It's always my goal to quickly address the most pressing issue that a dog owner has, even when in group classes.
Recently we had a less than year old lab mix in a basic class. The challenge was pulling.
Our plan:
Management: Front clip harness so that the dog couldn't pull as hard. Stopping if the dog pulled to prevent reinforcement from the continued walk. Avoid walks if it was just a bad day, ONLY training walks allowed. Exercise before walks.
Training: Backwards walking (handler backwards, dog in front, feed for dog being close. I have video clips of this for it's own well-deserved post), walking next to the owner with frequent reinforcement and then less frequent, the rally call-front exercise (without the sit), leave it working up to using it on the real world, Squirrel game/ systematic distraction training, pace-change exercise (change pace, click for dog matching). Pivot box.
If you mess up and the dog is pulling: Plant your feet. Backwards walking. Treat magnet him away.
After 2 weeks of work the dog is great and now we have to come up with other things to work on in class! Two weeks! We stopped the reinforcement for pulling. We trained the dog how to walk. And if the dog did start pulling we knew what the best plan was for that point in time.
I wish everything went that fast. Some issues are more challenging. Some owners are less skilled. Some dogs have had more practice at the undesired behaviors. But a lot of it comes down to me really needing more efficient plans. We keep getting better!
Showing posts with label Walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walking. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Walking Without Pulling
Last night was yet another 4-H judging opportunity. The club I work with hosted a fun match, we had about 10-15 kids attend, I did all the showmanship, obedience, and rally judging and it went a bit smoother than expected thanks to some great helpers and ring stewards.
Yet again, I saw a lot of tight leashes. It's actually becoming a hugely interesting thing. Some events last year, the kids gripped the leash right up against the collar. And they led the dog through the performance like that. I was completely unsure on how to judge that and ended up with a sort of "standard deduction" value, with any extra leash pulls (esp on the halt-sits) as additional points deducted.
Even my own club members did this! I see nice loose leashes every week! I saw pulling for the sits! Hands raised to shoulder height! Stress does very interesting things to people and dogs.
It's led me back to a talk Megan and I have had a dozen times over the last few weeks. It's hard to teach good walking. It's hard to get dogs to walk nicely without pulling, without punishment. I've spent the morning to work on reviewing my walking training plans and looking at the variations between what I do and what I have clients/students do. We'll be doing a lot of walking training tonight at the shelter and see what happens.
A few initial thoughts on the challenges:
-- By the time people get help for walking training....the dogs have been pulling for quite a while. The humans have continued walking while the dog is pulling, meaning the dog got a TON of reinforcement for the pulling ("Look, it makes the humans walk!").
-- People get into habits and patterns. They want to continue with normal walks during the training period, letting the pulling happen there, and thus compromising the training.
-- It's hard to look at the big picture, all the little times where the dog pulls on leash and the dog is allowed to continue forward. And we miss those moments. I am so guilty of that, today I counted (...after the fact each time, 8 points in our morning routine where reinforcement is distributed without me being careful to have the behavior I want before that reinforcement is delivered.)
Yet again, I saw a lot of tight leashes. It's actually becoming a hugely interesting thing. Some events last year, the kids gripped the leash right up against the collar. And they led the dog through the performance like that. I was completely unsure on how to judge that and ended up with a sort of "standard deduction" value, with any extra leash pulls (esp on the halt-sits) as additional points deducted.
Even my own club members did this! I see nice loose leashes every week! I saw pulling for the sits! Hands raised to shoulder height! Stress does very interesting things to people and dogs.
 |
| Luna and Griffin both tell me that leash pulling is not a problem if you just let your dog off leash... |
A few initial thoughts on the challenges:
-- By the time people get help for walking training....the dogs have been pulling for quite a while. The humans have continued walking while the dog is pulling, meaning the dog got a TON of reinforcement for the pulling ("Look, it makes the humans walk!").
-- People get into habits and patterns. They want to continue with normal walks during the training period, letting the pulling happen there, and thus compromising the training.
-- It's hard to look at the big picture, all the little times where the dog pulls on leash and the dog is allowed to continue forward. And we miss those moments. I am so guilty of that, today I counted (...after the fact each time, 8 points in our morning routine where reinforcement is distributed without me being careful to have the behavior I want before that reinforcement is delivered.)
Thursday, September 30, 2010
We have great walks
Megan and I talk about polite walking on a regular basis! My dogs... are not necessarily brilliant, but when we're actually going for a walk they're good. Otherwise I would not be able to walk three dogs that, together, outweigh me. Most of the walk is spent on a slack leash.
What have I done to make our walks go well?
**Each dogs has been trained separately before they were walked together. Blaze had several years of practice before Luna came. I walked Luna separately to teach her walking before walking them together. Griffin had walking training before joining the group. I also did a few walks of just Griffin and Luna or just Griffin and Blaze.
**I carefully chose what equipment to use. On our exercise walks, Blaze wears a head halter and a over-the-shoulder leash. This gives me two free hands to hold the others. He learned early on how to pull very well towards something he wants, the head halter keeps me from getting pulled over on that small chance he does see something very exciting. Luna is on a martingale (so she can't escape!) and a regular leash. Griffin is on a pulling harness and leash or a pulling harness and canicross belt. The harness does allow him to pull a bit more than on a collar, and it gives me less control over his head, but if he does pull, the force is distributed much different than on a buckle collar and I do find it easier to restrain him.
** I take treats. I don't need to use them for the entire walk, or for any of it. But I do reinforce good choices. If a dog stops to smell something and moves on? Treat. If a deer is sighted? "Dogs Sit!" and lots of treats.
** I plan my path. After we sight an animal, I turn and go the other way. There isn't any good reason for me to head in that direction. Not only would I be more likely to get pulling, but the dogs would get aroused and be more likely to pull later on in the walk. We vary our path. Every day we have a few different paths and places to turn. If I know we saw a squirrel in a location, we'll avoid that spot for a few days.
** I don't allow crazy pulling. If there's a lot of pulling, I manage the situation. Call the dog back to me. Hold a shorter leash, use a higher ROR... I don't continue that direction. And I typically head home. And that dog gets more training before going out with the group again.
Off leash dogs can't pull. Most of Griffin's early exercise was off leash walks. He did not practice pulling!
What have I done to make our walks go well?
**Each dogs has been trained separately before they were walked together. Blaze had several years of practice before Luna came. I walked Luna separately to teach her walking before walking them together. Griffin had walking training before joining the group. I also did a few walks of just Griffin and Luna or just Griffin and Blaze.
**I carefully chose what equipment to use. On our exercise walks, Blaze wears a head halter and a over-the-shoulder leash. This gives me two free hands to hold the others. He learned early on how to pull very well towards something he wants, the head halter keeps me from getting pulled over on that small chance he does see something very exciting. Luna is on a martingale (so she can't escape!) and a regular leash. Griffin is on a pulling harness and leash or a pulling harness and canicross belt. The harness does allow him to pull a bit more than on a collar, and it gives me less control over his head, but if he does pull, the force is distributed much different than on a buckle collar and I do find it easier to restrain him.
** I take treats. I don't need to use them for the entire walk, or for any of it. But I do reinforce good choices. If a dog stops to smell something and moves on? Treat. If a deer is sighted? "Dogs Sit!" and lots of treats.
** I plan my path. After we sight an animal, I turn and go the other way. There isn't any good reason for me to head in that direction. Not only would I be more likely to get pulling, but the dogs would get aroused and be more likely to pull later on in the walk. We vary our path. Every day we have a few different paths and places to turn. If I know we saw a squirrel in a location, we'll avoid that spot for a few days.
** I don't allow crazy pulling. If there's a lot of pulling, I manage the situation. Call the dog back to me. Hold a shorter leash, use a higher ROR... I don't continue that direction. And I typically head home. And that dog gets more training before going out with the group again.
Off leash dogs can't pull. Most of Griffin's early exercise was off leash walks. He did not practice pulling!
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