When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [27]
Step Five
In this step, you will condition your dog so that “new environment” means “look at me.” Simply being in a new place will become a cue to look at you. The problem with this is that new places are often just so darn stimulating that all of your lovely training cannot overcome the lure of the novel. Instead of giving you attention when he arrives at a new place, the first thing your dog might do is stand at the end of his leash, straining to get away and check out all that stuff. Remember, it is useless to give a command to a dog that is not paying attention to you.
So, what do you? Here is a game plan. Immediately discard all pride and stoop to the lowest level possible. Give your dog a huge wad of incredibly mouth-watering treats placed directly under his nose—shoved in his mouth, if necessary. Now, this looks for all appearances like a bribe, but it is actually much more than that. What you are really doing is conditioning your dog to pay attention to you when he enters a new environment. In this case, it does not matter what your dog is doing—we are just trying to set up an association between “new place” and “fabulous treats.” Whenever you take a puppy (or untrained dog) somewhere new, you should always have a big wad of great treats in your hand when you enter the new building or location. As you open the door and allow the dog through, immediately stick your hand under his nose and shove treats in his mouth, before he has a chance to react to the new venue. If you do this enough times, whenever your dog goes somewhere new he will begin to drool and look at you expectantly, just like Pavlov’s dog. Once you have your dog’s attention this way, hesitate a split second before giving the next treat, and click him for maintaining eye contact during the hesitation. Then build on that hesitation until he is eagerly looking at you for a few seconds and then click that.
Once you have conditioned attention, you can go back to shaping the behavior you want. Now, instead of immediately feeding your dog every time he goes someplace new, you can hold out and wait for him to give you some attention. Click the attention and build it up to longer and longer duration, until your dog is trained to automatically check in with you whenever he is in a new place. It is a tricky thing to know when to switch from conditioning (giving the dog something for nothing, just to set up an association between being in a new place and getting treats) to training (expecting some attention from your dog and rewarding it). If your dog is responding to his name and appears able to pay attention to you, you can start training. If your dog’s eyes still look like pinwheels and he is making desperate leaps at the end of his leash, you probably need to do more conditioning.
Here I am bringing a nine month old puppy into a training building full of other people and dogs. As we come through the door, I keep feeding him so he has no opportunity to look around. Once I have his attention in this way, I can go back to asking for all the behaviors he knows, like sit and loose leash walking.
Note that one is always walking a fine line when taking a not-so-completely-trained-dog or puppy to a new place. On one hand, you need to push the envelope so that your dog can be socialized, learn, and be conditioned to perform anywhere, but on the other hand you have to be very careful that your dog is capable of paying attention in a new place. You always need to set your dog up for success. If you find that your dog is completely out of control and unable to even take food from you when he gets to a new place, that is a pretty good indicator that you need to try a less stimulating environment.