That question came to me as a comment on my review of Nicole Wilde’s excellent book, Don’t Leave Me, which is on separation anxiety. It led me to an AHA moment, which I’ll get into further down.  First, here is the comment:

I borrowed a copy this book from a friend of ours. It’s a great resource and very comprehensive. My ONLY criticism is that – as is the case with most training guides – it doesn’t allow for owners whose lives are necessarily short of time. Most of us have to earn our living; some, like me, are lucky enough to be able to work at home, but even so, there is often a very full day’s work to be done, and working at home demands a very rigid and rigorous discipline. How then do we fit into that work schedule the multitude of desensitisation and familiarisation exercises that Nicole prescribes, so that on the occasions when we do have to leave our beloved hound at home he will be content and secure in the knowledge that we’ll be back before long?

Or have I misunderstood it all?

Like Marty who asked that, I too work at home and I too need to keep a strict schedule and am challenged to find enough time for the dog training I want to do. Both my dogs have some level of separation anxiety and I would especially like to do some of those exercises with our 6-year-old Rottie, Lola. When we leave for several hours, we crate her because several times when she had the run  of the house, she pulled books off the bookcases and destroyed them. Being myself a librarian and book publisher, that was much less acceptable than the sofa cushions she used to chew up when we left! (Happily, she doesn’t mind being crated with the fun toys we always include.)

No, Marty, you have NOT misunderstood in the slightest. It takes time to do anything and even more time to do it in  detail. Very few of us have a lot of spare time… heck, very few of us have any!

My AHA Moment

I will make two key points in this article, but first allow me a moment of your time to explain my AHA moment… It happens that I used to teach time management. I did some corporate consulting but mostly I taught continuing education classes and did private consulting with individuals. So I have quite a few ideas on time management and living with dogs. Also, much as I enjoy writing about dog training, I am no expert on it. So maybe Marty’s question points me in a direction where I do have a unique contribution to make!

So here are two ideas for finding time for dog training:

Tip #1: Plan a Time and Write It Down

Do you have to-do lists? Or a calendar that you make appointments on? Then plan some times for dog training. Your first appointment with yourself might be to think about what you want to do, order supplies if  any are needed, and to set up a series dates. You don’t need to make long dates; even 10 minutes 3 times a week will get you and your dog moving forward. There is something daunting about starting a new project, but if you chunk it down to small bits you are much more likely to get going. And once you are into it, it may more easily expand if you want it to.

And that bit about writing it down is really important. Study after study has shown that people who write things down are much more likely to get them done. I use an online list-making website at vitalist.com myself, and I have lots of lists there. I love the facility with which I can reorganize, postpone, and check things off! There is a free version there, and there are quite a few websites of this sort. But you can also just write things on a piece of paper on your fridge door.

Try it! And do come back here and post a comment on how it worked…

Tip #2: Apply the 80-20 Rule, Even When You Aren’t Sure How

The 80-20 rule, also called the Pareto Principle, is a really key part of how I get things done. The idea is that if you have a group of things that you want to do, 80% of the value of the things to do is in 20% of the things. For example, 80% of the dirt tends to accumulate on 20% of your floor area. Right there, you know something about how I do my housework. (Now and then I do the rest of the floors, honest!)

So applying this to training a dog to have less separation anxiety means that you don’t need to do 100% of the exercises in that book. It means that something like 20% (it’s a rule of thumb, not an inflexible universal law) of the exercises will yield close to 80% of the value of them all.

So how do you figure out which 20% to do? Start by noticing which things you were drawn to in the book, and try them first. We all have a much more powerful intuition than we necessarily take advantage of. If those things don’t work enough, think about which ones seem like the best ones to try next.

Each dog is different. Each person is different. And by using these tips, you can work out something that works the best for you and your dog.

Finding Time for Dog Training is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

This article is  so good it won a prestigious competition put on by the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. I’m a member of the association and just got an email from them. This article won the 2011 Dogwise John Fisher Essay Award. If you like it and want to read more from the competition, here is the page that lists all the first place winners back to 2001.

Now This is Dog Training! Way Beyond My Skill Level! is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

Created by Pet365 – an online stockist of dog beds, collars and accessories. Click here to view the full post.

An Amusing Infographic on Dog Training is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

Of course I didn’t say “What problem causes you to need a service dog?”  but it more or less came out in the conversation that the human is stressed by many aspects of life in public. (He may be a veteran of one of our recent wars, I don’t know. His story made me think of Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him, a compelling book I read recently. )

This guy said that the dog has learned to notice when he is becoming anxious or tense, and that the dog is attentive and close to him at those times. He and a dog trainer in a nearby city trained the dog together there.

“It was quite simple,” he said. “We just took the dog with us to all the places I would have to go, onto buses and so forth. The trainer did some of the training and showed the dog what to do if I became tense.”

“He’s a beautiful dog,” I said. “Thanks for telling me.” If I run into him again, I will ask him if I can interview him more for this blog, about just what they did. The bond between the man and the dog was evident, and the dog was very relaxed. They went off, leaving me to reflect yet again on the many ways that dogs help us humans.

I Meet An Effective Service Dog, Simply Trained is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

This came up this week, as I was emailing with a woman who recently adopted a rescue dog. The dog is wonderful in most ways but did come with some emotional baggage. For some reason, she gets frightened when her new person tells her, “Lay down.”

I suggested that she try a new phrase, one that doesn’t sound like lay or like down. Nor should it should like sit, stay, or other common training words. The word that came to my mind that she could use to teach the dog to lie down was…

“Christmas!”

Of course, it’s up to the woman to choose a word she likes. I think I liked Christmas because it has a lot of happy connotations for me, so if I were  saying it to a dog, it would automatically have a jolly ring to it. It is a time of lots of treats, too, and it may take a lot of treats to get this little dog willing to lie down.

By the way, I titled this blog post with “command or cue” because command is the traditional way of describing words like come, sit, stay, etc. But with the shift to more collaboration with our dogs as we show them what we want, many people now prefer the word cue.

Of course, it isn’t just about the words. The woman may need to experiment with different ways of showing the dog the down. For example, using clicker training and progressively rewarding approximations of the dog going down could work well. Or teaching the down while the human is sitting on the floor might be useful if the reason the dog is afraid of going into the down position has to do with someone threatening her while standing over her  in her previous living situation.

Back to the value of using another command or cue word:  one of the most powerful examples of this approach was developed by dog trainer Leslie Nelson, whose Really Reliable Recall method has saved a lot of dogs’ lives… that link goes to another page of mine about the method. What’s pertinent here is she has you teach the recall (coming when called) with a special secret word that always gets highly rewarded.

Our Rottweiler Lola has known the word come since she was a puppy. And she’s really quite good about coming when one of us says it. But let either of us say “DOGGIES!!!” and Lola will come running from anywhere in our large yard. At top speed, eagerly. That’s because I taught her – also when she was still a puppy — that doggies meant “Something very delicious is waiting for you.”

Now I don’t actually recommend that you use doggies in this way. It’s not the best word, as it does get said in everyday conversation, as in “Have you fed the doggies?” I would suggest a more unusual word. But we kind of grew into doggies!! by accident, back in Lola’s puppy days. I have always used it to call my dogs when I want all of them to come to me.  Lola responded so enthusiastically that it just naturally became her special recall word. And she STILL always gets a treat when she comes after we say it.

Readers, please add any stories of how you use special words!

Try Using a Different Command or Cue for Training Your Dog is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

Our Rottweiler Lola has gotten much better at the long sit in the past couple of months. It’s been a long winter here in Colorado, and our dogs are a bit fatter and lazier for it. We walk them twice a day in practically all weather, but they haven’t chosen to spend so much time outside in the fenced yard. Nope, they have just been lounging on their beds while Kelly and I have been writing a lot on our computers.

One day, inspiration struck and I invented a game. It’s called Lola, Where’s Your Toy? We happened to have one of these Kong dental toys in the house.  (Click on the image to go to it at Amazon.) I crammed a few pieces of dry dog food into the toy, told Lola to sit, and went down the hall to our bedroom, where I put the toy just inside the door.

I went back to the kitchen, where I was pleased to see Lola was still sitting, and I said “okay” so she could stop sitting and then I added in an excited tone, “Lola, where’s your toy?”

She figured that meant something fun, but of course the first time she didn’t know what. So I ran down to the toy, and she ran too and found it.

After about three repetitions, she had the general idea, and now she is a master of the game. There are not a lot of places to hide a toy in our small house, but if she is in the kitchen, she can’t see if I go down the hall and into the bedroom, the laundry room, or my husband’s office. I often go into all three, to put the scent in them, before putting the toy down.  Now she finds it in a flash!

Try something like this! It has made me more interesting to Lola. She keeps an eye on me, just in case… and her long sit is way better!

Our Game Improves Lola’s Long Sit is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

Here’s a story on that site about a puppy named Callie who was biting her new owners so much they couldn’t get anywhere with her, till the trainer showed them some things.

I am still neglecting this blog while the local public library district gets going, with me on the board. This blog isn’t the only thing I am neglecting right now… but I have some great ideas for later!

It’s National Train Your Dog Month is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

Why Reward Train Your Dog or Puppy?

By Aidan Bindoff

All puppies and dogs need some form of training. What’s so good about Reward Training and why would we choose to Reward Train our dog or puppy?

Reward Training uses the principles of Operant Conditioning, specifically Positive Reinforcement. Positive Reinforcement is where we give a reward to increase or maintain behavior.

Any voluntary behavior which has been increased or maintained has, at some point, been reinforced. Without reinforcement, that voluntary behavior will eventually stop happening. That’s fine if it’s a behavior you don’t want, but if it’s a behavior you do want then Reward Training is important to reinforce any good behavior you want to see more of.

Reward Training is also fun for both dog and owner, resulting in a deeply bonded relationship based on trust and respect. If you want a dog who behaves out of fear, then Reward Training won’t work very well for you. There is a difference between respect and fear.

Reward Training puts you in charge of the good things in life, and gives you opportunities to hand them out frequently. Dogs learn that they can’t just take what they want, they need to work as a team with you. Owners learn pretty much the same thing, but from a position of leadership.

The most common form of Reward Training these days is known as Clicker Training. Clicker Training is a training method that uses a sound to ‘mark’ good behavior, then a reward is given. The sound says to the dog “Yes! What you did right then is what I want you to repeat! Here is your reward.” If you are interested in Reward Training, then finding a clicker training class is probably the easiest way to learn. There are also many good books on Clicker Training and Reward Training for dogs and puppies.

For more information on Reward Training and Clicker Training, visit the Positive Petzine website.

Aidan Bindoff is Editor of Positive Petzine and has written dozens of articles on dog training, animal behavior, learning theory and Reward Training in a plain English style aimed at those new to dog training.

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Why Reward Train Your Dog or Puppy? is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

Dog Training With Distractions – Proofing for the Real World With Positive Reinforcement

By Aidan Bindoff

Dog training is easy when you discover the secrets of dog training professionals explained in this brief article. Once you leave your house, all your training will appear to go down the drain. How do you overcome these distractions? Find out right now!

What is reinforcement? Reinforcement is what happens when a behaviour is maintained or increased. Dog training is essentially a progression of reinforcements. Food, toys, play, attention and ‘life rewards’ such as being let inside or taken for a walk are all potential reinforcers.

Without reinforcement, behavior will never be maintained or increased. This is fine if you want a behavior to disappear – simply stop reinforcing it. But if you want a particular behavior, you need to reinforce it.

Most dog trainers these days use food as a reinforcer. It is by no means the only reinforcer, but food is convenient and, let’s face it, all dogs need to eat!

So we start off training with food in a quiet, distraction-free area inside the house. We put any other pets out of the room. We turn off the TV. We wait until the kids are in bed. Then we shut the door and train. There are numerous books and articles explaining how to do this, so I won’t re-hash the basics.

The problems begin when we get out of that distraction-free environment and into the real world. Here there are other dogs, birds, squirrels, cats, new smells, sights, sounds, people, cars, bikes, postmen – it’s all out there! Our training usually starts falling apart once we leave the house.

But it doesn’t need to.

The big secret to dog training is to always set the dog up for success. If the dog fails, we can’t reinforce. If we can’t reinforce, behavior can not be maintained or increased. If behavior hasn’t been maintained or increased, training has failed.

So we need to set the dog up to succeed. Going too far, too fast will only lead to failure. Allowing too many distractions or too big a distraction too soon is setting our dog up to fail. Without success, we’ve got nothing to reinforce.

The best way to set our dogs up for success is to control the environment as best we possibly can until they are well and truly proofed and ready for the big wide world.

Let’s say we normally train in our kitchen with the door shut. Here’s a list of things we can do to set up some low-level distractions:

1. place a tennis ball in the middle of the floor

2. turn the radio on softly, then turn it up gradually throughout our training session

3. have a friend come into the room with us

4. put a piece of stale dog food on the floor

5. wave our arms around

6. turn the taps on halfway through an exercise

7. whistle a tune

8. roll a tennis ball slowly in front of our dog

9. turn away from our dog

… or any combination of the above.

Remember, the secret is to always set our dogs up for success, so that we may reinforce (maintain or increase) their good behavior.

If any of the distractions on that list are too much, then our dog fails. Just because I wrote it on my list of low-level distractions doesn’t mean that your individual dog won’t find any one of those things too distracting.

Be creative. Think of new things to add to the list. When your dog can cope with them all, start making up combinations. Invite two or more friends around to help. Have them toss a ball back and forth while you practise stays or recalls. Have one of them whistle a tune while the other waves her arms around. The sky is the limit so long as we always set our dogs up for success.

When we have trained with distractions inside the house, we’re ready to find a quiet spot outside. No other dogs around, no kids playing, no cars screaming past, and hopefully no cats or squirrels. We train the behavior, then start adding the distractions from our list, always setting our dog up to succeed.

That is all there is to it – manufacture some controlled distractions, build them up, and always make them just easy enough that our dog continually succeeds so that we can reinforce the behavior.

Aidan Bindoff is Editor of http://www.PositivePetzine.com, your helpful online resource for positive dog training and behavior information.

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Dog Training With Distractions – Proofing for the Real World With Positive Reinforcement is a post from: Training Dogs Blog

The Most Important Exercise for Multiple Dog or Puppy Owners

By Aidan Bindoff

If you have more than one dog or puppy living under your roof, then this is one of the most important and useful exercises you can teach. Without this exercise (or something very similar), one of your dogs will probably learn to bully the other dogs out of the way for attention or food. This exercise lays the foundation for happy, well-mannered multiple dog homes.

What we’re going to do is teach each of our dogs to stay on a Mat while we pay attention to, groom or feed one of our other dogs. The mat gives our dogs a clear place to go to and a boundary to stay within. If we have multiple dogs we can send each dog to their own individual mats. This removes any confusion about what our dogs are to do, and removes the need to place our dogs in position. If you have several dogs, it could be quite time consuming to place a number of dogs.

To start with, teach each dog individually to “Go to Mat”. A “Mat” is either a dog bed you can easily move around, or something as simple as a towel on the floor. We’ll just call it a “mat” from now on.

It’s always easiest to teach a new behavior in the lowest distraction environment you can find. For most people, this means finding a boring room such as the bathroom, and locking your other dogs out while you work with one dog at a time.

Have a bowl or bag of small, tasty treats, your mat, a clicker, and a dog who hasn’t eaten a meal yet today. If you don’t own a clicker, you can substitute with verbal praise, but make it short, sweet and consistent; e.g “good!” or “Yes!”

Full instructions for training “Go to Mat” can be found here.

Train each of your dogs, one at a time, to Level 3 with a full 1 minute stay according to the instructions given. Practise it in different rooms of the house, and maybe even out in your yard.

Aidan Bindoff is Editor of http://www.PositivePetzine.com, a free resource for people training their own dog. Each edition is packed with helpful tips for training your dog using the latest pet-friendly methods that work fast and don’t require a degree in animal behavior to use.

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Have More than One Dog? Go to Mat is a post from: Training Dogs Blog