Why is exercise an important topic for certified dog trainers? 

54% of pet dogs are classified as overweight or obese according to a survey conducted by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. Since approximately 50% of your clientele consists of dogs that are currently overweight or likely to be overweight at some point, then it just makes sense to have some helpful tips and words of warning for clients with overweight dogs.

Not sure where to get started?

Check out Desiree Snelleman’s audio course, “Why Not Exercise with Your Dog?,” available through Raising Canine. This audio course is approximately 1 hour in length and covers some important tidbits to consider when getting starting on an exercise regimen with your dog. There is also discussion of how exercise dovetails with dog sports. 

A Few Tips from Desiree…

Consider the following when making an exercise plan for your dog and yourself: duration, intensity, frequency, and mode or type of activity. For type of activity consider the physical and emotional demands of the activities you choose and the breed of your dog, as there may be some inherent traits that you can tap into.

Also, a good training program should include cardiovascular training, strength training, and flexibility training. And don’t forget the warm-up and cool down! Warm up can be as simple as walking, playing, jogging, or tugging – in moderation. 

Whether helping clients to get a good start on developing an exercise program or getting some tips that you can include in the classes you teach, this one hour audio telecourse is a great place to start!

You want to become the academy of canine behavior, one-stop shopping for your professional dog training clients? That means offering solutions for a variety of problems, including boredom busting. 

Check out this blog article for a few ideas on sniff-it games.  Games that utilize a dog’s nose are a great way to increase mental stimulation for pet dogs.  Games that are simple for clients to understand and easy for them to implement are the best kind!

http://buddyschance.typepad.com/positive_dog_training_blo/2013/05/sniff-it-why-you-should-encourage-your-dog-to-use-his-nose.html 

Certified professional trainers offer their clients the tools to succeed, and that means problem solving! Teaching “down” in a group class setting is a great example of a time when your problem solving skills will be called upon.

Why is “down” so difficult in group class?

“Down” is a position in which dogs can feel vulnerable. Some dogs feel trapped in the “down” position, because they can’t maneuver and respond to the environment as quickly. Perhaps the floor is cold and/or hard, so the dog is uncomfortable in the “down” position. There are a number of reasons that dogs have difficulty learning “down” in class. As in many dog training conundrums, the “why” matters! Understanding why a dog is reluctant to “down” in class can be helpful in offering training solutions, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

Option 1

Most trainers have a go-to option for teaching the behaviors in their classes. What you choose as your first option for “down” will be based upon your clients and their specific needs. The following are the basics: luring, shaping, capturing, hand targeting, and modeling. Not familiar with each of these?  Check out Become a Professional Trainer’s training courses to learn more!

Alternatives for teaching “down”    

1. Soft Bed. Try placing a bed or mat on the ground. If the floor is too slick, too cold, or too hard for the dog to comfortably “down,” then a mat may help.

2. Try Option 2. If you’re luring, try shaping. If you’re shaping, try luring. Some clients find certain methods easier than others, and the same is true of dogs. Find a method with which both dog and handler are comfortable.

3. Simplify. Make the environment less challenging by removing distractions. Visual distractions can be reduced with opaque barriers, for example. Split your criteria steps into smaller pieces.

4. In-Home Training. Some dogs are stressed enough in class that learning certain new behaviors is hard. These dogs may be candidates for in-home training.

5. Homework. If in-home training is either not an option for your client or there is a strong preference to attend group classes, then coach your client through the steps and send them home with homework. They’ll train at home, where the dog will hopefully begin to gain familiarity with the behavior. Once the dog has started the behavior at home, frequently the dog is more willing to attempt the behavior in class.

6. Change the Start Position. If you’re teaching “down” from the sit, try “down” from the stand.

6. Tweak Your Mechanics. If you’re luring out and away for a sphinx “down”, try luring around to the belly for a sloppy, relaxed “down.”

7. Use a Prop. Try luring under your leg or a chair, so that the dog bows into the “down.”

An exhaustive list? No, but this will get you started. It’s important to think creatively while analyzing the specific challenges that this client and this dog present. Becoming a certified dog trainer means having the tools in your training toolbox to address your clients’ training challenges. Memorizing methods might help get you started, but it’s creative problem solving targeted to the specific needs of your client that will help your clients achieve the best results.

This just in from Lindsay Ridgeway, whose goal is to train his Golden Retriever, Laddie, with positive reinforcement methods in the sport of field trialing – just to show it can be done! For more you can join the Positive Gun Dogs list (hosted by yours truly) at positivegundogs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Yesterday, Laddie competed in the Owner/Handler Qualifying stake at the Western New York Retriever Club July 2012 Hunt Test.

For his third Qualification in a row, Laddie completed the trial, and was awarded a JAM (Judges Award of Merit). The first of the three was a Reserve JAM, and Laddie also had a JAM in his first trial, which was last year.

So Laddie now has four AKC field trial ribbons, as far as I know the first dog in history to get one of those after being trained entirely without physical aversives.

Laddie still has a long way to go in this sport. However, in the context of the other dogs we compete with:

* Some dogs compete in Quals for years without ever getting to the end of a trial
* Laddie is my first field trial dog, whereas many of these dogs' owners and trainers are more experienced
* I train Laddie myself, rather than turning him over to a professional trainer as is fairly common for FT dogs
* I run Laddie myself in competition, rather than having him run by an experienced FT handler (which is huge, because it's my handling that more often than not gets us knocked out of trials)
* Most field trials contain only dogs that have been trained with ecollars
* Even those rare dogs not trained with ecollars are still trained with physical aversives such as heeling sticks, choke collars, and ear pinches, Laddie being the sole exception as far as I know
* All teams in a field trial are affected by luck to a certain extent, but three ribbons in a row suggests that luck is becoming less of a factor for Laddie

If you haven’t already, check out my post on 3/11/11, “If You Want a Career in Dog Training There Are Important Concepts to be Learned.” See if you can find the first answer before reading the rest of this post! Then, check out my 3/14/11 post which gives the answer to the first post and asks if you can find the second error.

Ok – here’s a recap of what’s happened and an explanation of the second error. At about 1:15, Jane raises two criteria. Then, at around 2:00 Jane realizes she’s made a mistake and takes action to correct it – I don’t think she knows exactly what she did wrong, but she knows, because of her low rate of reinforcement, that she’s done something wrong. She pats her leg, changes her position, picks up the object, etc., but still asks the dog to pick the object up from the floor and deliver to hand.

During all of this the dog is still in the game – she hasn’t lost him, but he’s confused and frustrated. Finally, at 3:00, she goes back to picking up the object and having the dog take it and drop it. BUT, she has the dog take it 4 times with no reinforcement and doesn’t reinforce him; on the 5^th trial, he goes quite a while without taking the object. That time, at 3 minutes and 20 seconds she reinforces the take and drop.

Ideally, Jane would have reinforced the dog when he first targeted the object after she picked it up instead of waiting for something more – get him back in the game and quickly bring him back to the level he was before she raised 2 criteria at once.

Jane went 2 minutes and 5 seconds without reinforcing anything, which is a very long time when training a new behavior. She’s lucky she didn’t lose the dog altogether – he’s a willing participant, but simply doesn’t know what to do. She continues with a low rate of reinforcement because she’s waiting for a specific criteria (I’m not sure what it is), and you can see the dog’s behavior become less and less enthusiastic. Finally, at about 4:20, she forgets about her old criteria and backs up to the old criteria – Hurray! She’s realized she needs to get the dog back into the game before she can raise the criteria.

A lot of people would blame this on the dog, saying he’s bored, or he’s deliberately blowing her off; the reality is that the trainer made a fundamental error which she eventually realized and corrected. As Jane continues in her quest to become a professional dog trainer, she will learn, understand and recognize these errors when she, and others, make them. Then she will truly be a professional dog trainer!

If you’d like to learn more about how to become a dog trainer, please visit https://becomeaprofessionaldogtrainer.com.