Dogs don’t understand grammar.  They don’t understand a word before can change the meaning entirely.  Dogs don’t understand: Good sit, Bad sit, No sit, Do sit, Red sit, Blue sit.  All the dog is hearing is: Good CUE, Good CUE, Good CUE.  And unless the goal is to desensitize the cue as an action you want the dog to preform, you should save it as a requested action.  Here’s a video example of a dog doing a down, while in a down.  Notice how he tries to down again, even though he’s already in a down.  This dog understands: “Preform the action I am requesting.”

Down While Already In A Down

Now, don’t beat yourself up if you’ve been doing this.  Just realize there are other ways to praise your dog for doing a job well done.  Instead of saying, “Good CUE” maybe just say “Good boy!” or “well done!”  Don’t ever say something you usually want as an action, and the dog doesn’t do the action (holding still already in the position is not doing an action) and praise for it.  That’s basically rewarding the dog for holding still.  By saving the cue as a “please preform this action” and praising (or any other reward the dog likes) for quickly preforming the requested action.  You should notice faster results, and a less confused dog!

Canine Life and Social Skills is starting to take off.  It’s a new three part program from the APDT, which far exceeds most I’ve ever seen.  It has obedience, manners, and real life training such as waiting to get out of your car.  The objectives are to promote positive training methodology, strengthen the dog & owner relationship, encourage ongoing training, value real life skills, educate about dog behavior, and to promote the value of dog trainers & dog training.

C.L.A.S.S., through its evaluation, curriculum, and training resources, advocates the use of reward-based training. Positive, reward-based training minimizes the use of punishment and is fun for you and your dog! C.L.A.S.S. promotes relationship-based training, training in which the communication is two-way and the mutual trust is strong. It is training that is instructive, telling the dog, without anger or force, what we would like the dog to do.

There is also a shelter program that hopes to increase adoptions and decrease owner surrenders through this training program.

One of the goals of the C.L.A.S.S. program was to develop an assessment that is particularly beneficial to the needs of shelter dogs. To this end, any municipal shelter or registered 501(c)(3) shelter or rescue group may register their shelter for free and all dogs in your care may be tested in the program with fees waived. If you have a staff person who will be doing C.L.A.S.S. evaluations only on shelter dogs up for adoption, their evaluator registration fee is reduced from $40 to $25.

Once a dog has passed the initial B.A. level of the C.L.A.S.S. program, they may be listed on the C.L.A.S.S. web site in our “C.L.A.S.S. Dogs for Adoption” section.

I suppose what I’m most excited about is this isn’t just another obedience class.  Far too often I hear “my dog needs obedience training” when the client really needs a manners or reactivity  issue solved.  And quite honestly I’ve *never* seen a dog lose his home because, “well… Fido just wouldn’t heel straight” or “Sparky didn’t have a fast down” or even “Fluffy only preformed ‘sit’ when I held a treat.”  The main reason dogs under three years old are euthanized is because of behavior problems. And these “behavior problems” do not mean he wasn’t the rock star at obedience tasks. These behavior problems are usually no manners, anxiety, fear, or aggression.  (Miller DM, Stats SR, Partlo BS, et al. Factors associated with the decision to surrender a pet to an animal shelter. J Am Vet Med Assoc 1996;209:738- 742)  I’ve seen a lot of anxiety & reactivity cases where earlier training might have completely prevented it.  It’s a shame really, people don’t seem to realize the value and importance of good behavior training until there is a serious problem.  Which brings me back to the C.L.A.S.S. program.  Take a look at the three progressive levels.

The BA level:

• Wait at the door
• Come & getting leashed up
• Loose leash walking and attention
• Meet & greet
• Leave it
• Wait for food bowl
• Stay
• Settle
• Give & take
• Bonus, trick (roll over, spin, fetch, speak, or paw)

The MA level:

• Wait in the car
• Pass by other dogs
• Wait at the door
• Come & leashing up
• Sit, Down, & Stand
• Handling
• Loose leash walking & leave it
• Stay
• Bonus, targeting
• Bonus, trick

The PhD level:

• Loose leash walking
• Back up
• Stay
• Come & leashing up
• Meet & greet
• Attention
• Table manners
• Do you really know sit?
• Bonus, extra “Do you really know sit?”
• Bonus, targeting unfamiliar person

I personally like the “do you really know sit?” part because it promotes generalization of behaviors.  All too often we only practice training with our dogs in front of us in the kitchen holding a treat.  Then we go on vacation, visit a friend, or take a trip to the vet and the dog has no clue what sit means in those different situations and environments.  An over simplification of generalization is, it’s training for real life in various places.  Here are the possible variations to choose from:  1. Student sitting on hands in a chair 2. Student with back to the dog 3. Student with hands on head 4. Student walking around 5. Student standing 10 feet away 6. Student clapping hands 7. Student shaking hands with another person 8. Student with hand in front of their mouth 9. Student sitting on ground 10. Student bending at waist toward toes 11. Sit on recall (student has dog wait while student walks 35 feet away; student calls dog to come and when dog is halfway to student, student cues sit) 12. Student standing on a chair 13. Student holding one knee to chest 14. Student hopping on one foot 15. Student swinging arms 16. Student lying on the ground 17. Student jogging in place 18. Student doing jumping jacks 19. Student doing squats 20. Student doing leg lunges 21. Student doing push ups 22. Student doing sit ups 23. Student standing on hands 24. Student doing calf raises 25. Student doing a back bend

If you’d like more information you can download their student handbook HERE.

Most people walk on sidewalks and pathways however you drive. (If you drive on the right side of the street, you walk on the right too). So scenario, you’re walking your dog down the sidewalk, and someone else is walking toward you with an over sized baby stroller. Do you want your dog on the left? Do you think the other person wants to pass your dog right next to her baby? Courtesy would dictate pass with the dog on the right. There are even some pathways with posted rules on which side to walk your dog, because it interferes less with other pathway users.

Even if you’re on the street, I wouldn’t want my dog on the left. Standard practice is to walk against traffic (you bike with traffic). So again, do you want your dog closest to traffic? I wouldn’t.

Remember things are typically not set in stone. And the world will not stop turning if a dog walks on the right, or even in front of you on a loose leash.

I’m adding the finishing touches on my seminar for this Saturday, “Practical Solutions for Practical People.”  And as I created this presentation I remember all the clients I have helped over the years and even milestones I have overcome with my own dogs.  It’s pretty cool to share this information with a roomful of people.  (You can register for our seminars HERE.)  It makes me realize reinforcement is in the eye of the beholder.  You see, I actually like public speaking.  I look forward to it.  I feel all giddy and think, “this information could touch the lives of so many people and help so many dogs!”  And the simple fact of getting positive reinforcement training methods to the public that can solve so many common problems just makes me smile. I look forward to seeing you on Saturday, and I’d love to hear any comments.

So why do people hurt their dog in the name of training?  Look up the Milgram Experiment. Obedience to authority figures, even if their advice conflicts with your conscience is (strangely enough) usually followed.  In the 1960s Stanley Milgram conducted a series of social psychology experiments at Yale University.  These were marketed as a memory experiment.  People would sign up and were randomly selected as the teacher or the learner.  Little did they know it was rigged and they were always selected as a teacher and the learner was a paid actor.  The electric shock the learner received for each wrong answer was also fake.  (If you are interested in watching some original footage scroll to the bottom of this post or click here.)  Believe it or not, an average of 60% – 65% of people administered the final shock.

So don’t beat yourself up if you’ve given your dog a leash correction or slapped on an electric shock collar because the animal professional told you to.  Know you have the power to say no.  You need to speak up for your dog, because he can’t (well actually dog’s are quite clear when they “speak up.”  It’s called aggression).  If it seems wrong, don’t do it.  Move forward.  Change methods. Many trainers that I know are “crossover” trainers.  Meaning they crossed over from the dark side of training into the positive style.  The method of training WILL affect your relationship between you and your dog.  So even if the animal professional says to (insert punishment of choice here), say no.  Know this: you never “have to.”  There are always many options to get to a final result.  That’s a cop out for the lack of intelligence to modify behavior.  Whether you realize it or not, whenever something decreases, something else increases and vice versa.  Dogs don’t get out the human handbook flip the page and read, “Human wants you to sit for attention.  Jumping won’t work.”  So why not just heavily reward what you want until it’s second nature.  It’s far less guess work for the dog, and the bad behavior will fade in time naturally.

Just say no to punishment.  Use positive reinforcement training methods.  Because I said so.

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2836209818734920853[/googlevideo]