Teaching Your Dog to Do Nothing

Dogs do all kinds of things you don't want them to do: jump up, counter surf, chase the cat, etc. Some of it is instinct, some of it is cute puppy behavior that turns into obnoxious adult behavior, and some of it is learned behavior. A lot of these behaviors can be avoided or trained away by training your dog to do...nothing. In other words, reward calm behavior regularly.

My latest project has been to train Hera to do nothing around goat kids, cats, and children. The first important part of this is that I always put her on leash around those three things, or behind a fence. I do not want to give her the opportunity to do anything with them if I'm not there to correct it. Otherwise unwanted behaviors will be reinforced and will be harder to break.

For training sessions I usually clip the leash to my belt buckle or belt loop so I can have both of my hands free. I keep a treat pouch around my waist (actually a pouch for rock climbing chalk) and a clicker around my right wrist. Now I simply go where the cats, children, or goat kids are and walk around. I click my clicker and give Hera a treat for just standing there, or sitting, or laying down, or averting her gaze, or interacting appropriately. Technically I am not rewarding her for doing nothing, but that can be what it looks like. I am simply rewarding her for appropriate behaviors.

Sometimes she will get excited and try to chase or jump. Sometimes her tail starts to wag, her ears perk up, and her eyes get sharp (this is mostly around the cats). I do not punish her for any of these things. I want her to like the training and I want her to like being in the presence of the other animals so I do not do anything to make it negative or scary. Instead I change directions which requires her to follow me, or I make a noise, or step on the leash, or otherwise distract her so she forgets or does not follow through with the behavior. If she is over threshold and won't listen or follow then I am too close to the other animals or my leash is too long and I step back until she can listen.

Sometimes she isn't sure what she needs to do or what I want her to do. It's okay to give her a hint. My goal with Hera is to have her behave like a typical livestock guardian dog (LGD): to lay there in a lazy one-eyed sleep, aroused only to chase off a threat. Zeus is excellent at this so he literally gets treats like crazy for just laying around doing nothing. Hera can see that is a behavior that get's rewarded.

But Hera is a teenager, she needs a little help, so I say, "Down, Hera". She sits and looks at me for a minute, hoping that is good enough. But LGDs don't usually sit, they lay so as to be very non-threatening to the livestock. She doesn't get a treat for sitting so down she goes. As soon as she is down I click with my clicker and give her a treat. Sometimes she gets back up to get the treat but that's okay. If she stays down the first treat is followed by a second treat. A better one. And then a third. If she continues to stay down I give her a treat every few seconds.* I give her a treat if a goat steps near or over her and she stays down. I give her a treat if I walk around her and she stays down.

A behavior she offers for the nanny goat regularly is showing her belly. This may not be something you want, because it may only happen if your dog is afraid of the goat and you do not want your LGD to have a fear response that could someday escalate to aggression. But this was a behavior Hera offered from the very first day she came to me without ever having been threatened by my goats. For her it was very automatic, so it's something I watch for and reward in her particularly. She has never shown this behavior toward the kids though, only play behavior.

I call Hera over to me and have her follow me. The kids follow me too hoping for a bite of grain (I carry a treat bag for them too). As soon as Hera goes down, I start the treat dispenser again. Sometimes one of the goat kids tries to challenge her. The goat turns and lowers her head and prepares to butt. Hera butts back, or tries to jump on its back. I hold the leash tight preventing her. I do not want her to defend herself in this situation. I want her to back off or show submission like she does for the mother. She isn't getting it so I say, "Hera, down." Down she goes. Good girl! Lots of treats!

If I was able to do this several times a day this would go really fast. Neither the goats or dogs want to work in the heat of the day and I'm busy with my human kids in the morning so training sessions can only be in the evenings. But they are still working. It's slow progress but the "downs" and the "stays" and the calmness improve every time. Even with the cats.

Just this morning the kittens followed me out to the pasture. Hera perked up and prepared for the chase. The morning routine is to take Hera out of the large pasture and put her in a smaller paddock for the day so she can't chase the goat kids. She knows the routine well and runs to her paddock without a leash and without turning to the side. But with the kittens there I did not dare let her run off leash so I attached a leash before I approached the gate. With her on one side and two kittens on the other I said, "down". And down she went. I gave her a treat. Her perked ears and focused eyes relaxed. I gave her another treat. She looked away from the kittens. I gave her another treat. I opened the gate expecting to need to steer her away from the kittens. But she made a beeline for her paddock as usual and completely ignored the kittens. I let go of the leash and she kept going and waited patiently for me to set the bowl down, detach the leash, and lock the gate. Good girl! By next summer she will be a model LGD!

*It is important to use small treats so you can give lots of them. The smallest treat the dog will work for. This is so they stay motivated longer and also so you do not over feed them. I use soft cat treats because they are small, easy, smelly, and tasty. Sometimes I break up small Milk Bones or other dog treats, but cat treats are so much easier. I also keep cut up duck or chicken jerky for higher reward, and a few large or extra  yummy treats for exceptional behavior. I keep track of how much I give and give that much less food at dinner time. 

Video training session July 24, 2017: This isn't the best example but it's hard to get video so I'm rolling with it. This was Hera's first time with an extended leash so the goats and her kept getting tangled up. (A friend suggested I just let the leash drag and pick it up if needed). My husband was also away so there were extra distractions of my children coming and going and shouting. Ideally you would not increase distractions and leash length at the same time.

In this video at first Hera was slow to respond to the "down" cue, and once she did it she was quick to get right back up. The first time she went down without a cue I gave her a click and a treat, and since she stayed down I gave her another treat so she would learn that staying down was more rewarding than getting back up. Next she tried to paw a goat and I got sidetracked by a goat. I made the mistake of rewarding her for just calm after I had given the cue "down". It happens, and when it does, just keep going. After a bit she went down again and was rewarded. Then she started to get up and instead just scooted and stayed down so I rewarded her for that.

At this point it's obvious that my goat needs a little training. (She is actually jumping up on me because a few days before I had trained her to get up and walk on two feet, but haven't proofed it yet--making sure she only offers the behavior with a cue. This is why her climbing on me is a bit excessive). Then we have a little distraction where everyone goes off camera and the goats try to pester my other dog who growls at them for interrupting his dinner (the camera is on top of his crate).

Hera follows with a very nice "down". Then Hera tries to run after the goats and my daughter who distracted them. I stepped on the leash in order to prevent her from being able to chase them, because the chase behavior is fun and self-rewarding. Next Hera goes down again and I stop to reward the goats for calm behavior. Hera stays with me as the goats run off. I probably should have rewarded her for this. (And then we have another interruption by Zeus growling the goats away from his crate. He is a resource guarder and had his dinner bowl so he didn't want them close).

Toward the end Hera is staying down very nicely despite many distractions so I reward her periodically. You can see the difference between the beginning and the end of the training session. She is doing great! 

Nail Trimming

I am not a pro at nail trimming by any means, but I have had a lot of friends mention troubles trying to trim their dogs' nails so I thought it would be a good thing to address.

My first Dog, Daizy's nails got really overgrown. I hate to admit it, but I didn't realize nail trimming was a thing. I've only had cats who tend to take care of their own nails. I only read about it after she had gone through the winter without a trim. I found that the Millers Forge nail clippers were highly recommended so I ordered a pair. I went to trim Daizy's nails and learned that she really hated anyone touching her paws.

I really liked this video on the Kikopup YouTube channel explaining how to help your dog relax for nail trimming. I did this with Daizy. It was a slow process and for awhile I could only trim one nail a day. But that way at least they were getting trimmed once every 10 days.

Essentially you make good things happen every time the dog sees the nail clippers--lots of praises and treats. Do it in a calm, comfortable place. Then step-by-step work on making the process comfortable and not scary: touch the paws without clippers, put clippers near the paws but not touching, clip the air nearby, touching the paws with the clippers without clipping, etc. Eventually you work up to just one clip. Then add more. Each step is followed by praises and treats. Don't move on to a new one until they are comfortable with the previous one. If the dog starts to get uncomfortable take a step back or end the session. You don't want any bad memories associated with the process.

If you keep trimming overgrown nails back regularly the quick (which is where the blood flow enters the nail) begins to recede so they can get shorter over time. That cute clicking of nails on the hard floor isn't supposed to happen, so you want to make the quick recede until the dog can walk without the nail putting pressure on the floor. That pressure can cause pain for the dog, which can then cause other problems. A great resource for proper nail trimming is the Nail Maintenance for Dogs Facebook Group.

The trimming experience will be different with each dog. I got my pup, Hera, at five months old and I don't think she'd ever had her nails trimmed, so she didn't like her paws being touched either. With her, I actually taught the "shake" cue first, and used it to get her used to her paws being touched and squeezed. Now I can ask for a shake and then quickly trim her nails before I let go of her paw. To do the back legs I just rub her belly and then she rolls onto her back. I got her used to me touching and squeezing her back feet and then started trimming. Her back feet are still hard because she wants me to stop and rub her belly, but if I get one of my kids to give the belly rub it's a cinch.

Zeus likes to keep his feet on the ground so I usually trim his while he is standing or sitting. It's a little awkward but it works. I tried using "shake"  on him as well, but he still prefers me to trim with his feet on the ground so that's what we usually do.

Trimming Zeus' nails. 

Unwanted Jumping: put it on cue and stop giving the cue

Photo by Dycie Jo Photography

It's really easy to accidentally teach your dog to jump up on people, or rather to reinforce them for doing it. Puppies do it very naturally and it's so cute and tempting to respond to when they are puppies. But when those puppies become adults it can become a real problem. And this was a problem with Hera.

I started with some training videos on the Kikopup Youtube Channel. The basic idea was 1. think about what you do want them to do and teach them to do that (it's hard for an animal to understand a negative and you have no control over what they do instead). and 2. don't reinforce jumping ("be a tree", don't give any attention, even yelling, for the jumping behavior )

First I dealt with Hera jumping on the gate when I approach the pasture. Zeus is always there with her but he is really calm so if she looked like she wanted to jump I first praised Zeus and gave him treats for being calm. She figured that out quickly and sat down; then she would get her treat. I also would not even touch the gate latch unless both dogs had four feet on the ground. The gate opening is reinforcing to her, so treats are not even necessary for the use of gate-jumping. I just like using Zeus as an example because sometimes it makes things move a little faster

When the gate was not involved I always tried the "be a tree", but I also tried to tell her to sit before she reached me so she would have an alternative behavior. The sit wasn't really working very well though. I got her when she was 5 months old so she's really just been a puppy all this time and puppies have SO much energy. I felt like I needed to channel it and give her an out somehow.

I remembered reading in Reaching the Animal Mind by Karen Pryor that she got dolphins to stop obnoxious behavior by putting it on cue, and then quit giving the cue. I decided to try that instead.

It was extremely easy to put it on cue. I used the cue "hug". I still told her to sit first, but once she did that I rewarded her with the cue for "hug" (this is using a behavior chain which I'll write about elsewhere). This way her jumping was controlled but she still got to relieve her excitement. I later changed it to "jump up" and instead of putting her paws on me I'd have her jump straight in the air. (I started this in the spring because I wasn't wearing snow gear anymore and muddy paws are no fun). The "jump up" was even better because my kids could use it and not worry about her knocking them over.

Cue for "jump up".

This approach worked really well for me. She quit jumping up on me almost entirely. However, she was still jumping up on new people and sometimes my kids because they aren't as precise with cues and training. I brought up the question with a dog training group and some of them told me that giving the cue to jump was a bad idea because it's still rewarding the behavior, even though it's more controlled.

I was hesitant to drop it because it worked with me, and I liked that she could still get her energy out. But even the book I read said to stop giving the cue once the behavior was reliably on cue. So I stopped giving the cue, even though it was fun. It really has made a difference and her jumping is getting rarer and rarer. And when I started teaching a right/left shake I realized why.

Many trained animals will start offering every behavior they have ever been rewarded for when they are seeking a reward. With Hera, jumping was one of those behaviors, and a favorite so she was more likely to choose it over others. After I started working on a right/left shake frequently it became her new "go to" behavior and now instead of jumping to try and gets treats she starts offering her paw. Much more desirable than jumping! (Except the time her paw landed on my baby's head).

So, lesson learned. Put the undesirable behavior on cue, then stop giving the cue. What a great tool!

Daizy's Story: the long version (Still Waiting for Adoption)

*Click here for Daizy's adoption profile

*Click here for Daizy's Story: the short version.

Daizy was my first dog. I never knew how much I loved dogs until I brought her home. I had recently moved to a rural property and wanted to get livestock. Many people recommended that I get a Great Pyrenees or other livestock guardian dog (LGD) that could also be a family pet. I did some breed research and decided to look for an older dog. I was going to wait until spring to get one so I could get some good fencing up and do more research. However, someone told me about a 2 year old GP nearby that was being rehomed by her owner.

I went to meet Daizy and fell in love with. her. She was such a sweetheart! Her owners had to keep her in a 10x10 kennel because she kept wandering away. They couldn't keep her in the house because she was so large and kept knocking over their small children. They loved her very much, especially the father, but they knew they couldn't keep her in the kennel and they didn't have a lot of other options. They also had to keep a shock collar on her to keep her from barking at night and disturbing the neighbors.

I didn't want to leave her like that so I decided not to wait until spring and bring her home. She was not trained as a livestock guardian but had been with horses until she started wandering. She had some food aggression around the horses but was fine with them after feeding time. My plan was to keep her in a 30x70 run until I could train her on a wireless fence with an e-collar. My neighbor was a dog trainer and was confident we could train her to respect the property boundaries over time and train her to do everything else I needed.

I joined several Livestock Guardian groups and I quickly learned that a large number of LGDs will blow right through the shock on an e-collar when sufficiently motivated (like chasing a predator), but would not be able to return home because of the shock. They would also be at a disadvantage in a fight with a predator because they would get the shock but not the predator. There are also potential side effects like the dog becoming fearful and aggressive toward all beeping noises--phones, watches, doorbells, etc.

I also quickly learned that Daizy was not good at walking on a leash, was terrified of thunder and storms in general, was an excellent digger, and hated other dogs. She kept digging out of the run and fence fighting with my neighbor's dogs about 1/2 mile away, and beyond if we didn't notice she was missing in time. I filled all her holes and reinforced the bottom of the fence, which worked fine until one thunder storm she learned she could jump over the fence. There was no containing her after that and I had no choice but to put her on a tether.

At the time I knew a tether was not ideal, but I didn't know all of the potential problems a tether could cause. There is, of course, the danger of getting caught in the tether, or having it come lose and drag behind her. If a predator came by it would keep her from protecting herself. And as I saw, over time it can cause dogs to become more aggressive. It was all I could do for the short term though.

My husband worked fast and furious and fenced off 1/2 an acre with very sturdy (and expensive) fencing and (later) we lined the bottom and top with hot wire. This finally worked to keep her contained.

In the meantime I had learned from the Livestock Guardian Dogs and Positive Training Methods Facebook page a lot about LGDs and positive training methods to work with them. It was a great place for support. I started reading books and watching videos on training and animal behavior so I could work with Daizy.

Daizy was not very food motivated, which made it hard to work with her. I started training her to leash walk just with praise and by stopping when she would pull on the leash. It worked fairly well and she got much better at not pulling. But if a car or other distraction came around it was really difficult to hold on. I had to wear gloves to walk her. I ended up taking a recommendation from someone online to buy a Walk Your Dog With Love front pull harness, which was a wonderful tool. I was pregnant even and it allowed me to prevent her from dragging me along. (I highly recommend this harness, and they have great customer service. The front of mine broke after over a year of using it and they sent me a whole new harness at their cost).

I taught Daizy basic commands like "sit" and "down". I wanted to teach her "speak" and "shush", but she really never barked unless there was a threat (read: car, animal, bird, feather blowing in the wind, etc), and she went over threshold so fast that  I couldn't teach her what speak meant, so I couldn't really teach what "shush" meant either. (I'm sure an experienced person could have done this).

I also began desensitizing her to me touching her feet so that I could trim her nails. They were getting very long and out of hand and she hated anyone touching her paws. I got to where I could trim one or two nails in a  session so I just started trimming two a day to try and get the quick to recede.  (The  Nail Maintenance for Dogs Facebook group was a good resource for this).

Since Daizy was intended to be a livestock guardian I also began training her with other animals. My adult cats would not let her anywhere near them so I couldn't really use them to train her. Someone dropped some kittens off by my house that we took in so I was able to train her to like the kittens. I would bring the kittens and a bagful of treats near her and reward her for being calm. She would sniff them and then ignore them and she got to be pretty good and calm with them. The only mishap we had was when my 2 year old daughter accidentally dropped a kitten in Daizy's food dish. She snarled and growled at the kitten which hightailed it and she was fine as soon as it was gone, and didn't hold a grudge about it the next time the kitten came around.

I also got some baby chicks and had them under a heat lamp in my garage. I brought one chick at a time in a clear plastic bin where Daizy could see but not reach it and reward her whenever she would look away or ignore the chick. I would bring it closer and closer until I could hold it by her and she would sniff it and turn away. Then I added two chicks to the bin and then three. She got really good. When the chicks came off heat I would bring their cage out where Daizy could watch but not reach them just to get her used to seeing how they behaved. She stayed nice and calm and just watched them. Someone also gave me some ducks and I started training Daizy with them in a similar manner.

One day I had them out there and I was inside eating lunch. Daizy was barking particularly persistently so I went to see what she was barking at. She was staying in one place staring me straight in the eyes. She usually runs around when barking at something so I thought it was strange. Then I realized she was standing right in front of the chick's cage and that the door was open and one of the chicks was out running around--a danger to the chick because of my cats. I was so proud of her for alerting me to the problem like a true guardian! One thing I learned about LGDs from her, and from reading, is that it is very important for them that things stay where they belong and if anything is out of place they make a big fuss about it. (Like after I added goats she made sure I knew something was wrong when the goats broke their hay feeder).

She even got much better at not jumping up on my children. She was always really hyper when we first would go to her or she would first meet someone, but after a few minutes she calmed down. I could let her walk all around my 7 month old baby and 3 year old daughter without knocking them down and they got to really like her.


Although we had made some  good progress I began to wonder if my home was the best place for her. She was still really hyper around my kids so they wouldn't give her any attention. Her aggression toward other dogs was a really big problem because LGDs are supposed to work in pairs for their good health and safety. If she would not accept other dogs I could not get her a partner. I thought maybe I could let her have a litter of puppies and she would accept her own pup as a partner, but hadn't decided on that yet. But it wasn't long before I decided her temperament should not be bred and I had her fixed immediately so if I did rehome her no one else could breed her either.

Next I bought two goat kids. My children could raise them for 4H and sell them at the county fair and I could begin training Daizy on some real livestock.  When I first got the kids Daizy was still on a tether. I put the goats in her old pen, with her tethered next to it. This way she was able to get used to them and observe their behavior without being able to reach them.

At first she was very roused by them and kept barking and posturing toward them, but it didn't last long. She got used to them and began to lay along the fence as close to them as she could like a good guardian would. The only issues were related to her food aggression. During feeding times she would bark and posture and appear to be very ferocious. One goat in particular really frustrated her because she knew Daizy could not reach her. She would completely ignore Daizy and as a result Daizy elevated her responses even more.

As she started to calm down we started to trust her more. She would get really excited when I needed to herd the ducks (which free ranged during the day) into the pens, but other than that she didn't seem too interested in them. Once my husband put her in with the ducks off leash so he could do some maintenance on her dog house and after a few minutes of initial fun-chasing, she laid under a table and just watched them. I was hopeful that I could keep them together, but discovered while filling duck food that it would not be an option unless I could find a way to completely hide the duck food from her. It appeared that if there was any food anywhere at any time, Daizy was going to guard it.

When we first finished the pasture fence I tethered Daizy inside it with the goats so they could get used to being together in such a way that the goats could get away if she decided to chase. I tethered the goats some distance away during feeding times so that there would be no food fights. After several days of watching Daizy and the goats lay down together during the day I started letting Daizy off tether with them. I saw no issues so I was hoping that she had transitioned to being a true guardian. I figured I could manage the resource guarding if that was the only issue.

Daizy did dig out of the new fence once during a thunder storm. That's when I added the electrical wire and staked down the bottom of the fence. She never got out of the fence after that. I did try moving some chickens into the pasture with her as well but that proved to be too much for her chasing instincts so I put them back in the other pen. (As a side note, it would have been a good idea for me to look into calming techniques to comfort her during storms, but I didn't even know that was a thing at the time).

Everything seemed wonderful. Daizy would still chase the goats in the evenings when she was most energetic (evening is like first thing in the morning for us). She listened to me when I told her to be calm ("calm" was a cue I had been teaching her throughout the whole process, giving her treats and petting her while she was just laying and watching things and saying "calm").

I wanted to be able to get her a companion dog because LGDs are supposed to work in pairs, and I thought it would help her burn off the excess energy and leave the goats alone, but I could not get another dog within 100 feet of her without her wanting to fight it. I had a consultation and a few appointments with a behaviorist to help me counter-condition her to other dogs. We were making a little progress but everything got interrupted shortly after.

When we shaved our goats in preparation for the county fair I discovered several puncture wounds in them that could only have been caused by Daizy. I was heartbroken because I had just made a post in the Positive Training group about how far she'd come and that I thought I would be able to keep her. The puncture wounds were like a big punch in the gut. That, and when I tried to add a rooster to her paddock she went ballistic and chased it all over the pasture (thankfully I beat her to it and put it back with the rest of the chickens).

I now had no way to separate her from the goats without a tether so once again I had to chain her. I hated her on the chain. I knew it wasn't safe, and by then I had seen that being on a tether increased her aggressive reactions when food or other triggers were present. I didn't want to make her worse. I thought about selling the goats early but if I did that she would be all alone in the pasture and that wasn't really a good solution either.

I had also noticed how she would linger by the gate and stare at the house all day just waiting for humans to come out an play with her. I finally decided that I was doing her no favors trying to keep her as a guardian any longer. Clearly she preferred to be around people and did not do well with other animals. I could not keep her as a house pet because of my small children and because I am not able to put a fence around my house/yard area.

I tried for a short time to find a new home for her myself, but I didn't feel right keeping her on a tether. I tried to get some rescues to take her but none of the Akbash, Great Pyrenees, or other LGD rescues would take her--they were too saturated already (and the GP rescue said she didn't even look pyrenees even though that's what she was sold to me as. They were convinced she was a purebred Akbash. Many other experts and breeders said the same thing).

A local Akbash breeder contacted me after seeing one of my ads and told me her age and circumstances fit a litter of Akbash puppies that were stolen from her before they were old enough to be separated from their mother. Shortly after they were stolen several "Great Pyrenees" puppies were advertised and sold in the classifieds. I had no way to verify this was true but many of her behavior problems could be connected to early separation. It also made sense that her last owner truly thought she was a pyrenees but everyone else thought she was an Akbash.

But regardless of breed, I had the paperwork all ready to fill out for the local Humane Society when a local all breed rescue, Four Paws, contacted me and let me know they found a possible foster home for her. The fosters came to meet her and the male of the household fell in love with her (anyone who meets her does). His wife was a little hesitant but they took her that day.

This was a good arrangement because she had never been inside and wasn't house trained but they had a good-sized yard with a high, sturdy fence. They had young children but she couldn't knock them over if she was outside, and it was much better than being tethered. Both Akbash and Great Pyrenees have coats that are made for all sorts of weather and Daizy has a proper double coat so living outside was no problem. Being in a backyard she was able to get lots of interaction. She stayed there for several months, but unfortunately the night barking (Akbash are nocturnal) was too much for the neighbors so Four Paws took custody of her and that's where she is today.

Four Paws has had many inquiries about her, but unfortunately most are not suitable. For some reason a lot of people request her as a service dog. I'm just going to say that I think having an Akbash as a service dog is not a good idea. Too many of them have food aggression or will not tolerate strange dogs--not a good combo for a dog you need to take in public. She'd probably make an excellent *therapy* dog, for home comfort. Just not a service dog. She is very smart and learns quickly, after all. I believe she would house train really fast.

I think what she'd love most is a nice rural home with a fenced yard and a family with older children or no children. She could even do a more residential area if she was house trained and kept inside. I do think she'd be an amazing pet and I hope she can find a wonderful home!

Why I Choose Positive Training Methods

Zeus and my three year old daughter. 

1. I had never trained an animal before so I sought out resources to help train my dog. The only resource I could find on training Livestock Guardian Dogs was the Livestock Guard Dogs and Positive Training Methods Facebook page, which predisposed me to their approach.
2. It makes sense to me from prior studies as an Early Elementary Education major and as a kindergarten teacher.  
3. I can have a real "bleeding heart" so using punishment consistently is really, really hard for me, and I believe consistency is very important. 
4. Positive Training methods fit right along with my personal philosophy of non-violence in pretty much every aspect of life. 
5. There is good science supporting it. 
6. Punishments and negative methods can have unpredictable unintended consequences. 
7. Science and logic say it is more effective to teach an animal what *to* do rather than what not to do. 
8. It's good for your relationship with your animal. 
9. It's fun! 

Learning From My Mistakes #1: Teaching Zeus to Target at a Distance

I have a desire to teach my dogs and goats how to pull carts. Livestock guardian dogs don't like to play much but the training with them is good for bonding and for obedience so I thought I'd work on some preliminary behaviors needed for cart-pulling before I invest in equipment. I don't actually think Zeus (2 year old Akbash) will ever pull a cart because he doesn't like leaving the livestock or going for walks. But I thought some of the training could be useful anyway.

I found a list of needed behaviors in the Facebook group, Dog Carting Beginners and decided left/right would be a good place to start. I found this tutorial on Karen Pryor's Clicker Training website and decided to follow it.

The tutorial seemed like it was broken up into nice small steps so I started right with it. Zeus is really good at hand-targeting so I thought it wouldn't be too hard for him. I used a soccer cone he had never seen before and got some cut up pizza--a high value food for him so I could keep him interested. Unfortunately he did not like something about the cone and wouldn't touch it or take the pizza off the top. He wasn't following my tutorial (come on, dog, play by the book!) so I was then unsure what to do.

There are lots of things I should have done but on the spot I was baffled. I lowered the criteria to just looking at the cone, but I also threw treats near it to lure him into touching the cone and marked him for that too. That was one mistake--I was marking two different criteria so the poor boy probably wasn't sure what he was really supposed to do.

Another mistake I made was when he walked away I lured him back with a treat. I should have let him walk away and ended the session so he would learn if he stopped playing the treats went away.

I posted this video in the Facebook group Clicker Training. It was a little scary posting a video where I knew I had made mistakes online because internet people can be really mean, but the group gave me some excellent advice. Here are some highlights from their advice:

• start with a hand target--something he already knows and has a history of positive reinforcement with--to build confidence and interest
• add an object in my hand before putting it on the ground
• go more slowly and keep the session short
• try higher value treats if he doesn't seem excited
• mark only one criteria at a time
• He learned he could get me to click just for looking so he trained me to give him less work

The next training session I tried using the cone in my hand. He touched it with his nose twice out of curiosity, which I rewarded him for. But then he turned his head and refused to look at the cone unless I put it behind my back. It was a "maybe if I pretend it isn't there it will go away" type of look. Silly dog. So I decided I didn't need to use the cone because it falls over easily anyway. 

The next time I started with and hand target, then held his food dish handing in my fingers below his palm and asked him to touch my hand with the bowl hanging there. He had no trouble doing that. Next time I will ask him to touch the bowl itself. He has happy memories with his food dish so maybe this time he won't pretend it doesn't exist.

(For the record, my 1 year old Great Pyrenees learned the exercise with the cones in about 10 minutes, so I am getting to practice the full behavior with her).