Collar pressure protocol – Problem solving: Food distraction

One big challenge when training retrievers is food distraction. Retrievers tend to think with their stomachs, and dogs in general are opportunistic scavengers. Guide dogs especially need to be able to ignore food distractions. Not only are there crumbs under tables to ignore, but unthinking strangers will actually offer a guide dog food.

The great thing about using food in training is it provides an opportunity to teach when it is appropriate to take food, and when it is not.

Food on the ground 

Once you have taught collar pressure protocol, you can up the ante by adding distractions. Have the puppy in a SIT in heel position, with the leash loose but short. Toss the food several feet in front of you (well out of reach of the puppy). The puppy will probably lunge for the food. Allow him to reach the end of the leash. Note: the leash should be short enough that he does not hit the leash hard and hurt himself.

Allow him to stare at the treat or attempt to get it for as long as he wants. When he looks back at you, or at least relaxes his attempts to pursue the kibble, give him a reward from your hand. Do not allow him to get the treat off of the ground.

Do NOT give the puppy extra cues or tugs on the leash. Just keep the leash short enough that the puppy cannot reach the food. Wait him out. A visually impaired handler will not be able to see the food distraction ahead, so do not say “leave it” or any other command while you are working this. The goal is to teach the puppy to leave the food ON HIS OWN, without any external cues. Only when he checks in with you does he receive praise and a reward. This will be familiar to him if you have been working on the collar pressure protocol. We want the puppy to have a new default behavior: if the handler stops and the puppy feels pressure on the collar, we want him to “check in” for further instructions. This is also good training for you as a handler; it is much more effective to give commands or instructions to a dog when he is paying attention to you and has acknowledged your existence.

With a very young puppy, I don’t worry much if he occasionally drops a reward and then picks it up off of the ground. However, as he gets older, I make it a point to only allow him to have treats from my hand. This can help with scavenging; however, dogs are opportunistic scavengers so you will still have to set it up many, many times before the dog can regularly override his instinct to grab every piece of food in sight.

By setting up “treat tosses”, the puppy starts to learn that you are a sure thing, while food on the ground is not. Be opportunistic in your set-ups: if you are at a grocery store and there is a spill down an aisle, work up to it and stop short of where the puppy can reach it. Be sure that you are far enough away and that your leash is short enough that he can’t reward himself by pulling it towards him with his feet or lunging suddenly. Allow him to look at it, stare, lean towards it, etc., while you stand absolutely still and wait him out. When he finally relaxes the leash and checks in with you, reward him and walk away from the spill. Repeat the game several times, asking him to HEEL or SIT after he checks in with you before rewarding him. Ask for higher standards of behavior as he starts to learn.

If the puppy tends to be treat bag distracted, put the treat bag on the ground. Have a kibble or two hidden in your hand. Walk towards the treat bag, following the same protocol: stop short of where the puppy can reach it, and reward him when he WILLINGLY looks away from the treat bag, WITHOUT a cue from the handler. As he improves, walk him up to the treat bag, put him in a SIT/STAY, and make him wait while you get a treat out of the bag to bring to him as a reward. (Bonus tip: if you have a counter surfer, practicing this same game with the treat bag on the counter can help teach appropriate kitchen behavior)

In the following video, Idunn and I work with tossed kibble first, then work with the treat bag as a distraction. The treat bag is actually easier for her to ignore, and she shows great patience when I retrieve her reward (probably because of the foundation work she had with impulse control, as demonstrated in her first video!). But working around the little bits of kibble on the ground is very challenging. This will take lots of practice and repetition for her to become reliable around "spilled kibble".

Collar pressure - Food distraction 1 from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

Food from other people 

This is an excellent exercise to practice at a puppy meeting or anywhere that you have helpful “distractors”. The distractor will have food or some other tempting item in his or her hand; your job will be to use collar pressure and patience to teach the puppy to not take food.

Depending on the age, distraction level, and skill of your puppy, you may want to try walking them past the distractor (beginner level) or seated in HEEL position (more advanced level). Walking past the distractor is less pressure on the dog than trying to stay still and resist temptation.

The distractor’s job will be to show the dog the food in a non-teasing way. They can approach and stop a few feet away, opening a hand to display some treats. If the puppy reaches towards them, they can just close their hand around the treats. Your job will be to allow the puppy lean towards or otherwise attempt to get the treats (but prevent him from actually succeeding) and to reward him when he returns attention to you. Try to resist the urge to correct him or give him instruction. Because this is a set-up and a very controlled situation, it is a great opportunity for the puppy to make a choice to leave the food.

As the puppy improves, raise the bar on the behavior before you give a treat. At first, you can reward him as soon as he looks back at you, but then start withholding the reward until he looks back at you, then responds to the HEEL command. Then, only give him a treat reward when he doesn’t attempt to grab the distractor’s food at all.

In the following video, we set Idunn up with a stranger approaching with a peanut butter cracker. You can see in the video that being seated at HEEL is very difficult for Idunn, probably because not only does she find the cracker distracting, but she is VERY distracted by people coming to say hello to her. We actually don’t make as much progress as I would like during this portion, so we switch to having the stranger stationary and holding the cracker, while Idunn and I pass by. She is much more successful with this technique. These set-ups are designed for the dog to succeed; our first attempt was too difficult and she was having trouble getting the right answer.

In the final portion, we switch back to Idunn in HEEL position and this time the stranger slows down her approach when she sees Idunn getting excited. This helps Idunn be successful. Although she shifts position a lot and has a tough time holding perfectly still, she tries extremely hard to maintain position and is not challenging to handle at all.

Collar pressure - Food distraction 2 from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

There are generally two ways to handle food distraction. One is to set the dog up and correct her when she fails. The other is to gradually work towards greater distractions and reward the dog when she succeeds. In this case, it is especially relevant because Idunn is a very soft dog, who is sensitive to verbal or collar corrections. If you re-watch the videos, you will see some mild compressions in her body language (especially when she is leaning towards the stranger, or when she is offering behaviors and trying to figure out the right answer). In the second video in particular, notice her jump at 0:58, as the stranger walks away and startles her. She is a dog who is trying very hard and does not want to be incorrect. Correcting her will only make her more afraid to be “wrong”. We realized that we were actually pushing her too hard and needed to work more under her distraction threshold. For a 9-month old puppy such as Idunn, the onus is on us as handlers to lay a good training foundation, set the dog up to succeed, and gradually raise the expectations of behavior.

Collar pressure protocol pt. 2

Last month, we discussed how to start teaching the puppy to respond appropriately to collar pressure. Because dogs exhibit opposition reflex against pressure, we have to actively teach to move with collar pressure, rather than against it. Be sure to review the first exercise with the puppy (Collar pressure response in HEEL position), as explained in last month’s entry.  

Collar pressure response during LET’S GO

On a walk, you and the puppy will encounter many distractions. Start early teaching the puppy that tightening of the leash/collar means to focus on the handler.

To start, walk with the puppy until he begins to pull towards something, such as a scent. Stop walking, shorten the leash, and keep a constant tension on the leash. Do NOT try to pull or steer the puppy; simply keep a constant tension until the puppy looks up at you or at least moves towards you. Immediately mark the behavior with “YES”, loosen any remaining tension on the leash, and treat.

Within a few repetitions, the puppy should be starting to turn towards you within seconds of feeling the leash tighten. This usually results in “ping pong” walking, where the puppy surges forward, feels the leash tighten, comes back for a treat, then surges forward again. That’s a good sign; that means the puppy is learning. It also means it is time to move on to the next step.

Once you have achieved “ping pong” walking, start delaying the reward. So the leash tightens and the puppy comes towards you to loosen it. Praise him, direct him to your left side and resume the walk. After a few steps, reward him in position at your left side.

Now the puppy is learning that he gets rewarded only when he walks nicely; the fact that leash tension loosens and the walk continues is also part of the reward.

Use the Collar Pressure protocol when the puppy is looking at a distraction that he can’t reach (small animal distractions, dogs in the distance, etc.) or when he is leaning away from you towards a distraction (scent in the grass, blowing leaves, etc.). The reason that the Collar Pressure protocol works is the dog is having to make the choice to leave the distraction. You as the handler are making the choice easier for him by making it mildly uncomfortable (tight leash) when he is interacting with the distraction, and making it rewarding (treats, loose leash) when he chooses to interact with you instead. When a dog makes a conscious choice like that, he is putting himself back into a “thinking” state of mind, rather than a revved-up, instinctive state of mind.

Collar pressure pt 2 from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

In this month's video, two puppies are featured. The first is Birdie, who is 4 months old. She is distracted by scents, a dead frog, and the fenced-in yard where she often plays.  I start walking once I have her attention and, as expected, it only lasts a few steps. Once she disengages from me at 0:14, I stop, preventing her from reaching the dead frog she is hopefully gazing at. She is rewarded once she checks in with me, and we have a pleasant few steps. She shows hesitation at a puddle; is she distracted or concerned? I'm not sure, but I would handle either response in the same way. I stop so there is mild pressure on the leash and wait her out. If she is having a concerned response, just giving her a few moments helps her resolve it and she decides to walk nicely through the water (which earns her a treat).

In the next segment, starting at 0:44, she has picked up her pace because she has spotted the play yard. We do some starting and stopping, and she does not get a treat every time she checks in. Sometimes, the reward is that the walk continues. This is helpful when the dog is amped up. She wants to keep walking, so getting back to the walk quickly is rewarding. When we turn away from the play yard (the thing she REALLY wants), her pace slows (with disappointment?) so her reward schedule goes up.

You can see how short her attention span is, but also how quickly she picks up on the game. Lots of directional changes keep it interesting for her, and she starts offering check-ins more often. Puppies of this age don't need long walks around the neighborhood; they benefit from frequent, short walks like this.

In the second part of the video, I am back to working with Idunn, who is now 8 months old. Compare how quickly Idunn responds and the level of skill she demonstrates; I started working on this with her when she was Birdie's age. I wanted this video to show "reality": we have JUST walked outside so Idunn is excited. A history with collar pressure protocol means she gets under control very quickly. Notice that at 1:20, she starts to speed up. I put my hand on the leash in anticipation of this so she comes to the end of the leash (without hurting herself or me). I do NOT apply a correction.

Just as with Birdie, she has a destination in mind: in this case, the grass ahead and possibly the fenced-in play yard as well. So we keep up the momentum. She gets to move forward when she checks in with me and starts to move back into heel position. She has a much longer history working with collar pressure, so her check-ins are almost immediate.

Of course she picks up a random acorn off of the ground. So I decide to work her past that spot again. It doesn't take me long at all, but that extra few seconds to re-work that area will make a difference for her long-term.

In the next segment, we are working along the road headed towards the play yard. I call her back to heel when I don't have her attention and start walking; I do not give her a treat. At 1:56, she is speeding up her pace, but she catches herself before she reaches the end of the leash and slows down so that she is back in heel position. Go Idunn! That DEFINITELY gets a reward. She does it again at 2:05.

She picks up an acorn, which I missed until I noticed her crunching on something. See, it happens to me too!

Overall, with just a few minutes of warm-up, Idunn offers me very nice walking and demonstrates self-control. The best part is that it required very little physical strength, and Idunn started targeting the nice heel position at my left side.

Leash walking is one of the hardest skills to teach a puppy. Working in this manner and teaching the puppy to CHOOSE the right position takes time, but it results in an enthusiastic pup who is more in tune to the handler. It also helps with management and problem solving. Next month, we'll talk about using collar pressure to problem solve behaviors such as jumping or animal distractions.

Growing Up Idunn: Collar pressure protocol, pt 1

Dogs tend to respond to collar pressure by pulling or lunging harder. Teaching the following collar pressure protocol will help the dog to understand appropriate collar response, will set attention as a default behavior, and will also allow you to work with and assess the puppy on a loose leash.

Collar pressure response in HEEL position

The first steps in teaching appropriate collar response are to teach the dog that the food rewards come to the puppy, rather than allowing the puppy to lurch forward for the reward.

Have the puppy on a short leash at your left side and hold the treat just out of reach. While the puppy is reaching for the treat, keep a constant tension. When the puppy relaxes and loosens the leash, immediately bring the treat to the puppy.

Practice this over several sessions and the puppy will understand how to wait for the reward; he will also learn that straining against the leash does not get him what he wants, while loosening the leash and being patient will result in a reward.

Once you have established the habit of bringing the treat to the puppy, maintain it. When the puppy is in a stationary HEEL position, always bring the treat to the puppy, rather than allowing him to stretch forward for it or swinging around. Try to reward near your left leg. Correct treat placement will help prevent the dog from swinging out or mugging the handler for treats.

(Note: you can do the above technique with any equipment, including no-pull harnesses)

Idunn video

Collar pressure protocol pt 1 from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

In this month's video, we are focusing on Idunn's tendency to swing out from heel position (searching for treats), and her dog distraction.

In the first few seconds, I hold the treat out in front of Idunn while she is seated in heel position, following the above Collar Pressure Protocol. I keep the leash short enough that she cannot reach the treat, and so that she feels pressure on her collar.  Note, my hand placement is not perfect (I have it a little too close/teasing), but despite my error, she figures it out anyway.

At 0:07, I try to give her the treat and she stretches her head quickly forward, so I pull it away. I probably could have done this part slower (but again, she figures it out). At 0:11, I don't want her to get frustrated, so when she stretches out a little bit slower, I bring the treat all the way to her.

We set up to try it again, and at 0:24, not only is she not lunging for the treat, but she looks up at me. She is sitting squarely on her haunches waiting for the treat, so I bring it to her.

At 0:29, she illustrates a common problem. She swings her butt out, and eventually ends up in front of me, looking for a treat. We have worked on the "Heel" position and hind end awareness (as seen in earlier videos). So when I ask her to "Heel", she responds well and initiates the command, but she ends up crooked. Here is where I have some choices. I could lure her into a better position to review the hind end awareness game. I could physically scoot her butt in using my hand (not my preferred method, but sometimes I will use it in a management, "get the dog out of the way" situation). Or I could ask her again, using extra cues (such taking a small step with my foot and using a hand signal).

Based on her history with the command, and the fact that she appears to be on the cusp of understanding, I decide to re-command her. She isn't "wrong", she just isn't quite right yet.

I use gradually increasing cues. My goal is to use the lowest level of "extra help" possible. I start with small hand signals, then add a small step, then a bigger hand signal and a bigger step. She has a great position at 0:48 after a few tries. I bring the treat to her, right at the pant seam of my left leg, and she waits for the treat to arrive this time. I decide to give her another treat and try the Collar Pressure Protocol again. She waits for the treat and doesn't lunge forward. Good dog! She is learning patience and impulse control.

At 1:00, I ask for a heel again. It only takes two tries and low-level cues for her to get the positioning correct. Notice how she waits for the treats and does not move out of position. Then we practice some general loose leash walking. This is a great warm-up exercise. It also is a good way to work on precision with an experienced dog who tends to be out of position. She is learning how to move her own body into the heel position, without external force (such as being guided by the leash or tucked in with my hand).

Next, we work on dog distraction with a puppy. Because of our warm-up, she was not as distracted as I expected her to be. But it's a good exercise to observe nonetheless.

Golden puppy Birdie, handled by Amber, is excited to see her play buddy. However, we do not allow the pups to meet. At 1:42, they have definitely noticed each other. I ask Idunn for a better "Heel" and Amber has Birdie "Sit". They are far enough away from each other that they can function and think. Idunn and I "doodle around", walking in a random pattern. I like to keep dogs moving to prevent too much eye contact/excitement around other pups.

Notice, starting at 2:01, that I am not asking for precise position in Idunn's loose leash walk. Birdie is "doodling around" as well, which makes her more distracting. I give Idunn enough leash that she can make choices. Too short of a leash means she is too easily "wrong". At 2:04, the leash briefly tightens as Idunn slows to look at Birdie. I turn to face Idunn but I keep moving, and when she refocuses on me, I praise her and help her to move back into position. We pass Birdie again, and she looks but refocuses on me quickly: that gets a treat.

Amber, meanwhile, is trying to regain Birdie's attention. She does a fantastic job. She does not continuously call Birdie or tug on the leash; instead, she allows Birdie to look at Idunn. She attempts to lure Birdie's attention onto her once, but when that doesn't work, she just waits. So much of good dog training/puppy raising is simply PATIENCE. Nothing is fast or immediate in good dog training. If you actually count, it takes Amber 15 seconds to regain Birdie's attention. In that time, she only asks for Birdie's attention twice and patiently waits the rest of the time. At 2:17, Birdie realizes that sitting there staring at another dog is kind of boring; she much prefers to work for her handler. So she checks back in and starts walking beautifully.

This is my preferred way to deal with dog distraction. We don't start with a face-to-face on leash meeting; instead, the priority is attention on the handler. We also didn't generally have the dogs facing each other. Even when they appeared to be facing each other, they were "off center". If both handlers had started walking a straight line, we would have passed by each other with several feet of space in the middle. This sets the dogs up for success. Face-to-face greetings (in evaluations such as the Canine Good Citizen test) are very advanced exercises that ask a lot of the dog. Start with off-center distractions, and work on passing by the dog distractions first.

These dogs ultimately were rewarded by having some off-leash play time together in the fenced yard. That allowed them to blow off some steam. However, they don't always have to greet each other as a reward. The primary focus when a puppy is on leash should be on manners and attentiveness to the handler.

What to do when the puppy says "no" - command refusal

In the transition into positive training techniques, there have been a lot of questions about how to handle “command refusal”. Traditionally, it was up to the raiser to determine when a dog “knows” a command and “should have” responded; if he didn’t respond in a certain amount of time, he received a collar correction. There have been several problems with this technique; one is that it assumes the dog has been sufficiently trained to generalize commands in nearly every possible environment, and that is just about impossible to do within the time frame of puppy raising. Two is that the dogs often respond to the collar correction more reliably than the command (often because they didn’t hear or process the command in the first place).

To quote Denise Fenzi, “In the [Positive Training] world, all failure to perform goes back to the handler; the dog is not held responsible. In the traditional world, the handler is held responsible initially until they decide the dog knows it. Then the dog is held responsible.” This is an important distinction, as time and time again, I go to evaluate a “stubborn” dog, and what I find is a dog with a poor understanding of expectations, whether it’s because he has not been properly prepared for the environment, or because the training techniques used do not mesh well with his temperament.

Let’s look at a common scenario: we have an 8-month old puppy who has successfully responded to SIT at doors for the past several months, and he suddenly stops responding. You approach the door with the puppy, tell him, “Puppy, SIT”, and he simply stands there. He does not appear stressed, there is no unusual stimuli apparent, and he has a solid history of responding to and appearing to understand the command. What to do?

This is a very common “teenaged puppy” response. There are several options available, and you may have to experiment to figure out what works best for THIS particular puppy.

The first consideration might be, “Did the puppy hear me?” It is a good time to ask for a check-in. Say the puppy’s name and pause. If the puppy looks up at you, now you’ve established attention; try saying “SIT” again. If he responds, he just may not have registered the command the first time. As a handler, it can be easy to say the command pretty fast (so it sounds like “dognameSIT”), and the dog may have tuned it out. Repeating his name and checking for attention sometimes will solve the problem (and many pups will appear to remember where they are just from hearing their name: “Oh right, a door… I’m supposed to sit!”).

If the puppy does NOT check in when he hears his name, do not keep repeating his name or the command. Try one of the following tactics:

At a puppy meeting, you can use the other dogs’ presence to your benefit. When you get a refusal at the door, back away from the door and stand with the puppy a few feet away. Allow another puppy and handler team to approach the door, SIT, and go through. After watching one or two pups proceed through the door, bring the pup up to the door and try again. If he succeeds, great! If not, walk away from the door again and allow another team to proceed. The pup learns that the fastest way to get to where his canine pals are is by following a simple command.

If there are no other dogs or similar tempting distractions available, try giving the dog a light attention cue. This is NOT designed to be a correction, but a light crutch/extra cue. Light tugs upward on the leash, a gently tapping finger on the pup’s head (“hello, are you listening?”), and/or VERY gentle pressure at the base of the tail can give a reminder of what the puppy is supposed to do. The goal is NOT to push the dog into position, nor to give the dog punishment. Think of it as an, “Excuse me, you’re supposed to be sitting” reminder. You don’t want to rely solely on these cues, but they can speed up the process (this can be very beneficial when you have people waiting behind you when you’re out and about).

If the cue doesn’t work, back the puppy away from the door. Allow anyone that is behind you to proceed, then approach the door again. If the dog is under control, it is acceptable to simply ask for attention, then proceed through the door without a SIT. This should only occur if the dog is behaving calmly. You are expanding your Box of Acceptable Behaviors to account for adolescence, as well as the potential that the puppy is having a bad day, is over-stimulated or tired, or is in a novel environment. Plan to go back to the basics with the puppy another day.

Notice that throughout all of this, a treat was not used as an aid or a lure. We do not want the puppy to learn that if he doesn’t listen, treats will appear. You can use a treat as a REWARD once the dog has complied, but do not pull it out to “tempt” the dog into listening. The benefit to compromising or using an extra cue is that it addresses the issue as it is happening; later, you can go back to foundation behaviors and re-teach sitting at the door, but the time to do that is not during the command refusal.

If none of the above methods work and the puppy can’t even stand calmly at the door, it’s time to manage the situation and take the puppy somewhere else to calm down (or end the outing).

Another common refusal is the COME command. It is good practice to not use the command when you don’t have a way to reinforce it; for example, if you have a fenced in yard, and the dog tends to play keep-away when you want him to come in the house, do not use the COME command. You can substitute an additional word (such as “INSIDE”) so as not to dilute the recall.

But even you always have the puppy on leash and and set up properly so that you can enforce the recall, training them for an “off-leash refusal” can be beneficial as well. Put the dog on a longer leash (6 feet +), try this in the house, or if you’re very patient and have lots of time, you can try this in a fenced in yard.

Call the puppy to “COME” while he is engaged with a scent or some other distraction. If he does not respond, walk towards him calmly. If he is on the leash, gather it as you approach but do NOT tug or put tension on the lead. If he is off leash, be prepared that he might dart away; do NOT grab for him or try to “catch” him.

When you get close to the puppy, calmly reach for his collar. If he is resistant or tries to jump away, make a mental note to practice grabbing his collar over several positive training sessions in the future. Then walk after him. Do not hurry or chase him; just follow him calmly and “walk him down”.

Eventually, he will allow you to take him by the collar; it may feel like a lifetime, but usually it only takes a few minutes for a pup to settle down and stop darting away. If he has been particularly resistant, you might want to give him a treat just for allowing a collar grab. But if it was relatively easy, you do not have to treat at this point. Tell the puppy to “SIT”. Just gently keep a hold of his collar (so that he can't go doodling off) and wait; remind him to "SIT" if he looks up at you.

When he does SIT, call him to “COME” and take a few steps back, gently using the collar or a short leash to guide him. Praise him, then call him to “COME”, again using the collar or leash to guide him, but this time give him a treat reward.

The reason that this works is because you are breaking the command down. The COME command is actually made up of three parts:

1. Stop what you’re doing

2. Come towards me

3. Hand target

When you get a refusal on the COME command, that means you need to work on the first part: stop what you are doing. The SIT command is one of the most basic commands, and one of the first things the puppy learned. Instead of focusing on tugs or pops on the leash when the puppy refuses the command, you are working on reinforcing each part of the command. Have you ever tried to tug an adolescent puppy off of a scent? It is not easy to do, and really, we are not interested in trying to fight with or out-muscle these dogs. By practicing the above technique, whether on or off the leash, you are giving the puppy clear information and structure that makes the command more fun and less confrontational.

*Thanks to South Shore AC Sue Croley and Diamond for posing for these shots.

Loose Leash Walking video bonus

Bonus post: This is the single best loose leash walking video I have ever seen. Created by Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy raising department, this is a very clear, instructional video. We use the marker word "Yes" instead of "Nice", but otherwise this is an excellent demonstration of how we want to be teaching "Let's go".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mvm4vj5s0Y


Major thanks and credit to Guide Dogs for the Blind

Growing up Idunn - Greeting Behaviors

One of the most common training challenges you will face when raising a puppy is teaching appropriate greeting behavior. Socializing the puppy can be a balancing act. People will stop you and want to pet the puppy. Coworkers, friends, and strangers alike will want to interact with the puppy. However, it is your job to make sure that the puppy does not get overwhelmed, behaves appropriately, and also is rewarded for keeping attention on you.

Here is where it often goes awry:

- People tend to greet puppies in a very intense way. They mean well, but even the dog savviest among us (myself included) can lose our minds when we see an adorable puppy. If a puppy is tired, sensitive, or cranky, a cooing and adoring stranger is often the last thing he wants to interact with.

- When a puppy experiences a spike in arousal, it is very difficult for him to think clearly. What causes arousal? Eye contact and a high-pitched voice from a stranger. Add the pressure of trying to enforce a “sit at heel” and you have a recipe for poor greeting behavior (jumping, mouthing, submissive urination, etc).

- Leashes add tension and limit a dog’s options. For one, opposition reflex often comes into play: if the dog is at the end of the leash, they pull harder against it by default (resulting in jumping, lunging, etc). It also removes the option of flight if the puppy is unsure or hesitant about the stranger.

This month’s video with Idunn is a demonstration of body language, as well as strategies to deal with it. Idunn is now full-on teething, and is displaying sensitivity with people. She appears to love people, but she can be a jumper, has had a few episodes of submissive/excitement urination, and she can get overwhelmed by groups of people.


Growing Up Idunn - Greeting behaviors from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

The first two segments of the video show Idunn’s arousal during a high-pitched, energetic greeting from a “stranger” (thanks to my decoy Katie). In this case, Idunn is demonstrating her arousal and internal conflict by lowering her body to the ground, tucking her (wagging) tail, and pinning her ears back. Notice how at 7 seconds in, she runs up to meet Katie, while also compressing her body and shrinking to the ground. She is not unhappy to be with Katie, but she is definitely experiencing conflict. At 10 seconds, she is leaning into her, but I wouldn’t call her “recovered” or “doing fine”. How do I know that? Because she has, over the last several weeks, demonstrated a consistent pattern of behavior (compression, urination, etc) that lets us know she is not doing “fine”. I want her to gain confidence with people, instead of associating them with a feeling of being overwhelmed.

To work on this, I ask Katie to approach again quietly. At 0:19, Idunn presses her ears back and tries to approach Katie, but I call her and ask her to walk with me. Notice how Idunn jumps up on me; she is still experiencing an arousal spike from seeing Katie approach again. I just keep walking and ask Idunn to walk around Katie. At about 0:24, she starts to calm down and walk more purposefully. I tried to give her a treat at 0:27, but she’s still revved up and jumps, so we keep walking.

At 0:33, I reward her for walking nicely. She passed Katie without notice and has calmed down further. That earns a reward because that’s moving towards what I want. After some more walking, we work on sitting in heel position near Katie (but not facing her yet; most puppies are more relaxed when they don’t have eye contact with a “stranger”). I’m not looking for a perfect heel or working on hind end awareness because that’s not the focus of this exercise; I’m looking for a general heel position. The more we do this exercise, the more precise I can ask her to be.

By 1:00, Idunn is able to be near Katie and stay focused in a general heel position. I back up and ask Katie to make herself smaller. Now Katie is closer to Idunn’s eye level, which will be more challenging, but she will also be less looming and intimidating. I get an okay heel response and allow Idunn to greet a much calmer Katie. She still is wagging downward and turning her head to the side at 1:23, but she is MUCH more upright in her posture. The greeting lasts just a couple of seconds, and I call her away for a reward. This keeps the intensity low, makes a positive association to the stranger, and reinforces attention on the handler.

I ask Katie to pet Idunn’s back, which results in a small spike of arousal, but she quickly refocuses on me. We are keeping the arousal spikes low enough that she can learn. She gets rewarded for calm behavior and handler focus in front of me; once I have that, I ask for a heel.

By making this session less than 3 minutes long, I was able to keep up a high rate of reinforcement. Idunn will benefit greatly from VERY frequent set-ups of this kind of exercise, and once she starts to understand the goal behavior, the treat frequency can be decreased greatly.

What is great about set-ups is that if you work on them often enough, you have good behaviors pre-installed when you need them. Let’s say Idunn goes to the mall, and a group of excited children rush up to her. That is a potentially overwhelming, excitable situation for any dog, let alone a puppy. However, if she has a dozen of these types of training set-ups under her belt, it will be much easier to manage. I would call her attention, maybe pivot in a small circle and ask her to focus on me while the children pet her. I want Idunn to think, “Oh, this is just another one of those training exercises that we do.” That is a lot more manageable than trying to train and control a puppy only when you’re set upon by strangers. We all know how hard it is to get someone to not pet the puppy when they jump (“Oh I don’t mind, I have dogs…”). So use decoys and set-ups as much as you can, train the puppy to default to attention to you, keep the pup moving and reward him when he starts to calm down, and don’t ask for perfection too soon. Ask for effort and move towards the final picture that you want.

Growing Up Idunn - Heel Position

We are continuing our video series this month with puppy Idunn as she demonstrates learning the “heel” position. Calling a dog to “heel” entails the dog moving to the handler’s left side (not necessarily ending with a “sit”; more on that later). The key part of the command is NOT the dog’s final position, but rather the dog responding to the command by moving into position, without needing the leash or hands-on adjustments.

In order to learn the “heel” command, most dogs need to learn about hind end awareness. Many pups are unaware of the location of their back feet. So their front end might be in the heel position, but their back feet are stuck out to the side. Ultimately, we want the puppies to have a nice, tucked-in heel position, so they are out of the way and in line with the handler. However, using external positioning, such as with your hands, does not do much to teach dogs to tuck themselves in.

In the video below, I am working with 18 week old Idunn (pronounced “Eden”) for the second time. She is being puppy raised by a coworker, so I will be using her over the next few months as a “demo dog”. This month, the topic of the video is heel position. In particular, the video addresses an extremely common issue, which is that her default position tends to be in front. She wants to look at my face, and also the treat bag (which is on the right hand side). So she tends to swing out to face me.

The training session consisted of three 5-minute sessions, with little breaks in between and a short walk before and after. We worked on “heel”, loose leash walking, and “down/under” in order to keep things interesting. Idunn is food motivated, but wilts a little bit if the training feels too much like a drill or is too repetitive. She is at a sensitive age (teething!), so keeping things short and fun is essential. I will post the entire video of our training session later for those that are interested.

This video is cut to show clips of our progress with “heel”.

Growing Up Idunn - Heel from Southeastern Guide Dogs on Vimeo.

In the first 10 seconds, I am walking in a small area to gauge her position. She tends to be in front of me, so I walk backwards. She walks towards me, then I begin walking forward abruptly; this makes her naturally turn and end up in a rough approximation of heel position, so I reach down with a reward with my left hand. However, I do not release the reward right away. I keep it at nose-level and begin to turn her head out and away from me. At 12 seconds, can you see her back feet scoot in? I mark that with a “YES” and reward.

That “scoot in” motion was the focus of the first step of heel position. This teaches Idunn to become more conscious of what her back feet are doing. In order to get a nice, neat heel position, she will have to learn how to swing in her rear end.

As she chews her treat (a piece of kibble), she moves around to the front again. That’s okay, but now I switch to luring. I show her a treat and lure her into the “horseshoe heel”, taking a small step back with my left foot, then take a step forward so she has enough room to move into position. Her rear end scoots in (notice how the treat lure still has her head turned away from me) and I mark and feed.

Idunn is a jumpy puppy, like the vast majority of pups, so I just ignore any jumps towards the treat or the treat bag. Remember our patience session from last month? She sits very nicely and patiently much of the time throughout this video. I wouldn’t expect her to never jump, especially as I am not her normal handler, but already the frequency is much reduced during the training session.

Notice how she compresses a little at 56 seconds as she follows the treat. She is a little overwhelmed/excited; she is not unhappy, but she is under some pressure. This is normal for this age, and for the general temperament range of our dogs. At 1:09, she compresses but follows with a great butt tuck-in, which gets rewarded. Notice her waggy, happy attitude in general.

In the next part of the clip, I am luring her with an empty hand. It took a few tries for her to be patient enough to wait for the treat to arrive after she realizes the hand is empty, so we add a “sit”. That keeps her still long enough to wait for the treat to arrive. The video shows that success.

At 1:33, I’ve added a treat back into my luring hand to keep her motivation and drive up; you can see that she’s a little hesitant to follow the hand (she doesn’t realize that there is a treat in it this time). I switch back to a treat-less hand, and she is hesitant again. She wants to jump up to the treat bag, but my lack of input makes her realize that jumping is not going to get her what she wants. She finally makes the right choice, and I quickly transfer a treat into my luring hand. Can you see the lightbulb going on over her head?

The end of the video shows where we ended the training session. She executes the heel PERFECTLY. She gets a jackpot (several treats in a row) and we end the session.

Remember that this video is a compilation of clips. The training session itself was around 15 minutes long, with lots of breaks for play, praise, and just a chance to chill out and be a dog; we also worked on other commands to keep things interesting. If Idunn checked out or seemed to be distracted, we took a break. By keeping the pressure low, I had a dog who wanted to work (and would actually “ask” to keep working even we were on a break). I kept a high rate of reinforcement, because she is still learning. As she begins to understand what I’m teaching her, she won’t need so many treats. As it was, over the course of the session, I kept increasing my expectations, and she, in turn, worked harder to earn her reward.

Whether the dog sits at heel or not is up to you. For a dog with a lot of drive and oomph, I might use a “sit” just about every time. If it becomes an automatic sit, that is okay. I prefer that over jumping and lunging. For a dog who tends to be nervous or hangs back, I might reinforce standing heel position, or call them to heel and immediately move into loose leash walking, to reinforce drive and motion. It depends on the dog and the skills we are working on.

The ultimate goal with “heel” is to teach the dog to default to the heel position, especially to receive a reward. In guide work, we need the dog to stop at the curb and maintain her alignment at the handler’s left side. This technique is a positive way for puppy raisers to really reinforce the left-side training, and to begin to teach the dog not to swing out to face the handler.