Luna is a Great Dane x English Mastiff mix pup chosen as a candidate for Mobility work for a handler with Narcolepsy w/ Cataplexy. Follow her journey from birth to graduation covering all of her training and adventures.
Our first MileMarker besides basic socialization and exposure training was for Luna to complete her LEVEL 1 CORE by Christmas. She has done this beautifully.
There are 5 basic criteria here:
COME GAME - Recall between two people
SIT - Verbal and Hand Signal Individually
DOWN - Verbal and Hand Signal Individually
TOUCH - Nose to Palm Targeting
LEAVE IT - In her case, she is already doing LVL 2 - open hand and on the floor
In the FACEBOOK GROUP that I run for this - I have created extra credit exercise for each behavior which we will be doing as well as it is good practice and fun for her to learn the extra skills.
Sit...sit...sit, sit, siiiiittttttt..SIT! SIT DOWN! SIT!
All too often, I see parents of both the 2 and 4 legged variety spending far too much time and energy trying to get them to do something simple and every day like SIT. How many times do we see pet owners who ask their dog over and over again to do what should be quite a simple command? Do they not know what it means? Are they blowing you off? Actually - you have probably taught them that either the cue is 10 repetitions long or that there is no consistency in the cue and they are confused.
We as human beings are a very verbal society and our preferred method of communication is verbal (and for many of us this is accompanied by quite a few gesturing waves thrown in for good measure).
Dogs primary method of communication is NON-verbal. So for them, the constant stream of information can be frustrating at best and overwhelming at the worst.
There are many times when we don't need to put as much verbal energy into a situation as we do. Deaf dogs can obviously learn just as well as hearing dogs, so the verbal component is NOT the key. By learning when and how to use your voice in training, you can increase the effectiveness of your training by 60% with just this one adaptation.
Much like the old Santa Claus adage, dogs are watching everything you do, and they read far more off body language then the actual words, you say. It doesn't matter if you train your dog in English, German, Russian or a completely nonsensical language - people train in Harry Potter spells, Elvish and Klingon - the dogs don't care.
They don't know the word until you teach it to them, and they really have no preference for what spoken language you are using, but rather the timing, tone and energy level of it. There is no standard cue you can use that your dog will recognize and immediately follow. To them, most of the time, we sound like the Charlie Brown teacher - wah wah waaaah wah - SIT - wah wah - DOWN...
SO WHAT DO YOU DO THEN?
TIMING: When TEACHING a behavior - acknowledge and mark with the word when they are DOING the behavior - not BEFORE. Telling a dog that doesn't know DOWN to do so over and over as they stand there and look at you does not connect the word with the behavior you want in their mind at all.
Now if you see them in a DOWN - Capture it!! - That is when you say the word - YES! DOWN! - when they are DOING the behavior.
Once they understand the behavior - then you can start asking for it beforehand but they should be at about 80-85% reliability before this.
TONE: Cues should be given in a CONVERSATIONAL tone. If your dog can hear a cheese wrapper crinkle from 3 rooms away - they heard what you said right in front of them.
Practice WHISPER TRAINING - how quietly can you say the cue and they respond. This encourages focus and relating to the handler vs what can quickly become avoidance or stress behaviors in your dog and you feeling like you have to be harsh or punitive. If you have to get loud or aggressive with your dog's cues - including things like Leave It - they do not know the behavior well enough. It isn't a matter of volume - getting louder, more insistent and frustrated doesn't make behavior happen any faster - it just makes it less consistent.
ENERGY LEVEL - I'm not talking about Cesar Milan "energy" here but actual applied volume and movement energy. The energy level you put into your words does matter.
When you're training something static like a body position - SIT, DOWN or STAND, impulse control exercises like WATCH, LEAVE and matwork or your dog is doing problem solving brain games - you want to put as little verbal energy into that as possible. When you want a calm behavior from your dog - you must have calm hands, calm mind & a calm mouth.
Now, if you're trying to get an active behavior, such as a fast recall or an excited touch - this is where you are going to direct a high level of energy and excitement. When you want movement, be animated with your voice and your body - this is the time for praise parties and cheerleading.
Your voice, or lack thereof, should always reflect the energy level you are trying to achieve.
Especially for service dogs, I think it's important that you are able to communicate with them as simply as possible and being able to just give a quick hand signal that they can reliably respond to can go a long way to making things much easier in challenging public situations. If you don't have to stop and address your dog multiple times verbally - but can instead just give a subtle hand signal and keep going, you are likely to be much less stressed and in crowded or loud environments, you don't have to worry about being heard.
In the videos below, you can see the beginnings of hand signal only work with Luna. We want her to respond quickly and correctly, the first time a cue is given and be able to focus on Daishia in public no matter what the distraction.
These are taught as separate components to the behavior.
First we have to teach the behavior itself. That is what I am doing here. Introducing the beginnings of the behavior, luring her into position with a modified version of the finished hand signal that we will clean up as she understands and then marking and only telling her the word when she is in the desired position.
Hand signals I recommend but you can of course create your own
Then we will introduce what criteria she needs to meet to get it right - our 4 D's:
DISTANCE
DURATION
Under DISTRACTION
With DIVERSITY
Then we want to put it on our reliable cue given in a QUIET, CONVERSATIONAL TONE (or even whisper) or SUBTLE hand signal (of which she will have both verbal and hand signal)
No loud, harsh toned verbals - no exaggerated, large body signals - no repeats. Then we can call the behavior complete.
Again, this is just the way that I personally choose to train things. This is not, by any means, the only way.
Sue Ailsby sums it up nicely in her introduction to her TRAINING LEVELS system.
QUIET HANDS, QUIET BODIES, QUIET MOUTHS
When a good dressage rider goes through her routine with her horse, she appears to be doing nothing. Her hands barely move, her body barely moves, and any words she says are whispered. This is the ideal for dog trainers as well – quiet hands, quiet bodies, and quiet mouths. Concentrate on what your hands, body, and voice are saying to the dog. He'll learn faster and easier when he's not distracted by extraneous motion and noise.
Here is Luna learning her SIT on signal. She is a cheeky monkey in that she will sit if she sees/smells the treat in my hand - otherwise she will bark, back off and carry on. This is not her misbehaving, she isn't being bossy or demanding - she is simply early enough in the learning process that she doesn't have an understanding of how payroll works yet. She will learn that she still gets paid - in food, treats, play, praise or affection AFTER she does the behavior as we go but for now the important part is to show her HOW to do the behavior and then we will raise the criteria.
Her DOWN is being taught as a foldback down - meaning she doesn't SIT first. There are many reasons for this including to strengthen the difference between the two so when asked for a STAY in a certain position - she can maintain that position.
A lot of dogs taught DOWN from SIT generalize that it's coming and slide into a DOWN when asked to SIT - predicting you're going to ask for that - and then you have to retrain that. Or you can skip the SIT all together as it has nothing to do with the DOWN anyway.
In both of these videos, you can see I am clicking/marking the correct behavior and save the verbal components for praise and telling her what the behavior is called as we build it.
Try it - you might be surprised at the difference it makes!
One of my favorite places for early positive exposure and socialization outings is our local Tractor Supply.
The staff are amazing, the store has enough traffic to make it interesting but not overwhelming and they are happy for me to bring in my new babies and work with them there.
We will do a lot of our early pet friendly Public Access behavior training here. Every trainer handles public access training differently in terms of when and where they go, but for me personally, I don't take pups into non-pet friendly places until they are completely housebroken and have some good core skills in manners and obedience.
Which is why when Luna has a potty accident in Tractor Supply, it wasn't a problem. We had a clean up and moved on, and in all fairness to her, I now know that I was right thinking she was getting antsy because she might need to potty, but I waited too long to respond... Completely my fault there honey!
All too often, I see handlers dragging puppies through Walmart before they are ready and between the lunging, barking fake service dogs and the overwhelming nature of Walmart on its own - it is not a wonder that these puppies develop nervous or anxious behaviors and often burn out or even wash out from service training completely.
Socialization and Exposure are NOT the same thing... And negative exposure can be worse than no exposure. How you introduce a pup to new things - especially around their fear period time frames - makes an enormous difference in how they perceive the world and cope with stress.
Please, if you are unfamiliar with fear periods, socialization protocols, how to create a positive exposure experience (it's not about the treats), how to read canine body language and how to desensitize and counter condition behaviors... Get with a trainer who knows!!
But back to our star...
She did beautifully meeting a variety of people including men in hats/sunglasses and some with beards, people who came down to her level and some who bent over her and she just took it all in stride. She is learning to keep her feet on the floor and offer a Sit when greeting people and she did so almost everytime with no prompting from me. Very proud of that girl!
Then we did some tough stuff - exposure work to unusual sights (giant stuffed dog) and sounds (construction toys) which she did so well at also.
She breezed through the visual one and showed me, we will need to work a little on the auditory one.
Exposure to scary things is an important part of training but has to be handled delicately. I use her response to decide whether we are ready to try again. If she will still approach and interact, take food and isn't shutting down - it is okay to push that little bit. There is a fine line between desensitizing a puppy to something and overexposing them which can create a lasting impression that you then have to work much harder to change later. Keep your sessions short and productive instead of trying to force the issue and stop before they get stressed.
We couldn't leave empty handed so she got a selection of new toys and I may have cleaned out a bit of their treat clearance bin... LOL She also got a new bed for the car which she promptly put to use! All that work tires a baby out. Which is good news on the containment frustration issue - she slept all the way home!
We have been working on Luna's frustration levels in regards to being contained in the car, behind a baby gate and in the crate. She is making fabulous progress in under a week.
I am using a system of capturing and shaping her OFFERING behaviors such as getting into the crate, choosing a calm body language like Sit or Down, choosing to remain in the crate on her own, not stressing over the door being closed, not stressing over me going out of sight and finally her remaining quiet at lights out.
This is a long video (11:30min) but shows how we worked through it. She has gone from literally hours of fussing to the occasional few minutes in less than a week.
I do a lot of my photo and video editing at the kitchen table and although Luna has the choice of several places to lay in the evenings, she normally wants to be within about 6' or so of me.
She's not clingy (thanks to our hard work on barrier frustration which has made a huge difference) but she likes to be with you and keep you in sight - good traits in a service pup.
So I put a blanket down for her by the washer. I live in a little 800sq ft old farmhouse that we are fixing up as we go (my landlords are awesome) and with baby gates up between rooms, it hasn't been hard for her to learn to settle in the evenings with a chew or Kong and just chill. She will play with Fizz and then seek out her blanket when she's ready to head to bed.
I'm going to put a raised bed there for her this weekend as capturing a Go To Mat behavior with her is going to be really simple I think.
