When Pigs Fly_ Training Success With Impossible Dogs - Jane Killion [48]
Yield on your requirements when you change something. At home, you may be able to give your dog one dry dog biscuit in exchange for a sit, a down, a paw wave, plus a spin, and he might perform beautifully for you. Don’t expect him to be that way when you take him out on the trail. You may have to drop your expectations back and reinforce him for any kind of attention at all, never mind asking him to perform any behaviors or tricks. In this example, you have changed location, moving from a familiar, neutral environment to a more stimulating one, and you have to set the bar lower for your dog. Even something as simple as having a visitor over to your house is a change for you dog. Asking your dog to do something on your right side instead of your left side is a big change. If you have shaped your dog to sit right next to you on your left side by gradually shaping him to sit closer and closer to you, don’t expect a close sit on your right side immediately. Reinforce any sit at all on the right side, at first, and then shape your way to a close sit.
Now that you have the blueprint, let’s move on to building behaviors!
9
The Foundation of Everything
Basic Behaviors
In this chapter, you will learn how to use the SAFETY method to teach eight “foundation behaviors.” If you can call upon your dog to do these eight behaviors, you will prepared for and able to handle most any situation or problem you might encounter. Think of them as “Reading, ’Riting, and ’Rithmetic” for your dog.
Take a Load Off Your Feet
Sit/Down
Sits and downs are behaviors that all well-mannered dogs should be able to do without fail. Easy to say, but not so easy for Pigs Fly dogs, of course. However, using what you have learned so far, teaching sits and downs is a piece of cake!
Sit is a simple behavior to learn, unless you have a Pigs Fly dog.
Sit
Shape. You can shape a sit by clicking for just a little leg bend and approximating bigger and bigger leg bends until your dog actually sits. Alternatively, if you are a patient person, you can carry your clicker around with you for waiting your dog to sit and then click that. Either way (or a combination of both) will work fine. Try to reward your dog while he is still in the sit position, if possible. It will help reinforce to your dog that sitting pays off. If your dog gets up after you click and you cannot feed him in position, go ahead and feed him anyway—don’t sweat it and don’t say anything to him. The click signifies that he has performed the behavior, and he is free to do anything he wants after that—he is within bounds to get up. Just see if you can sneak the food in a little faster next time so he remains sitting while you feed.
Piggy Pointer
Don’t be discouraged if at first you find it hard to catch your dog in the act of sitting and click him in time. Even though you have a clicker around your neck or on your wrist, you still might get flustered and miss clicking the behavior. You might pick up a butter knife instead of the clicker, try to click the butter knife, remember your clicker, push the wrong end, and only succeed in clicking when your dog has gotten up and is walking away. It takes a little practice to be quick enough to catch behaviors, but it is so easy once you get it. Keep trying! The worst thing that will happen is that you miss clicking the behavior you want, and that is no big deal. You will get it, eventually.
Add a cue. Once your dog is merrily running up to you and offering a sit, you can start to add the word “sit.” Be sure, at first, to add your cue when his butt is actually on the ground (we don’t want him to think “sit” means “crouch!”. Gradually add the cue earlier and earlier. A new behavior is born.
Frequent but short sessions. “Sit” is an easy one to incorporate into your daily life. After an initial