Train N Treat: Doggy Life Skill #4 - Teaching "Down"

Today, in our dog-friendly training tip for enlightened dog lovers - Chief Cheery Officer (CCO) Kiyo takes his next trick lying down!

Kiyo (L) and Rose (R) are comfortable enough 
to lie down in close proximity

We may not think or know it, but a dog will lie down only when it's comfortable in a particular situation. If there are many distractions that the dog hasn't learnt to cope with yet, you may see your dog lie down for a brief moment, then it bobs up again, and it's unable to settle for some time.

In this video, Kiyo, CCO (Chief Cheery Officer) of cheerfuldogs.com shows how you can teach "Down" to your dog in tiny steps until you get the full behaviour. Note that the verbal cue, "Down" is only said once each time and not repeatedly.

From: Nee Kang (2013). "Survival Among Humans. A How To Guide To A Sociable Dog". In Apple iBookstore (select countries, e.g. USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland).

Train N Treat: Doggy Life Skill #3 - Does Your Dog Really Know "Sit"?

Today, in our dog-friendly training tip for enlightened dog lovers - Chief Cheery Officer (CCO) Kiyo demonstrates that he will sit for, and on everything!

Every dog can sit, but it doesn't always know that the sound of the word "sit" coming from you, means to put its butt down on the ground! Here's how you translate for your dog so that it'll sit promptly and willingly each time, as demonstrated by Kiyo, CCO (Chief Cheery Officer) of cheerfuldogs.com

From: Nee Kang (2013). "Survival Among Humans. A How To Guide To A Sociable Dog". In Apple iBookstore (select countries, e.g. USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland).

Train N Treat: Why Do We Use Food Rewards in Training?

From Tuesday 1 Oct 2013, cheerfuldogs.com will post a "Train N Treat" column which will be available every alternate Tuesday until "the cows come home". We hope that you'll enjoy the little training secrets that Chief Cheery Officer Kiyo, will share with you. If he hasn't approved the training method, it's not going into our trainer's toolkit :)!

Today, in our dog-friendly training tip for enlightened dog lovers - Kiyo shares the secret of why food rewards can be powerful motivators.

Using food rewards to teach Kiyo impulse control

"A dog can have different motivators to help it learn, e.g. food, play, a chance to chase something, a car ride, etc. When a dog starts learning something new, we choose the reward that motivates the dog most in that situation. 

For many dogs, food is one of the strongest natural rewards. Think of it this way - when you start a new job, your strongest motivator may be the salary. As you get better at your job, your priorities may begin to shift and you could become more motivated by other factors - enjoying your colleagues' company or appreciating the staff benefits. At the highest level, when you're thoroughly enjoying what you do, you work for job satisfaction.

For CCO Kiyo, food, car rides, swimming 
are some of his favourite motivators

Similarly, a food reward to a food-motivated dog is like the initial salary - it pays well and sets the pace of learning. As the dog gets better at performing the desired behaviour, food rewards may become integrated with other rewards (e.g. a game of tug with you, a tummy rub, etc.). The behaviour eventually becomes second nature to your dog. However, just as you wouldn't appreciate not being paid a salary when performing well at work has become second nature to you, neither should you expect your dog to completely forfeit its tangible rewards. That's when you put in place a 'variable bonus' reward system - better performances earn better rewards. That way, your dog continues to work willingly and cheerfully, as you and your dog hone your skills together, as a family."

Question:

What other kinds of rewards does your dog love?

A Picture Story of CCO Kiyo

Chief Cheery Officer Kiyo of cheerfuldogs.com

Almost every year, J flies in and (is) volunteered to take candid shots of our Chief Cheery Officer Kiyo. By nature, J much prefers to let sleeping dogs lie, but over the years, she has come to be quite the doting aunty of our CCO - his "ruggedly handsome" looks are persuasive enough for her to allow mysterious parcels filled with doggy stuff to be delivered to her front porch in suburban USA :). And when it comes to catching those fleeting moments on camera, J is unburdened by trainer's pride, and so she only has one thing to focus on - Kiyo, in all his 'glory'.

Here then, is a  whirlwind peek at what we got last week, in no particular order. Our CCO approves. We hope you do too!

The colour of gold...

Keeping our CCO spiffy

Exercising his mind?

Hmm... his muscles?

His impulse control?

Change of scenery - potty break

Strolling in the park...though we didn't expect the mud!

On your mark, get set, GO!

Puppy days are here again...

Off for more fun...

Not quite Loch Ness, though Scotland is the ancestral seat

East Coast Park would do for water games...

Mirroring of expressions...

As you can tell, we love how the water droplets are captured...

Little moments...

And just having some silly fun together!

May I have this dance?

This is living and loving life with Kiyo!

Thanks for reading!

Train N Treat: Helping your Dog Cope with Something Scary

From Tuesday 1 Oct 2013, cheerfuldogs.com will post a "Train N Treat" column which will be available every alternate Tuesday until "the cows come home". We hope that you'll enjoy the little training secrets that Chief Cheery Officer Kiyo, will share with you. If he hasn't approved the training method, it's not going into our trainer's toolkit :)!

Today, in our dog-friendly training tip for enlightened dog lovers - Kiyo shares how he overcame his fear of having eye-drops dribbled into his eyes. The same "Bad = Good" game can be tweaked to help your dog cope with scary situations.

"If your dog, Fido, loves having his ears cleaned, nails trimmed, teeth brushed and even eye-drops dribbled into his eyes, you’re a very lucky owner. Hug Fido (if he loves being hugged too) and reward him for doing a great job!

But not all dogs naturally enjoy being handled in certain ways, e.g. nail trims and ear cleaning, and can become scared and stressed by it. However, we can make things easier by helping them grow accustomed to being groomed or handled The first step of the learning process is always for your dog to form a positive and rewarding association with what it's not instinctively comfortable with.

From flinching and turning away from the eye-drop bottle,
Kiyo now holds still for his daily eye-drop application

When our dog, Kiyo (in the photo), needed a cataract operation, it was a struggle to apply eye-drops, as it was clearly a no-go zone for him. Instead of escalating the conflict, we turned to an evergreen training tip and made something ‘bad’ into something ‘good’ for Kiyo. Here’s a step-by-step guide that you can re-engineer for many scary situations for your dog. But if you’re not sure, do seek help from a reputable professional dog behaviourist or trainer. Your dog will thank you for it!

Read: “Putting the ‘Good’ into Something ‘Bad'"



Postscript: In case you're wondering how a game created for applying eye-drops could be tweaked to say, help a dog that lunges, barks and spins when it sees another dog - enjoy these pictures :). Because rewards-based, positive and humane training works!

Muffin with Chief Cheery Officer (CCO) Kiyo.
After Muffin was unfortunately attacked by 2 dogs some time ago, he'd spin, bark, growl and sometimes redirect his reactivity towards his humans. The "Bad=Good" game helped Muffin re-associate positive consequences with another dog and he was able to meet and chill out with Kiyo.

Rose with Kiyo.
Just like with Muffin, Rose would lunge, bark and spin when she saw dogs, even at a distance.
The "Bad=Good" game again helped Rose be able to hang out with Kiyo.