Not Snickers.

Is is over? Maybe not, apparently Aurelia can still counter-sue and since they refuse to make anything more than cursory statements about how they are/were violating federal law and lovin’ it, we don’t know yet. Hopefully after the New Year they will announce that they have come to their senses and leave Mr. Saks and his family in peace. Or nothing will happen at the next council meeting and we can assume it is over.

Rather than end the ChipIn on the right I have “rebranded” it to Animal Farm Foundation. Let’s wait and see what happens with Aurelia in the next few weeks. Boarding Snickers must have cost them a few hundred dollars at least, so if you are so inclined, please give.

One of the many things that has kept me from blogging here regularly is Nose Work.

Nose Work looks deceptively easy: we start out hiding treats in boxes, move on to other items, and eventually transition from food to distinct odors. But while there is a devil in those details, what I enjoy most is that it is 99% improvisation. There are very few “wrong” things to do, I can’t think of any problems that can’t be fixed by simply taking a few steps back, and it’s really hard to not have fun while you are doing it. I’ve even taken to calling it “playing nose work” rather than “practicing” or “training.”

Here are a few videos from classes in both Maywood and Jersey City. A few videos have some “comments” added where I had the time.

First, here’s Harley’s first time ever. Harley is a recently-rescued dog that can be fearful at times, and often has problems dealing with the background barking and growling at the day care. In just 45 minutes of playing around, she gained some focused and was reluctant to leave the boxes to go home.

In Maywood I have a class with some more seasoned dogs.

Muneca is a rock star, and a great example of how much fun it is to watch a dog that is really having fun:

After a few classes, Muneca is starting to “indicate” that she has found the “hide,” rather than just diving in right away.

Remy is a lot of fun to watch:

He is all nose. It’s a wonder he doesn’t walk into walls is so focused on odor.

Jetta has so much drive, she tends to outrun her nose:

This is a great “problem” to have. In other words, it’s not a problem and the dog will sort it out soon enough.

K-9 Nose Work is the most fun you can have with your fur on. Give it a try! I have nose work classes starting in Maywood, Jersey City and NYC next month. If you don’t live around here, check out the nose work association web site and find a trainer near you.

Hi. It’s me. I’m back. It’s a two-fer today: see me on Dog Star Daily today too.

The mad geniuses at Pet 365 have another amazing infographic, this one on Puppy and Dog Development. great information on when puppies develop their senses in here, packaged with their usual fun pictures.

Dog Development graphic created by Pet365. Click here to view the full post.

Using food for dog training is one of the most misunderstood aspects of modern dog training. Pet owners misunderstand when to use food, when to stop using it, and how critical it is to get it out of sight as soon as possible.

Lure vs. Reward vs. Bribe

When we use lure/reward training for training sit or training down we start out by showing the dog a treat and using it to get them into the desired position. The food is a lure.

I like this technique for training positions like sit and down. It’s fast and it gets the dogs into position without forcing or coercion. But some people come away thinking that training with food means showing it to the dog to get her to do something. That’s not a lure, that’s a bribe!

Using food for dog training correctly means using it as a reward. A reward comes after the behavior. Always after.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

If you have taken one of my classes or done a private session with me, you have heard about eye contact. You know where your dog’s attention is from where she is looking, and you want her to be looking at you.

Not at your hands!

But if you have food in your hand(s), where is she going to look? The food needs to stay in your pocket or pouch until after you have marked (clicked or said yes) the behavor. That’s one of the main reason we use a marker – so the food can stay out of sight!

Fading the Food, But Not Into Black

Of course we don’t want to always need food in our pockets or in a pouch on our belt. We want our dogs to reliably do what we ask whether we follow it with a reward or not. The food used in training has to be faded: used less and less frequently.

But it cannot disappear completely unless you replace it with another reward, such as play, but you don’t want to have to use that for every performance either.

A behavior must be reinforced to stay strong. This is how nature works. Behaviors that are no longer rewarded go extinct. This is another common mistake: figuring that a behavior is trained or that “she knows what I mean” and ceasing all rewards at once.

Using Food to Improve Performance

Rather than stopping completely, I recommend something called differential reinforcement, which is just a snazzy way of saying “gradually making it harder to get the reward.” As your dog masters a behavior (for example sit) with one level of difficulty (let’s say in your yard with some mild distractions) raise the bar — make it more difficult and then reward her for performing at the new level. This way you can use the treats to improve performance!

Of course, you need to be sure to raise the bar very very gradually, don’t set your dog up to fail by making things too difficult too fast!

Using food for dog training is effective, but it is a tool just like any other and must be used correctly.

We are on vacation up in the Catskills, at the Inn at Lake Joseph, having a blast. My suburban dogs (Buddha lost his country veneer long ago) are completely overwhelmed, and it’s great to watch.

Here are some photos. I apologize for the flash. I will replace this with a mobile-friendly version when I get back to some high-bandwidth.

Ho hum

Dogs weren’t bred to sit on the sofa and watch “Dancing with the Stars” with us, and they certainly weren’t bred to sit alone and wait for us to get home from work. We can’t always avoid leaving our dogs alone or confining them, but we can do a lot to provide them with critical mental enrichment. Here are a few ideas to help you keep Fido from going all Jack Torrance on you.

Toys for Mental Enrichment

The past few years has seen an explosion in toys that provide dogs with mental enrichment: Kong, Tug-A-Jug, Canine Genius, and Linkables are some common examples. Kong company has a recent addition, the Wobbler, that Caffeine and Buddha adore.

These toys provide you with a simple way to exercise your dog’s mind while she eats. The trick is to not use these toys to fill your dog up with extra treats. Use it to feed her meals! Find a toy that works with what you feed and use it.

Play for Mental Enrichment

Do you know where the rule that says you have to walk your dog twice a day is written? It’s not! Once you do whatever you need to do to take care of toileting, play with your dogs! Grab a ball and play fetch, grab a toy and play tug, buy some agility gear (I like Affordable Agility’s low cost PVC gear) and play around.

Exercise that incorporates training, such as tug with some obedience mixed in is worth a 1000 walks!

Day Camp for Mental Enrichment

Sometimes we do need to address the time a dog spends home alone, and with the right temperament and the right facility, a few days a week in day camp can be a huge improvement in a dog’s quality of life. I don’t think all dogs needs to have play time with other dogs to lead a completely fulfilled life, but for some dogs it is a great bonus.

Before placing your dog in a day camp, do your homework: look for references, check out the facility, and watch how the dogs are matched into playgroups and managed while playing. I usually recommend no more than 2 days a week in day camp. Four or five days a week are definitely too many.

Here is a handout I give to clients that need ideas for providing their dogs with entertainment:

Help for the Bored Dog

This is a guest post from Roxana at Wet Nose Guide. You can follow Wet Nose Guide over here on Facebook.

When looking for a dog, dog adoption centers should be your first choice. Millions of dogs are placed in adoption centers, animal shelters, and rescue groups every year, and adopting a dog–as opposed to purchasing one from a breeder or pet store–will help to reduce the number of dogs who aren’t able to find a family. But adopting a dog is a serious decision and not one to be taken lightly. When visiting a dog adoption center, the following considerations should be made.

Before you adopt a dog, it’s vital to take a realistic look at whether you can handle the responsibilities associated with owning a dog. Dog ownership requires time, money, space, and attention–not to mention love. Before adopting a dog, make sure you have the necessary resources to give your new pet the life it deserves. Can you afford the food, medicine, and veterinary care that a dog requires? Do you have the free time necessary to give your dog the proper care and attention? Is your house big enough to accommodate an active dog? If you have children, are they mature and responsible enough to co-exist? These questions must be considered before you make the decision to adopt a dog.

Once you’ve determined that you can handle owning a dog, there are numerous options for adopting. Dog adoption centers and shelters are plentiful, and the ASPCA website maintains a database of the reputable adoption centers in your area. You can even find breed-specific dog rescue groups if you have an exact breed in mind to adopt. When visiting the shelter, talk to the staff about just what kind of dog you want to adopt. Besides breed, you want to make sure the dog’s temperament is in line with what you’re looking for. Many shelter dogs have been abused by prior owners, and they unfortunately may not be manageable in your home, especially if you have children. Make sure to ask the dog adoption center staff lots of questions, and don’t be afraid to take your time with your decision.

Once you’ve found the dog that’s right for you, it’s time to adopt. Before you bring your new friend home, make sure to arrange the supplies you’ll need for your dog’s arrival. Set up food, water and food bowls, and bedding, and be sure to “dog-proof” your home against anything that might pose a danger to your new dog. Now, you can bring your adopted dog home and into your family.

Photo Credit: robswatski

When I am called to help a family with training, I often find a dog that knows quite a few behaviors, usually sit, maybe down, and sometimes even a decent stay. Providing of course, you have a treat in your hand. This is of course, not really a trained dog.

Getting the food out of sight, and eventually almost completely out of the picture, is really very simple process if you understand some simple facts about how training works. First and foremost, a treat in your hand when you ask for a behavior is a bribe not a reward. If you are using the treat as a lure in the beginning, get it out of sight as fast as you can!

Once the treat is out of sight, the question is when do you stop giving your dog a treat for each behavior? The answer is pretty obvious if you understand reinforcement schedules.

Think about a paycheck for a moment. When someone receives a paycheck, they know exactly when to expect it: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, whatever. This is a fixed schedule. Generally speaking, a fixed schedule gives you the most predictable and reliable performance.

But what happens when a paycheck is missed? What happens to the frequency of the “going to work” behavior? It completely falls apart. A fixed schedule is great under controlled circumstances, when you are prepared to reward on a predictable basis.

So the common strategy amongst novice trainers — abruptly stop giving treats once the dog “knows” the behavior — is almost always guaranteed to fail.

Now let’s think about a slot machine. It delivers reinforcers at random. As a matter of fact, we know for a fact that in the long run it delivers fewer reinforcers than it receives as payment. If it didn’t, the casino would go out of business. This is an intermittent or random reinforcement schedule.

But this doesn’t diminish the frequency of the behavior of inserting-a-coin-and-pulling-the-lever does it? If anything, it seems to make it stronger.

So what does this mean? Moving to a random reward schedule as soon as the behavior is learned is the way to go. Treat too often, and you risk the fallout of a fixed schedule (hence the old adage that “dogs can count”,) treat too infrequently or not at all, and you risk extinction.

Rather than try to be truly random, which is almost impossible, many trainers recommend gradually raising your criteria. For example, insisting on a sit in the presence of progressively more difficult distractions, faster performance for a recall, or maybe slightly more distance during a stay.

This is called differential reinforcement. By gradually “raising the bar” you can not only maintain, but also gradually improve performance. The key is to, as always, gradually raise your criteria. In this way, you can strengthen the behavior while not relying on treats.

Training with treats should never mean constantly using treats. Get them out of sight, and then use them infrequently and intermittently to strengthen your dog’s performance. At the same time, consider using play as a reward in addition to or an an alternative to treats. You’ll be amazed at the results.