Please Do Not Eat My Fingers...

I need them to make your dinner, you ungrateful little ball of floof and fangs. It's a Mama's Monday! On Mondays I guest-blog with details on the week's training for the new puppy...

Nanook was never at a loss for control of his teeth during his lengthy puppyhood. He used them with surgical precision on my pants, my tables, my blankets, my couches, and on at least one memorable occasion, a wall. He never did any real harm because I was on him at all times, monitoring his activities whenever he was out of his crate. And when it came to giving him treats out of my hand, he was always instinctively very careful to take them politely.

Not so the Pookamonster. So I've begun training him to take treats gently - since I can hardly train him to do anything else if every time I offer him a reward I get his best impression of a great white shark. Ow.

Here, essentially, is how I do it. I have the treat in the palm of my right hand, and I put the puppy in a sit. With my left hand maintaining a light hold on his collar I move the right hand towards his mouth saying "gentle..." quietly. If he tries to lunge for it I close my hand into a fist and say "no." If he sits back then I open my hand and start moving it closer again. He only gets the treat if he tries to take it gingerly. Otherwise I close my fist and he can lick at it all day long he's not getting it. It takes patience because you really have to wait until the puppy is feeling calm before you'll get what you're looking for.

Although I can't stand using a clicker because I feel like you need to have four hands in order to do so, I do believe in event marking as a training tool, so I use the word "yes!" in place of a click. For those of you who have not been able to take obedience classes here is how you train your dog to recognize an event marker:

Start out with 10 cookies in your hand. Sit on a chair with your dog on leash in front of you. Say whatever word you want to use; "yes" or "bingo" or "potato!" - the word you choose doesn't really matter except that it is one you should use expressly for this purpose. Say the word, and then give a treat. Say the word and then give a treat. Repeat. Give your dog a short break, and then sit back down with another 5 treats. Say the word, wait three seconds, and then give the treat. Say the word, wait a few seconds again and then give the treat. Repeat for all five cookies. Do this once or twice a day for a few days - you should notice towards the end that the dog starts to look expectantly at your hands (for the treat) whenever you say the word. Once you've got that reaction you're ready to use the word as a training tool.

To train with this method you go through a few stages: food luring, then introducing the command, then phasing out the lure, then phasing out the reward. Once you're at that point at home, then you introduce distractions but go back to the beginning - in other words you bring your dog to someplace distracting (mildly distracting) and start with the food lure. Once the dog is solidly giving you the response you are looking for you phase out the lure in the distracting environment and just use the command and so on until your dog is again performing reliably without a reward, on your first command. Then you up the distraction level.

Some definitions of the stages:

Food luring: Holding a piece of food or treat and using it to lead the dog into the behavior wanted - like lowering it to the ground and pulling it slightly away from the dog to get the dog to lie down, or holding it above the dog's head and moving it towards the tail to get the dog to sit. When the dog sits, "yes!" and then give the treat.

Introducing the word: While still food luring, introduce the command you want the puppy to associate with the action. Repeat multiple times, until the puppy recognizes the word as well as the hand gesture luring him into place.

Phasing out the lure: Get rid of the food in your hand but keep making the hand gestures, and slowly make the hand gesture less and less dramatic, until your dog is performing based on spoken command alone. Continue to "yes!" and reward.

Phasing out the reward: Once your dog is reliably performing, start rewarding on an infrequent basis - reward only the fastest sits, for example, or the best looking sits. A dog will work harder for the possibility of a treat than it will for the certainty of one. Note that you should ONLY use your marker word if you intend to give a reward right then. The marker word should ALWAYS be followed by a reward. The reward can be food or game-based - if your dog is not terribly food motivated but loves to play tug with a particular toy, use that toy and a quick game of tug as the reward. When phasing out the reward for the times you do not treat use a different word to let the dog know he did the right thing but isn't necessarily getting a cookie - I say "good."

So - what does this mean for Pook? I have had a few sessions of teaching him the event marking word already. He's young, but he's also very quick so I do not think it will take him too long to recognize it.

I've just begun teaching the sit and the lie down, (although I call it "settle.") I have him sit when he gets his meals, and now I'm also teaching it to him with treats. We're still definitely in the food luring stage, but he is beginning to respond reliably to the food lure - he's not jumping up for the cookie or standing when I move it out for the lie down, so I've started introducing the word in addition to the lure.

We're also working on "shush" since he is a very vocal little newf. Nanook was NEVER a talker, and it is a little disconcerting to have this tiny 30 lb ball of floof yelling at you to hurry up with his dinner, or telling off the cats for hissing at him. For shush I just gently hold his muzzle when he barks and say "shush." As soon as he stops barking I praise him thoroughly.

Leash training continues - we've gone from dragging the leash to me carrying it and directing him to follow me with voice and hand pats on the lower leg. I'm not using the leash to pull him or direct him at all. At this stage he is very polite - wanting only to walk next to me or behind me and not ahead so I'm rewarding that with praise and pets. He's a much stronger walker than Nanook was at the same age - he hasn't pulled a mulish "sit down and stare blankly" on me yet but I'm being very careful not to ask him to do too much, which I think is helping tremendously. We haven't gone past our mailbox yet, but we have a long driveway and lots of lawn which is more than enough for him at his age. He is a very trusting little puppy and cheerfully follows me anywhere.

As for socialization - he has met Kobe and Faylin the shiba inus, Niko the airedale, and Eloise the 3 year old female newf. He spent a lot of time air-humping near Eloise. At ten weeks old. God help me. He's visited his second pet boutique (no other dogs present) and had his first play date away from home, with the two shibas and Niko at Faylin and Kobe's house. We stayed for two hours and he did not have a single accident. Good boy! (Although I did walk him there about 5 times so our bets were totally hedged). We've had a number of people come visit him at home, and he's been to his papa's office also.

The only bad news is that I did jinx the potty training by bragging about him last week - he's since had two small accidents in the house. Still, two accidents in two weeks ain't bad - I continue the potty training by doing the happy dance every time he potties outside and encouraging him to the ring the bells before opening the door to go out.

That's it for now - it's nearly lunch time and there are two growing newfs in this house waiting for me to put their bowls down.

Belly rubs for everyone! - Nanook (and Pooka's) Mama.