Whether you have a new puppy, a new to you dog, or just want to make life easier for everyone, these skills are ones you can use now and build on later if you want.
If you were to ask most people what skills you should start with when training a dog, they would likely answer things like "Sit", "Stay" and "Come". These are great skills for a dog to have to make life easier - especially the stay and the recall ("Come"). We tend to find the "sit" useful because it means for at least a split-second (if you have a puppy, at least!) your dog comes to a stop. The "Stay" is useful when you need your dog to not follow you around. The recall can literally be a life saver if your dog has a good one. One of the problems with starting with those behaviors is that there are other skills, especially for the stay and the recall, that go into building those into reliable behaviors. I'm going to call those smaller skills, as they can be building blocks for more complex behaviors.
In this blog post, I am going to focus on skills that are small but mighty. They are not necessarily written in order of importance, and all are small enough that you can work on any or all of them in just a few minutes a day.
Skill #1 - Nose Target
This is often one of the easiest skills to introduce to any dog, especially a curious puppy. The nose target is teaching your pup to touch their nose to your hand. You can also teach them to touch an object with their nose. I like teaching to touch to your hand as you are more likely to have your hand with you at any given time. With a curious pup, all you need to do to get this started is put your hand down in front of your pup's nose. When they sniff and touch your hand with their nose, immediately mark and give a treat. Over time, move your hand so it's further from your pup's nose and/or higher, lower and side to side. Pretty soon, you can build up distance and location so your pup happily will move towards your hand when they see you put it out to touch.
Foundation for movement, recall, positioning your dog, chin rest, calmer greetings, going to something, loose leash walking and lots of other skills!
Skill #2 - Know your Name
Believe it or not, dog's aren't born knowing their names. Or at least they aren't born knowing that the sounds / symbols you make are their name and that they mean something. So, play the Name Game with your dog! There are a few ways to start this, all should be done initially inside without distractions. One way is to say your pup's name and if they look in your direction, immediately give them a treat. If you put the treat down on the ground, you have a chance as soon as the pup finishes the treat to say their name again before they look up. They are likely to look back up at you to see if another treat is coming, so you can say their name right before that is going to happen anyway and soon they will begin to make the connection: Hear name -> look to person -> get treat! And that means that your pup learns that when they hear those sounds (their name) they should look at the person that did them. Yay! You are on the way to being able to get your dog's attention!
Foundation for recall, distance work, focus and well, getting your dog to do anything else you want them to do!
“Training is a way of developing our ability to communicate with our dogs.” -Suzanne Clothier.
Skill #3 - Drop It
This one seems a bit self-explanatory. Dogs don't have thumbs, so generally use their mouths to pick things up. While this is a wonderful skill when cultivated to use for service work or fun, if your pup is picking up stuff to chew it or eat it, you definitely want to be able to get them to let go of what they have. Willingly giving up what they have does not come naturally to dogs. It doesn't necessarily come naturally to humans for that matter. Not only can getting your pup to willingly drop what is in their mouth save your shoes, your remote, and your clothes, it can also potentially save your dog's life. To get this started, you don't want to wait until your pup has something in their mouth. Instead, choose a time when they don't have anything in their mouth, say the words "Drop It" (use a nice tone here, no need to yell!) and immediately bring a treat right down to their mouth. Your goal here is to first "pre-load" the cue so your pup knows that those words mean something good is going to come to their mouth. In order to get the treat, they will have to open their mouth. Later you want to start with boring things (as determined by your pup, not by you) that they put in their mouth so that the treat will mean more than what is in their mouth.
Foundation for having nice things, and teaching your pup that giving something up is a win-win situation!
Skill #4 - Touch is Good
Some dogs are happy to be touched by just about anyone in any way (Golden Retrievers, I may be talking about you!) but most dogs need to learn that things like getting their paws touched, ears looked at and hugs aren't things to be worried about. Life is so much easier if your dog willingly allows you to do basic husbandry/ care. And that starts with helping your dog to learn that people touching them is safe, and that good things happen when you let people look at their pearly whites, hold their paw and look at their toe beans and hold onto them. Its generally faster and easier to build this with a puppy as they haven't had other experiences yet, but critical for any dog that will be living closely with people. Start by gently touching your dog on various parts of their body. With young pups, do this during their "calm" part of the day. With baby sharks, older pups or grown dogs, make sure to pair the touch with a treat.
Foundation for happier vet visits, grooming, interacting with other people, helping your pup be healthy for as long as possible!
Skill #5 - Settle on a mat
Teaching your dog to lie down and settle on a mat is a great way to help them learn to just park themselves and wait. This isn't something that puppies are very good at, and even older dogs can struggle with not being the center of your attention. Teaching this skill allows them to understand that they don't need to "do" anything other than hang out when they are on the mat and that in fact, hanging out is the only thing that will be reinforced when they are on the mat. I like to choose a washable, relatively lightweight and thin mat or towel to use. The mat will only be put down when you are working on this, so it isn't their bed that might be out all the time (although you can transfer the skill and send to their bed later on if you want!). Starting it is as easy as putting the mat down and tossing a couple of treats on it so your pup gets on the mat to eat them. While on it, give another treat or two. Lure them off with a treat, pick up the mat. Repeat. Pretty soon your pup will see the mat go down and get on it before you even put the treats on it. When that happens you start to give the treat only after they get on. Over time you reinforce getting on it and sitting, then laying down, then laying down for a few seconds.
Foundation for: Stays, learning to modulate activity level, taking your pup with you to get a brew!
Small can be Powerful
These are just a few examples of small skills that can have a big impact on your life with your dog. If you want help getting started, all of these and more are covered in the Foundational Life Skills class. Sign up and join an upcoming virtual course today!
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