1. Jumping on guests

[Music] Welcome to Disordily Dogs, podcast for dog owners. If you find yourself in precarious predicaments with your dog, this podcast is for you. I'm Rachel Harris. I'm a certified professional dog trainer and I hope to give you a fresh outlook on your dog's behavior and practical dog training advice. [Music] Welcome to episode number one. I am so excited. I've been wanting to start a podcast for a while now, so I'm so excited that it's come to fruition and I hope that it's helpful for you dog owners out there. For those of you who don't know me, I am Rachel Harris. I'm a certified professional dog trainer. I am certified through the council for professional dog trainers. And I own and run a good feeling dog training based in Denver, Colorado. As this podcast progresses, you're going to hear a lot of stories about my dog. So I'm going to go ahead and introduce them. Tiva is an 11 year old black and white mutt and Wailin is a two year old American Staffordshire Terrier. So I want to start by talking about unwanted behavior. If you're seeing unwanted behavior in your dog, there's a couple of things you need to think about. The first thing would be management. How can you manage the environment to prevent the unwanted behavior from occurring? And then second, I'm going to think about training and what I can do in specific training sessions to get a better behavior. So if I haven't unwanted behavior, say jumping on guests when they arrive, I need to think about what is the behavior I'd rather see, maybe lay down on a mat. And then I need to really train hard to get that behavior built up so that it can work when people actually come over. When I'm training a new behavior, I'm exclusively using positive reinforcement. If you don't know what positive reinforcement is, we're using something that the dog finds reinforcing in most cases that's food. And we're using the food to increase the likelihood that the behavior will repeat. So remember that rewarded behavior continues. So if your dog offers a behavior you want to see again, a sure fire way for them to know that they can do it to earn something would be to pay them. If you have had reservations about using food and training, I am here to tell you that it is the way. I like to think about food as the dog's currency, right? We work for money and the same concept really applies to the dogs, right? There is a phenomenon called contra-free loading, which means basically that dogs, animals in general, would prefer to work for their meals versus getting them for free. If you are hoping to teach your dog new behavior, I suggest having treats ready. Some dogs will work for their normal meals. I know that most people feed kibble, so you'll just have to kind of read your dog. You know, your classic Labrador is happy to work for kibble. Some other breeds are not so happy to work for kibble, so that's something that you're going to have to kind of figure out. But on a daily basis, my dogs get one meal for free, so to speak out of a normal dog food bowl. And then their other meal goes in my treat pouch and they work for it throughout the day. I want to kind of loop back to management really quickly. So management is not a long-term strategy. It's really kind of a short-term strategy to prevent the unwanted behavior from occurring. And that buys you time to be working through normal training sessions to get that behavior built up. So let's go back to the example of jumping on guests as they arrive. So a couple of management techniques would be one, you could have the dog in a crate when people come over so that they can't rehearse the behavior of jumping. You could use a leash, you could have the dog on a leash so that you could kind of manage them that way. So it's really up to you to manage the dog's environment. If you really want to prevent the behavior from occurring, you need to get creative and think about management strategies that will carry you over until your behavior is trained. So let's go back to training. So when I have decided that I have an unwanted behavior, my dog jumps on people as they come over. Then I have to decide what behavior I'd rather see. Maybe I'd rather the dog just keep all four feet on the floor, just as simple as that. Maybe I'd rather have the dog lay down on a mat and wait when people come over. So once I know what I'd rather have the dog do, that is when I need to formulate a training plan. When I'm formulating a training plan, I always want to think about obviously the end product, but then I need to think about splitting the behavior into small pieces so that I can build up to the final product. When I am training, I'm using food as the reward. And then I am using a verbal marker word to convey the exact moment that the dog has done the behavior that I want. You could use a clicker. I use the verbal marker word yes, but what is really the most important is your timing. So the moment that the dog does the behavior you want to see, you should say yes and then deliver the reinforcement. So if I ask my dog to sit as soon as their booty hits the ground, I'm going to say yes and then deliver the food reinforcement. Let's go back to the example of jumping on guests when they arrive. In the short term, I'm going to manage. So if I have someone coming over tomorrow, I'm going to use management and I'll probably use management initially. So I know I have someone coming over. I'm going to put my dog in the crate so that when the person comes in, I can talk to them pleasantries, so on and so forth. And then when I'm ready, I'm going to let the dog out and really work through the training. So I am armed with treats. You need to have a lot ready. And as soon as I let my dog out of the crate, I'm giving them feedback about behavior that they're offering. I let the dog out of the crate and they look at me. I mark yes and I reward. They go and say hi to my guest, but they still have four feet on the floor. I'm going to mark yes and I'm going to reward. I'm going to continue to mark yes and reward for four feet on the floor until my dog's initial excitement has subsided. So that's very dog dependent. So you're just going to have to know your dog in that example. If your dog's excitement does not usually subside very quickly, then I think you're going to need a follow-up behavior. Lay down on a mat is a really, really practical useful behavior that I would definitely teach if I have an over exuberant greeter, maybe an over exuberant puppy. I think it's a behavior that every dog should know it translates to so many places and things. It's a really, really versatile behavior. The foundation for teaching a lay down on a mat behavior would be to one choose a mat. I would make sure that the mat is only down when I am actively training initially just to make sure we're not missing any opportunity to reward the dog. I set down the mat and I'm standing right next to it. And as soon as the dog has one paw on the bed, I'm going to mark yes and then I'm going to reward. If you are not already using some sort of release word, I would start to. I just use OK. So after I've marked and rewarded for one foot on the mat, then I'm going to say OK and toss a treat for the dog to go and get. And that is going to create an opportunity for them to come back and offer feet on the mat again. So initially I'm going to be marking and rewarding for just one foot. Then when the dog is consistently offering one or two feet on the mat, then I'm going to start to wait for three feet, then four feet. Then when the dog consistently will go on to the mat with all four feet with me standing right next to it, then I'm going to wait for them to offer feet on the mat again. So I'm standing right next to the mat. The dog gets on the mat with all four feet, offers a sit. I mark yes, I reward. I say OK and toss a treat for the dog to go and get. Then once the dog will consistently offer a sit on the mat, then I'm going to wait for them to offer it down. So again, I'm still standing right next to the mat. The dog gets on the mat, offers a sit. And instead of releasing, I'm going to wait a couple of seconds and see if the dog won't offer a sit down. If the dog doesn't offer it down, I'm going to cue down, I'm going to reward it, and then I'm going to release and try again. Once the dog will consistently go on to the mat and offer it down, then I'm going to start to remove myself from the situation a little bit. So that final product, I don't have to stand right next to the bed to get the behavior. So I'll probably then stand maybe a foot or two from the dog bed. The dog goes on to the mat, offers a sit down. I mark yes, I reward, I release. Then I'm going to move myself maybe two feet from the bed and so on and so forth. In addition to moving myself away from the dog bed, I'm also going to introduce the verbal cue for the behavior. Initially when I'm adding a verbal cue, into a behavior. I'm going to be really strategic about what I'm saying to make sure that I'm getting the behavior that I seek. So if my dog isn't paying attention, I'm not going to cue the behavior because they're probably not going to offer it. But if the dog is engaged and I can tell they're on their way to the mat, I'm going to go ahead and introduce the verbal cue. So I am standing next to the bed. I can feel that my dog is about to get on and offer it down. I'm going to say whatever I want the verbal cue to be, place, bed spot, it doesn't matter. And then I'm going to mark and reward the same way I had been doing. So I'm standing next to the bed. I say place, the dog gets on, offers it down. Once the dog is understanding the verbal cue and offering the behavior after I cue it, and I can be about five feet away from the bed, then I'm going to start to add duration to the behavior. So I cue place, the dog goes on to the bed and offers it down. I'm in a mark and I'm in a reward. But instead of releasing, I'm going to continue to mark and reward with maybe like 15, 20 seconds in between marks and rewards. So the dog is on the dog bed, lying down. I wait a couple of seconds, then I mark yes, I reward. I wait a couple more seconds. I mark yes, I reward again. When I'm rewarding, I'm tossing the treat on to the dog bed. Then I will say, okay, and release the dog. So that is the basics of teaching a dog to go and lay down on a mat. If your dog doesn't already know this behavior, I highly recommend you put it high on your training list. Like I said, it's a very useful practical behavior that you'll be very glad you taught your dog. If your dog jumps on guests when they arrive, you are not alone. The very first time I ever met Tiva, so it's 11 years ago. She belonged to my now husband at the time and I showed up for our first date. It was summertime, so I was wearing a dress. Tiva was just a puppy at the time. I think she was maybe like six months old. But when I walked into the house, Tiva was so elated to see me that she jumped like a lunatic, like all over me. And she jumped on me so hard that I had horrible bruises on my legs for like days afterwards. Despite the bruising, I adored Tiva. And now she's mine after all these years, which is so funny to see a comfortable circle. But I am happy to say that while Tiva does still occasionally jump when people come over, she is much better about laying on her dog bed if I ask her to. Whalen adores people. I mean, just adores people. And to be completely honest with you, his greetings when people come over are not the best. It's definitely a work in progress. I do a lot of management still. Oftentimes when I know people are coming over, I will have him on a leash. And then I am marking and rewarding probably every five to ten seconds for him keeping it together. If you don't know what a staffy scream is, I highly recommend you Google it. A staffy scream is the ridiculous sound that amstabs and blockie-headed dogs make when they're excited. Whalen reaches octaves that I didn't even know dogs were capable of hitting when he's really excited. If you have ever come to my house, you have experienced this. But yeah, so when people come over, I have Whalen on a leash. I am armed with treats. I am marking and rewarding every few seconds for desirable behavior. And thankfully we're at a point now that after the initial like minute two minutes, I can take him off the leash and he can keep it together. I hope that you can envision how to use management and training to change your dog's behavior. If you like today's episode, please feel free to leave a review on iTunes. Since I'm just getting up and going, I think that the more reviews I get, we'll make it more visible. And hopefully that this podcast can help other dog owners. It's been so fun and I'm already looking forward to episode number two. Happy training and thanks for tuning into Dessortally Dogs. Thanks for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed the show. If you'd like to learn more about us, please check us out on Instagram. @agoodfeeling_inco. You can also find us on the Facebook @agoodfeelingdogtraining as well as our website, a-g-f-dogtraining.com.