Category Archives: Dog training

Getting the behaviour: shaping

GO TO PLACE: an introduction to shaping behaviour What is shaping? Shaping is the process of moving from an unskilled to a skilled performance through a series of closer and closer approximations of the final behaviour. Shaping behaviour is a very effective way of teaching complex actions. Any complex action or series of actions can [...]

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Getting the Behaviour: Luring

Luring is a quick way to teach a new behaviour. Initially, food is used as a lure to help guide the dog into the desired action or position. You can quickly get the dog to SIT or DOWN, practice close and straight FRONTS, lure into HEEL position, and encourage WATCH by luring with food. We [...]

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The ABC’s of dog training

The ABC’s — Don’t make food the Antecedent Antecedent –> Behavior –> Consequence Correct: Command SIT –> Dog sits –> Dog is rewarded Wrong: Show food, lure and say SIT –> Dog sits –> Dog is rewarded One of the criticisms of “positive” dog training is the complaint “My dog only sits when he sees [...]

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Active rewards for active exercises; passive rewards for duration

All the great dog trainers seem to come to the same conclusion independently. My take-home lesson from my last several sessions with Michael Ellis was to use active rewards for active exercises and passive rewards for stability exercises. When rewarding speed and execution, encourage the dog to chase and catch the treat or toy. When [...]

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Long Distance Learning

I want to recommend Silvia Trkman’s Long Distance Classes. What fun! I just finished her Agility Foundations held over the summer, and signed up for her Puppy/Tricks class. While I don’t have a puppy, I have several dogs eager to learn new tricks, and it’s a great way to practice my timing while shaping new [...]

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The Premack Principle: “You have to DO something to GET something!”

If there’s a “secret” to dog training, the Premack Principle is it. In psych lingo, the Premack Principle states that the likely-hood of a high-probability behaviour occurring increases when reinforced by a  low-probability behaviour. In the vernacular, it’s also known as Gramma’s Law: “You have to eat your peas (low-probability behaviour) before you can have [...]

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Bridge words

Our Schutzhund club had Michael Ellis again for a three day seminar over Memorial weekend. He’s been coming here for over ten years, yet I always learn something new. One of the things that really hit home this time is the difference between a terminal bridge word that means “yes, that’s exactly what I was [...]

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Tracking thoughts

Let me be perfectly clear. I hate tracking. It’s such a huge production for so little return. It’s time, labour, material and land intensive. You have to gather together everything you need, drive to a field, lay the track, wait for it to age, and finally run the track, all the while hoping nothing is [...]

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Choosing a marker word

A clicker and a marker word do the same thing but they are not the same. A clicker is a unique sound, not duplicated elsewhere in the dog’s environment. A marker word is very effective, but its use is dulled by the constant flow of words the dog hears. Nonetheless, a marker word is far [...]

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Teaching Zappa articles

So Zappa’s tracking is looking pretty good, for the few times I’ve been out this year, but I’m convinced from past failures that if you wait too long for articles, they will forever be viewed as an interruption of tracking by the dog, even if good things happen at them.  It may be to that [...]

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