![3 Ways To Reduce A Dog’s Stress During Training]()
by Monica Callahan | Dec 3, 2014 | Training Methods
Reducing Stress In Dog Training
The very nature of training can be stressful to a dog. Not all stress is bad. However, when a dog has many different stress-inducing factors piled on top of each other, this can become overwhelming and cause the dog to act out or shut down. When a dog is too stressed out, learning does not occur. For this very reason, we must try to minimize the amounts of environmental stress our dogs experience during training. Here are three ways you can reduce stress in dog training.
1. Clean Clicker Mechanics
If a teacher were asking you questions in class and then having to look up every answer you gave them to make sure they were right, you’d become incredibly frustrated after a while. The same thing can happen with our dogs. If our marker words or clicks are too slow, our treat delivery sloppy, or our attention is not completely on our training session, the dog is likely to get frustrated and may stop trying. Making sure your mechanics are clean and on time will do a lot for a dog’s confidence and stress level. It’s also our job, as the trainer, to make sure our client’s mechanics are clean. Playing some clicker mechanic games before introducing your client’s newly acquired training skills to their dog can go a long way for the stress level of their dog. You can find more about clicker mechanics here.
2. Appropriate Distraction Levels
When a dog is worked in an area where there are too many distractions for their level of training, they can become incredibly stressed for a few different reasons. If the dog is prone to being anxious, too many distractions can cause them to go through information overload and they can become stressed out. When a dog is stressed, they cannot provide their owners with the attention their owners want. When the owners see their dog’s attention elsewhere, the owner can become stressed with the training process. Feeding off the owner, the dog becomes even more stressed. It is a stressful cycle to get in. To make both the dog and owner successful, lowering the distractions around the session to a level the dog can be successful is key.
3. Small Steps
When we are working with clients and their dogs, we are generally helping them build behaviors for their dogs. We have to take small steps towards the big picture goal. When we expect dogs to take leaps in training, they can become lost and get stressed when they don’t know what we are asking for. Training will go quicker when we ask for smaller steps that they can build on quickly. Taking larger steps may slow us down as the dog has to guess and interpret what we are asking for.
Some level of frustration will always be present in training, however, we should always do our best to make sure the least amount of frustration is present when training. Showing our clients how to use a clicker and how to build behaviors appropriately is our duty as a trainer. When our dogs are happy, we will get cleaner, quicker, and better behaviors.
What other ways can we lower our dog’s stress during a training session?
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![Preventing Bribery: How To Get Treats Out Of Your Client’s Hands]()
by Monica Callahan | Dec 1, 2014 | Training Methods
How To Prevent Bribery In Dog Training
In the dog training world, there seems to be two big groups of clients. On one side, there are clients who are incredibly stingy and hoard treats like they are gold, and on the other side, there are clients who never let a treat leave their hand or in front of their dog’s noses. For those clients who find it hard to put down the treats, we have to get creative and find ways to get those treats out of their hands. Here are some tips on how to prevent bribery in dog training.
Treat Bags
If clients are working away from their ziplock bag of treats, it is likely that they will take handfuls so they don’t have to keep going back to the bag every click. A treat bag on their waist or a treat vest will keep their treats accessible so they do not have to load up a handful before a training session.
Let Me Help You
As a teacher, we are there to monitor our students. If we hold the treats for our clients, then we can monitor when they go for the treats. This can make our clients more aware of their clicker and treats, and prevent them from grabbing a treat before they click. This technique does require you to accompany the client as they work so their treats are accessible. An approach like this may not be appropriate for everyone or every dog. Assess your situation before utilizing this approach.
Positions
If your client consistently grabs for a treat before the click, try finding a ‘home’ station. Collaborate with your client and find a position that their hands can go back to every time after clicking and treating. Once they use the position enough, it will become second nature and will get rid of the premature grabbing of the treats. This technique can also be used with the previous suggestion.
TAG Teaching
TAG teaching is the human equivalent of clicker training. You, the trainer, will come up with a TAG point for your client. A TAG point is the criteria of what you want. An example could be, “The TAG point is hand on thigh.” It would be your client’s job to return their hand to their thigh after every click/treat. When your client does place their hand on their thigh, you would click your own unique clicker just for your client. In this case, the click is reinforcement to your client for a job well done. TAG teaching makes your client aware of what is expected of them and makes them more aware of what they are doing. After enough times, it becomes routine for your clients to keep placing their hand on their thigh. To learn more about TAG teaching, visit their website here.
Being a trainer means that we must be good teachers to our clients. When our clients have good clicker mechanics, they can achieve anything they want. Sometimes we have to use our creativity to help our clients become proficient at training.
What other creative ways have you used to get treats out of your client’s hands?
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![3 Ways To Incorporate Your Client’s Children In Training]()
by Monica Callahan | Nov 15, 2014 | Communication
Involve The Whole Family In Training
When working with a family and their dog, the children are always excited to help mom and dad train their dog. Parents often push the kids to the side and get frustrated when they keep interrupting. Instead of continually being interrupted, you can incorporate the children in the training. Here are three ways to incorporate your client’s children in training.
1. Recall Games
Children love high energy games, whether they are running or the dogs are. Recall games are a great way to incorporate the client’s children because it can get the dog running and wear them out. Have the children stand across the living room and practice calling the dog’s name once and treat when the dog arrives. They’ll think it’s amazing when the dog listens. Eventually they can play hide and seek and have the dog find them throughout the house. This is also a great bonding game for the dog and children and turns their children into rewards for the dog.
2. Treat Deliverer
This idea would be geared toward the better listener in the family. An example would be working on crate training. If mom or dad has the clicker, just let the child know that whenever they hear a click, they are to give a treat to the dog. When the dog enters the crate and mom or dad click, the child can then deliver a treat to the dog or drop it in the crate.
3. Distraction Training
Children are a big distraction to dogs, and their movements can also be highly alarming to them. You can use their quick movements to proof their dog’s current behaviors or desensitize a worried dog to the child. In the beginning, have the child move slowly and then work up to quicker movements.
Children love to feel like they are being useful. With some simple tweaks to training, children can certainly be incorporated. Once children reach a certain age and maturity, they could even take over training. Training is a great way to bond with their dog, and a pleasant, respectful relationship between children and their dog is important in a family. The next time you have an interruptive child at your training session, don’t allow the parent to get flustered, suggest they help instead.
What are some other ways you, as a trainer, can incorporate children throughout the training process?
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