BML2--Class #5: Adventure Hike

Athena with her dog pack.

Class #5 of Basic Manners is a Group Adventure Hike.  All dogs and their owners will be accompanied by Athena and her pack on a group dog adventure hike.  We will practice using a long line leash during this hike.  Owners and dogs will also practice:  Look, Heel, Loose Leash Walking, and basic socialization skills.

Mac, Devo, Maybe, Caravaggio, & Nekita.

Mac, Devo, Maybe, Caravaggio, & Nekita.

Teefus is working on his dog aggression.

Although he has improved a lot, he still sometimes wears a muzzle for safety.

The dogs with Mac's mom.

Mac & Maybe loving their dog adventure hike!

BML2--Class #4

Heel:

The Heel position is about the dog staying close to the handler and paying close attention.  We will start with the Basic Heel position, the Stationary Heel.

To do this, we will food lure the dog into the Heel position at our left side.  Use your left hand to food lure the dog into the position.  If you need, take a step back with your left leg to encourage the dog to move.  Once the dog is in the Heel position, practice a Sit and Look. 

Moving Heel:  

1. Food lure the dog several times while backing up.
2. Food lure the dog, now turn your body so the dog is now on the left side in Heel position (use the treat in your left hand).

—Always begin and end every Heel exercise with a Sit in the Heel position.

—When you stop moving forward, move your baited hand UP slightly to initiate the Sit position.

—As you are moving forward, the treat should be held up slightly from the dog so she is looking for it.  Gradually progress to moving your hand all the way up to the Look position.  

Wait with Recall:

This is similar to the Stay command, but different.  Stay means to a dog, wait here until I come back to you to release you.  Stay always means you are coming back to the dog to release him.  Wait means to a dog, stay here until I give you something else to do.  Wait is usually followed by a Come command.

We will start similar to the Stay Cue.  Start in front of the dog, give your command, “Wait” (while giving the Stay hand signal), slowly back up a few steps while putting your hand down.  Turn to face the dog.  If the dog has stayed in place, say your Good, and call the dog to Come.  Reward and praise lavishly when the dog reaches you.

Wait with a Long Line Leash:

For this we will walk with our dog on the long line leash.  Allow the dog to wonder around ahead of you a little ways.  Once the dog is about 10 feet in front of you, give your “Wait” command while stepping on the leash at the same time.  This will force the dog to stop moving forward.  Walk up the leash until you reach the dog.  Give the dog their “Good” then “Let’s Go” and continue walking.

Come When Called:

Practice Come When Called with various distances and distractions.

You may also do this by playing Puppy Ping Pong game.

The Steps:

1. Say the dog’s name and Come, one time only.
2. Have a party.
3. Lure (or gently lead) the dog back to you.

Drop It/ Give:

Practice Drop It and/or Give with your dog.

Once the dog has the toy and is engaged with it, present a treat or reward of equal or higher value than the toy, as the dog drops the toy, say “Drop.”  It is very important to give the reward to the dog AT THE SAME TIME as you pick up the dropped toy.

Take it:

Some dogs are not prone to putting their mouths on items and must be encouraged to do so using the Take It command.  To practice, start with food the dog likes, present the food and say “Take It.”  Move up to using items to practice.

Fetch:

Fetch is very helpful game that every owner should teach their dog.  It is an excellent  way to exercise your dog without wearing yourself out. 

Rules of Fetch:

1. Dog must Sit.
2. Dog must Look.
3. Fetch.
4. Dog returns toy.
5. Dog drops toy.
6. Repeat.

To start, we must have a toy that the dog likes.  Get the dog interested in the toy, then throw it a 2-4 feet away.  Say “Fetch” as you throw the toy in a very energetic, excited voice.  When the dog reaches the toy, praise if he touches it with his mouth.  Encourage the dog to pick up the toy.  When he does, say your “Good!”  Use Come when Called to encourage the dog to return to you with the toy.  If the dog drops the toy along the way, give your “Uh-oh,” return to the toy and encourage the dog to pick it up again.  When the dog returns with the toy, DO NOT REACH OUT TO GRAB IT.  The dog must learn to bring it to you.  Once the dog is within one foot of you, grab the toy and encourage the dog to drop using your “Drop It” command.  When he does, give your “Good!”  Have the dog Sit.  Good!  Wait a few second; use the toy to practice “Look.”  Once the dog looks in your eyes, throw the toy and say “Fetch.”

BML2--Class #3

Heel:

The Heel position is about the dog staying close to the handler and paying close attention.  We will start with the Basic Heel position, the Stationary Heel.

To do this, we will food lure the dog into the Heel position at our left side.  Use your left hand to food lure the dog into the position.  If you need, take a step back with your left leg to encourage the dog to move.  Once the dog is in the Heel position, practice a Sit and Look. 

Moving Heel:

 

1. Food lure the dog several times while backing up.
2. Food lure the dog, now turn your body so the dog is now on the left side in Heel position (use the treat in your left hand).

—Always begin and end every Heel exercise with a Sit in the Heel position.

—When you stop moving forward, move your baited hand UP slightly to initiate the Sit position.

—As you are moving forward, the treat should be held up slightly from the dog so she is looking for it.  Gradually progress to moving your hand all the way up to the Look position.  

Adding Distractions to Heel:

Practice Heel while walking past and around other dogs and distractions in class.  During this exercise, keep your dog focused on you.  Use your Look/ Watch Me Cue to keep your dog’s attention or continue to use the food lure while walking in Heel.

Greeting a Stranger while walking in Heel:

For this exercise we will practice walking your dog in Heel.  You and your dog will walk up to another person with their dog.  To start, the dogs will be on the outside.  Begin walking in Heel towards each other; when you meet in the middle you will both stop, have your dogs sit, and then the humans will say hello.  Then you will give your “Let’s Go,” and continue walking in the Heel exercise.

Stay:

Means to your dog, stay in this position until I come back to release you.  This is not the same thing as Wait.  For this exercise, the dog should either be in the Sit or Down position.  Some owners prefer to have a specific Sit-Stay and Down-Stay as separate commands.  If you would like to do this, please let your trainer know.

There are 3 parts to the Stay Cue:

1. Duration (Time)
2. Distance 
3. Distractions

Adding Distance to Stay:

We will start by slowly adding distance to the Stay command.  Start with one step backwards, then quickly return forwards to the dog and reward.  Then add two steps, pause, return and reward.  Slowly begin to add distance.  If your dog gets up, take the training back a step and make it easier (don’t add as much distance).

Adding Distractions to Stay:

To add a new part of the Stay cue, we must take the other parts of the cue back down to zero.  That means, since we are now adding distractions, the distance and duration of the Stay should be near zero.  You will start by dropping or tossing mild distractions while asking the dog to Stay.  We will slowly begin adding more difficult distractions.

Come When Called:

Practice Come When Called with various distances and distractions.

The Rules:

1. Safety first.  Always have a leash or be in an enclosed area.
2. When you say come, you have to see it happen.
3. NEVER punish a dog for coming to you.

The Steps:

1. Say the dog’s name and Come, one time only.
2. Have a party.
3. Lure (or gently lead) the dog back to you.

Practice Look, Sit, Down, & Stand:

Practice each cue and make the dog hold the position longer before the reward.  Be sure to say your Reward Marker, “Good,” the instant the dog performs the behavior, but withhold the treat for a few seconds.  Make the dog wait longer and longer for the reward.  When rewarding, praise lavishly.

BML2--Class #2

Heel:

The Heel position is about the dog staying close to the handler and paying close attention.  We will start with the Basic Heel position, the Stationary Heel.

To do this, we will food lure the dog into the Heel position at our left side.  Use your left hand to food lure the dog into the position.  If you need, take a step back with your left leg to encourage the dog to move.  Once the dog is in the Heel position, practice a Sit and Look. 

Moving Heel:  

1. Food lure the dog several times while backing up.
2. Food lure the dog, now turn your body so the dog is now on the left side in Heel position (use the treat in your left hand).

—Always begin and end every Heel exercise with a Sit in the Heel position.

—When you stop moving forward, move your baited hand UP slightly to initiate the Sit position.

—As you are moving forward, the treat should be held up slightly from the dog so she is looking for it.  Gradually progress to moving your hand all the way up to the Look position.  

Come When Called:

(Puppy Ping Pong and Hide & Seek Games)

The Rules:

1. Safety first.  Always have a leash or be in an enclosed area.
2. When you say come, you have to see it happen.
3. NEVER punish a dog for coming to you.

The Steps:

1. Say the dog’s name and Come, one time only.
2. Have a party.
3. Lure (or gently lead) the dog back to you.

Remember, each cue/command has three parts to build up or work on:  

1. Duration (Time)
2. Distance
3. Distractions

To improve the Cue:  we will apply a Reward Grading Scale.  

This means that you must know what your dog likes best.  For this scale, we will reward with a low level treat for an okay recall.  As the dog improves on speed and direction, the training grade is higher, and therefore the reward should be greater.  Once the dog runs the distance quickly and directly to you, use a Jackpot Reward.  This means giving the dog several treats quickly after performing a behavior exceptionally well.

Practice Come when Called while adding Distance.  

We will start at a distance where we know the dog will currently respond to Come, then slowly start adding distance each time.  If the dog does not do well, take the training back a step (move closer to the dog).  Remember to progress slowly.  Be sure to attach your long line dog leash for this training.  For this, it is helpful to have two people for each dog.  This will make this exercise much easier to practice.  (Puppy Ping Pong Game).  Remember to practice all 3 Steps of Come When Called each time (as needed).  

Come when Called while adding Distractions.

Next we will try adding distractions to Come when Called.  To begin, we will start at a lower distance then was just practiced.  Keep your long ling training leash attached.  Now we will practice Come when Called while adding distractions.  For this we will use other dogs and people from class, as well as objects to try and distract your dog during the Come command.  Be sure to take this training very slowly.  Heavily reward your dog for ignoring the distraction(s) and coming to you.  Slowly add more difficult distractions.  Remember to use your Reward Grading Scale.  For better recalls, reward more lavishly with better treats.

Practice Look, Sit, Down, & Stand:

Finally we will practice some Basic Manners.  Practice each cue and make the dog hold the position longer before the reward.  Be sure to say your Reward Marker, “Good,” the instant the dog performs the behavior, but withhold the treat for a few seconds.  Make the dog wait longer and longer for the reward.  When rewarding, praise lavishly.

Practice Stay:

For Week 3 class we will be adding Distance and Distractions to the Stay cue.  So for this week, practice the Stay cue without distance and distractions.  Simply work on building up Duration, or time.

BML2--Class #1

Basic Manners - Level Two:  Class #1

The first class is a review of all things learned in Basic Manners Level One...

3 Things on your body that are Rewarding to Dogs:

1. Voice
2. Eye Contact
3. Touch

Anytime you engage your dog in one of these things, you are basically rewarding whatever behavior they are doing at that time.  This is important to keep in mind so we do not unintentionally reward bad behaviors.

You must catch a bad behavior within 2 seconds to change the behavior.

Marker Word:  “Good” or “Yes” or the clicker

This is what we say to mark the behavior we wanted.  Saying this is telling the dog, “that was exactly what I was looking for!”  The more you mark good behavior in a positive way, the more your dog will want to engage in good behavior.  

No Reward Marker:  “uh-oh” or “eh-eh”

This is to let the dog know that this is not what I was looking for you to do now.  We want to mark the behavior as not what we wanted, but we want to do so in a way that will still encourage the dog to want to learn.  When using an “uh-oh” while training, remember to take a step away from the dog to help “re-set” the brain, then try again.  Remember to only say cues ONE TIME, then wait 30 seconds to a minute before giving your “uh-oh” (give the dog a chance to make the right decision).

Basic Manners Review:

Look/ Watch Me:

We practice this command because we want a dog who looks to us for permission and direction.  Practice this cue both the simple way (directly from the dog’s nose up to your eye), and with the T position (start the same, then when the treat comes to your eye, move both arms out into a T position).

Come When Called:

The Rules:

1. Safety first.  Always have a leash or be in an enclosed area.
2. When you say come, you have to see it happen.
3. NEVER punish a dog for coming to you.

The Steps:

1. Say the dog’s name and Come, one time only.
2. Have a party.
3. Lure (or gently lead) the dog back to you.

Loose Leash Walking:

When your dog pulls on the leash, you have two options…

1. Stop and wait for the dog to move in a way that releases the tension of the leash.
2. Say “let’s go” and go off promptly in the opposite direction.

Sit, Down, & Stand:

All these positions should already be well practiced.  Dogs should know the verbal and hand signals for each command.

Leave-It:

This should mean to a dog, turn away from that, don’t pay attention to that, leave that thing alone.  Remember that whatever you are asking your dog to Leave It, he should NOT get that item at the time you are practicing the Leave-It.  Never practice Leave-It/ Take-It (this can teach a dog to leave something alone for a second, then take it anyway).  We want our dogs to know that when I say to leave something alone, you don’t touch it ever.

Making Leave-It harder:  1. Treat in closed hand, 2. Treat in partially open hand, 

3. Treat in open hand, 4. Treat in open hand on the ground, 5. Treat on the ground.

Stay:

Means to your dog, stay in this position until I come back to release you.  This is not the same thing as Wait.  There are 3 parts to the Stay Cue:

1. Duration (Time)
2. Distance
3. Distractions

Drop It/ Give:

When teaching this cue, we must be aware of possible Resource Guarding.  Remember to NEVER steal things from your dog’s mouth.  To teach Drop It/ Give:

Have the dog have a toy in his mouth that is not of super high value.  Once the dog has the toy and is engaged with it, present a treat or reward of higher value than the toy, as the dog drops the toy, say “Drop.”  It is very important to give the reward to the dog AT THE SAME TIME as you pick up the dropped toy.  Do not let your dog get into the habit of snatching the reward then snatching the toy back up.

For Week 2 class, please bring a long-line leash or long rope for distance work.  Also bring a squeaky toy that your dog loves.  This will be used to help the dog focus back on you during Distraction work.  As always, bring a variety of lots and lots of good treats that your dog loves.

Basic Manners Classes Starting Soon

Basic Manners Dog Training Classes 
Starting in January 2014
Lahaina, Kihei, & Kahului

This is a beginner class for dogs and their owners.  Dogs of all ages are welcome to join, provided they are up-to-date on Parvo and Distemper shots.  This is a 6-week class, one hour per week.  Each week you will learn something new to practice with your dog.  Basic Manners Dog Training is taught using positive reinforcement methods, combined with energy balance.

Cost for the class:  $150 CASH
Basic Manners Class includes:

*Marker Words
*No Reward Marker
*Come when called
*Watch Me/ Look
*Loose Leash Walking 
*Impulse Control 
*Sit & Auto-sit
*Down  
*Stand  
*Stay
*Drop It
*Leave It

Please contact Athena @808-463-4684 or email suchgooddogs@gmail.com to register.
Classes will be available Thursday or Friday, morning and afternoon.










Please let us know your name, phone number, email address, what day/ time works best for you, your location, & name, breed, and age of dog.





Athena Angelic, is an Animal Behavior Certified Dog Trainer, has been certified in pet first aid and CPR through the American Red Cross, and is a full member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.  Such Good Dogs specializes in training companion dogs, or family dogs, using positive reinforcement methods, combined with energy balance.  Such Good Dogs offers many different types of training programs, in-home dog boarding, dog adventures, and dog bootcamp.

www.suchgooddogs.com  

suchgooddogs@gmail.com

808-463-4684

Lahaina Basic Manners Class starts Oct 2nd

Such Good Dog's will be starting new Basic Manners - Level One dog training classes.
This class will be held in Lahaina.
Wednesdays 5-6 p.m.
(October 2nd - November 6th)

Contact Such Good Dogs to sign up now!!!!
808-463-4684
suchgooddogs@gmail.com
(Email us with you name, phone #, email address, dog's name, breed, & age.)

Basic Manners Level One is a 6-week, one hour per week class.  Each week you will learn new things to take home and practice with your dog.  Basic Manners is taught using positive reinforcement training, combined with energy balance.  Items covered in this Level One class include:  Food Lure, Marker Word, Watch Me/ Look, Come when called, Loose Leash Walking, Impulse Control, Sit & Auto-sit, Down, Stand, Stay, Drop It, and Leave It.

The cost for this class is $150 CASH.  Please bring this with you the first day of class, along with your pet's vet records.  I do not need to keep any vet records, but I DO need to see them.  Your pet should be up to date on all shots including Parvo, Distemper, and Rabies (if your pet is from outside of Hawaii).  These vaccinations are required prior to beginning training.  Please check your records before the class begins to be sure your pet is up to date on everything.  Also please have your vet's information (clinic name, phone #, etc), as you will need this to properly fill out training paperwork.

For the first week's class you do NOT bring your dogs.  This first class is information, and the most important class.  Please bring paper and a pen for taking notes.  Handouts will be given each week at the end of class.

ANY dog breed of ANY age is welcome (and encouraged) to take the class.


Class will be held at a park in Lahaina.

Contact Such Good Dogs to sign up now!!!!

808-463-4684

suchgooddogs@gmail.com

Can't wait to meet you.