There are three methods for teaching your dog the basics
- Capturing/shaping
- Lure/reward training
- Physical prompting
Capturing
Capturing is an exceptionally good method of training. One neat thing about it is that you are creating a dog who is a great problem solver—a terrific quality in any student. You’re letting your dog know, “I’ve got something you want here; what do you think you have to do to get it?” Then you just wait until the dog works it out himself and gets it right. It’s a fun little game, and dogs love it.
Basically, this is the method of choice for just about all dogs, including rambunctious dogs, fearful dogs, and aggressive dogs (in other words, dogs who don’t yet like being touched). Although time-consuming at first, once you get going and your dog understands that he has to figure out what is expected in order to get the reward, training will move along like gangbusters. This is a great way to teach your dog to do just about anything, from sitting on cue to completing a complicated series of tricks. In fact, animals you see in the movies and commercials are all trained in this way. Capturing and shaping creates a dog who performs reliably and happily.
To begin, you simply stay quiet and wait for your dog to offer a behavior you want. The moment it happens, you mark with a click of your clicker or by saying “yes” and reward.
Sit
To teach your dog to sit, hold a handful of your dog’s dry food or special treats and wait for him to sit. Don’t say a word; let him figure out what he has to do to get what you have. You can speed things up if you keep your dog on a leash. Step on it so it’s just long enough for your dog to stand, sit, and lie down comfortably. If you just stand still, your dog is likely to throw his entire behavioral repertoire at you — he may paw, bark, and so on. Ignore behaviors other than sitting. The first sit may take a few minutes, but don’t lose your patience during this initially slow part of an otherwise rapid process. Pretty soon he’ll sit. Mark the moment his rear hits the ground with the clicker or by saying “yes” and give him the reward.
The wonderful thing about capturing and shaping is that you just amuse yourself and wait for your dog to figure out what you want.
How Many Miles per Gallon, How Many Sits per Piece of Food?
Get the most out of your dog’s food. Most owners go to the kitchen and prepare their dog’s dinner while he goes crazy bouncing all over. Then the owner rewards this behavior by giving the dog dinner. Instead, ask your dog for a few sit, stand, and down repetitions before you give him his dinner. Better yet, spend five minutes using a few individual pieces of food to get your dog to play the training game with you. See how many sits or downs you can get for each piece.
The click means the end of the behavior, so your dog may have gotten up already, but you can say your release word to remind him that he is free to move about, take one step away from him, and wait for him to sit again. The sit should occur in a little less time than the last. By the time you have done six to ten sits, the dog will be sitting instantaneously each time you stop. He will have figured out which “button to push” to get you to release a piece of food.
Once you can predict when your dog will sit (when you stop), you are ready to say “sit” right before you think it will happen (when you stop). This way, you are beginning to teach your dog the verbal cue for sitting.
Down and Stand
The technique for the sit also applies to down and stand. Work on each of these behaviors separately. Simply wait for your dog to “give” you these behaviors, and promptly reward him for doing so. As with teaching “sit,” it may take a few moments for your dog to offer the first down or stand. But after you mark and reward the first offering of either behavior, each one is likely to be offered more quickly thereafter. After six to ten repetitions, your dog is likely to have figured out that lying down and standing in front of you are “buttons to push” to get you to release a piece of food.
Once you can predict when your dog will lie down or stand (when you stop), you are ready to say “down” or “stand” right before you think either behavior will happen.
Lure/Reward Training Sit
Basically, by luring your dog to move his nose, the rest of his body will follow. So, if you hold a piece of food in your hand and slowly lift it upward and backward over your dog’s nose, passing it between his eyes, his rear end will descend into the sit- ting position as he looks up to follow the food. Mark with a click or “yes” and give him a tiny treat. When you are confident that he will follow your hand movement into the sit position, you can predict when the sit will happen. So say “sit” before you move the lure, and click or say “yes” the moment his rear touches the ground and then give the reward. Again, the marker says that the behavior is done and he is free to move, but you can also say your release word as a reminder. Be careful not to add the cue word (in this case, “sit”) until you are confident that the desired behavior will happen when you move your hand up and back. Otherwise, you are simply saying a word (“sit”), and it is not being connected with a behavior.
So that your dog learns to do a reliable sit on request regardless of his body position in relation to yours (that is, not just in front of you), practice this exercise with him in as many variations as possible, including him at your side, you in a chair, and him lying down.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Once you’ve taught your dog the position changes, you can practice many, many times throughout the day. Three- to five-minute training sessions are best. Just ask your dog to come and do a few position changes for a few tiny, tasty treats, or for the privilege of getting on the couch, or before you throw a tennis ball.
Down
To get your dog to lie down, hold your hand with the food lure in it in front of his nose and move it straight down to the ground and slightly in toward his chest. Your dog will fold down like a table as his nose follows the lure, and so will his forequarters. Usually, a dog will lie down completely at this point. If he does, mark the moment his stomach is flat on the ground with a click or by saying “yes” and give him the tiny piece of food. If the dog’s nose and forequarters go down but his rear end is still sticking up in the air, however, push the food lure gently toward his chest a little more, and as your dog pushes back to sniff, his rear end will collapse to the ground.
Getting your dog to lie down may take a few tries. Try working on a slippery surface to begin. This will make it much easier to get your dog to slide to the ground. But don’t let him have the lure until he is lying down. He can sniff at your hand, but keep it closed around the food lure. Don’t say anything. He will eventually lie down, and then you can click or say “yes” and open your hand to give him the food. Release him and repeat the routine many times in each three- to five-minute training session.
There is a trick for luring little or short-legged dogs into a down. Simply place your dog at the top of a flight of stairs and position yourself one step down. Use your hand with the lure to guide the dog’s head below the stair. After a few repetitions on the stairs, you and your pooch will be ready to try it on a flat surface. You can also entice your dog to lie down by luring him to crawl under your bent leg.
Stand
To teach your dog to stand on command, move the food from in front of the dog’s nose to where his nose would be if he were standing. If your dog does not stand up, waggle the treat a little, and soon he will rise. When he stands, immediately mark with a click or a “yes” and give the reinforcement.
Five Steps to Eliminating the Lure
While lures can be useful in training, your goal should be to use ’em and lose ’em as fast as possible. To phase out food (or other lures), simply stop holding the lure in your hand. You will find that if you make the same hand movement you did when you held a food lure, you have a hand signal! So the dog learns hand signals very quickly. Mark the behavior and offer a treat from the other hand as a reward. If he doesn’t respond to the empty-handed hand signal, simply try again. The five steps to eliminating the use of a lure in training are:
- Lure in hand, reward every time.
2. No lure in hand, reward from other hand every time.
3. No lure in hand, reward from other hand randomly.
4. No lure in hand, someone else hands you the reward or you get the reward from someplace else.
5. No lure in hand; use life rewards most of the time, like continuing a walk, verbal praise, and petting; offer the occasional food reward.
Rover Rollover
Teaching your dog to roll over as a trick is a gentle way to get him to tolerate and even enjoy being in a vulnerable position, which he might not otherwise be comfortable with. The lure/reward method is a good choice for teaching a dog to roll over. Lure your dog into a down, and then use the lure to guide his head to the ground so that he’s lying flat on one side. Now move the lure over your dog’s shoulder so that he must twist his neck a bit to follow it. When his feet start to go up, move the lure a little more quickly. When he rolls all the way over, mark with a click or “yes” and open your hand to give him a small piece of the lure as a reward while he’s still lying down. Once your dog has begun to roll over quickly when you use your hand to lure him, add the words “roll over” as you lure your dog. Remember that this is a vulnerable position for your dog, so don’t lose patience if it takes a little while for him to feel confident enough to roll over. Some dogs are more comfortable learning this trick first on a soft surface (such as a rug or a towel) and then working on regular flooring.
One of the drawbacks of physical prompting is that dogs learn they can do what they like when they are out of reach.
Physical Prompting
Many people are familiar with the techniques to physically prompt a dog to sit, lie down, and stand. If done correctly, the dog may learn when touched on the rump or when gently touched between his shoulders to assume the appropriate position. At first, the methods seem to get a quick response, but, in fact, physical prompting is surprisingly time-consuming and not nearly as effective or fun as the other two approaches. Because touch is so important to dogs, your dog will selectively attend to the touch. In effect, he doesn’t even hear the instructions you give. Teaching your dog verbal commands from the outset using capturing and shaping or lure/ reward training is much more effective.
Maintain a Good Attitude
Your dog’s enthusiasm for learning depends greatly on you, so never try to train if you’re feeling irritable.