As I've mentioned before, Hannah the Dog is a good girl. She's eager to please, obedient, and sweet. She's also chronically injured and while I'd like to take her for runs with me or let her loose in the dog park, I just can't take the risk that she'd have a flare-up of her injury. So what that means is that a physical release of energy isn't really an option for her, so we focus on using her brain and her sniffer.
1) Be Consistent
We do training for five to ten minutes a day, twice a day. This is non-negotiable for us. She earns her breakfast and dinner and she's excited to work for us. It's really fun, actually. Fun to watch her learn new things and fun to watch her strengthen her skills. Most of our training revolves around basic commands and personal grooming.
Try to be consistent within humankind, as well. It doesn't do the dog any good if her people are giving her contradictory signals. Everyone should use the same key words for each command. Make sure the humans are on the same page about basic rules (on the couch? on the bed? allowed to chew the towel?). Dr. BB and I have different styles with Hannah - he's much more strict about her position in heel, for example - but we're consistent enough that she just makes slight modifications for who she's dealing with.
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| Here we are practicing a sit stay and it will end with a come command. We frequently do mini-training sessions on our walks, but that's optional. |
The basics: Loose leash walking, sit, down, stay (Hannah is lazy and loves a down stay, so she almost always lays down - this is not ideal, so we're working on her staying in a sit, as well as working on a stand stay), release from whatever move we're doing, leave it, go to "place"
Personal grooming: Brushing, nails/footpads/ears checked, nails filed, rolling over to the side for tick checks
Fun stuff: We do some basic dance moves - winding between my legs, twirling, walking in a circle, walking between my legs, backing up
Building up confidence: Lots of "touching" of things that she's scared of, doing work with a hula hoop and box (two paws in, all paws in, sit inside, two paws out, walking around), platforming on surfaces she's uncertain of
Sniffing: Hide and seek with her kibble is her favorite and if we do a few rounds of this, she's exhausted. She's also terrible at it, so her nose isn't quite as good as I would have imagined. We also have started trying to hide kibble under a red Solo cup and have her nose it, but she's not terribly interested in this game. She's still learning.
2) Always Have Treats
I almost always have kibble in my pockets. If Hannah does something I want to encourage, I give her kibble. This is almost always cat related. Zelda the Cat goes running into the dining room and Hannah gives chase until she gets to the dining room doorway? Hannah gets treats for not continuing the chase (the dining room is where we've always called her back). Hannah the Dog goes to her place (an overturned black food dish for horses we've trained her to go to) when she comes inside of running off before we can take off her harness or dry her off? She gets a treat. We're just always reinforcing the behavior we want.
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| I had to take Hannah up some stairs recently and noticed her heeling on the stairs was atrocious. So we practice one weekend on the stairs of our local junior high school. We must have gone up and down these stairs a dozen times. She was game. |
3) Modify For Your Dog's Interests and Abilities
In my mind, I see Hannah racing through an agility course, going through tunnels and running up and down teeter totters. Unfortunately, Hannah is scared to go inside tunnels (she likes to have her eyes on us at all times and not in scary dark areas) and her mobility issues make it so that jumping and climbing are bad ideas for her. I desperately wanted a dog to roll over and play dead, but Hannah's back problems mean that rolling over is a terrible idea for her.
So I had to regroup. Hannah loves obedience training. Her tail is wagging nonstop when we're doing it. She's interested in hide and seek (the tail! her nose! her whole body shaking with excitement!). So that's what we do.
Not all dogs like to fetch. Not all dogs like to play hide and seek. Not all dogs like to stay for five minutes at a time. Not all dogs like to run agility courses. But your dog likes something, so figure that out and help your dog learn to do it better than she currently does it.
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| She didn't want to go up on that stump. She was scared of it. But we persevered. Many dogs have innate confidence, but a lot of rescues are uncertain about things. Be patient. |
4) Have Fun
Hannah makes mistakes. She's not always quick to learn. We've been working on this red Solo cup thing for weeks. And we've been working on trying to get her to push a cardboard box with her paw for months. She's sometimes stubborn and just won't do things (sit stay ALWAYS turn to a down stay with Little Miss I Lay Down When I Can). We don't always agree on what's fun! I love to practice her winding between my legs, but she's not a fan. Don't get angry/frustrated/sad. It's supposed to be fun for you and your dog.
If your dog has a "miss" three times, go back to something the dog has down solidly. Then you can get your confidence up and try again later. Hannah's quirk to let us know that's she unhappy, bored, or scared by something is that she just lays down. One time at an obedience class, the trainer was trying to get Hannah to jump over an obstacle and Hannah walked as far as she could to end of the leash and just laid down. I immediately jumped up and took control of Hannah and explained that it was her "stress cue" to me. Whenever she exhibits that behavior, I just let her rest for a minute or two and then dive right back in.
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| Off leash to practice stay and come. Plus she gets to run around and be adorable. |
5) To Class or Not To Class
Speaking of classes, I think all puppies should go to puppy class. I think the socialization is good for puppies and most puppies like other puppies. I think most dogs should go to Canine Good Citizenship (CGC) class or something similar, as long as your dog isn't super reactive to other dogs. I think some dogs should continue on to more advanced classes - dogs who like to be around other dogs, aren't leash reactive, and show interest and enjoyment in classes.
Hannah likes classes. She likes other dogs, she's happy to learn new things, and she's a good sport about looking like a doofus when she doesn't know how to do something.
But some dogs don't need it. They are content to work for five minutes a day on sit/stay/roll over and they don't need to learn how to stay in a sit when other dogs are running around them.
There are also real dangers to classes. In our CGC class, there was a mean dog. That mean dog lunged at Hannah (and another dog named Eli) multiple times. The mean dog BIT Eli when I had handed Hannah off to another person to do a supervised separation. The trainer in charge yelled at the mean dog and dominated him and I immediately ran to get Hannah, but the damage was done. She was shaking and scared and refused to go back in the building.
We haven't been to a class since February because of Covid stuff, but I'm not sure if we will return or not. She's a sensitive soul and I want classes to be fun for her, not traumatic.
Any tricks you know for training a dog the lazy way?
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