You can focus on the observable behavior, the emotions that underly that observable behavior, or the arousal level.

Emotions – what do you think the dog is feeling? If it’s negative, what can you do to change that? For example; Dog is running through the house barking hysterically. What is the dog feeling that is causing that? Happy and excited? Fearful? Frustrated? Address the underlying emotion and the behavior will improve. If I think the emotion is negative, I’ll probably work pretty hard to fix that rather than worrying about what I see or the dog’s arousal level. What can I do to make the dog feel better? Better behavior and arousal will follow if you get the dog in a positive emotional state.

Behavior – Dog is running through the house barking hysterically. What are you observing? Feet moving! Dog zooming! How can you change what the dog is doing? Likely you will focus on identifying what happened before it all started up and intercede at that point. You may give very little attention to guessing about how the dog is feeling emotionally – just change the behavior itself.

Arousal – Dog is running through the house barking hysterically. What is the dog’s arousal level? High! What knobs can you turn that will bring down that level of arousal to what you want to see in the house? Can you intercede at the point (in the future) where you notice the arousal level escalating? Change the arousal level and better behavior will follow.

What is interesting is that any of those three is perfectly likely to work and may give you the same plan. And ideally, you are aware of all three frameworks when you’re trying to change behavior.

For Dice, I find it helpful to think in terms of arousal – if I drop his arousal level there is no problematic behavior and that simplifies the process in my head. Of course, I’m observing behavior and I’m aware of what emotions might be behind that behavior but they are not my focus.

And when I’m training skills I tend to think in terms of all three – emotions (is he enjoying this?) arousal (Right motivator for the task at hand?) and behavior (do I like what I”m getting here?) Probably of the three my greatest focus is on emotions – if I keep him happy I can get the right arousal level easily and behavior is the least of my worries – happy dogs in the right arousal state are very easy to train for skills.

These are interwoven ideas. Any of them can get you from here to there – which is most comfortable for you?

Words matter. Frameworks matter – they set how our brain proceeds and pull our attention. Not good or bad but interesting to contemplate.

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Book resources for your pet dog

There is nothing like the excitement of adding a four-legged friend to your family. The anticipation of waiting for a new puppy from a breeder, or the first meet and greet with an adult dog from a local rescue are sure to bring joy to the entire family. You envision your new pal lying quietly at the hearth while you read the newest bestseller in your chair nearby. Long, peaceful walks through the countryside are imminent as you both enjoy the solitude of the great outdoors. Without fail, your new pup brings back the ball every time you throw it at the local park. 

As with most things in life though, our expectations rarely match reality. Instead of quiet evenings and peaceful walks, your 60 lb. beast claws his way onto your lap to grab your book and play “Can’t Catch Me!” You have sprained your wrist as the new puppy wraps the leash around your ankles and sends you toppling into the bushes on the wilderness trail, and when you threw the ball at the park, your new best friend headed off to join the wedding party at the other end of the park. 

You are not alone. Whether you intend to have a companion pet in your home, or you are embarking on a journey to compete in the dog sports world, everyone experiences the sometimes magical, often chaotic adventure of their new dog. The initial step to re-aligning your vision with reality is to locate resources, guides, and mentors to help set you up for success in building a strong, positive relationship with your companion. 

Blogger Dog, Brito! Is the perfect book to offer your family a dog’s perspective on what a new dog may be experiencing as they enter your lives. Like you, your dog may be excited about this opportunity to join your family, but his past experiences will have created expectations of what’s to come. Brito tells his story in such a way as to provide a guideline to meeting the physical, emotional, and mental needs for a new dog or puppy. Blogger Dog, Brito! may be geared toward the younger members, but he is sure to bring laughter to the entire family as you learn to fall in love with the “specialness” of your own, unique pup. 

After accepting your new reality with the help of Brito, you are ready to take control of your own destiny by teaching your dog how to interact with the world. Beyond the Backyard is a training plan that works in real-life situations and goes beyond basic manners. With a firm grasp on how dogs learn, you will be ready to reclaim that notion of blissful companionship.

Blogger Dog, Brito! and Beyond the Backyard are both available ON SALE here: https://denisefenzi.com/books/

If you are looking for additional assistance training your pet, sign up here:  

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Building drive or appropriate redirection of an innate need?

We all know that dogs and people need exercise, and if they don’t get enough you can see problems develop. Kids stuck in the house may well begin to scream and run and beat up their siblings – they’re not getting their need for physical exercise met so they’re finding outlets that you don’t like very much.

On the other hand, if you (or your kids) get a ton of exercise, rather than “meeting a need”, what you may be doing is building your endurance, so now you have a cycle – exercise to clear your head, develop your endurance, need more exercise, etc.

I see “breed appropriate” outlets the same way. Some dogs really do appear to need outlets for their needs, needs such as high levels of desire to bite or hunt, desire to chase, etc, and their own choices might no be so great from your point of view. A dog who wants to chase might chase…cars, people, bikes, etc.

So an outlet might be….frisbee, ball play, playing with other dogs, chasing squirrels at the park, etc. All good options!

But we also need to remember that we are creating both stamina and desire for those outlets because the drives/outlets that you use are the ones you build.

So how does one handle this? If the dog needs an outlet to be satisfied, you don’t have access to the root interest (such as sheep for a border collie), but too much makes the interest stronger?

Don’t allow inappropriate outlets. The more your dog chases cars or bikes or whatever, the stronger the development of that outlet will become.

Select outlets that you can maintain and that work for you. Playing ball, frisbee, or chase with the neighbor’s dog or the squirrels in the park are great options but with two caveats: be aware that you are also building up that endurance, and keep an eye on your future interests with that dog – might you encounter conflict?

For example, if your prey outlet is playing with dogs and you plan to compete in agility, that’s fine BUT be aware that the sight of dogs running agility may cause you some issues. This doesn’t mean it WILL cause you issues but you will need to pay attention and head off problems at the pass if you see them developing.

The other area to keep an eye on is your dog’s behavior after engaging in your chosen activity. After a short period to calm down, your dog should look relaxed and satisfied – at least for a good while. If your dog appears more agitated as a result of the activity, something isn’t working there. Head in a new direction. As with all things, the behavior of the dog should drive your choices for that dog.

The more you do of an activity that the dog enjoys, the more the dog will want to do it, so pick wisely.

 

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Cooperation and Control

Cooperation and Control

Imagine This. A small child walks over and holds out his toy car for you to admire. You reach out, pick it up, and….

You put it in your pocket.

How cooperative do you think that child is going to be with you in the future?

We do things like this to our dogs. They fetch a toy, release it at our request, and we take it away – into our pocket, and then ask them to work. Then we complain that they don’t play fetch. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to play with you either.

The trick to gaining cooperation is considering your interactions with your dog from their point of view, and then asking yourself, for every interaction, how can you add value to that event?

For example, if your dog fetches their toy, rather than taking it away you might admire it and then bring to life a second toy without ever asking for the first, to start developing a pattern of cooperation. That game can quickly turn into the game of “switch”, which you’ve seen frequently if you’ve watched my videos training dice. Dice has a high level of possession, and yet he will comfortably switch from a low or no value object (fetching a piece of plastic that I request) to a high-value object like a tug toy, and then back again – letting go of his high value tug to grab the plastic – simply because he trusts that I will make it work for him.

Maybe what your dog wants most when they bring you their toy is to play tug. So if we attach a “number scale of value” to this event, maybe holding the toy in their mouth is good for a 3, fetching the toy is good for a 6, and playing tug with you is good for an 8.

Great! Let them bring you the toy to play tug! And if they don’t bring it to you? That’s fine; they can keep it at the level of a 3.

But, you say, then the dog has won! They have the toy!

They may win the battle but you’ll win the war. Now they have a data point to compare to in the future when they do bring it back and get a crazy good game of tug out of you. They may not figure that out the first day, but they figure it out pretty darn quickly. Remember, training is for the long haul – who cares what happens on one day? Give your dog the power to choose – they’ll choose what you want if you set up training to make that happen – eventually.

The more time you spend interacting with your dog in this way, the more they realize that allowing you to lead the dance works out better. They will voluntarily cede control, and now you both win. But for this to work you have to develop the habit of considering your dog’s point of view. What can the dog get without cooperating? What can you add to the package to make cooperation the better choice?

Let’s use agility as an example. You place your dog on the start line, walk out, your dog ignores your stay cue, and you run anyway! The dog wins that round.

Let’s try again. You put your dog on a stay and your dog blows past you. You don’t get upset; you laugh it off, tell them they’re silly and adorable, and when they are ready you return them to the start line, simplify it a bit (don’t go so far?) and give it another shot!

What happens next? Well, if the dog stays, what can you do to make that run more exciting for the dog than the one where they went on their own? Quite a bit! Because when you failed to run with your dog – but didn’t get upset about it – what you are teaching your dog is that it’s not actually possible to run agility without you. Agility is a team sport that requires two players and your dog can’t do it without you. I mean, your dog might take a few obstacles and run amok, but I’ve never seen a dog do agility on their own, so it doesn’t matter if your dog breaks and you just wait for them, (cheerfully!) to come back and try again. (note: I’m addressing training and the start line stay, not trial stress or confusion or whatever else leads to start line failure)

Cooperation results from understanding what works, what doesn’t work, and then finding a way to let the dog win “best” when they do it your way. Those messages should be communicated in training, early and often, and then moved to trial preparation when they are well and truly a part of your training relationship with your dog.

I’m perfectly happy to let my dog explore what does and does not work. I don’t care if Dice picks up random toys off the ground in training because while that has value to him, it’s nowhere near the value he will get if he brings me that toy. Or better yet, if he waits until I send him to that toy because I can add value that he cannot add himself.

If your dog does not recognize that you can add value in training, you might want to take a hard look at how you structure your training. Why does the dog think they are better off ignoring you? Is it because your dog routinely self reinforces at a high level? Is it because you don’t add enough reinforcement when you do get cooperation? Is it because you inadvertently shoot yourself in the foot, doing things like taking away your dog’s toys and putting them in your pocket? Is it because you yell no and add corrections so your dog’s mental model is to fight with you – how to get around you rather than working with you?

Your goal should be to create such a habit of cooperation and valuing your presence in the training game that it is all your dog knows how to do. Once you have that, the rest is easy.

On another note:

If you have a new puppy or a “new to you” dog that you’d like to prepare for dog sports in the future, read the description for my “Staged to Engage; Pre-Engagement Strategies” Webinar that I’ll be teaching this Thursday evening at 6 pm PT, and then register here.  The purpose of this webinar is to get you thinking early in the process about your decision making, and how your choices have consequences – not necessarily good or bad consequences, but consequences that will make future training and home life either easier or more difficult for you.  We’ll look at things like making decisions about basic manners, playing with your dog, using reinforcers in a way that keeps their value balanced over time, socialization, and a little bit more!  Interested?  Register here.  Note that I taught this webinar once before around 2018, so if you watched it then, this will be a similar enough repeat that you can skip it this time!

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Clarity within learning

Let’s consider the idea of Clarity within the teaching process itself – once learning has begun.

If you think about it for a moment, true clarity, the dog being clear on what is required, is impossible with a trainee. If the dog knew what you wanted you wouldn’t be teaching it, and the less clarity that exists, and the harder it is for the dog to figure it out, the more frustration the learner will experience. Frustration expresses as stressing up or shutting down, depending on the dog. How quickly a learner expresses signs of frustration are a combination of genetics and the animal’s learning history; prior success with learning will create a more resilient and less frustrated learner. So how does one increase clarity – progress to a new behavior as quickly and painlessly as possible?

Let’s think about teaching on a continuum from pure luring with an exceptionally high rate of reinforcement to pure shaping with very little reinforcement.

At first glance, it might appear that pure luring with a high rate of reinforcement is the solution. The dog is eating! So – happy and unfrustrated, yes?

Not really. Because there is another consideration – the value of puzzling.

Luring is effectively a buffet and shaping is a puzzle. Both are useful, but if you offer a buffet to a full learner it’s not much fun and if your puzzle is too hard (or too easy) then that’s not much fun either. The trick is the right amount of puzzle with the occasional buffet, according to the preferences of you and your learner.

Animals enjoy puzzles; the trick with a puzzle is getting it right. If it’s too easy it’s boring and if it’s too hard it’s frustrating.

And how about the buffet, does everyone enjoy a buffet? No. Buffets are a lot more appealing to individuals who could care less about the work itself or solving puzzles – they simply want the reinforcement. Not all dogs are interested in eating past a basic level of satiation; some take great value in the activity and working with a handler as a source of reinforcement and that is a quality that should be nurtured, not discouraged.

There is also the reality of progress. As mentioned earlier, the true source of clarity is understanding what is required, so your choices – buffet or puzzling – must move the learner towards the final behavior as expeditiously as possible.

What’s the solution?

Clarity comes from the right amount of participation from the trainer (helping) and the learner (puzzling). What is “right” will vary by the team; the skill and preferences of both the learner and the trainer need to be taken into account.

In shaping, appropriate handler help comes in the form of structuring the environment so the dog is likely to hit on the correct solution quickly and frequently – that means rewarding small increments of success. Not so small and structured that the dog isn’t using their brain at all (let the dog be a part of the process!) but not so free form that the dog feels adrift and guessing, left to their own ability to stay in the game as frustration rises.

In luring, appropriate handler help comes by regularly giving the dog a chance to demonstrate what has been learned, in tiny doses, and stepping in immediately with help when the dogs’ behavior suggests that they are not ready to take ownership of the expectation, or that the path selected is not communicating what is required to the learner.

Both methods work. Select the one that fits the specific dog and handler in question at the given time, sliding back and forth with how much you open up a buffet and how much you allow the dog to puzzle.

At the end of the day, it’s the learner’s behavior that informs you if you’re succeeding. Signs of frustration in a dog such as barking, panting, offering random behaviors, wandering away or disconnect, etc., are LATE signs of distress; look for the earlier signs such as glancing away, a delay before beginning the next repetition or just the slightest change in the learner’s enthusiasm from what you know is the normal baseline. When you see those early signs emerging, you may or may not change course, but you need to recognize them because over time “what happens next” after those early signs is how you will become more sophisticated in your training of that given learner.

The thing to hold on to here is that clarity in the learning process is impossible; our best middle ground is discovering the correct amount of support vs. puzzles for the learner and setting up sessions that allow for a good deal of success while paying attention to your dog’s opinion of the whole experience.

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My favorite heeling game

This is the most basic heeling game that I work with my own dogs, and I work it a lot. For life.

Every move is followed by its opposite. So….hard control to the inside (left pivot) is followed by a fast spin the opposite way (effectively a right or about turn).

There is often a side step as I transition from the driving direction (clockwise) to the control direction (counter clockwise). That sidestep cues him to switch to control and get ready.

I am giving him a ton of hand help to keep his feet on the ground and his head high when he pivots to the left and then again to push and drive forward to the right. In general, dogs that leap on left turns/left pivots are doing so because fine muscle control is hard for them, so I’m pushing that issue and letting his body practice the movement before I ask him to do it for himself.

 

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What Do I Like?

Dice is 18 weeks old.  My primary focus is finding ways to expose him to the world while keeping him out of mischief – not a simple matter with a high drive puppy who isn’t content to just watch the world go by.  He wants to engage with something; if he engages with me it is either work or play.  If he engages the environment it is attempting to chase cars, bicycles, or birds, digging obsessively, eating bad things, barking at dogs, hunting critters in the grass, etc.  In other words, there’s not much “just being” going on.

Which is fine – I signed up for this and got what I asked for. Now I take responsibility for molding him in the direction that works for us.

Here’s a typical training session; one of those interludes when he is occupied and out of trouble.  For today’s blog, go a little further than just watching what he’s learning.  Ask yourself – which activities does Dice enjoy and which are not very popular?  If you can’t tell, then I’m doing a good job.  If some stand out rather obviously as not popular, then that is evidence that I should have changed something.

It’s my job to figure out which things he enjoys and to use them to reinforce things he enjoys less.  If I don’t know which activities he does not enjoy, then I cannot go to extra trouble to build their value.

How does one build the value of less intrinsically valued activities?

 Figure out which ones they are
Choose less distracting environments as much as possible for those activities
Use a higher rate of reinforcement or a higher value reinforcer when working on these activities
Keep the total number of repetitions down
Follow less popular activities with more popular activities.

Here is today’s video – what do you think?  I give the answers below.

Ready?

His favorite activities are generally heeling for a toy, platform with impulse control, automatic down after releasing the toy,

His middle activities are fronts, scent work, nose touch, and jump to a stand.

His least favorite activities are circling the cone, holding a dumbbell, down/crawl backwards.

As an interesting side note, he’s usually fine with down/crawl and I would have put it in the middle pile on most days.  But today?  Nope.  Not wanting to do it very much.

How can I tell?

Does he looks around during the exercise? Are his ears up?  How many repetitions before I start seeing unwanted changes to his demeanor?  Does he lead the way to the activity if he knows what it is or offer it on his own if there are props involved?    Does raising the rate of reinforcement without making other changes create a more enthusiastic picture or is more required to get me where I want to be?  Can he perform well in non distracting environments but loses focus in more public or outdoor spaces like this one, compared to other activities that he enjoys more?

Note that some exercises will always be more or less favored and others will vary, so this analysis is something you do on a regular basis.  Also, be prepared to change your analysis on the fly to bring out the best in your dog.

Give it some thought with your own dog.  What does your dog enjoy?  How do you know?  How do you structure your sessions to take advantage of preferred activities next to less preferred activities in order to improve your dog’s attitude?

This exercise was helpful to me as well and I can see where I need to make a few changes.  Excellent!  That’s the value of video.

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